Most scientific research is directed towards answering a question. Fortunately for researchers, there are a lot of questions in science that don’t yet have answers, some of which are quite fundamental. If you do a quick google search for ‘unanswered questions in science’, for example, you’ll come across questions like: What is spacetime? What is […]
Category: Science primers
Why u-v lights look cool
Why are ultra-violet lamps used at parties and discos? Because they create an appealing effect that is different from illumination by normal white light. It’s not just that purple is a nice colour. You could use a purple light for that. It’s that white clothes look (a) white, when they should look purple. I’ve written […]
And while we’re here, Newton’s second law isn’t F=ma either
My last post on how [latex]V=IR[/latex] is not Ohm’s law received some comments. @dodiscimus said: “And [latex]F=ma[/latex] is not Newton’s 2nd law. Your next post?” I’m quoting him to: give him the credit for having the idea and spotting the similarity (see later) share the blame – otherwise people are going to think all I […]
Why V=IR is not Ohm’s Law, and why that matters
I have lost count of the number of times I have heard people say that Ohm’s Law is [latex]V=IR[/latex]. I have seen it in lots of electrical training materials. This post is to explain that Ohm’s Law and [latex]V=IR[/latex] are not the same thing, and that the difference matters; thinking they are the same is […]
Particle physics – a primer on the standard model (Part 1 of 2)
Making sense of the ‘particle zoo’ This is a great decade for the popularisation of science in general, and physics in particular. The detection of gravitational waves by LIGO, and the books of Carlo Rovelli, are just two things that have caught the public imagination. But nothing has done more in this regard than the […]
Atomic structure and the periodic table (Part 1 of 6)
In this article, we hope to develop an understanding of atomic structure and the periodic table, from the beginning of secondary school/junior-high level, to first/second year undergraduate physics/chemistry, via one fictional conversation. We hope that people at any stage of that journey will find a section that speaks to them. We would love it if it […]
Orbits, gravity and the atmosphere
“Things float in space because there’s no gravity above the atmosphere, right?” I was thinking about this common misconception, and I thought I’d share it (I just did!) and then explain ‘the truth’. And then it occurred to me that this misconception is so interesting that exploring how/why it is so tenacious and persuasive in […]
Earth’s atmosphere
This wasn’t supposed to be a post on Earth’s atmosphere. I was trying to write about a common but underappreciated misconception about orbits, gravity and the atmosphere (post to follow!). But I kept writing phrases like “above the atmosphere”. And it became clear I was being dishonest. I mean I know that there is no […]
What will happen to our sun?
In our previous post I described that the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram: Shows a survey of the properties of all the stars in the galaxy Provides a means of describing the lifecycle of a single star In this post I will concentrate on the second of these, and ask “what will happen to the Sun, and what […]
How does a phone call work? Part 2
In part 1 of this post, we described the path that a mobile phone call takes across the Atlantic. Here we will describe what is travelling along the ‘through the air’ part of that path. Well, it’s a phone call, right? But in what form? In what follows, some details may be spotted by telecommunications […]
How does a phone call work? Part 1
You should be much more in awe of your mobile phone (cellphone) than you are. In ‘The World’s War’ by David Olusoga, we learn that the first British action of the First World War was “the severing of five underwater telegraph cables that linked Germany to the United States.” The effect of this was that […]
Who first split the atom? And, how to win quizzes…
Growing up I knew that the answer to the quiz question ‘Who first split the atom?’ was ‘Ernest Rutherford’, even if I didn’t necessarily know exactly what the question meant. It still occurs in quiz circles – check out question 20 in the Daily Telegraph’s science and nature quiz from 2010. The answer is Ernest […]