Tag: physics

Sound

By Edward Willett in Blog, Columns, Science Columns
April 12, 2000
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Sound is all around us, to the point where those of us blessed with good hearing take it for granted. But there is a thriving field of science for whose researchers sound is more than just background noise. They see sound as a potential tool for everything from new forms of transportation to new …

The thermodynamics of turkey

By Edward Willett in Blog, Columns, Science Columns
December 20, 1999
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“Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat,” goes the old song, but these days, goose is a rare sight on the Christmas table. Instead, the place of honor goes to the turkey. Turkeys are native to North American. In 1519 Spanish ships introduced them to Europe. By the 1700s turkey drives were being held …

Football physics

By Edward Willett in Blog, Columns, Science Columns
November 24, 1999
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This Sunday in Vancouver, thousands of people will gather to watch an impressive demonstration of momentum, mass, drag and other basic physics provided by highly trained specialists from Hamilton and Calgary. This scientific exposition is called “the Grey Cup.” One interesting demonstration will be the forward pass. A football moving through the air has inertia–the universal tendency …

Skateboarding

By Edward Willett in Blog, Columns, Science Columns
August 28, 1999
5 mins to read
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Skateboarders have become as much a part of the urban landscape as pigeons, scooting down the roads and sidewalks, jumping over curbs, turning any ramp, railing or set of steps into an excuse for acrobatics–seemingly defying the laws of physics. Skateboarding may seem like the ultimate in turn-of-the-millennium hipness, but it’s been around a long …

Bouncing balls

By Edward Willett in Blog, Columns, Science Columns
August 17, 1999
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Summer is high sports season, and most of the games being played involve balls: baseballs, tennis balls, volleyballs, soccer balls. At first glance, every ball appears much the same as every other ball: round and bouncy. The only thing that’s different is the size. But in fact, each ball is designed specifically for the sport …

Air

By Edward Willett in Blog, Columns, Science Columns
March 9, 1999
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A report this week that air pollution, particularly ground-level ozone, is a more serious problem in Canada than previously thought got me to thinking about this stuff that we breathe. What is air? It’s a question we don’t ask very often, because we generally take air for granted. Air is the mixture of gases comprising …

Nanolithography

By Edward Willett in Blog, Columns, Science Columns
February 1, 1999
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My roommate in university had a quirk that annoyed teachers no end: he had the smallest handwriting of anyone I’ve ever met. While I used big old Bic pens on wide-lined notebook paper, he was using fine-point mechanical drafting pencils on the narrowest-lined paper he could find, and still leaving lots of room for any …

Santa physics

By Edward Willett in Blog, Columns, Science Columns
December 31, 1998
9 mins to read
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A few years ago I wrote a column about the fledging science of “clausotechnolometry,” the study of the advanced technology of Santa Claus. Well, time marches on, and this year I am pleased to be able to bring you the results of exciting new research into this field. Santa Claus has been the subject of …

Mirror, mirror

By Edward Willett in Blog, Columns, Science Columns
December 7, 1998
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Ever since the first caveman saw himself in a pool of water and became the first human in history to complain of a bad hair day, we’ve recognized that being able to see our reflection has its uses–and so we’ve made mirrors. A mirror is any object that reflects light rays in such a …

The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory

By Edward Willett in Blog, Columns, Science Columns
May 5, 1998
6 mins to read
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People in Sudbury are used to the idea of digging hundreds of metres underground and finding all sorts of valuable things, such as nickel and copper. But scientists hope to find something even more valuable in the rock beneath Sudbury over the next few months: namely, answers to some of the most vexing questions …

Home runs

By Edward Willett in Blog, Columns, Science Columns
October 20, 1997
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It’s World Series time again, and it’s shaping up to be an exciting one–but for me, nothing can equal the excitement of the 1909 Series. I remember it like it was yesterday. The smell of the grass, the roar of the crowd, as I made my way to the mound to start for the Detroit …

The physics of driving

By Edward Willett in Blog, Columns, Science Columns
June 9, 1997
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A lot of people will be driving a lot of kilometres over the next few months, as Canadians rush frantically around the country to make the most of summer. Unfortunately, quite a few accidents will undoubtedly result, some of which could be prevented if people better understood the physical forces at work when they drive …