Physical Science

A distracted driver will have a greater reaction time than a non-distracted driver. A distraction to a driver will increase the drivers’ reaction time and reduces the ability to respond to an emergency situation. The driver takes longer to react…
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Walter Isaacson’s new biography of Albert Einstein, “Einstein: His Life and Universe,” truly has something for everybody. For those interested in the personal aspects of the great man, it covers each period of his life: his childhood in Germany and…
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The change in the frequency or wavelenght when a source or an observer is moving away or towards each other and the medium in which they are is called Doppler effect. It was named after Christian Doppler. He was an…
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As a physicist, I am among the first to admit that we scientists do not know everything, but some things we do know. The process of science- in the strict sense of the word- is the systematic description of observed…
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Magnify an ordinary curve, like a parabola, and no new detail appears. As one magnifies it further and further, a line becomes a very good approximation. Most curves have this property, and likewise most surfaces can be very well approximated…
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Sir Isaac Newton: It’s a Wonderful World of Motion Most folks know who Isaac Newton is. However, how many of us can state his three laws of motion? Well, here is your chance to amaze your friends-at least, yourself-with a…
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Have you ever heard the expression “every once in a blue moon”?  This expression usually refers to a rare event. The moon really appearing to be blue or the theoretical “blue moon” of modern times rarely occurs, thus the creation…
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One of the greatest difficulties of understanding the universe in the past has been that you can only examine those things that naturally exist. In addition the materials couldn’t do anything that couldn’t be done in nature. Metamaterials are a…
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The ability to turn invisible has been a literary device in science fiction stories for decades.  H.G. Wells wrote his “Invisible Man” in 1897.  J.K. Rowling has won many accolades for her “Harry Potter” series, in which the title character…
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Take a look around; everything you see is made of some kind of material. Your desk might be wood, the carpet is composed of wool or perhaps polymer fibers and the windows are made from glass. These are all materials,…
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