My car is cold
The last couple of days have seen our Engineering Design Show. This is where our 2nd/3rd/4th year Engineering students get to talk about and show off the various projects they've been working on in...
View ArticleThe earth’s magnetic field: much more complicated than you might think
At the recent NZ Institute of Physics conference, we were treated to a wonderful description of the earth's magnetic proceses, by Gillian Turner. What makes up the earth's magnetic field? What effect...
View ArticleNotation notation notation
Physicists and engineers have a particular fondness for using symbols for things. Thus, the speed of light becomes 'c'. Planck's constant is 'h'. And so forth. Not content with the latin alphabet,...
View ArticleWhat makes something show on radar?
One of the questions on everyone's lips at the moment is "How does a large passenger jet simply disappear from radar without trace?" It is clearly very distressing for anyone with friends or...
View ArticleSeeing in the dark
No, nothing to do with carrots and vitamin A I'm afraid. With dark evenings and mornings with us now :(, Benjamin's become interested in the dark. It's dark after he's finished tea, and he likes to...
View ArticleManaging ignition timing
I've just been at a great lecture by Peter Leijen as part of our schools-focused Osborne Physics and Engineering Day. He's an ex-student of ours, who did electronic engineering here at Waikato – and...
View ArticleTelepathy breakthrough – great science, not science fiction
The 'Science' news hitting the media at the weekend was Guilio Ruffini and Alvaro Pascual-Leone's demonstration of 'telepathy'. There's been a lot of media coverage on this – for example the neat...
View ArticleConduction in semiconductors – the tennis ball model
Not so long ago, a tennis ball appeared in our garden. It's a rather distinctive red one. It doesn't belong to us. It was lying close by to the (low) fence between us and our neighbour, so I just...
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First a cricket fan, second a physicist
I've spent most of today thinking Google's image-of-the-day is a wicket, but have just realized it is in honour of Alessandro Volta.
View ArticleLenz’s law – at 3 tesla
When I was at school, and introduced to magnetic fields in a quantitative sense (that is, with a strength attached to it), I remember being told that the S.I. unit of magnetic flux density (B-field)...
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