A series of visual examples from the book How Round Is Your Circle: “John Bryant and Chris Sangwin illustrate how physical models are created from abstract mathematical ones.”
We liked watching all of these, but Dudeney’s Dissection — cutting an equilateral triangle into pieces which can be rearranged into a square via well-placed hinges — is definitely the co-curator’s and my favorite.
Math FTW!
Ricordi Dimenticati
Your awesome Tagline
(via likeaphysicist)
(Source: partagetalife)
What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning.
The milky way contains at least 100 billion planets according to survey
Our Milky Way galaxy contains a minimum of 100 billion planets according to a detailed statistical study based on the detection of three extrasolar planets by an observational technique called microlensing. Our galaxy contains a minimum of one planet for every star on average. This means that there is likely to be a minimum of 1,500 planets within just 50 light-years of Earth.
The results are based on observations taken over six years by the PLANET (Probing Lensing Anomalies NETwork) collaboration. The study concludes that there are far more Earth-sized planets than bloated Jupiter-sized worlds. This is based on calibrating a planetary mass function that shows the number of planets increases for lower mass worlds. A rough estimate from this survey would point to the existence of more than 10 billion terrestrial planets across our galaxy.
The team’s conclusions are gleaned from a planet search technique called microlensing. The technique takes advantage of the random motions of stars, which are generally too small to be noticed. If one star passes precisely in front of another star, the gravity of the foreground star bends the light from the background star.
This means that the foreground star acts like a giant lens amplifying the light from the background star. A planetary companion around the foreground star can produce additional brightening of the background star. This additional brightening reveals the planet, which is otherwise too faint to be seen by telescopes. This method, however, does not reveal any clues about the world’s composition.
Of the approximately 40 microlensing events closely monitored, three showed evidence for exoplanets. Using a statistical analysis, the team found that one in six stars hosts a Jupiter-mass planet. What’s more, half of the stars have Neptune-mass planets, and two-thirds of the stars have Earth-mass planets. Therefore, low-mass planets are more abundant than their massive counterparts.
Above: (1) This artist’s illustration gives an impression of how common planets are around the stars in the Milky Way. The planets, their orbits, and their host stars are all vastly magnified compared to their real separations. (2) Graphical explanation of an extrasolar planet detected by gravitational microlensing.
(via likeaphysicist)
Some guys with their blackboards.
(Source: nabokovsnotebook)
Discovery of the positron. This cloud chamber image was taken during the 1932 work by US physicist Carl David Anderson (1905-1991) that led to the discovery of the positron. This particle is the opposite of the electron and the first antimatter particle to be discovered. The image shows the curved track of a positive particle entering the cloud chamber from below. The particle is known to be positive because of the direction in which it bends in the chamber’s magnetic field. The track is too faint to be caused by a proton, and is more like an electron’s track, hence it had to be the predicted positron. These results were published in 1933
You know it’s right.
(Source: drjamie, via the-star-stuff)
Physics Burn
(via fuckyeahmath)
“high-speed liquid photographs” by heinz maier
Albert Einstein’s Office in Princeton on His Last Day
Albert Einstein died on April 18th, 1955. Photographer Ralph Morse was allowed to take the last snapshot of Albert Einstein study in Princeton as Einstein left it.
(via fuckyeahmath)
Three impinging jets of silicone oil rebound without coalescence due to thin-film lubrication between the jets. The motion of the oil replenishes the thin layer of air separating the streams. The same phenomenon keeps droplets from coalescing as well. (Photo credit: BIF Lab, Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics, Virginia Tech) #
(via freshphotons)
“Smoke resolved into its component droplets of wax, with zones of refraction making rainbows on the upper edge.Took me about 25 tries to get everything right.”
blua:
Cambridge University is putting the papers of Sir Isaac Newton online for the first time, including his own annotated copy of his greatest work, Principia Mathematica, with notes and calculations in his handwriting revising the book and answering critic
(via fuckyeahmath)
