Brian Cox on Stephen Colbert

This is great. Stephen Colbert takes on the LHC, and then he interviews Brian Cox, rockstar physcist.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Big Bang Theory
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Religion

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Brian Cox
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Religion

Great Quote on Intelligence from Mindset

I think intelligence is something you have to work for ... it isn't just given to you. Most kids, if they're not sure of an answer, will not raise their hand to answer the question. But what I usually do is raise my hand, because if I'm wrong, then my mistake will be corrected. Or I will raise my hand and say, 'How would this be solved?' or 'I don't get this, can you help me?' Just by doing that I'm increasing my intelligence." -- 7th grade girl.

How do you change to a growth mindset

Here's the link to the article we talked about today

How to change to change to a growth mindset.

This is amazing

This guy is drawing the NYC skyline from memory starting two days ago, and is filling an 18 foot with his artwork, and is expected to finish Friday.

Want to see scribes at other schools?

We aren't the only class in the world with a blog and scribes who post summaries of the day's class. Take a look at these, and you might find some good ideas:

Scribes at other classes

Getting it wrong: surprising tips on how to learn

There's a GREAT article in scientific america talking about some of the latest research on how to learn.

When you have 15 free minutes you should ready this. (You probably have 15 minutes when driving to school, so why not download instapaper to your iphone, and read it on your phone).

Some highlights:

People remember things better, longer, if they are given very challenging tests on the material, tests at which they are bound to fail. In a series of experiments, they showed that if students make an unsuccessful attempt to retrieve information before receiving an answer, they remember the information better than in a control condition in which they simply study the information. Trying and failing to retrieve the answer is actually helpful to learning. It’s an idea that has obvious applications for education, but could be useful for anyone who is trying to learn new material of any kind.

By challenging ourselves to retrieve or generate answers we can improve our recall. Keep that in mind next time you turn to Google for an answer, and give yourself a little more time to come up with the answer on your own.

The article seems like it practically lifted my FARMIPS idea from today's class, but it talks about how you can adapt this method to any course—imagine making a super study guide for history, or English. How much could you rock those classes?

Class on 10/19/09

Today in class we discussed a couple of concepts.  The first concept we discussed was Newton's 2nd Law.  This law states that  a = Fnet/m.  This law is also stated as Fnet = ma.  In both of these cases m = mass and a = acceleration.  There are many ways to interpret this formula.  First of all, it is shown that mass is inversely proportional to to acceleration.  This can also be proved by showing that 1/a is proportional to m.  Also, in this formula is it shown that acceleration is directly proportional to Fnet.  All of these conclusion can be proved by breaking down the formula a = Fnet/m.

Examples:

1/a  (proportional to)  m    a  (proportional to)  Fnet  a  (proportional to)  1/m

The other concept we discussed was free - body diagrams.  We went over an exercise we completed in Minds on Physics, and discussed all possibilities with the problems given.  There were examples when we would be given a diagram, and we would have to say whether or not it was valid, and also examples when we would have to name forces given the description of an event and a valid diagram.  We then discussed free - body diagrams and what goes in them.

• They show forces that act on an object
• They only show forces (no velocity or acceleration vectors)
• They NEVER show Fnet
• All vectors start at a center point and move in the direction of the force in relation to the object
• All forces are resembled by vectors

In class, we also had time to work on our labs and have small discussion about the main ideas of the lab.  At the end we were given some time to work on homework, and put some finishing touches on our lab.

Success requires hard work (but not all in one day)

This is a nice blog post that elaborates on many of the themes we've talked about before.

Success Requires Hard Work (But Not All in One Day)


Why not start writing a book?

While success may require a lot of hard work, that doesn’t necessarily mean that work is hard to do. A book may contain 80,000 words of carefully edited content, that’s a lot of hard work. But writing 800 words almost every day for four months isn’t hard to do.

LHC rap

One of the coolest rap songs ever, the LHC rap, also does a great job of explaining the Large Hadron Collider. Check it, yo.

Rockstar physicist explains the LHC

Brian Cox, a real rock star (he was in the rock band D:Ream, which had the hit song Things Can Only Get Better--this song became the theme song for British Prime Minister Tony Blair's campaign), is a physicst at the Large Hadron Collider. He explains his the LHC and how it will help us to understand the secrets of the universe in this fantastic 15 minute talk.

what is this?

Propsicle to the first person to figure it out...

October 13

In class today we went over some notes that relate to Newton's Law Lab Part 2:

Newton's 3rd Law- If Object A exerts a force on Object B then Object B exerts a force on Object A

The 2 forces must...

1) act on different objects

2) be equal in size

3) be opposite in direction

4) be the same type of force (grav, normal...)

Newton's 1st Law- Objects want to keep their previous velocity (inertia.) If an objects velocity is constant the net force=0

This relates to #11 on the lab. We are trying to figure out that Force A (the contact force of the cart on the spring scale) is equal to Force C (the contact force of the air on the cart.) Force B is the contact force of the spring scale on the cart.

a=b; Relates to Newton's 3rd law because the forces are opposite. The contact force of cart on the spring scale and the contact force of the spring scale on the cart, by Newton's 3rd law, are always equal. Because of Newton's third law, this is always true.

b=c; Relates to Newton's 1st Law because the velocity is constant. The net force of Force B+Force C=0.

Because of the transitive property, if a=b and b=c, then a=c.

How do we find acceleration?

In a velocity vs. time graph the slope represents acceleration (a=change in v/change in t)

How do we find net force?

The force of gravity and the normal force cancel each other out, so in this instance we measure the force of air on the cart

What's it like to win the nobel prize?

Carol Greider, winner of the 2009 Nobel prize for discovering discovering telomeres bits of seemingly useless DNA on the end of each of your chromosomes that progressively get shorter as you age and your cells reproduce. As it turns out, these bits of DNA are deeply linked to the aging process.

Anay, Dr. Greider has a fantastic interview with the NYT in today's paper, and one quote is absolutely worth reading and pondering.

Q. DID YOU ALWAYS WANT TO BE A BIOLOGIST?

A. My parents were scientists. But I wasn’t the sort of child who did science fairs. One of the things I was thinking about today is that as a kid I had dyslexia. I had a lot of trouble in school and was put into remedial classes. I thought that I was stupid.

I hope you'll take away the knowledge that if you struggle in science, or any subject, it is no measure of your ability to succeed in that field or your intelligence. Truly, hard work and persistence are the key to success at any level—even winning a Nobel prize.

October 8

In class today, we talked about newton's first and third laws. After that, we broke up and worked on the lab titled "Newton's law lab".

The nobel prize in physics

The Nobel prize in physics was just awarded today for the fundamental breakthroughs that led to two things you use just about every day. Fiber optics, the technology that allows light to carry gigabytes of information through optical fibers, allowing you to stream entire movies on your computer, or make a phone call to the other side of the world for pennies.

The other breakthrough was the development of the CCD, the charge coupled device, which you'll find in any camera phone, or digital camera. This discovery allowed us to convert tiny packets of light into electrical signals, which heralded digital photography. Once we started putting CCDs into telescopes like the Hubble, we could see incredibly feint objects billions of light years away, allowing us to peer at the universe as it existed billions of years ago.

NYT story on the physics nobel prizes


A great description of the discoveries from the Nobel Prize Committee

October 5, 2009

yesterday in class we did reassessment chapters 1 and 2, then we worked on our projects for ten minutes then we all presented out texting while driving projects.

How do you make dry ice?

A number of you have asked questions about how to make dry ice. Ask the internet, and it delivers:

A video worth 5 minutes--and homework

Part of your homework tonight is to watch the following video. This video is a nightline story on The Talent Code, a book written and read the article linked below

Enroll yourself in the Genius Factory

The other part of your homework is to read the article "Why Talent is Overrated."

This article summarizes the excellent book, Talent is Overrated, which goes into great detail about how top level performers like Tiger Woods use deliberate practice to improve their performance.

You should also definitely check out the website of the Talent Code, it offers tons of tips on how to unlock your talent, improve your abilities to learn, and more.

Homework: Evaluate your group

Part of your homework tonight (due Tuesday) is to complete this evaluation of your gruoup.

Want to know more about dark energy and dark matter? Check out this video.

Patricia Burchart, a particle physicist and professor at Stanford explains all we know about Dark Matter and Dark Energy. This is a great talk, in 16 minutes, it will explain our latest understandings about what our universe is made of.

A great quote you might have missed

If you didn't have a chance to read the great article in the NYT on Carolyn Porco, who heads the Casssini space probe studying saturn, I thought I'd highlight one quote from the article, which ties in nicely to what we talked about today:

To my mind, most people go through live recoiling from its best parts," Porco told The New York Times. "They miss the enrichment that just a basic knowledge of the physical world can bring to the most ordinary experiences. It's like there's a pulsating, hidden world, governed by ancient laws and principles, underlying everything around us -- from the movements of electrical charges to the motions of planets -- and most people are completely unaware of it. To me that's a shame." A shame, indeed.

Also, you might be interested in knowing a bit more about this amazing photo I linked to. Here's a description from BadAstronomy.com. Saturn-shine is a amazing concept...


That, duh, is Saturn, taken by the ever-amazing Cassini spacecraft. It’s actually 75 different exposures stitched together, and was taken on August 12, just a little over a day after Saturnian equinox, when the Sun shines straight along the rings. The illumination from the Sun is about the same everywhere, but on the left the rings are illuminated by Saturn-shine glowing down on them, making them a bit brighter.