Archives for Physics, Math - Page 7
Adventures in teaching–why 5th graders are smarter than grown-ups
A small bag is lying on the ; The room is big – with high ceilings. Yet, no one can jump over the bag. Why? I posed this to several…
Principles versus Laws
People tend to use ‘laws’ interchangeably with ‘principles’. In reality, there is an important difference between the two – as described in this short post. Physics A law encompasses a…
Presidents and Terms – A Monte Carlo exercise using c# , .net
Consider the 24 presidents (and their corresponding 24 terms in office) in the 19th century. A student was asked to match the president to his term. Not knowing the answers,…
“Deriving” into Pre Calculus, Course S68–S.I.G., University of Texas, Austin
Day 1 - Pre-Assessment Areas of interest, individualized personal objectives Five hardest questions in different areas of calculus Informal class discussion Day 2 - Graphing General equation of a line,…
On the Ether
One of the things I never fully grasped in college was the ‘Michelson Morley’ experiment. I understood what it was for (proving the constancy of the speed of light) –…
A probability problem – will these two friends ever meet?
Two friends decide to meet at a definite place between 9 AM and 10 AM. The first to arrive waits for his friend for 15 minutes and then leaves. If…
Asimov on Science Fiction
This is an excerpt from the introduction to the collection of stories (Nebula Award Stories) below (edited by Isaac Asimov). Asimov remains one of the most prolific writers of all…
Modeling Traffic Flow
Traffic flow is not that different from the flow of anything else. Imagine heat flow along an iron rod or water flowing down a pipe. If you observe the traffic…
Combining Relativity and Quantum Mechanics – A first step
Quantum Mechanics starting point - The Schrodinger Equation \begin{equation} \label{eq:se} i\hbar\frac{\partial\psi}{\partial t} = H \psi \end{equation} All laws of physics are required to be Lorentz Invariant . The above equation…
Complex Transformations – The Complex Logarithmic Function
The real logarithmic function has two interesting properties: The Flattening property: $ \ln(bc) = \ln b + \ln c $ – a product is flattened into a sum The Linearizing…