PY205M Blog

Assignment: Find and post an image, video, news/science story from a newspaper, podcast, etc. which illustrates the week's topic, using the "Comments" feature. Include a paragraph which summarizes the connection to material we've been covering in class, or raises interesting questions relevant to the class.

For help formatting your link so that it is active, see the first post ("Welcome!", under category "General") which includes instructions. Previewing your entry prior to submission will allow you to check that the link works.

Assigned to: Last names beginning with S through Z.

Due: Friday, April 24

A physics research article published yesterday (!) sheds some light on the high-temperature limit of the heat capacity calculation which we are currently covering in class. This description of the recent work covers some history of the Einstein model, as well as the recent discoveries. 

Assignment: Find and post an image, video, news/science story from a newspaper, podcast, etc. which illustrates the week's topic, using the "Comments" feature. Include a paragraph which summarizes the connection to material we've been covering in class, or raises interesting questions relevant to the class.

For help formatting your link so that it is active, see the first post ("Welcome!", under category "General") which includes instructions. Previewing your entry prior to submission will allow you to check that the link works.

Assigned to: Last names beginning with P through R.

Due: Friday, April 17

 This week in class we'll be discussing thermal energy, particularly for the ball and spring model of solids which we've been using throughout the semester. A recent scientific advance reported here is relevant to the upcoming discussion: the observation (in simulations) of beyond-elastic collisions between nanoparticles! If you're interested, you can take a look at the original scientific article in Physical Review E.

Assignment: Find and post an image, video, news/science story from a newspaper, podcast, etc. which illustrates the week's topic, using the "Comments" feature. Include a paragraph which summarizes the connection to material we've been covering in class, or raises interesting questions relevant to the class.

For help formatting your link so that it is active, see the first post ("Welcome!", under category "General") which includes instructions. Previewing your entry prior to submission will allow you to check that the link works.

Assigned to: Last names beginning with M through O.

Due: Friday, April 10

Assignment: Find and post an image, video, news/science story from a newspaper, podcast, etc. which illustrates the week's topic, using the "Comments" feature. Include a paragraph which summarizes the connection to material we've been covering in class, or raises interesting questions relevant to the class.

For help formatting your link so that it is active, see the first post ("Welcome!", under category "General") which includes instructions. Previewing your entry prior to submission will allow you to check that the link works.

Assigned to: Last names beginning with G through L. 

Due: Friday, April 3

Assignment: Find and post an image, video, news/science story from a newspaper, podcast, etc. which illustrates the week's topic, using the "Comments" feature. Include a paragraph which summarizes the connection to material we've been covering in class, or raises interesting questions relevant to the class.

For help formatting your link so that it is active, see the first post ("Welcome!", under category "General") which includes instructions. Previewing your entry prior to submission will allow you to check that the link works.

Assigned to: Last names beginning with C through F. 

Due: Friday, March 27

Assignment: Find and post an image, video, news/science story from a newspaper, podcast, etc. which illustrates this week's topics, using the "Comments" feature. Include a paragraph which summarizes the connection to material we've been covering in class, or raises interesting questions relevant to the class.

For help formatting your link so that it is active, see the first post ("Welcome!", under category "General") which includes instructions. Previewing your entry prior to submission will allow you to check that the link works.

Assigned to: Last names beginning with A through B

Due: Friday, Mar 13

Assignment: Find and post an image, video, news/science story from a newspaper, podcast, etc. which illustrates the week's topic, using the "Comments" feature. Include a paragraph which summarizes the connection to material we've been covering in class, or raises interesting questions relevant to the class.

For help formatting your link so that it is active, see the first post ("Welcome!", under category "General") which includes instructions. Previewing your entry prior to submission will allow you to check that the link works.

Assigned to: Last names beginning with U through Z. Special this week due to shortage of last names in this cycle: 50% credit available to folks with last names A through T who missed their week.

Due: Friday, February 27

Assignment: Find and post an image, video, news/science story from a newspaper, podcast, etc. which illustrates the week's topic, using the "Comments" feature. Include a paragraph which summarizes the connection to material we've been covering in class, or raises interesting questions relevant to the class.

For help formatting your link so that it is active, see the first post ("Welcome!", under category "General") which includes instructions. Previewing your entry prior to submission will allow you to check that the link works.

Assigned to: Last names beginning with S through T

Due: Saturday, Feb 21

Assignment: Find and post an image, video, news/science story from a newspaper, podcast, etc. which illustrates the week's topic, using the "Comments" feature. Include a paragraph which summarizes the connection to material we've been covering in class, or raises interesting questions relevant to the class.

For help formatting your link so that it is active, see the first post ("Welcome!", under category "General") which includes instructions. Previewing your entry prior to submission will allow you to check that the link works.

Assigned to: Last names beginning with N through R

Due: Friday, Feb 13

This video shows a practical use for calculating the vector forces on an object in static equilibrium: a rock climber supported by two anchor points. See if you can write down an equation to solve for the tension in each anchor line as a function of the "point" angle. Does your result agree with the climbing expert in the video?

This morning, the New York Times has a short article on a topic related to one we'll discuss in class today: the crystalline structure of solids. The physicists in the study used computer models, calculations, and experiments in order to understand a new crystalline form of the element boron. If you're curious and want to read the published scientific article (in the journal Nature), there's a link about halfway down the page. If you're using a computer on campus, you'll be able to click through to the full text of the Nature paper rather than just the "abstract" (summary).

Assignment: Find and post an image, video, news/science story from a newspaper, podcast, etc. which illustrates the week's topic, using the "Comments" feature. Include a paragraph which summarizes the connection to material we've been covering in class, or raises interesting questions relevant to the class.

For help formatting your link so that it is active, see the first post ("Welcome!", under category "General") which includes instructions. Previewing your entry prior to submission will allow you to check that the link works.

Assigned to: Last names beginning with J through M

Due: Friday, Feb 6

To follow up on some recent football-themed blog entries, take a look at this article in the New York Times which discusses the physics of collisions. You might notice that the author of the article dramatically over-estimates the duration of the collision, in comparison to what we calculated in class. I say that we were right!