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Galàpagos Finches: Famous Beaks
Book Chapter |
The Galàpagos Islands are a cluster of extremely remote active volcanic islands in the Pacific Ocean. The Islands are home to 13 species of finches. In this chapter, learn how conducting fieldwork on Galàpagos finches…
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Humans & Chimps: All in the Family
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No one would mistake you for a chimpanzee. As for humans, there is no one like us on Earth, right? Wrong, scientists were surprised to learn from DNA studies that humans are genetically very similar to chimps. This…
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Book Chapter |
Whales with knees and toes? Incredible as it seems, whales once walked on legs and lived on land. Millions of years of biological change have erased the whale's legs from its body, but a faint trace remains. Hidden…
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A person, place, or thing is what usually sparks those first memorable childhood impressions. Of course, we often do not study our newfound interests from the time of our personal enlightenment to adulthood, but early…
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In this chapter, leaving light behind you enter the world of slow-moving mollusks. A snail must get from one corner of a room (dimensions 5 m × 10 m × 15 m) to the diagonally opposite corner in the least time. The snail…
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The September 1991 discovery of a frozen body in the Tirolean Alps revived interest in radiocarbon dating. This chapter is based on this discovery, assuming you have an isolated 1-g sample of carbon from a frozen animal…
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Book Chapter |
The magnetic force is strange and does not exist for neutral particles—only for charged particles, if those particles are moving. The direction of the force isn’t toward the magnetic field or away from the field but “…
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This chapter presents an example of a classic physics problem known as Atwood’s machine. In the lab it serves as a means of achieving a constant acceleration of any value less than g. Can you suggest a means of…
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Book Chapter |
At the XXIV International Physics Olympiad, held in Williamsburg, Virginia, students from 41 countries spent a day investigating the physics of amusement park rides. This article features a design challenge with a…
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Stop on red, go on green . . .
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When you're driving down a road and you see a yellow light, don’t you wonder when the light will turn red? As you drive down the road at a certain speed, the light may turn from green to yellow. A decision must be made…
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This chapter is based on one of the theoretical problems given at the XXIV International Physics Olympiad. It is an actual application of physics to a real-world situation based on Gauss’s law—one of the most…
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Book Chapter |
Iron is solid, mercury is liquid, and nitrogen is a gas. Liquid nitrogen is used to perform lots of interesting and fun experiments. Demonstrations exploiting the extreme cold of liquid nitrogen provide entertainment…
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How can someone levitate an object? Magicians do it all the time. Can physicists do it as well? The easiest technique is to attach a string to the object and secure the string to the ceiling. The weight of the object is…
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“It’s done with mirrors.” Whether we attend magic shows or ride the “Haunted Mansion,” we are often surprised and pleased by clever manipulations of images. This chapter looks at the image produced by a concave mirror…
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Book Chapter |
Supposedly young people are first introduced to waves while attending or watching sports events. These stadium waves can provide some useful insights into the most counterintuitive property of waves—the wave moves, but…
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