Remember the old cowboy movies? As the stage-coach comes to a halt, the wheels appear to spin backwards, then forwards, then backwards again, until the coach stops. How can this be explained? The illusion is known as the stroboscopic effect. We don't see it in real life, where time flows smoothly and continuously. But, in … Continue reading Can You Believe Your Eyes?
Month: April 2021
The Size of Things
In Euclidean geometry, all lengths, areas and volumes are relative. Once a unit of length is chosen, all other lengths are given in terms of this unit. Classical geometry could determine the lengths of straight lines, the areas of polygons and the volumes of simple solids. However, the lengths of curved lines, areas bounded by … Continue reading The Size of Things
Entropy and the Relentless Drift from Order to Chaos
In a famous lecture in 1959, scientist and author C P Snow spoke of a gulf of comprehension between science and the humanities, which had become split into “two cultures”. Many people in each group had a lack of appreciation of the concerns of the other group, causing grave misunderstandings and making the world's problems … Continue reading Entropy and the Relentless Drift from Order to Chaos
Circles, polygons and the Kepler-Bouwkamp constant
If circles are drawn in and around an equilateral triangle (a regular trigon), the ratio of the radii is $latex {\cos \pi/3 = 0.5}&fg=000000$. More generally, for an N-gon the ratio is easily shown to be $latex {\cos \pi/N}&fg=000000$. Johannes Kepler, in developing his amazing polyhedral model of the solar system, started by considering circular … Continue reading Circles, polygons and the Kepler-Bouwkamp constant
Was Space Weather the cause of the Titanic Disaster?
Space weather, first studied in the 1950's, has grown in importance with recent technological advances. It concerns the influence on the Earth's magnetic field and upper atmosphere of events on the Sun. Such disturbances can enhance the solar wind, which interacts with the magnetosphere, with grave consequences for navigation. Space weather affects the satellites of … Continue reading Was Space Weather the cause of the Titanic Disaster?
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