Homely Scientist

Quick, name Newton’s laws … eh, don’t bother I have them summarized below.  Regardless sometimes the concepts of inertia, equal and opposite reactions, and force can be hard to wrap your head around.  Over on ScienceBase I found this little YouTube video on these very principles. Oh and here’s the list:
Newton’s laws underpin so-called classical mechanics, as opposed to quantum mechanics or relativity theory. I’ve summarised them below, but you’ll get a much clearer understanding of bodies in motion if you watch the video.

Objects stay still or move with constant velocity unless a force pulls on them or gives them …read more

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I got a fun link from my good friend Laura over at CFS Stories, throwing hot dogs to calculate Pie.  No, really I’m serious.  I read through the article and it all makes sense.  Now, I’m not too crazy about throwing good food on the floor, so I think using something like a piece of PVC pipe or wooden dowel might be better.
Have I tried this yet?  Are you kidding?  We’re still having the occasional power issues and the water system is still coming online.  Maybe another snowy day.
Tags: Pi, calculating Pi

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Costas Efthimiou is bursting our bubble here.  He’s gone through and poked holes in some of our favourite Halloween monsters, ghosts, zombies, and vampires.  He looks at the physics of ghosts being able to walk on flours and pass through walls (no can do he says … but wait what if they aren’t really touching anything just in a different dimensional plane, huh?).  Zombies in Hati just being the victims of a neurotoxin (okay I knew that one … Anthro does come in handy).  Vampires, if they existed, we’d all be one (I guess he hasn’t seen Blade movies where …read more

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Remember my homemade barometer?  Come on I just wrote about it on Monday !  Seriously here’s a little update for you.  First, as you can see, I’ve coloured the water to make it easier to see.  The water level in the tube isn’t accurate.  I quickly opened and closed the top to fill the tube a bit for the picture.
Next … I’ve made two more!  These two are for my daughter’s Grade 4 class (studying meteorology remember) and my son’s daycare.  I have enough tube and bottles to make another one or two if need me (I think Lorraine’s …read more

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Yep I finally did it.  My daughter had been begging me to do one.  She’s seen the pictures, the movies, all of it.  So for her b-day party at my place …

Her very own Mentos-coke geyser.  Yeah it didn’t go as high as I had hoped (I didn’t get all the Mentos in at once), but I did it and I’m sure I’ll be doing it again.  Lorraine took the pics using the rapid-fire setting on my camera so you can see the whole set here on Flickr.
Tags: mentos coke geyser

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The folks over at ScienceBlogs are having a nerd-off.  Well, I see a challenge when read one.  Nerdy? Oh let me count the ways…

I have a rock hammer with my name engraved on it.
I write with fountain pens
All the tee shirts I wear have something written on them
99% of the above, are computer related
The remaining 1% are: my Colby Geology shirt, my Colby Woodsman’s Team shirt, my Mickey Mouse shirt
I’m wearing a blogging shirt right now
I injured my knee playing football, during practice.  Stop laughing I did play football
I know Latin
Have studied two additional languages (German and Spanish)
I can do …read more

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It’s the 7th of the month so it must but channel theme day here on Sci-Health..  Our uber-blogger Christina has the list up already.  Now being the only Sci-Health blogging who lives on the West Coast and didn’t write their post ahead of time, I’m a little behind.  I did start this last night.  I got three down before my brain called it quits. … in no particular order (read: this is the order they came out of my head), The Top 10 Things I love about science:

The world is an amazing place
Ockham’s Razor is usually true
Rocks are cool (thanks …read more

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From Chris Pirillo … Not work safe, or for sensitive ears, but listen to this … Holy sh*t! It’s a dinosaur! 
That’s about what I’d say too.
Thanks Chris!
Tags: Dinosaurs, humour, Chris Pirillo

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This is too cool. I found on Download Squad a Yahoo Widget called Wiglet that is a little Jell-O mold that wiggles whenever the USGS records an earthquake anywhere in the world.  I have a nice red Jell-O right now and have been watching some seismic activity in Mexico.
What does this show?  Well that there are earthquakes going on pretty much all the time.  Didn’t know that, huh?  I think this is a cool way to show, maybe even during a classroom presentation, about how active the earth really is.  Imagine it projected behind you as you talk and it …read more

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I found this YouTube video on b5’s new Searching Bones blog (about the show Bones).  I love the show, despite the fact that the Kathy Reichs’ books are rather different.

But hey, how often can I watch a show and know if the science is wonky or not?  Heck I bet I could go head to head with Hodges on pollen identification.  Back in the day I had an easy 200-300 types in my head that I could positively ID without checking a reference.  Push to 500+ the ones that I was pretty sure of.  Of course the price I paid …read more

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