Talk Like A Physicist

Matter of Everything - Teaser and Trailer

Matter of Everything.. Hmmm,

A documentary about “no ordinary matter”..

What could it be?

Yup, it’s a documentary about Dark Matter.

THE DOCUMENTARY ABOUT NO ORDINARY MATTER
The Matter Of Everything is a feature documentary that challenges us to see beyond our everyday sense of experience into the unseen universe. From the quantum to the cosmos, The Matter Of Everything journeys deep out of the foundations of nature to reveal what we are, at billionths of the human scale. At that level, physicists at Fermilab, one of the largest particle research facilities in the world, describe a universe that is more unified than ever imagined.

Click Here to visit their site.

Relationship between math and physics

XKCD had a comment about the purity of the subject matter:

A similar joke I have heard before:

Sociologists want to be psychologists, because if you understand the brain you can understand society.

Psychologists want to be biologists, because if you understand life you can understand the brain.

Biologists want to be chemists, because if you understand matter you understand life.

Chemists want to be physicists, because if you understand the universe you understand matter.

Physicists want to be God.

God wants to be a mathematician.

Comment by Wingy.

10 Light years to the Inch

The Star Map Crystal is a cosmic paperweight: a 3″ glass cube laser etched with a 3D map of all stars within 5 parsecs of the sun.

Art, Science and Technology

Bathsheba Grossman is an internationally collected artist, working with new and old technology to make sculptures in many materials.

To draw this map, pulses from a focused laser beam are directed into the blank glass. Each pulse of the beam passes freely through the glass except at its focal point, where the concentrated energy causes a tiny fracture. These microscopic sparkles catch the light, forming a permanent map floating inside the crystal.

Lorenz attractor

A trajectory of Lorenz’s equations, rendered as a metal wire to show direction and 3D structure.

3D Mandelbrot fractal animation - Julia set

Here is a 2D julia set

And the 3-D Julia set animation.

Every time I see it, I feel perplexed as to the complexity and the beauty of it.

Tuesday Tattoo: Topological tattoo - Immersion of a torus in 3 space

Here is a torus in 3 space by Cassidy Curtis

And here is the corresponding tattoo

Source

There is nothing more fascinating then multidimenstional topology. A complex structure viewed the right way becomes so simple.

Random act of science teaching - you weigh less on the way down in the an elevator

Random act of science teaching. These scales were mounted inside commercial and residential elevators allowing riders to test this fact.

Explanation was available as a leaflet in the the elevator.

Everyday physics, tested by everyday person, using everyday objects.

Max Plank; papers in Quantum Physics : on Nintendo DS? Wordless Wednesday

Tuesday Tattoo: Ultimate physics tattoo - Schrodinger equation

This is absolutely awesome!

I can read the Schrodinger Equation and see a picture of an atorm a nucleaus and an electron.

Having trouble deciphering the middle part and the bottom part.

To see this as a body tattoo is beyond beleif.

Source tattoo sported by Jim, taken in 2005, it seems.

Here is a larger version

Update - from the commentator Lokicubed: The middle line is the
Bose-Einstein distribution. It gives the statistical distribution
of bosons. Below that the circle with wave going around it, is an
example of wave nature of electrons. The idea of De Broglie wavelength
is exemplified here by having the orbiting electon represented not by
a particle but by a wave that closes on itself. Contrast that to the
atom picture in the top left. The bottom line is the total energy of
a moving particle taking into account relativistic effects. It is the
sum of its rest mass and its kinetic energy. Notice how if the particle
is at rest, p=0 (momentum is velocity*mass (or the rate of change of force
wrt time)) so the equation becomes E=mc2. 

The tattoo is missing a power 2 on the capital E.

Dynamic Magnetic Field as animated images –> Magnetic Movie

Magnetic fields are invisible, at least usually. But Scientists from NASA’s Space Sciences Laboratory have made them visible as “animated photographs,” using sound-controlled CGI and 3D compositing. It makes the fields dance in an absolutely gorgeous movie called Magnetic Movie.

This is the best depiction of solar wind that I have seen.

This is just a visualization of the fields that were present in the space at the time of the filming.

The secret lives of invisible magnetic fields are revealed as chaotic, ever-changing geometries. All action takes place around NASA’s Space Sciences Laboratory, UC Berkeley, to recordings of space scientists describing their discoveries. Actual VLF audio recordings control the evolution of the fields as they delve into our inaudible surroundings, revealing recurrent ‘whistlers’ produced by fleeting electrons. Are we observing a series of scientific experiments, the universe in flux, or a documentary of a fictional world?

Source

Gamma Ray Sky View

The reason we “see” specific frequencies of light, or alternatively, our brains have acquired the capability to interpret the signals coming to the eyes in a certain narrow band of electromagnetic waves, is because of two things (i) particular properties of the spectra arriving from the Sun, and (ii) the specific photo synthesis process that became dominant and gave the green color to our food.

In an alternate world, depending on its own star, and its own food chain, one can imagine an alien being acquiring a capability to “see” in a different frequency band.

Sometimes I tell my eight year daughter science fiction stories based on “real science”, and we have a recurring character called Gammon, and he comes from a planet where the inhabitants are lead based and their food supply is radioactive metal and they “see” in hard X-ray/soft gamma ray spectrum.

If they were to look up in the sky, this is what they would see:

night sky in gamma ray spectrum; not too different from how the sky looks in the visible spectrum.

In case you are wondering as to how the earth will look in the gamma ray spectrum, wonder no more.

The pixelated planet above is actually our own planet Earth seen in gamma rays.

The Earth’s gamma-ray glow is indeed very faint, and this image was constructed by combining data from seven years of exposure during the life of the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, operating in Earth orbit from 1991 to 2000. Brightest near the edge and faint near the center, the picture indicates that the gamma rays are coming from high in Earth’s atmosphere. The gamma rays are produced as the atmosphere interacts with high energy cosmic rays from space, blocking the harmful radiation from reaching the surface.

Source

We are the physics : you can do athletics, BTW : science punk rock is here

We Are The Physics, purveyors of the completely fictional mutant science punk rock hail from Glasgow, Scotland and first graced a stage in 2005 by mistake when Hoggboy was cancelled.

Originally known as We Are The Physics Club And Therefore Everything We Say Is Fact, the spindly legged quartet source from bands such as Devo, The Skids, Polysics, Buddy Holly and Ex Models. Physics have been relentlessly gigging up and down the UK and across Europe, sharing stages and Haribo with bands such as Art Brut, Polysics, You Say Party! We Say Die! and 30 Seconds To Mars in an effort to become half decent all the while dancing like robots. Known for their eccentric leg manoeuvres and bad eyesight, the band have already been noticed by people they knew beforehand and are sure to make hefty waves in the metaphorical reservoir of tunes.

In January 2008 Physics embarked upon a UK tour which saw them selling out their homecoming show at King Tuts, Glasgow. They are currently gearing up for the release of their debut album ‘We Are The Physics Are OK At Music’ through This Is Fake DIY Records in May 2008. The first single from which will be ‘You Can Do Athletics, BTW’, preceding in April 2008.

Home page Wikipedia entry

Gorgeous picture of a (solid state) Tesla coil discharge

Click for a better view.

Shifting temporary equilibrium : burning candles at both end

the candle is perfectly balanced in the center and each end is lit at different times, the the wax melts on each end of the candle, and when it drips off of one end, that end becomes less in weight than the other, causing an imbalance of weight and making it tilt, when this happens, the same thing happens on the other end of the candle, creating a seesaw effect.

source

I Will Derive : All physics students should learn this

First I was afraid
I was petrified
Kept on thinking “I can’t do this”
With x on each side

I tried to think, control my nerve,
…

when I had given up all hope, I said

NO,…..

I”LL DERIVE

Derive from first principles!

If you can’t do it, you don’t know your subject.

From mindofmathew at YouTube or at MindofMathew.com