That's Easy for You to Say, Astro Boy

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Uncertain Principles: How Much Outreach Do We Need? Depends on What You Mean by “We”

If you want to argue that we have plenty of outreach going on in astronomy and particle physics, that’s fine, but to say that astronomy and physics outreach is sufficient for science as a whole (or even just physics, which I’ve heard people say) is just insulting.

Astronomy and particle physics aren’t the whole of the physical sciences. Astronomers and particle physicists are significantly outnumbered by people doing other types of physics– condensed matter, atomic and molecular, materials science. Those topics don’t get anywhere near as much attention as things you can illustrate with a picture from the Hubble telescope.

“Yeah, but astronomy and particle physics touch on really big questions, that inspire people,” you say. “Oh, bite me,” I reply.

(If anyone is tempted to take this to the next level, I’ll remind you that we have lasers. Just sayin’)

If you give the narrow glimpse of physics as accelerators and telescopes, you make the same mistake as painting grad school as only a pathway to academia: you sin by omission.

Feeling Jumpy

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The Virtuosi – Physics in Sports: The Fosbury Flop

The Fosbury Flop came into the High Jumping scene in the 1968 Olympics, where Dick Fosbury used the technique to win the gold medal. The biggest difference between the Flop and previous methods is that the jumper goes over the bar upside down (facing the sky). This allows the jumper to bend their back so that their arms and legs drape below the bar

It is significant that Fosbury is not modeled as a sphere.

 

Dot Physics: World Record Blob Jump

I guess the best explanation for how it works is that it is like a giant see-saw. When people jump down on one side of the huge airbag, the other side goes up. If you consider small energy losses, then the work done by the bag in slowing the falling people down is the same work done on the launched person.

And the Winner is… The Turboencabulator

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Several years ago, Rockwell International decided to get into the heavy duty transmission business. We were getting ready to tape our first introduction video, as a warm up, the professional narrator began what has become a legend within the trucking industry. This man should have won an academy for his stellar performance. Now remember this is strictly off the cuff, nothing is written down, this became the biggest talk in the industry, vs our new product which we were introducing. I think you will enjoy this once in a lifetime performance from this gentleman.

That there’s some awesome word salad, with a creamy low-calorie cryptojargon sauce. The Wikipedia writeup has a reasonable approximation of the transcript.

Update: more fun at turboencabulator.info

Simon Says, Science Doesn't

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Science Doesn’t Say

How many times have you heard someone say that “science tells us” – or that it shows, reveals, says, proves, or makes clear?

It’s very common. But it’s misleading.

Scientists never talk like this while they’re doing science, which suggests that there’s something wrong with it. Rather, we say: “Our experiment was inspired by the fact that X, which was shown last year by Y et al”.

Buzz Lightyear Physics

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Skulls in the Stars: Infinity is weird… even in infinity mirrors!

Even very simple optics can reveal very interesting and surprising phenomena, if one looks carefully enough! I was recently looking into the optics of a so-called “infinity mirror”, which in its simplest incarnation is simply two parallel mirrors on opposite sides of a room or elevator. The result is a multiplication of images, seemingly stretching out to infinity