On the pull
Last post I mentioned that we have a Gordon setter, his name is Ben and he keeps me sane by making me get away from the computer to go for walks. He is our first dog and we have not managed to train him...
Do the Shake and vac
The dog hair in our house acts a bit like the lycopodium powder in the classic Kundt's tube experiment, it seems to accumulate in places where the air is undisturbed like behind doors and under chairs....
What's real
Apparently, in the film 2012, the world is destroyed by neutrinos which is interesting because if they could then they already would have given that we have in the order of 1014 of the things passing...
More is more
Yesterday evening I watched a re-run of a Top Gear programme where Richard Hammond races a ford mustang against a G-wiz electric car. The first run with normal power is predictably won by the mustang...
Ripples in the cosmic ice cream carton
My first year classes have been trying out one of the new practicals "resonance in a bucket". I've been looking for a good waves practical that doesn't rely on knowledge about standing waves ever since...
Completely wired
Yesterday I decided to do another design experiment with my second year class. This is hopefully the last. I don't say hopefully because I don't like doing them but because I think its time to start concentrating...
Ripples never come back
When I was at university my favourite band was Genesis , in fact I rarely listened to anything but Genesis. My love of the band had an abrupt end when Peter Gabriel left however the new light version...
True Grit
I may seem to be a bit obsessed with the weather and its effect on the roads at the moment but you have to realise I walk to and from work about 4 times a day so spend a lot of time thinking about it....
Ice-shrooms
We have had snow on the ground for the past 2 months but its now starting to melt. This has been helped no end by the fact that it has been raining for a week. Walking to work I spotted a couple of these...
The view from here
I started teaching the astro option to my second year SL class last week and discovered something interesting. Very few students (and I guess very few people in general) know that the planets are not...