Applied Physics

Foucault For The 21st Century

When we discuss Foucault on a science site, we mean French physicist Léon Foucault and not that annoying prat of a post-modernist, Michel Foucault.    You know who  Léon Foucault  is if you have been to a science museum in the last 150 years because you sa ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 9 2010 - 1:05pm

Cavitation Damage- Getting Bubbles Out Of Jet Fuel Pumps

Under certain conditions vapor bubbles can form in fluids moving swiftly over a surface and those bubbles soon collapse with such great force that they can even poke holes in steel and damage objects such as ship propellers and fuel pumps.    ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 16 2010 - 11:23am

Take Us To The Gates Of Chaos!

A team of researchers has created an alternative to conventional logic gates, demonstrated them in silicon, and dubbed them "chaogates."  They used 'chaotic' patterns to encode and manipulate inputs to produce a desired output, in that ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 17 2010 - 11:20am

Weiss Domains Shown For First Time In 3-D

Every magnetic material is divided into magnetic domains, called "Weiss domains" after physicist Pierre-Ernest Weiss, who predicted their existence theoretically more than a hundred years ago. In 1907, he recognized that the magnetic moments of a ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 23 2010 - 12:18pm

A Predictive Model For Coffee Ring Stains

We don't know about yours but this holiday season, the homes of most scientists will be awash with even more coffee than usual. And that means coffee ring stains. With the volume of science done in coffee houses (like Newton, who ate his meals in one ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 24 2010 - 11:13am

Physicists Create A Supernova In A Jar

If you are unaware, a supernova is  an exploding star. In certain types of supernovae, the detonation starts with a flame ball buried deep inside a white dwarf and the flame ball is much lighter than its surroundings, so it rises rapidly making a plume top ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 4 2010 - 12:25pm

Sonic Screwdriver- From Doctor Who To Reality?

Doctor Who is always getting into some pickle or another.  Luckily he has advanced technology (and a time traveling police box/telephone booth) to help solve problems. If defeating Daleks and keeping a temperamental TARDIS functional is in your future, we ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 8 2010 - 12:46pm

Navy Railgun Gets Tested- Get Ready For Science Fiction Warfare In 2025

If you have read any science fiction, you know what a railgun is; instead of using a projectile hurled by an explosion, the idea is to use an electomagnetic current to accelerate a non-explosive bullet at several times the speed of sound. The conductive bu ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 11 2010 - 8:32pm

Cramming For HAM

In 2 weeks I test for my HAM Technician-class amateur radio license. I confess no particular interest in HAM radio. However, my satellite has a transmitter and needs a call sign. It isn't smart enough to take the test itself, so I have to do it for it ...

Article - Project Calliope - Jan 4 2011 - 5:52pm

Wood Angle Falls Faster Than Rubber Ball

The following is a neat little experiment, the result of which may be counter-intuitive to some of those who embrace the “all bodies fall the same way inside earth’s gravity” doctrine. ...

Article - Sascha Vongehr - Jan 20 2018 - 8:40am