Recent content by planish

Yup. There are a number of phenomena that demonstrate it. IIRC, The "anti-reflection" coating on monitors and camera lenses is a transparent film that is a half a wavelength in thickness. Light from the outside (the glare) bounces off both the initial (outer) surface of the film, as well as...

I barely remember any of it, but in the dim past I recall having to learn about LaPlace transforms for a course in "Feedback and Control Systems". We would be figuring out the critical damping for things like robot arms, where the object was to get the arm into some new position as quickly as...

The majority of modern summer tents that come with a fly also have screened roof vents that would reduce condensation on the inside, because much of the air that the camper breathe out is replaced throughout the night. There's also the "Dew Point" to consider -...

How about building some classic perpetual motion machines, and demonstrate why they don't work?

Is the rope itself assume to have no mass? If the sandbag moves up at all, then some of the rope (on the athlete's end) will end up resting on the floor, and an equivalent mass is removed from the sandbag side, by virtue of having been pulled through the pulley. If, on the other hand, the...

Well, maybe yes, maybe no. Many DC circuits with LEDs use a train of DC pulses of varying widths (or duty cycle) generated by a timer chip to control the perceived brightness. My cheap digital clock radio has a bright and low-level setting for the display, and by rapidly "panning" across it in...

It doesn't have to be "science" of any kind, as long as it gets results (ie. the design firm gets more clients in the future), which makes it inseparable from the mechanical engineering, economic, and even political factors, to name just a few. Unless it's a Borg design.

A Design Art History prof of mine would start his lecture series by explaining Louis Henri Sullivan's assertion that "... form ever follows function.", particularly for successful designs. We would all think "well, then how do you explain all the stupid designs that appear to be successful (ie...

http://www.archive.org/details/audio - totally free mp3 files of many kinds. Some lectures, Some crappy music, some great music, some archives of Old Time Radio shows, podcasts, classic literature read out loud, poetry, you name it. It might take a bit of digging to find stuff you like, but hey...

The most bizarre phenomenon I see is that miniature neon lights (such as appliance pilot lights, power bar illuminated on/off switches, etc.) sometimes seem to flicker on and off randomly when viewed in the dark. Turn the lights on, or view them in daylight, and they change to a steady glow...

Ooh - a topic near and dear to my heart. As far as the "epizygis" (the metal rod that the skein rope loop around) bending goes: Threaded rods have only as much resistance to flexing as a rod the same diameter of the inside of the thread, so if the original rod was, say, 1/2" diameter without...

Prisoner #17: "Okay guys, where do we have the get-together to plan our strategy?" All others (in unison): "THE LIVING ROOM!" Is that it?

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Or "sleight of foot". His type of levitation was "Balducci Levitation - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balducci_levitation . He would appear to rise a few inches, which is what the street audience saw, but what the TV audience sees is augmented by post-production video trickery. There are a few...

http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/PhonyAds/qray.html When you see the Q-Ray commercials now, they don't directly claim that it has specific benefits, only that purchasers report benefits, and they show a bunch of vaguely-worded testimonials. If the purchaser is indeed...