August 06, 2003 Physics Blog Archives

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How Do Water Striders Walk on Water Hu, Chan and Bush at MIT have shown that water striders are able to stay on the surface of the water through a combination of surface tension and Newton's Third Law. The surface tension holds them up, and they gain forward momentum due to the creation of vortices under the surface of the water that move backwards, propelling the strider forwards via conservation of momentum News 07:11 PM  # Water - H2O or Not? The AIP Physics News reports results from the ISIS neutron spallation facility in the UK show that the ratio of Hydrogen to Oxygen in water is 1.5:1 rather that 2:1 as the convential notation implies. Other results show that many organic molecules have less hydrogen than their formulae include. A Water Molecule's Chemical Formula is Really Not H2O - AIP 02:49 PM  # Forums: What is Distance? Starrwrite1 asks:What is distance? Since velocity (and indirectly time) depend on distance, it should be very clearly defined. Do straight lines really exist in nature? Or smoothly curved lines (arcs or geodesics)? Or are these mathematical concepts that don't correspond to anything in physical reality? What is the length of the shoreline of England? At the scale of a six-foot-tall human it is perhaps 1,500 miles. At the FRACTAL scale of an amoeba it may be tens of thousands of miles in length. Distance depends on scale. Forums: What is Distance? 12:55 PM  # Iron Science Teacher The "Iron Chef" of science education. In the Exploratorium's Iron Sience Teacher program, science teachers compete to give the most enteraining and informative science lecture based around a "secret ingredient" - Like fruit cake, dry ice, chanukah candles or ping pong balls. Prepare to laugh and learn (and maybe pick up some lesson ideas if you teach science too)! Exploratorium Webcast: Iron Science Teacher - Realplayer Required (Free Download) More Physics Classroom Demonstrations, Experiments and Resources for Teachers on About.com 12:49 PM  #

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