Optics basics: Defining the velocity of a wave

Posted on January 17, 2008 by skullsinthestars

How do we define how fast a wave is going? The question at first glance seems obvious. When we discussed harmonic waves in a previous post, we observed that the velocity of the wave could be measured by measuring how far one of the peaks of the wave travels in a certain amount of time. There are a number of subtle points that arise when talking about wave velocity, however, including the possibility of light traveling at faster than the ‘speed of light’! In this post we’ll try and define the velocity of a wave, and explain why the question is not so easy to answer.

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Posted in Optics, Optics basics | 4 Comments

Robber shoots himself in groin!

Posted on January 16, 2008 by skullsinthestars

A few years back, I was very interested in reading about very dumb criminals.  My interest was rekindled by this story:

Police said a Kokomo man accidentally shot himself in the genitals as he robbed a convenience store early Tuesday.

Well worth a read!  When people teach their kids about what a life of crime could lead to, they should reference this.

Posted in ... the Hell? | Tagged | 2 Comments

An up-and-coming musician… Jeanette Hawkins!

Posted on January 15, 2008 by skullsinthestars

Most of my flights around the country are rather dull, if not genuinely unpleasant.  On the flight back from San Antonio, though, I ended up having a conversation with my row-mates, one of whom is a charming young woman and excellent musician named Jeanette Hawkins!

She credits as her musical influences Sublime, No Doubt, Bob Marley, The Carpenters, though her sound is all her own (as are her songs, which are original compositions).  Her sound is somewhat folksy, and is primarily her vocals backed by her acoustic guitar playing.  If that sounds interesting, you can check out her MySpace page at this link.

I of course normally don’t do musical posts, but this may be my only chance to look back in the future and say,  “I met her when…”  🙂

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Two nice books on movie physics!

Posted on January 15, 2008 by skullsinthestars

One of the nice Christmas gift surprises this past year was a pair of books from my girlfriend’s sister!  (Thanks!) Both books deal with the physics of Hollywood movies, though from slightly different points of view:  Don’t Try This At Home, by Adam Weiner, and Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics, by Tom Rogers.  Both books are quite recent publications (late 2007), and cover quite recent movies.  I give a brief description of each beneath the fold…

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Posted in Entertainment, Physics | 1 Comment

Incredibly stupid conservative quote of the week

Posted on January 14, 2008 by skullsinthestars

I’m always amazed at some of the ridiculous things that come out of the mouths of the so-called ‘conservative elite’. Here’s Jonah Goldberg, defending the premise of his book Liberal Fascism on Salon.com (h/t Crooks and Liars):

To sort of start the story, the reason why we see fascism as a thing of the right is because fascism was originally a form of right-wing socialism. Mussolini was born a socialist, he died a socialist, he never abandoned his love of socialism, he was one of the most important socialist intellectuals in Europe and was one of the most important socialist activists in Italy, and the only reason he got dubbed a fascist and therefore a right-winger is because he supported World War I.

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Posted in ... the Hell?, Politics | 2 Comments

A LaTeX how-to (for windows)

Posted on January 13, 2008 by skullsinthestars

There was a nice post on Good Math, Bad Math about Donald Knuth’s classic scientific typesetting software, TeX. In the comments section, a number of people asked about how to learn to use the software. I thought I’d write a little introduction on how to install and use LaTeX, with a nice sample file to play with. Since I often have to do this for my students anyway, it’ll be nice to have it all in one place.
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Posted in Mathematics, Physics | Tagged | 7 Comments

I’m doomed…

Posted on January 11, 2008 by skullsinthestars

I’m not sure what to make of this xkcd comic; after all, I’m active in 3 of these categories, including the top one, and I do take a lot of elevators…

Posted in Silliness, Sports | 9 Comments

A brief San Antonio travelogue!

Posted on January 10, 2008 by skullsinthestars

So I’ve been posting a little light this week because I’ve been in San Antonio on business.  Now that the work is done, and I’m heading home, I thought I’d post just a few pictures of the highlights…

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Reincarnation in horror…

Posted on January 10, 2008 by skullsinthestars

While on vacation, I stumbled across one of Brian Lumley’s early novels, Khai of Khem, a fantasy adventure story set in pre-historical ancient Egypt. One of the major plot points of the story is the idea that Khai has, in essence, already lived a reincarnated life in the future, and his knowledge helps him fight his foes. That reminded me of a few other horror tales in which reincarnation is a major plot point, and it seemed worth a post to discuss them!

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Posted in Fantasy fiction, Horror, Robert E. Howard | Leave a comment

The beginnings of ice skating…

Posted on January 8, 2008 by skullsinthestars

Okay, one more post tonight (I’m really bored).  I stumbled across a fascinating article (h/t Pigspittle, Ohio) about the oldest human-powered means of transport: ice skates made of bone.  Apparently ice skating may have started in about 3000 BC in Southern Finland, which has a high density of lakes (and mosquitos, as I can personally attest).

I find this especially interesting because I’m an avid figure skater.  (I’m also getting the girlfriend involved.)  The early skating was apparently not for fun, though, but to minimize energy expenditure in travel.   The results were published in the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society of London.

Posted in Science news, Sports | Tagged | 2 Comments