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Demo: How to not spill your drinks
I know I saw this demo somewhere. Maybe it was at an AAPT conference a few years ago. I have always wanted to build this, but never got around to it. Until now. Here is the demo (it is easy, you should...
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Retroflectors
One of the roads near my house was just redone. They added some awesome retroreflectors in the middle. Here is a shot. No wait, I don’t have a picture of that. I tried to take one, but it just didn’t...
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Scale Model of the Solar System
The solar system is difficult to show correctly. Why? It is difficult because the size of things are vastly different. Let me use units common in solar-system astronomy, the Astronomical Unit (or AU)....
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How much of yourself can you see in a mirror
This is one of my favorite demos. I like it because anyone can do it at home and people usually find the results surprising. Here is the situation: How much of yourself could you see in a small mirror?...
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LEGO plus Slinky = Physics
What happens when your kids won’t give you a turn on the Wii? Simple. You take their LEGO bricks and their slinky and do some physics. I will keep this simple. Basically, I created a slinky holder out...
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DIY Force probe
I was thinking about some experiments that deal with friction and I wanted to show something with a force probe. The problem is that most people don’t have one of these. So, I decided to try and make...
View ArticleDiver in a bottle
I am surprised at how many people (chemistry faculty included) have never seen this demo. (oh, technically it is called a cartesian diver demo) Basically, you put some floating object that has an air...
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Kids like demos
Sometimes I get asked to do some demos for kids. I like this, it is fun. This week, I was asked to do just such a demo. Kind of as a historical record, I am going to document what I did. The audience...
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Arduino Physics
This is so awesome – an arduino controlled fan cart. If you are not familiar with the arduino, basically it is just a very simple and cheap programmable chip. I have been meaning to play around with...
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Book Review: Made by Hand
I am not normally a book-review-kind-of-guy. However, in this post I will make an exception. My wife (who clearly knows me very well) bought me this book – Made by Hand: Searching for Meaning in a...
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