Posted in experiments, physics, tagged history, optics, photoelectric on December 3, 2007 | 1 Comment »
A discussion at one of our recent group meetings, reminded me of the interesting history behind the observation of the Photoelectric Effect. Some of these classic papers are quite impressive, especially as experimental feats. While the photoelectric effect was first observed by Heinrich Hertz, Phillip von Lenard, and others, it was the experiment of Robert [...]
Posted in experiments, physics on September 4, 2007 | No Comments »
As referenced earlier, some of us have been going over the physics of an old riddle. There were a few bits of information lacking from the theoretical analysis so far, although basic kinematics covers most of what you need. For the rest, it turns out, we can follow the work of Claude Shannon famous for [...]
Posted in bad science, experiments, physics, try this at home on September 2, 2007 | No Comments »
What started as a pretty informal online chat about an old riddle has led to several risky video-experiments and an even shakier theoretical analysis. I find the discussion to be a good example of how physics tends to be more about choosing your simplifying assumptions than about answering real-world questions. It’s also good for a [...]
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