The Physics of Dropping Out of a Plane in an Inflatable Ball
LIGO Ain’t a Gravitational Wave Detector—It’s an Observatory
Dominate Calculus With a Few Easy Tricks
A numerical integration solves an integral by breaking into a finite number of sums. This is fairly straightforward to do with a computer.
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You–Yes, You–Can Calculate the Speed of Light With Jupiter
Ole Roemer used the moons of Jupiter to estimate the speed of light. Here's how he did it.
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Tackle a Runner Like a Super Bowl Player—With Physics!
What path should you take to catch another football player? Here are three different ways to run the play.
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Use Code to Create Sweet 3-D Visualizations of Electric Fields
Here is a quick introduction to the superposition of electric fields and visualizing the E-field due to a dipole using VPython.
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What’d Make a Better Rocket, Nuclear or Ion Engines?
Would it be better to have a rocket that uses all the fuel at once or to let out a little bit at a time? Here is a closer look at the rocket equation.
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Here’s How to Solve the xkcd Velociraptor Problem With Code
This classic xkcd physics problem involves an accelerating velociraptor. Here is a numerical solution to this problem using python.
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If the Moon Were a Cube, What Would Its Phases Look Like?
Suppose the moon was a cube instead of a sphere. What would the phases of the moon look like as seen from Earth?
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You Should Be Coding in Your Physics Course
Using computers to solve physics problems isn't new, but very few introductory courses utilize this technique. I think it's time for a change.
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