During our discussion of AC power, we digressed a bit into alternate sources of energy to supply the work required to generate electrical power. One interesting idea is to gather the work-energy in urban areas as people walk along specially designed sidewalks.
A number of other creative ideas can be explored on the site from [...]
Archive for July, 2009
Sidewalk Power
Posted in DUML Physics 54, Physics 54 Content/Resource, tagged Clean Energy, Project ideas on July 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Maxwell’s Equations
Posted in DUML Physics 54, Physics 54 Content/Resource, tagged DUML Physics, Posting with LaTeX on July 21, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Our physics 54 class has now been introduced to all four of Maxwell’s equations. We do not have Maxwell’s correction to Ampere’s Law yet, but man we are close. Our current version of these really beautiful equations:
Gauss’s Law for Electricity
Gauss’s Law for Magnetism[experimentally -- no magnetic monopoles]
Ampere’s Law [not yet fixed]
Faraday’s Law [the negative [...]
Ideal Scientific Equipment
Posted in Equipment, Physics Phun, tagged DUML Physics, Lab on July 21, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
We are often discussing “ideal” or “ACME” [think of Wile E Coyote and Road Runner] equipment in class and you may be wondering where one gets such specialized equipment. Well here is a link to THE source – beware – some of it is rather pricey.
http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/ideal/ideal.htm
Ten Tremendous Telescopes
Posted in DUML Physics 54, Equipment, tagged Telescopes on July 20, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Dr. Brown reviewed Gauss’s Law for magnetism and introduced Ampere’s Law today. He mentioned that Maxwell got his name attached to four beautiful equations by adding a very important correction to Ampere’s Law. This correction paves the way to the understanding a bit about electromagnetic radiation [we will envision light as momentum and [...]
Physhead Quotes
Posted in Demographics, Physics Phun, Student Population, tagged Physheads on July 17, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Exam day today. When I arrived at DUML this morning there was a list of quotes on the board — apparently the group needed some comic relief during last nights study session. This is another example of the community which develops here in paradise as sharp students work intensely to master cool physics [...]
Problem Set Format
Posted in DUML Physics 54, tagged DUML Physics, Expectations in Education on July 13, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Since Dr. Brown has asked me to grade your homework and has encouraged you to submit works of art, I suggest a format which will make me very happy and will help you to clearly present your work. While this is not a required format, it will make it easier for me to look [...]
Project Idea – Electric Wind
Posted in DUML Physics 54, Equipment, Physics 54 Content/Resource, tagged Electric Wind, Lab, Project ideas, Visualizations in E&M on July 10, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Dr. Brown does a fantastic job of discussing [in depth] all sorts of relevant phenomena and “cool” physics related to our topic of study. I am always astounded at the breadth and depth of his “rabbit trail” discussions. He also encourages students to do some extra project of interest during the course. [...]
Equipotential
Posted in DUML Physics 54, Physics 54 Content/Resource, tagged Conductors, Faraday Cage on July 10, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Just had some lecture about electric potential and equipotential lines. This reminded me of linemen who work on high voltage lines [see video] and the great analogy or connection to physics 53 [mechanics] — that is contour maps, which show gravitational equipotential lines.
Physhead Love
Posted in Physics Phun, Student Population, tagged DUML Physics, Physheads on July 10, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
When I walked into the Repass Lab this morning and plugged in my ipod to listen to some music and begin grading homework sets, I got tickled by what was written on the whiteboard [see pic]. This is indicative of the bonding and intimacy which occurs when a group of people work intensely together [...]
Faraday Cage
Posted in DUML Physics 54, Equipment, Physics Phun, tagged Conductors, Faraday Cage on July 9, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
While considering electric fields and conductors, our discussion touched on Faraday cages and I thought it appropriate to grab some great images of some dramatic examples. One involves large Van de Graaff generators at a Boston museum and the other is a Tesla coil.
