Physics Archives - 51�� Science Bag

Scientists Who Turned the World Upside Down

Mon, 18 Apr 2016 18:59:13 +0000

In “Scientists Who Turned the World Upside Down,” mathematician Bart Adrian takes audience members on a trip through the history of game-changing discoveries by Galileo, Newton, Einstein, Richardson and Lorenz – but not always the breakthroughs you’ve heard about. Feel first-hand what radical idea Galileo discovered without a telescope. Take a spin, courtesy of Sir Isaac Newton and see what angular momentum is all about. Find out who Edward Lorenz and Lewis Richardson were, and then explore the scientific concept of stability in a demonstration with a tennis ball and a large salad bowl. Finally, Adrian leads an investigation of the “missing mass” that Albert Einstein referred to in his famous description of the relationship between energy and mass, E = mc².

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A Survey of Spacetime

Wed, 13 Apr 2016 21:16:54 +0000

Jolien Creighton — Geometry was invented to measure the Earth—to survey plots of land and to find distances between towns. We now use the same surveying methods to measure the distances to stars and the shape of the universe. But geometry is now understood to be the essence of space and time and the origin of gravity. Ripples in the geometry of spacetime produced by colliding black holes or by the big bang are now being sought with new types of observatories that are giving us our most precise survey of spacetime.

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Today’s Gadgets and Tomorrow’s Energy: John Bardeen’s Nobel Prizes

Thu, 31 Mar 2016 21:17:59 +0000

Daniel Agterberg — Through interactive demonstrations and examples, we unravel the ideas that lead to John Bardeen’s remarkable discoveries for which he won two Nobel Prizes: the transistor and the explanation of superconductivity. The first created the modern day electronics of your cell phone, computer and more; the second is poised to change the energy industry.

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Glowing Eyes and Personal Halos: Seeing the Light

Thu, 31 Mar 2016 21:15:24 +0000

Robert Greenler — The “red-eye effect,” halos from antiquity to modern times, the courting ritual of the woodcock, aerial views of Stonehenge — “a whole bunch of things, many of which can be explained by a similar effect” — work together in this inventive and informative video to present a way of seeing more thoroughly.

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Space, Time, Einstein, and Spacetime

Thu, 31 Mar 2016 21:15:16 +0000

Beginning with the flat earth of Ancient Egypt, where tax collectors developed the principles of geometry, John L. Friedman moves through the centuries to show us how science has effected our understanding of concepts such as up or down, of two events happening in the same place at the same time, of space as being flat, and also our sense of what is in the past and what is in the future. Suitable for use at both the high-school and college levels, “Space, Time, Einstein, and Spacetime” provides a fascinating twist on how science has changed how we understand the physical universe.

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Up Close and Personal: A View Through the World’s Best Microscopes

Thu, 31 Mar 2016 21:14:45 +0000

Through the looking glass and on into inner space, this video is an adventure in wonderland for all who follow physicist Jun Nogami into the world of microscopes past, present, and future. The journey begins with the familiar magnifying glass, travels back to mid-1600 and the single-lens microscope, the first means of observing bacteria. The program then proceeds step-by-step to the edge of tomorrow, to the Quantum Corral, and the quest to fabricate and control on an atomic level.

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Beetles, Bubbles, and Butterflies: The Origins of Iridescence

Thu, 31 Mar 2016 21:14:16 +0000

Robert Greenler — Change the angle and a drab butterfly displays a wash of brilliant blue; the vibrant green of a beetle turns a rich blue; and the intense red of the ruby-throated humming disappears. Almost like magic, in this video as in the world at large, “nature’s jewels” shimmer about us in feathers, in butterfly wings, in spider webs, and in shells whose colors record a like history of the animal who built them.

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Medical Imaging: Getting Under Your Skin

Thu, 31 Mar 2016 21:13:11 +0000

Sound, motion, and a bit of fury pulse through this dynamic investigation into several imaging techniques used to examine the human body. Physicist Paul Lyman immediately captures the attention of his audience with his entrance, bumping down the long flight of lecture-room stairs to the front of the room on his bicycle. He hops off, removes his helmet and plunges into the world of X rays, computer tomography (CT scan), nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and ultrasound.

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Early Optics and the Painters’ Art

Thu, 31 Mar 2016 21:12:06 +0000

Science and art, fascination and controversy, all meet in this exploration by physicist Robert Greenler of optical devices and techniques possibly used in the painting of many of the masterpieces of Western Art. Did artists, beginning in the early 1400s, use lenses and mirrors in the creation of their pictures, as painter David Hockney and Charles Falco assert? Also intrigued by this question, Professor Greenler brings his expertise in optics to an examination of the optical tools available over time to the artist.

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The Pointillist Painter, the Sunday Comics, and Color TV: Color Mixing in Art and Technology

Thu, 31 Mar 2016 21:10:58 +0000

The science of color — some of its rules, its mysteries and surprises, its collusion with the human eye — comes under scrutiny in “The Pointillist Painter, the Sunday Comics, and Color TV: Color Mixing in Art Technology.” In this wide-ranging and engaging program physicist Robert Greenler looks at “a dozen ways of mixing color,” using both the basics we learn in kindergarten for the mixing of pigments and those which govern the mixing of light.

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Physics Archives - 51���� Science Bag