From Wired Science — an interesting article about a huge solar flare in 1859.
Telegraphs Ran on Electric Air in Crazy 1859 Magnetic Storm
By Alexis Madrigal
September [...]
Archive for the ‘DUML Physics 54’ Category
1859 Solar Flare – Wired Science
Posted in DUML Physics 54, tagged DUML Physics on September 3, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Magnetic Field Art
Posted in DUML Physics 54, Physics Phun, tagged Introductory Physics, Project ideas, Uses for Magnetic Materials on August 14, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I loved this from the “Evil Mad Scientist” site. While the results of this particular experimental trial were not entirely satisfactory, the whole concept was fun and interesting to consider. Take a look at a most interesting “comment” I found associated with this post. For those who have not checked out their site, do so [...]
The DUML Open House
Posted in DUML Physics 54, Equipment, Physics Phun, tagged DUML Physics on August 7, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Last Saturday — wow, has it been a week already? — the Duke Marine Lab hosted an open house and invited folks from the community in to see what we do. This provided a great opportunity to pull out a few of our physics demos and some lab equipment. I decided to run [...]
Final
Posted in DUML Physics 54, Physics 54 Content/Resource, tagged Expectations in Education, Physheads on August 7, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
final
A great group of students is currently taking this final exam. I imagine they will do well, as they have generally worked hard and performed on the previous exams and various tasks — a sharp and delightful group of physheads!
One student from Penn, needs a copy of the final to show the folks up [...]
Sidewalk Power
Posted in DUML Physics 54, Physics 54 Content/Resource, tagged Clean Energy, Project ideas on July 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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.
