Not everyone believes me when I tell them I don't see much broadcast TV. I don't have cable, and telecasts that I see with my DTV converter box--connected to an amplified antenna--are something akin to water torture. Two words: un watchable.
But I digress. This post is about a report produced by Bay Area technology reporter, Richard Hart. The report shows how high-speed cameras are being used by the masses now that they're within the grasp of consumers. As fortune would have it, he interviewed me for his Drive to Discover piece.
He filed the report for ABC's KGO-7 in San Francisco over a month ago. So here's my cutting edge, up-to-the-second blog reporting, submitted for your approval.
Click that little bracketed box (lower right in the video frame) to go full-screen. Trust me, you want to see my mug in full screen. There is some debate as to whether the camera-angle-to-hair geometry is simply unflattering or downright fright-inducing.
Special thanks to my buddy, Chris Knopp. He told me a friend had seen the segment. You'd think with an ego the size of mine, I would have been on top of this thing weeks ago. But there was AP testing, finals, and the end of school. Sigh.
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
Monday, June 08, 2009
School's out and I'm off
Off for a quick change of scenery to Yosemite. Chased a little light. Snapped a few pics. Did a double-take at Glacier Point when I saw a guy hiking with a birdcage backpack. Maybe I don't get out enough.I made it a full (whirlwind) YoMoBo tour (Yosemite, Mono Lake, and Bodie Ghost Town).
Click the birdcage to see a quick sample of images.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Water-filled dog bowl starts house fire?
You know it's possible to use ice to start a fire.
Here's a story of water starting a fire.
UPDATE 1: This space reserved for the first commenter with video showing that they used a bowl of water as a lens to start a fire. Get out there, Mythbusters! I will link to your video clip!
UPDATE 2: Our attempts with a large, hemispherical mixing bowl and black posterboard lead me to doubt the likelihood of this explanation. The dog bowl in the story is a frustrum of a right circular cone, so lensing effects don't seem plausible. One might retreat to a position that the rim of the bowl acted as a mirror. But reflections from a water-glass boundary? The intensity simply isn't there.
In my Mythbusting opinion, the "dog bowl as magnifying glass" explanation holds no water.
Here's a story of water starting a fire.
UPDATE 1: This space reserved for the first commenter with video showing that they used a bowl of water as a lens to start a fire. Get out there, Mythbusters! I will link to your video clip!
UPDATE 2: Our attempts with a large, hemispherical mixing bowl and black posterboard lead me to doubt the likelihood of this explanation. The dog bowl in the story is a frustrum of a right circular cone, so lensing effects don't seem plausible. One might retreat to a position that the rim of the bowl acted as a mirror. But reflections from a water-glass boundary? The intensity simply isn't there.
In my Mythbusting opinion, the "dog bowl as magnifying glass" explanation holds no water.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Rushing Roulette
After giving my lesson on atmospheric refraction and mirages last week, I decided that the accompanying preso needed some Warner Brothers cartoon clips of hallucinations posing as mirages. It's a cartoon staple: character crawls through desert and becomes delirious with dehydration, then spots an oasis, makes a run for it and dives straight into... a pile of sand.
Since my web video-fu is such that I can reel in most video that I find useful, I set out to find a Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck desert mirage oasis dive. My initial attempts did not meet with success.
But I did come across a Road Runner cartoon called "Chaser on the Rocks" wherein Wile E. Coyote dives into a hallucination located directly above a slot canyon.
But it was from the Dark Ages of Warner Brothers cartoons: the mid-60s. Jack Warner closed down the animation studio in 1963, and the cartooning was essentially outsourced. Lower frame rates, canned music (rather than scored music), poor story-writing, poor directing, even poor openings and closings were the hallmarks of this disgraceful era.
No cartoons of this era warranted inclusion in any of the six Golden Collection DVD sets released by WB.
Someone had uploaded what seemed to be the entirety of the Road Runner oeuvre to YouTube. Before it was yanked by Warner Brothers, I clicked through all the episodes I hadn't seen. No doubt my eyeballs turned into spinning spirals as I watched.
Most were forgettable. All the Road Runner cartoons from the Dark Age used the same "theme music," a tiresome, trite twinkle of a tune that's likely to be found in Dick Cheney's Abu Ghraib iPod playlist.
But Episode 28, "Rushing Roulette" had a some usable moments.
Here's a video embed which may not last long. Just remember: it's Road Runner 28 - Rushing Roulette.
And here are some notes for using various vignettes in a physics course. There are moments involving elastic, kinetic, and potential energy, friction and normal force, energy conservation, geometric optics, and lift (helicopter propulsion). A nice mix.
And don't forget Dan Burns' Road Runner Physics page.
Since my web video-fu is such that I can reel in most video that I find useful, I set out to find a Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck desert mirage oasis dive. My initial attempts did not meet with success.
But I did come across a Road Runner cartoon called "Chaser on the Rocks" wherein Wile E. Coyote dives into a hallucination located directly above a slot canyon.
But it was from the Dark Ages of Warner Brothers cartoons: the mid-60s. Jack Warner closed down the animation studio in 1963, and the cartooning was essentially outsourced. Lower frame rates, canned music (rather than scored music), poor story-writing, poor directing, even poor openings and closings were the hallmarks of this disgraceful era.
No cartoons of this era warranted inclusion in any of the six Golden Collection DVD sets released by WB.
Someone had uploaded what seemed to be the entirety of the Road Runner oeuvre to YouTube. Before it was yanked by Warner Brothers, I clicked through all the episodes I hadn't seen. No doubt my eyeballs turned into spinning spirals as I watched.
Most were forgettable. All the Road Runner cartoons from the Dark Age used the same "theme music," a tiresome, trite twinkle of a tune that's likely to be found in Dick Cheney's Abu Ghraib iPod playlist.
But Episode 28, "Rushing Roulette" had a some usable moments.
Here's a video embed which may not last long. Just remember: it's Road Runner 28 - Rushing Roulette.
And here are some notes for using various vignettes in a physics course. There are moments involving elastic, kinetic, and potential energy, friction and normal force, energy conservation, geometric optics, and lift (helicopter propulsion). A nice mix.
And don't forget Dan Burns' Road Runner Physics page.
Monday, May 11, 2009
PTSOS List: Who am I?
PTSOSer Bill Taylor's students came up with this gem. I drew it and we'll see who (among my students) wins the shiny new Ticonderoga.
Saturday, May 09, 2009
Sargent Welch: where are you?
UPDATE 5/11/09: See comments for the detailed explanation from Sargent Welch. The short version: Technical difficulties--please stand by. (Whew!)
UPDATE: Lee T sends word that the site is back up. Gave me a palpitation for a moment there.
Can't tell / Don't know if this is a temporary outage or something worse.
But current attempts to connect to the Sargent Welch website are redirecting to a Network Solutions "domain-holder" page. (By the way, are such pages among the most annoying things you see on teh interwebs?)
Anyone know what's up at Sargent Welch?
UPDATE: Lee T sends word that the site is back up. Gave me a palpitation for a moment there.
Can't tell / Don't know if this is a temporary outage or something worse.But current attempts to connect to the Sargent Welch website are redirecting to a Network Solutions "domain-holder" page. (By the way, are such pages among the most annoying things you see on teh interwebs?)
Anyone know what's up at Sargent Welch?
Thursday, May 07, 2009
AP Physics at Rio... We hardly knew ye
Or perhaps we knew ye all too well. Either way, with a scant 18 sign-ups in AP Physics for the 2009-10 academic year, the school has decided not to run the course. Registered seniors are being encouraged by their counselors to take an equivalent course at American River College, per administrative instructions.Rio will entertain sign-ups for the 2010-11 school year. If the demand meets the school's student-to-teacher ratio staffing ratio needs, the course will be resurrected. From what I can tell, there would then be no attempt to register students for the 2011-12 academic year; the idea being that we should go with an every other year approach.
UPDATE: It appears Rio's AP Physics has been granted a reprieve. For now. Enrollment is 21-ish by my count.
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Physics Bowl 2009 results
I'm a little late on this, but I've been busy! Check the page listed below for the solutions and competition results (as they come in) ofPhysics Bowl 2009
If you don't know what Physics Bowl is, click here.
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