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Bozone: noun, The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating.
Egoravity: noun, the physical force identified in Newton’s (unpublished) fourth law of physics– that everything revolves around me.
From Addictionary.
‘Live from Mars’ layer to view the latest images from NASA’s THEMIS camera on board the Mars Odyssey spacecraft, sometimes just hours after NASA receives them. You can also see live satellite orbital tracks, or check out where the HiRISE camera plans to image next.
Another interesting feature added to Google Earth is the ‘Guided Tours’ feature. If you’re not sure where to go on Mars, Google lets Bill Nye and Public Radio’s Ira Flatow, host of Science Friday show you around. You can go to the Mars Gallery layer, and double-click either of their tours for a narrated trip around the Martian surface. Google claims that this is a great way to introduce oneself to some of the most interesting spots on the planet - just sit back, and enjoy the ride. If something catches your eye, you can pause these tours at any time and explore on your own, then hit play to resume your journey.
Apart from these features, there’s a browseable layer of Google’s favorite satellite images, visible and infrared global views, geo-located excerpts from A Traveler’s Guide to Mars, and others. Google has also included 3D models of NASA rovers. Also, you can use the search box to locate famous sites like the ‘face on Mars’, just like surfing Earth.
Some of the hi-res images are absolutely stunning.
Washington politicians took time from bailouts and earmark-laden spending packages on Wednesday for what might seem like an unusual act: officially designating a National Pi Day.
The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a resolution introduced two days earlier that designates March 14, 2009 (3/14, get it?) as National Pi Day. It urges schools to take the opportunity to teach their students about Pi and “engage them about the study of mathematics.”
Zuck called them “lighthearted reminders about the importance of math and science education,” adding “this year we decided to put together an effort to see if we could use this as a mechanism to increase awareness for math and science education.”
All the arguments in favor of Pi Day also apply equally to Physics Day.
The text of the resolution is here;
Whereas the Greek letter (Pi) is the symbol for the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter;
Whereas the ratio Pi is an irrational number, which will continue infinitely without repeating, and has been calculated to over one trillion digits;
Whereas Pi is a recurring constant that has been studied throughout history and is central in mathematics as well as science and engineering;
Whereas mathematics and science are a critical part of our children’s education, and children who perform better in math and science have higher graduation and college attendance rates;
Whereas aptitude in mathematics, science, and engineering is essential for a knowledge-based society;
Whereas, according to the 2007 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) survey done by the National Center for Education Statistics, American children in the 4th and 8th grade were outperformed by students in other countries including Taiwan, Singapore, Russia, England, South Korea, Latvia, and Japan;
Whereas since 1995 the United States has shown only minimal improvement in math and science test scores;
Whereas by the 8th grade, American males outperform females on the science portion of the TIMSS survey, especially in Biology, Physics, and Earth Science, and the lowest American scores in math and science are found in minority and impoverished school districts;
Whereas America needs to reinforce mathematics and science education for all students in order to better prepare our children for the future and in order to compete in a 21st Century economy;
Whereas the National Science Foundation has been driving innovation in math and science education at all levels from elementary through graduate education since its creation 59 years ago;
Whereas mathematics and science can be a fun and interesting part of a child’s education, and learning about Pi can be an engaging way to teach children about geometry and attract them to study science and mathematics; and
Whereas Pi can be approximated as 3.14, and thus March 14, 2009, is an appropriate day for `National Pi Day’: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives–
(1) supports the designation of a `Pi Day’ and its celebration around the world;
(2) recognizes the continuing importance of National Science Foundation’s math and science education programs; and
(3) encourages schools and educators to observe the day with appropriate activities that teach students about Pi and engage them about the study of mathematics.
Attest:
Clerk.
Track the legislation here.
How do I talk like a Physicist, a primer
Here are some terms that Physicists use:
Order of Magnitude: Use terms like “orders of magnitude” to describe significant differences of scale.
Negligible: When something is small, say it is “negligible” non-zero, but negligible.
Infinitesimal: If it is really really small, say it is infinitesimal.
Non-trivial: For a physicist, nothing is ever hard or difficult - it is always “non-trivial”
First-order approximation : That is only a first-order approximation to a good cup of coffee… “The living room is clean. Well…at least to a first order approximation.”
Canonical: Use “canonical” when you mean “usual” or “standard.” As in, “the canonical example of talking like a physicist is to use the word ‘canonical.’”
Orthogonal: Use “orthogonal” to refer to things that are mutually-exclusive or can’t coincide. “We keep playing phone tag — I think our schedules must be orthogonal”
Empirical Data: Any actual personal experience becomes “empirical data.” i.e. a burn on your hand is empirical data that the stove is hot.
Ground State: You’re not being lazy, you are in your ground state.
Extrapolation: A semi-educated guess is an extrapolation
Ideal Case: You aren’t ignoring details, you are taking the ideal case
Vanishingly small: A tiny amount is “vanishingly small” or “negligible.” Really small is “infinitesimal”
Potential Well: Stuck in a meeting is “trapped in a potential well,” though you hope you can “tunnel out.”
Blackhole: If there is no escape, you are trapped by a black hole, from which there is no escape.
Photons: It’s not light, they are photons. Turning on the lamp becomes emitting photons.
Exercise to Reader: The rest is history becomes “the rest is left as an exercise to the reader…”
Not even wrong. Someone is making an argument using assumptions that are known to be wrong, or are making an argument that can’t be falsified. Courtesy Wolfgang Pauli. “Wait, he’s assuming Ron Paul can still win the Republican nomination? That’s not even wrong.”
For very small values of. This one, I’m afraid, I can best explain by example. “So there are four of us going to dinner.” “Three.” “Okay, so there are four of us for very small values of four.”
Super position: If something seems to act like something else, I say that it’s in a “superposition of the two states”.
Other good words to add to your vocabulary:
Discontinuity
Renormalize
Positive and negative work
God Particle
Dark Energy
Space-time continuum
Other rules:
When you are asked a question, think of improbable ways a statement could be true and then at the end make sure to give correct answer.
When a mere mortal is asked a question “Can a pig fly?” typically the answerer is “No.”
However a physicist will respond as follows:
“They could if there was no gravity, or in interstellar space, or if they had wings, or if they were dropped off a cliff (though it would be a short flight). Generally the answer is NO.”
Here is another example of the same rule:
Q: two trains are a approaching each other at 40 mph and are 8 miles apart, when will they cross each other? An untrained person would say “in about 6 minutes”.
A physicist would respond as:
If the trains are on the same track, they will not cross each other but run in to each other; when you say approaching each other, are the trains engines facing each other? they could go around the world and then cross each other, but for that I need to know the location of the trains. Also, I need to know the lengths of each of the trains to accurately calculate this, but in a trivially simple situation, the trains will cross each other in 6 minutes.
Again, make sure that the correct answer is always present at the end.
Thanks to Sean, JerseyBoy, Swans on tea, dr. Dev. Stephan at Live granades, James Cronen and many others who have commented on various blogs on this issue.
Please check out the FAQ for additional information.
Talk Like a Physicist : March 14th, 2009
The glass is neither half full nor half empty, it is a superposition of a states that is half full and half empty. If you randomly measured the liquid in the glass, half the time you will find that the glass is half full and other half of the time you will find that the glass is half empty - and that is the MOST accurate what to describe the above scenario.
Also, in case you are wondering what happened to the half of the liquid in this glass - yup, you guessed it, the Schrodinger’s cat licked it.
Talk Like a Physicist Day : March 14, 2009
A nation of Einsteins
Check out the FAQ on how to talk like a physicist
#Sunny is wearing neutrino repellent armor.
#Sunny : my Schrödinger cat is entangled; might need to call a quantum mechanic.
#Sunny : recession is so bad - I checked the value of pi yesterday and it has gone down to e.
#Sunny is using his pet butterfly to control chaos.
#Sunny is probing ink molecules with nonresonant light.
#Sunny is playing with photon entanglement.
#Sunny is in Metastable Equilibrium and likes it.
#Sunny is an isomer: similar composition but of dissimilar properties.
#Sunny is continuous everywhere but differentiable nowhere. He is a rebel.
Previous ones are reproduced here:
* Sunny is so cool, he is measured in Kelvins.
* Sunny can see past the event horizon.
* Sunny is defying the uncertainty principle.
* Sunny is made up entirely of dark matter.
* Sunny is blue shifted.
* Sunny is circumpolar.
* Sunny is gravitational lensing
* Sunny is a part of Proton Proton chain responsible for the fusion on the Sun.
* Sunny is a supernova remnant
* Sunny is emanating Hawking radiation
* Sunny is made entirely out of strange quarks - that explains a lot!
* Sunny is cursed with non-zero vacuum energy
* Sunny is a boson.
* Sunny is in a phase lock with a wine glass.
* Sunny’s time arrow points in random direction - I’ll see you yesterday, may be.
* Sunny lives in a quantum constrained system
* Sunny is your long lost supersymmetric partner.
* Sunny is using gravitational lens to warm up earth.
* Sunny is a part of a binary blackhole system.
* Sunny thrives on curved space time.
* Sunny is a pseudo random number generator.
* Sunny is not the problem, he is not the solution - he is the math between the problem and the solution.
* Sunny might not be omnipotent, but under the right circumstances he is nilpotent.
* Sunny doesn’t follow gravity; gravity follows him.
Here are the status messages from the first list of physicist’s facebook status messages:
* Sunny feels the chill from the the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) being cooled to 1.9 Kelvin (-271C; -456F) - colder than deep space. Where did I put my space heater?
* Sunny feels like he’s diagonally parked in a parallel universe.
* Sunny exists purely as a probability density function; he can be at more than one places at the same time.
* Basic research is what I am doing when I don’t know what I am doing.
* Sunny is still searching for Higgs.
* I abhor M theory with every fiber of my being.
* almost finished with the paper, I just has to dot my “i” and cross my “h”.
* Sunny has learned not to store plutonium in a tupperwear container.
* is pondering, if Schroedinger’s Cat walks into a forest, and no one is around to observe it, is he really in the forest?
* Wanted, dead AND alive, Schrödinger’s Cat.
Love the bright red question mark for the Gauss’s law. It leave open the possibility of a magnetic monopole.
Especially since most physicists believe that the magnetic monopoles do exist.
If the magnetic monopoles do exist then the Gauss’s law (third equation) needs to be changed and I think Faraday’s law (second equation) will change too.
Maxwell’s equations tattoo. Source Osunick’s photostream
I wasn’t too sure about the Citibank stocks, but I thought I could count on the universal constants to stay unchanged during these trying times.
I figured I might not have cake, but at least I’ll have Pi.
Yesterday I was measuring the circumference of a circle and it seemed a little smaller than what I expected it to be. I checked and double checked and couldn’t figure out what the problem was.
And then it hit me; I checked Google/Physics and I was shocked to see 
that the value of Pi, which people have memorized up to 10,000 digits, has gone down to almost e.
Is nothing sacred anymore? If we are not careful, the value of Pi will go down to as low asphi, the golden ratio, and things will just spiral down from there.
We might need a $100B stimulus package to prop up the value of Pi.
Please leave a comment if you have noticed any unusual changes in the physical constants or your experiments due to recession.
Google logo for Einstein’s birthday - also talk like a physicist day
e=mc^2 at the end is a nice touch!
The 11th Annual Physics Fun Day at Knott’s Theme Park was on March 5th. Local students use Knott’s rollercoasters as a giant science lab with local educators joining together with Knott’s educational staff to create a variety of learning contests and games centered on the park’s thrill rides.
Almost all major theme parks have a physics day. Take a budding physicists to one of the theme parks on physics day - they will have a blast.
Here is a report that was filed on the recent Physics day at the Knotts Berry Farm.
BUENA PARK – Most classrooms don’t come equipped with hurtling roller coasters or flume rides to demonstrate scientific principles such as gravity or friction.
Instead, 8,000 middle and high school students from as far away as Las Vegas arrived at Knott’s Berry Farm on Thursday, packing accelerometers, protractors and stopwatches along with their cameras and sunglasses.
They spent the day calculating the height of steel towers and the angles of roller coaster loops, all while keeping their brains going with ample supplies of funnel cakes and French fries.
“It’s the best field trip so far,” said Karrissa Duncan, 12, a sixth-grader at St. Angela Merici School in Brea.
Senior Catherine Nguyen, 17, and three of her Westminster High School classmates scribbled numbers furiously underneath the Boomerang roller coaster.
“What we’re learning is we can apply actual physics to rides. They’re not just made-up numbers,” she said, adding some of the challenges handed them by their teacher required them to board rides to take speed and other measurements. “So it’s fun, too.”
That’s exactly what former Westminster High School science teacher Jim Pacelli had in mind when he approached Knott’s 11 years ago about holding a physics day. He didn’t come up with the idea, but wanted a location close to Orange County students.
His motivation was simple.
“No matter how many (physics) experiments we do in the classroom, some students are convinced it’s smoke and mirrors,” Pacelli said. So, he gathered a few other teachers together.
“We went through every ride they had in the park at the time, and thought, ‘How does physics apply?’” he said. Each year since, every corner of Knott’s Berry Farm has become a science workbook.
In addition, students competed to make the tallest towers from sheets of paper or tried to craft paper airplanes to fly through a hoop and onto a target.
Fountain Valley High School Senior Paula Nguyen, 17, took part in the competition to get extra credit from her teacher. Her plane came up short of the hoop, but did make a finely executed – though unintended – loop before it crashed.
“It did better than what I expected,” Nguyen said as she shrugged, acknowledging aeronautic skills were not her forté. “I thought it would just fall. But it made a loop, and that was pretty.”
Students work with their inclinometer to measure the height of Supreme Scream at Knott’s Berry Farm’s Physics Day.
Why is March 14th talk like a physicist day?
Because March 14th is Einstein’s birthday,
Because March 14th, written as 3.14, is the international Pi day,
Because 2009 is the year of science with March being the month of Physics and Technology,
Because we don’t do enough to appreciate the physics around us,
Because it is easy - for most visitors to this site, they don’t have to do anything.
Here is a sample of physics talk from the Big Bang Theory show:
For more example of how to talk like a physicist, see our FAQ page.
