In which I draw a weird thing, do math, and make promises I intend to keep. OK nerds! Class is over, which means it’s time to get down and dirty with some physics. Last time this post had something substantive in it, I discussed the kinetic energy of a rigid rotating body and I introduced a new concept called the moment of inertia. Today we’ll do a couple of example problems and talk a... »
Oh guys. Guys, guys, guys. I intended to write a physics post this week. I really did. But I forgot that this weekend was Reasonfest on the University of Kansas campus. And hey, I when Greta Christina, Matt Dillahunty, Nate Phelps, and JT Eberhard comes to Kansas, you go see them speak. The trade-off, however, is that I didn’t get a chance to physics this week. Le sigh. But I’m not goi... »
So I was at SkepTech this last weekend and it was wonderful. Great people, and lots of extremely interesting talks. But one thing that’s kind of getting to me is how we keep asking “well how does the internet change this?” or “is the internet positive or negative?” Inevitably, every single time that gets asked, the answer is “well sometimes it helps and sometimes it hurts and it really depen... »
A while ago, we here at TS started a series about eating disorders, and I do believe it’s time for an update. Recently I’ve been spending a lot of my time at Science of EDs, a completely fascinating website that provides a lot of information about studies and the science of eating disorders. A couple of the articles I ran across tackled the idea that a fear of gaining weight is a defining... »
Last month, the Obama administration announced a plan to fund a huge, decade-long project to simultaneously map the activity of each individual neuron in the entire human brain — the Brain Activity Map (BAM). The project aims to develop new technology to visualize the activity of individual neurons in the same way that fMRI can roughly visualize the activity of the brain at a much coarser sc... »
In which equations are derived, Blu-rays spin, and Hulk movies are lamented. The last couple of weeks we’ve been discussing angular velocity and acceleration. You may have gotten a case of déjà vu; calculating angular velocity and acceleration is very similar to calculating straight line motion. Well get ready for an even déjà vu-ier post, because now I’m going to talk about rotation w... »
In which radians are converted, angular velocity and acceleration are calculated, and I figure out what a flywheel is. Alrighty, folks. Last week we laid the foundation for understanding angular velocity and acceleration. Now it’s time to apply that knowledge with some practice problems. Whoop whoop! I guess we should just jump right in. We’re testing a flywheel. (What’s a flywhe... »
Why hello there readers, and a happy St. Patty’s Day to you! I hope you all are celebrating with something green and Irish, but we here at Teen Skepchick decided that St. Patty’s day was an appropriate time to talk about a different kind of celebration, one that perhaps will not leave you feeling celebratory for too long. Yes, you may have noticed that here in the United States, some p... »
