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Category: Chow Phun Physics

plot of berillium-7 from Fukushima Daiiachi
Fukuchima Daiiachi Berellium-7

Fukuchima Daiiachi Berellium-7

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I’ve had the nasty flu that’s been going around so today’s post will be short. Today’s post is about beryllium-7, which is a proxy for measuring radioactive fallout. BERYLLIUM-7 AFTER THE FUKUSHIMA MELTDOWN One day, I started playing with data for airborne radioisotopes before and after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant meltdowns. Why? Because I was sick and tired of looking at faked Fukushima data on the internet. It was and still is fake data that’s designed to scare and…

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a Brief History of Spark Plug Insulation

a Brief History of Spark Plug Insulation

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Today we look at something I know you’ve all been wondering about for years. Well wonder no longer for enlightenment on this electrifying subject is now here! WHY CARE ABOUT SPARK PLUG INSULATORS? History-of-technology stuff is really cool. I hope you get as much a charge out of this as I did. In 1902, Gottlob Honold and Robert Bosch built the first true magneto ignition system with the first-ever high-voltage spark plugs. Though there have been many improvements since then,…

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Hot Spring Rime

Hot Spring Rime

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This is the daily bite-sized Merry Blogmas 2017 science blog post for December 14. | Today’s topic is hot spring rime, not to be confused with hot Spring rhyme.  The latter invokes steamy poetry about certain reproductive activities, a subject better left to cow-eyed romantics and peddlers of questionable erotic “literature.” This is G-rated blog, folks. We are just not going to go there. THE FORMATION OF HOT SPRING RIME What is Rime? Rime is a type of frozen water. Here’s…

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ideochromatism in hematite, whose streak is the same color as the mineral as a rock
Ideochromatism

Ideochromatism

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This is the bite-sized Merry Blogmas 2017 science post for December 13. Only 12 more to go until Christmas! It’s one of those physical properties you never hear about it school. For example, I personally learned about it from reading a book in graduate school on the science of color. Ideochromatism is a really cool thing because it explains a lot about the things we use as pigments. WHAT IS IDEOCHROMATISM? Ideochromatism is the property of being self-colored. The Latin roots…

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Volta's Pistol, image in the public domain
Merry Blogmas for December 10: Volta’s Pistol

Merry Blogmas for December 10: Volta’s Pistol

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Our daily “Merry Blogmas” posts on fun bite-sized science topics will run until Christmas. Today we look at the invention of spark ignition in the strange contraption called Volta’s pistol. Though originally scheduled for today, part III of the food science of hard-boiled eggs, will post tomorrow. WHY YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT ALESSANDRO VOLTA Alessandro Volta is important. A little over two centuries ago, Volta invented the battery. He also discovered methane. More important than either, he’s that so-and-so…

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The Food Science of Hard-Boiled Eggs – Part II

The Food Science of Hard-Boiled Eggs – Part II

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This is the second of three parts on the eggcellent topic of hard-boiled eggs. To state the obvious, this discussion is about the unfertilized eggs of chickens, ducks, and geese. THE BIOCHEMISTRY OF EGGS The problem with making the perfect hard-boiled egg is that everyone has their own favorite recipe or gimmick that works for them; however, few people understand why their own method works or why someone else’s doesn’t. To understand how to properly hard boil an egg, we first…

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The Food Science of Hard-Boiled Eggs – Part I: Boiling Water

The Food Science of Hard-Boiled Eggs – Part I: Boiling Water

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There are three parts to the science of hard-boiled eggs: the physical chemistry of boiling water, the biochemistry of eggs, and the science of cooking eggs. We will look at them in that order over the next three Sundays. Today in part I, we will look at the science of boiling water. Have you been adding salt to the water you use to boil your eggs? I’ll show you why you probably may want to stop wasting your salt… THE…

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Quantum Mechanics Training

Quantum Mechanics Training

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By the time you read this, we’re either on the road or unpacking after moving across the country.  Moving is almost over but for this week at least, the science lite blog posts will continue. This week’s offering is a short piece on education for careers in applied quantum physics from the podcast site called impromptucast.com.  Playtime is approximately 1 minute. WARNING: put all food and drink down now, and you may want to sit down…  Don’t listen to this at work….

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Element 118: Oganesson

Element 118: Oganesson

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My blog posts are going to continue to be science-lite until we’re done with our move from Maine to Idaho, sometime in mid-October.  This week’s science-lite offering is our newest element, the element 188, which was officially named  just last year as Oganesson, after physicist Yuri Oganessian, who headed the joint Russian-American team that made the discovery of the element in 2006.  They collided atoms of California-249 and Calcium-48 to produce three – and maybe even four – atoms of…

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The Most Elegant Periodic Table Ever

The Most Elegant Periodic Table Ever

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My blog posts are going to be science-lite until we’re done with our move from Maine to Idaho.  This week’s offering is the most elegant periodic table every drafted.  It is a thing a beauty, stacking the elements by the number of orbitals and arranging them geometrically by type and reactivity.  If you grok physical chemistry, you will really be blown away.  If you don’t grok physical chemistry, then please just appreciate the geometry beauty inherit in the order of…

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