Abstract
Archive for November, 2011
Formation and Propagation of Discontinuity for Boltzmann Equation in Non-Convex Domains November 2nd, 2011
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Colored noise in the fluctuations of an extended DNA molecule detected by optical trapping November 1st, 2011
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Abstract
Hammer Versus Feather on the Moon November 1st, 2011
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If you drop a hammer and a feather together, which reaches the ground first?
On the Earth, it’s the hammer, but is the reason only because of
air resistance?
Scientists even before
Galileo have
pondered
and tested this simple experiment and felt that without air resistance, all objects would fall the same way.
Galileo tested this principle himself and noted that two heavy balls of different masses reached the ground simultaneously, although many historians are skeptical that he did this experiment from
Italy’s
Leaning Tower of Pisa as folklore suggests.
A good place free of air resistance to test this equivalence principle is
Earth’s Moon, and so in 1971,
Apollo 15 astronaut
David Scott
dropped both a
hammer and a feather together toward the surface of the Moon.
Sure enough, just as scientists including Galileo and
Einstein would have predicted, they reached the
lunar surface at the same time.
The demonstrated
equivalence principle states that the acceleration an object feels due to gravity does not depend on its mass, density, composition, color, shape, or anything else.
The equivalence principle is so important to modern physics that its depth and reach are still being
debated and
tested even today.
You could use facts to prove anything that’s even remotely true November 1st, 2011
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Here at BA Central, I have my hands full trying to battle the Forces of Darkness: those who would spin, fold, and mutilate reality for their own gain. They may be motivated by greed, or power, or ignorance, or ideology, but the thing they all have in common is, they’re wrong. They come in many flavors: homeopaths, psychics, creationists, antivaxxers… and yes, sadly, far too many politicians.
And I can rail against them time and again, my arsenal filled with the facts from an entire Universe at my disposal, yet make hardly a dent in their armor.
Sometimes, though, a small dose of satire penetrates right through that shielding and pierces the very heart of antiscience. Thank you, The Daily Show, for fighting this good fight:
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Weathering Fights – Science: What’s It Up To?
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes
Political Humor & Satire Blog
The Daily Show on Facebook
Related posts:
- You can’t explain Bill O’Reilly
- Ironic Onion
- What else is there not?
- Dork Tower busts ghosts
