Page 5 - Dot Physics News Today

Like a giant bucket with a hole, the Funil Hydropower Plant sprays out an enormous jet of water. We can use its speed to calculate the depth of the reservoir.

To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. Its another year and another Star Wars Day—May the 4th be with you. Following my tradition, Im going to takesomeelementfrom The Empire Strikes Back. The great thing about using this movie is that its so old—more than 40 years—that I dont have to worry about spoilers. I mean, if you havent seen it by now, are you really going to watch it? So, here is the scene: Leia, Lando, and Chewbacca use the Millennium Falcon to escap...

Im all about Falcon and the Winter Soldier—the latest Marvel show on Disney+. Dont worry, Im not going to spoil anything serious. I just want to talk about the wingsuits in episode 1. Sam Wilson (Falcon) is dealing with a hostage situation aboard a military aircraft. The bad guys grab their hostage and jump out of the plane wearing wingsuits. If you havent seen these, they are basically skydiving outfits with extra material between the arms and legs to make it like wings—thus the name. Th...

To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. Happy Pi Day. Yes, its March 14th. If you write that date like an American, it looks like this: 3/14, and that looks like 3.14. Its not the best representation of pi, but it will do. As is my tradition, I am going to do something with pi. (I have to keep the streak alive—my first Pi Day post was in 2010.) For todays pi post, lets talk about trains and things. In particular, how does a train stay on a track—especially when i...

To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. Its fun to think about how we know stuff. For instance, the sun has a mass of about 2 x 10 30 kilograms. That is such an enormous mass that its difficult to comprehend. And if its so difficult for us to even imagine numbers that large, how would we go about finding those values? Well, the original method was to use some small masses, a stick, and a string. Yes, this is one of the important steps in determining masses of both th...

Im reading Randall Munroes book How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems. I probably dont have to tell you this, but its awesome (as is everything from Randall Munroe, the creator of xkcd comics). The whole idea of the book is to go use some crazy ideas to solve mostly common problems. One chapter focuses on how to cross a river. He gives you lots of options. You could change the course of the river or even evaporate all the water in the river (both ideas are silly and ...

To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. While waiting for Reddit to load on my phone, I wondered if I could do some physics with the loading icon. Maybe youve seen it. It looks like a mini solar system with four planets (two inner planets and two outer planets). Lets model it! Video: Rhett Allain via Reddit We should start with some data. I can do a screen capture of the loading screen and then use my favorite video analysis program (Tracker Video Analysis) to get po...