According to Alycia Hund and colleagues at Illinois State University, there are two ways to give directions. One is using a so-called “route perspective”, as in the example above. This adopts a first-person spatial perspective and is characterised by references to turns and landmarks. The other is a so-called “survey perspective”, which gives directions as if looking down upon a map. This type of direction giving is characterised by references to cardinal directions (North, South, East and West) and precise distances.
Monthly Archives: November 2008
The Quality Factor
Interesting question over at Incoherently Scattered Ponderings: How do you measure “quality” of education?
Part of it is the assumption that you get a better education at certain schools — the feedback loop of good schools having the ability to be selective in both the faculty and the students it accepts. And that’s probably valid — if the quality of the faculty hired is based on how well they can educate. There are schools that have grad students teaching the classes, and professors who do research and view teaching as an annoyance.
But how to measure this is a different issue. Surveying faculty for where they got their education reinforces the notion that being in academia is “success.” And in a way somewhat related to Chad’s recent discussion on student-athletes, one has to recognize that, in a broader sense, education is not just what you learn in class.
It's a Communist Plot
There were a number of records set at Domino Day 2008.
I thought the scene of the last 45 seconds or so, showing a field of dominos falling in parallel, was particularly interesting. The curve that defined the leading edge of falling dominos was not a straight line, and it changed shape a little — the speed of propagation through a line of tiles is not constant. With identical tiles it should depend on the spacing, which would dictate the time it takes for one falling tile to hit the next and the speed with which a domino strikes its target. But wile a larger spacing means the tip is moving faster, it also strikes at a lower point, which means it exerts a smaller torque to get the next tile to fall, so it wouldn’t be a simple relationship. You could also change the mass for another variable in the domino wave equation.
Open Laboratory
I was mildly surprised to find The Open Laboratory 2008 – in the final stretch! appear in my incoming links, but it turns out that three of my posts appear in the list. I assume that’s because those are the “classic” posts I submitted to The Giant’s Shoulders, and the first edition of which was hosted at A Blog Around the Clock, so the math is pretty easy. But if someone else nominated them, thanks!
If anyone (else) wants to nominate a post (by any science blogger — good stuff is good stuff) use the submission form
TILT!
Kinetic sculpture overload. 15 videos of amazing rolling ball machines
How (not) to Cook the Books
A look at Benford’s Law.
In certain numerical data sets, the leading digit is most likely to be a “1,” with each succeeding number being less likely. It can be used to see if someone unaware of this has manufactured data.
That's a FIB
As in Focused Ion Beam
Cold Atoms Could Replace Hot Gallium In Focused Ion Beams
Because of the versatility of their approach—it can be used with a wide range of ions tailored to the task at hand—it is expected to have broad application in nanotechnology both for carving smaller features on semiconductors than now are possible and for nondestructive imaging of nanoscale structures with finer resolution than currently possible with electron microscopes.
I ran something on this a few months ago. MOTIS Operandi
Don Ho in Space
Tiny bubbles. Then bigger bubbles.
Here’s what happens when you add an antacid tablet to a big water drop in microgravity.
It's (Anti) Creptastic!
Anticrepuscular Rays Over Colorado, the APOD for Nov 16
Peek-a-Boo
Mimes are annoying, but mimics are cool. Can You See Me? Animal Camouflage: Leaf Mimics
Dead leaf butterflies are extraordinary creatures to observe up close. The specimen below illustrates the intricate details chiseled out by adaptation through natural selection, which is a driving force of evolution. The remarkable details help the butterfly evade predation by mimicking a dead leaf.