February 7, 2010
My talk at Maryland last Thursday went pretty well-- the impending Snowpocalypse kept the audience down, as people tried to fit in enough work to compensate for the Friday shutdown, but the people who were there seemed to like it, and asked good questions. If you weren't there, but want to know…
February 7, 2010
Miscellaneous stories and links about How to Teach Physics to Your Dog:
Kathy Ceceri, who wrote the story about the book that ran in the Times Union, has posted the full article on the Home Physics blog. The link to the paper itself may very well disappear behind a paywall, but this post should…
February 7, 2010
We're mere hours away from the start of the Super Bowl, the biggest football game of the year. Obviously, the question of who will win has been the subject of much debate over the last couple of weeks on sports media and in offices around the country. What these discussions have lacked, though, is…
February 7, 2010
Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 6, 010101 (2010): Teaching and understanding of quantum interpretations in modern physics courses
"Just as expert physicists vary in their personal stances on interpretation in quantum mechanics, instructors vary on whether and how to teach interpretations of…
February 6, 2010
It's been brought to my attention that there hasn't been any cute-baby video posted here for a while, so let me rectify that with a couple of clips. First, SteelyKid discovers that it's kind of difficult to fill Daddy's shoes:
For both our sakes, I hope those never fit her.
A clear indication of…
February 6, 2010
I want to like this book more than I do.
As a general matter, this is exactly the sort of science book we need more of. As you can probably guess from the title, Why Does E=mc2? sets out to explain Einstein's theory of relativity, and does an excellent job of it. It presents a clear and concise…
February 6, 2010
A couple of things happening in the next week, for those who would like some How to Teach Physics to Your Dog.
On the radio side, I am scheduled for an interview at 6:30 this Tuesday, Feb. 9, on KSOO's Viewpoint University. If you don't happen to be in the Sioux Falls, SD area, they do have a "…
February 5, 2010
I'm safely back, well ahead of the Snowpocalypse!!! I'm kind of out of it, though-- yesterday was a very long day, and I find air travel draining at the best of times-- so in lieu of substantive blogging, I offer you this thematically appropriate poll:
Which of these travel-related songs is the…
February 5, 2010
I have chickened out in the face of the Snowpocalypse, and moved my flight up to get out of DC before the storm. I'm too old to sleep in airports any more.
In honor of my spending another day on a plane, here's another airline-themed poll for you:
The flight crew insist I turn off and stow my iPod…
February 4, 2010
Failure rate for AP tests climbing - USATODAY.com
"The newspaper's analysis finds that more than two in five students (41.5%) earned a failing score of 1 or 2, up from 36.5% in 1999. In the South, a Census-defined region that spans from Texas to Delaware, nearly half of all tests -- 48.4% --…
February 4, 2010
(A.k.a. "just under the wire Baby Blogging, because Kate forgot she took these pictures.")
In which SteelyKid performs a magic trick:
"Watch me make this pretzel disappear, Mom!"
"Wait a minute . . . "
"Hey! No photography! Now give me that camera and no-one will get hurt."
And that's why there'…
February 4, 2010
Despite my best efforts to sleep late and miss my flight, I made it to the airport with plenty of time to get on my flight to DC. Which means that I will, i fact, be giving a talk TODAY at 3:30 pm at the University of Maryland, College Park in the Lecture Hall (room 1110) in the Kim Engineering…
February 4, 2010
I'm on the road today, so here's a poll for you, in honor of the question I will probably be getting asked right around when this posts:
Would you like a beverage?(surveys)
Please be sure that your comments are stowed beneath the seat in front of you, or in the overhead compartment. Thank you for…
February 4, 2010
From Fish to Infinity - Opinionator Blog - NYTimes.com
I'll be writing about the elements of mathematics, from pre-school to grad school, for anyone out there who'd like to have a second chance at the subject -- but this time from an adult perspective. It's not intended to be remedial. The goal…
February 3, 2010
It's been a while since I've done a fun with graphs post about the Amazon sales rank of How to Teach Physics to Your Dog, but that's not because I've stopped tracking it. It's getting to be enough data, though, that it's worthwhile to look on a slightly coarser scale, so here's the sales rank data…
February 3, 2010
Yesterday's post on a variation of the "Twin Paradox" with both twins accelerating was very successful-- 337 people voted in the first poll question, as of a little before 9am, and the comments to the original post are full of lively discussion. That's awesome.
I wish I could take credit for it,…
February 3, 2010
In the wake of recent political developments, there has been a lot of hand-wringing about why Democrats in Congress are so spineless, and have been unable to pass meaningful legislation despite huge majorities. After thinking about my travel plans last night, I think I have the key to the Grand…
February 3, 2010
Researchers use infrared cameras to determine taste quality of Japanese beef
"Imagine going into a local supermarket or butchery, pulling out your cell phone and using its camera to instantly check for the best piece of meat on display. That is one of the applications that some in Japan hope…
February 2, 2010
As mentioned previously, I'm giving a talk at the University of Maryland, College Park this Thursday, Feb 4 at 3:30 pm in the Lecture Hall (room 1110) in the Kim Engineering Building. The title of the talk is "Talking to My Dog About Science: Why Public Communication of Science Matters, and How…
February 2, 2010
Just about everybody has heard of the Twin Paradox in relativity: one twin becomes as astronaut and sets off for Alpha Centauri, the other remains on Earth at mission control. Thanks to time dilation, the two age at different rates, and the one who made the trip out and back ends up younger than…
February 2, 2010
Tuesday is a heavy teaching day for me-- I'm in lab from 9-4, basically-- so here's something to occupy the time. Oh, no! It's a pop quiz:
Pop quizzes are:(survey software)
(In case the phrase is an American idiom, a "pop quiz" refers to a short test given in class with no advance warning.)
This…
February 2, 2010
Congratulations to Alain Aspect, John Clauser, and Anton Zeilinger for winning the 2010 Wolf Prize in Phyiscs:
The 2010 Wolf Prize in Physics will be shared by Prof. John F. Clauser of the US; Prof. Alain Aspect of France's Ãcole Normale Supérieure de Cachan; and Prof. Anton Zeilinger of the…
February 2, 2010
Is Our Students Learning? « Easily Distracted
"That's what I worry about when I hear that there are too many "relativists" around: that the people complaining the most about that supposed surplus are the most supremely relativistic folks you might ever imagine encountering. "a
(tags: academia…
February 1, 2010
The message is: "I have a chair!"
SteelyKid's new chair is a kid-sized black fake-leather armchair from Target. We originally set out looking for a kid-sized table and chair set that she could use to draw on, but the only ones on offer at Babysaurus were chintzy particle board things with Disney…
February 1, 2010
Last week, I asked for nominations of the most amazing laser application, with the idea being that I will collect a list, write up the top vote-getters in a series of blog posts, and then we will have a vote to determine what is THE coolest laser application of ALL TIME!
At least, you know, as far…
February 1, 2010
Two events in the next couple of weeks at which I will be appearing live and in person:
1) This Thursday, Feb. 4, I will be giving a talk at the University of Maryland, College Park at 3:30 pm in the Lecture Hall (room 1110) in the Kim Engineering Building. The title of the talk is "Talking to My…
February 1, 2010
YouTube - Neil Degrasse Tyson: "If you're scientifically literate the world looks very different to you"
"If you're not scientifically literate, in a way, you're disenfranchising yourself."
(tags: science education video youtube politics society culture)
The Digital Cuttlefish: The Spirit Of…
January 31, 2010
(I really loathe both the longstanding practice of marking a scandal by appending "-gate" to a name and the newer version "-fail." I don't have a better alternative, but I hate both of those. Somebody get to work on a better scandal signifier.)
So, the hot topic of the moment is the hissy-cow being…
January 31, 2010
The Firedoglake Book Salon with Sean Carroll last night was a lot of fun. I was generally impressed with the level of the questions, and the tone of the discussion. We went through all of the questions I had typed out in advance (I type fairly slowly, and revise obsessively, so it's hard for me to…
January 31, 2010
Axe Cop
He's a cop, with an axe. His partner is a cop with a flute-- no, a dinosaur soldier-- no, an avocado. Can you tell this was written by a five-year-old?
(tags: comics silly internet art kid-stuff)
Malkin Grey's LiveJournal - Why Writers Go Nuts, Exhibit Number One Million and Something…
