COLD HARD SCIENCE: SLAPSHOT Physics in Slow Motion - SmarterEveryDay

Yes, a hockey player with a missing tooth is frighteningly stereotypical.

The sight of the hockey stick at full flex - in motion at about 2:35 - is outstanding...as is the idea that the player likes his stick 'whippier'.

I'm not a hockey player, but I was a tennis player, and I understand the same idea in a different application. Players can choose how much tension they want in their strings when the tennis racket is strung. Stringing at a lower tension allows the ball to deflect the strings more, creating more of a trampoline effect and generating more power. The cost to that is a decrease in control - worse aim - because of that increased power.

Here's a second video going through the same physics - for the first seven minutes anyway. After the first seven, we get a look at the physics of a wrist shot and a hockey player's workout.

Personally, I prefer Destin's enthusiasm.

Modified sponge mops up oil but not water

"Due to the nature of the industry, cost-effective high absorbents are needed...Any advancement to have high spill sorbent is of use." ~ Seshadri Ramkumar

See, what he's saying is that the oil industry (and the shipping industry and pretty much everybody else) spills oil in the ocean...and lakes...and rivers...and fields...so we need to be ready to soak up the oil.

The environmental impact and morals of our modern dependence on fossil fuels aside, the chemistry here is pretty cool.

Though the name of 'compound 1' seems a little odd to me because I can't imagine that the first compound they tried was their successful attempt. There's a reason why we have Formula 409.

Watch glass objects disappear and learn about the index of refraction

Has anybody out there actually been to the Exploratorium out in San Francisco? I assume it's a great science museum, but I've never actually been to San Francisco.

The video above shows an experiment comparing the index of refraction of pyrex (borosilicate glass - the rods that disappear) to that of, I assume, soda lime glass (the rod that stays visible). Pyrex has a nearly identical index of refraction as does corn or vegetable oil (and mineral oil, too). Because of that, Pyrex 'disappears' when soaked in corn oil.

For a slightly more theatrical presentation, check out Steve Spangler's take on the same experiment.



The demo also works with ghost crystals...


I've also heard that it works with colorless gelatin, but I haven't found a video of that, and I haven't tried it at home...yet...

Watch NASA Plane Fold Its Wings Mid-Flight

We've been hearing for a few years that plane designers are trying to use NiTiNOL to change the angle of the wings or of the fins (my terms, probably not the term of the designers) behind the jet engines.

Now, it looks like NASA might've been successful in adjusting the wing angle using a memory alloy.

And, if you were curious about the size of the plan we see above, here's a longer video with a little more context and without the voice-over.

Scrub Daddy Science

I bought a Scrub Daddy a couple of years ago and have been using it to demonstrate glass transition in polymers since then. It's good, however, to know a little more science than what I've been explaining ("it's a polymer, and they have phase transitions from rigid to flexible").

The above video shows the phase transition and the 2012 patent (linked here) for the Scrub Daddy. The blog entry associated with the video has more information as well as data from a few experiments (FTIR, for example) done with the Scrub Daddy.

In a semi-exciting detail, the video also shows that the thermoplastic polymer from Education Innovations is the same polymer as the Scrub Daddy. Conveniently, I already have that product in my storage room.

How cool is that?

But wait, there's more...





And also a video that I don't understand in the least. It's a wordless video of somebody pouring slime on a Scrub Daddy and squishing it with what I believe to be added sound effects. Clearly the internet it the realm of the long tail.

Why Bridges Move... (and more thermal expansion demos)

I wouldn't want to get my hands caught between those jaws on a hot day.

I don't know that I would actually show this video in class. The demonstrations of thermal expansion aren't all that impressive. The explanation and theory is solid, but the demos could be a little more impressive.

Like these, for example...

TRANSPARENT Solar Panels?!

We can maybe back off with the question mark-exclamation point ending on the title, folks.

I'll take 'not 100% transparent' any day of the week if it means that we can turn our windows into solar panels. That would be outstanding.

I am a little curious, though, about just how 'not 100% transparent' they would be. The whole <640 nm thing would be around red/orange, and their explanation that longer wavelengths would travel right on through seems odd. Longer than red/orange doesn't leave a whole lot of colors because the rest of the colors are shorter wavelengths than red/orange.