Friday, July 22, 2011

And some GOOD oddball science...

Coming hard on the heels of Silly Science, here is a totally simple-minded little experiment- which turns out to be brilliant; and I'd have to predict a classic demonstration for all students of physics, mathematics, and music, for eons to come:



This one was built at Harvard; and in the very best scientific tradition, they do not take the credit for it:

"Our apparatus was built from a design published by Richard Berg {Am J Phys 59(2), 186-187 (1991)} at the University of Maryland. He claims their version is copied from one at Moscow State University and they claim to have seen it first in the US, so we don't know who made one first. The apparatus we have was designed and built by Nils Sorensen."

And it came to me via email from my brother, who spends way too much time wandering the ether... :-)

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3 comments:

  1. knutty knitterJuly 23, 2011 at 5:08 AM

    Now that is neat :)

    viv in nz

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  2. HeatherAugust 25, 2011 at 1:21 AM

    Have you seen this?

    http://www.amnh.org/nationalcenter/youngnaturalistawards/2011/aidan.html

    It's about a kid mouting solar panels like 'leaves' on 'branches' of a 'tree' and getting significantly more power out of them. Not really 'oddball' science, but definitely fascinating science from someone 'naive' enough to think outside the box ;-)

    --Heather, also in New Zealand

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  3. GreenpaAugust 25, 2011 at 9:59 AM

    Heather- that's a VERY impressive kid! I'm also highly impressed with his parents.

    Gotta tell you; it was a breath of fresh air to see anyone- kid or grownup- actually using the scientific method. I spend hours each day dealing with the opposite- "scientists" with credentials out the wazoo- who couldn't think their way out of a wet paper bag.

    ReplyDelete