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Row Row Row your Boat - At which maximum speed?

The maximum speed of a rower boat is a classic example of the beauty of dimensional analysis. It was originally derived by McMahon (1971). Here it is brought again for the convenience of the Internet...

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The Transit of Venus

The transit of Venus, June 8, 2004. Photograph taken from Jerusalem by the author, using a 10x50 viewfinder having a 90° prism. The image passing the prism is projected onto a white piece of paper...

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Snow at above freezing temperatures

Did you ever wonder how can it snow at above freezing temperatures? Well, the naive explanation is that it simply takes time for the snowflakes to melt once they penetrate above freezing air, as they...

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Snow probability calculator

Based on the analysis of whether falling snow will melt as it descends, it is possible to estimate the probability with which falling precipitation will be snow. The calculator calculates the melting...

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Exhale Condensation Calculator

If the temperature is low enough or the humidity high, you can observe condensation (i.e., "fog") forming in your exhaled breath. This calculator estimates whether your exhaled breath will condense,...

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Have you heard of the silent Earthquake?

Blog topic: general physicsThe other day, I heard a very interesting talk by Prof. Fineberg (from my physics department) about dry friction, and in particular, how the contact surface between two...

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Estimating Stellar Parameters from Energy Equipartition

Many physical systems have a tendency to equilibrate the energy between different components. Sometimes it is exact, and sometimes not. This can arise from a plethora of different reasons, such as...

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Standing on ice - When is it possible?

Ice covering Grenadier Lake, High Park Toronto. The ice was 8 cm thick, enough to stand on. The small patch in the ice is a dead fish, frozen into the ice. How cold should it be and for how long to...

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Parhelic Circles, Ice Haloes and Sun dogs over Jerusalem

Blog topic: general physics, general science, weather & climateA few weeks ago, a few students observed a nice phenomenon in the sky (like many others in the Jerusalem area). Knowing I liked this...

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A Nice Black Hole Merger Simulation

Blog topic: astronomy, general physics, general scienceI recently stumbled upon a nice black hole merger simulation which describes recent numerical results describing the in-spiraling and merging of...

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Corpuscular Rays in St. Peter's Basilica (the Vatican)

Blog topic: general physics A few days ago, I stayed in the Vatican (more about this one day symposium in another post). During the stay, I naturally visited St. Peter's Basilica.Near Bernini's altar...

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Bush in a quantum entangled state

Blog topic: general physics, politics Nope, it isn't a science driven blog entry (though given that it is a science blog, I will include one calculation for fun and even an analogy to quantum...

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A visit to Stromboli

Blog topic: general physics, general science It seems that every time I write a blog entry I have to apologize that I don't do so more often. Apparently I don't like to admit that I am a busy person...

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From Masada to the Messinian Salinity Crisis

Blog topic: general physics, general science, weather & climateAnyone who has been reading my blog has noticed that I like to complain that I am too busy. Well, since my last post, I have found...

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Why don't I believe the that neutrinos travel faster than the speed of light?

Blog topic: general physics, general scienceThree weeks ago I visited the underground laboratory of Gran Sasso near l'Aquila. Little did I know that it would make headline news so soon, for...

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Estimating the Size of the Hydrogen Atom (i.e., Bohr's Radius) using...

Peering into the hydrogen atom. The standard way to obtain the size of the hydrogen atom, also known as Bohr's radius, is to solve Schrödinger equation for the hydrogen atom. This is a somewhat...

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Characteristics of an LC circuit using Equipartition

An LC circuit is one which has a capacitor and an inductor connected to each other. It exhibits oscillations just like a mass on a spring (a harmonic oscillator). In fact, the analogy is quite accurate...

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Dust Dendrites

Blog topic: general physics, general scienceMy wife and I had our kitchen renovated. Since this involved breaking a few walls (and cutting out a new window), we knew it would raise a lot of dust. Mind...

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Predicting a supernova precursor (on SN2010mc)

Blog topic: astronomy, general physics, general scienceA very interesting paper recently appeared in nature. It describes the detection of a precursor eruption of a supernova progenitor more than a...

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Estimating the Dipole Radiation Power using Dimensional Analysis

An electric dipole is characterized by the dipole moment $d$ which depends on both the charge $e$ and a the separation $s$ (but not independently on each). Estimating the power radiated by an...

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