Happy Tau Day… June 28, 2011
Posted by Mr G in Mathematics, Physics.comments closed
28th of June (6-28 as the Yanks would put it) is Tau day…
What is Tau I hear you ask???
We all know about pi… that number that links the diameter and circumference of a circle. But since we rarely use diameter (we use radius again) we need to add a factor of 2 to all our maths…
e.g.
circumference = 2 x pi x radius
Anything else we do with circles has this extra 2 in it. E.g. Angles in radians – a whole rotation is 2 pi radians.
So along comes Tau where tau = 2 pi
That 2 disappears.
- curcumference = tau x radius
- 1 rotation is tau radians
- Think of the difference that would make to Unit 4 A-level Physics
Science meets Art… June 27, 2011
Posted by Mr G in General.comments closed
Science and art often cross paths…
These videos show how visual arts, music and science can create something quite amazing…
I will be hoping for something similar for the Academy show next year – with Science, Music, Art and Media working together
Mr G
Source: Physics.Org
Do we understand risk? June 23, 2011
Posted by Mr G in Applied Science, Controversy, How Science Works.comments closed
Risk, uncertainty, reliability, correlation, relationship, causality….
All very important words to a scientist. They help us explain what our results mean and how we can compare our results and the results of others.
But does the public understand in the same way? This question formed a large chunk of my Masters of Science course when we looked at science communication.
This BBC article sums up the issue quite well (pity it wasn’t around last year… it would have been useful to quote from…) It was triggered by the latest OTT writing about mobile phones and cancer…
Does not knowing something for certain (what ever “certain” is) make us more worried or less worried?
The problem we have (as the public and the scientists) is that lack of evidence FOR a link between things does not mean evidence AGAINST a link (though if 2000 experiments said “no” we get fairly well convinced) – this Digital Lifestyles article from 2 008 sums up the evidence – but notice the “hedging of bets” in the very last sentence…
Mr G
Sources – BBC News, Digital Lifestyles
Updated – Chile Volcano Pics June 7, 2011
Posted by Mr G in Geology, Y7 & 8.comments closed
This BBC webpage has a slide show of pictures from the recent eruptions in Chile.
Update – PopSci also has a gallery of photos.
This ties in well with the Y8 topic on Geology. For more volcano photos you can look back at these old blog posts here, here and here.
Mr G
Sources: BBC News Website
