|
|
27 August 2004 Wanderings Ralph J. Coppola Come join us on the Wanderings Chat Room. --- (See info and instructions) = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = ===== Feature In celebration of the 100th anniversary of Albert Einstein's publication of his five legendary articles, on relativity, quantum physics and the Brownian motion, the United Nations and various world governments and organizations have declared 2005 as The World Year of Physics 2005. The World Year of Physics 2005 (WYP2005) organization's main goal is to bring the excitement of physics to the public and inspire a new generation of scientists. They invite all interested people and organizations to get involved. Please see the US WYP2005 web site. Any ideas what SAS could do? [Please send good ideas to Backscatter and state in your e-mail that we can publish your letter. Editor.] You may remember SETI@Home, the screen saver/program that uses your computer's free time to process some of the data collected by the SETI Project? Now there's Einstein@Home. This is a project developed to search the data from the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) for gravitational wave signals coming from pulsars. For a more technical description of LIGO, have a look at the CalTech web site. Further reading on the life and work of Albert Einstein is on the Wikipedia encyclopedia site. Wanderings Dr. Charles D.H. Williams, of the University of Exeter, UK, has a nice page on the Introduction to Sensors. His online course notes contain a great deal of useful information. There is an on line collection of sensor lecture notes on Stanford University's ME117/220: Introduction to Sensors web page. The geoAhead site contains information on rocks, minerals and fossils. Science related web sites can be found everywhere. For example, the other day I came across the TimeZone site, which is devoted to watch collectors, hobbyists, and people seeking information about watches and the watch industry. This site contains 4 science related articles by Walt Arnstein:
About 35 years ago, I was involved in the groundwork for the design of a laser based optical plummet --- i.e. an optical plum line that was to be used in establishing a vertical reference when surveying a mineshaft. The paper, The Tamarack Mines Mystery, may explain why an optical plummet is superior to the conventional "string and bob" I found an interesting paper on Surveying Measurements that deals with accuracy, precision and errors. This information can be transferred to other fields. The Kids Room Why not try some physics experiments with your little sister's Slinky? The U.C. Berkeley Physics Lecture Demonstrations page contains a nice selection of classroom demonstrations. They also provide links to similar sites. Jim Cornish, on his Theme Pages for Elementary Students and Teachers, provides us with the links to some of the sites that feature DIY paper airplanes. On The Lighter Side Here is a tale about pulleys and mechanical advantage. 8-) This is a version of the original British skit. |
|||||
|
Copyright 2004 by Society for Amateur
Scientists |