How Pi Keeps Train Wheels on Track
Happy 3/14! Here's how this mathematical constant keeps train cars from flying off their tracks during turns.
How to Use Your Speedometer to Figure Out Where Your Car Is
You should never drive in a car with no windows. But if you ever do find yourself in one, you can use physics to get your bearings.
What Even Is Friction, Anyway?
You might think of it as the force that slows things down, but you literally couldn't get anywhere without it.
Here’s How You Can ‘See’ Molecules—on a Whole ‘Nother Planet
Scientists picked up signs of phosphene on Venus by using a technique called rotational spectroscopy. It works like this.
The Cool Physics of a Supersonic Baseball
For one thing, let's build a model of air drag and how it affects the ball differently when it's traveling faster and slower than the speed of sound.
The Basic Physics of the Kilogram’s Fancy New Definition
The kilogram is now based on energy changes in the quantum world rather than a physical object. Here's how that works.
The Physics of Mississippi Flood Control
Louisiana's Bonnet Carré Spillway diverts some of the Mississippi's floodwaters. But it also offers up a wealth of good physics questions.
Why a Golf Ball Compresses Like a Spring—Until It Shatters
An experiment with a paper clip reveals both its elastic and plastic properties, a distinction that's key to how any material compresses or deforms.
Tram Bowling Is an Actual Sport. Let’s Look at the Physics
Driving a tram into a ball such that it knocks down pins—tram bowling, naturally—raises some physics questions: What does the speed of the ball depend on? What's its change in momentum?
Track a Tank Shell With a Mirror and Polar Coordinates
Ultimately you get a differential equation that you can solve with a bit of code I wrote for you.