Category Archives: Science

Color My World

Color DemoThis is a post I began quite some time ago thinking it would be a quick and easy one, since it concerns a topic I know very well.

But — perhaps due to my own inability to be brief — it turned out to be more involved than expected. Maybe I just have a hard time leaving out all the details. In any event, I set it aside until I had more time.

Then I had an idea for making this post a bit more fun (at least for me). The problem was: I needed to build a theatre! You see, this post is about color and light.

Continue reading


Dimensional Coordinates

you are hereThe maps you find in some buildings and malls have a little marker flag that says, “You are here!” The marker connects the physical reality of where you are standing at that moment with a specific point on a little flat map.

Your GPS device provides your current location in terms of longitude and latitude. Those numbers link your physical location with a specific point on any globe or map of the Earth.

But to fully represent our location, longitude and latitude are not quite enough. (We might be high overhead in a hot air balloon!) To fully represent our position, we need a little more ‘tude, but in this case that’s altitude, not attitude.

We need three (and only three) coordinates to completely represent our location in space. This post is about why.

Continue reading


Dear SciAm

Dear SciAmThis is a post I’ve had sitting on the shelf for when I wanted an easy one. I don’t know about other bloggers, but it takes hours for me to crank out a post. Some can take most of a day. (There are some where I spent days making graphics, and an upcoming one has work that took weeks! (You saw a glimpse in a recent post!))

The situation this concerns is long past. This is no rant, just a piece on a life change that surprised me a little, made me sad a little, and which doubly reflected the end of an era.

I could write this any time, but today I got another plea from Scientific American magazine. Again they beg me to come back. Again I won’t.

This, then, is an open letter to SciAm, a dear old friend with whom I’ve parted ways.

Continue reading


BB #17: Pointers!

Brain BubbleThis may be the first actual Brain Bubble I’ve ever posted! The original intent was to provide a mechanism for sudden (short) thoughts I wanted to record or put out there. But the BB posts quickly turned into mini collections of thought bubbles.

But today I started trying to get into Immanuel Kant (again), and that naturally led to a bit of Wiki Walking.

It was when I got to the article about the subject-object problem that a sudden brain bubble burst!

Continue reading


Sideband #43: Chaos!

Sideband ElectrodeIt seems fitting to take this opportunity to write a Sideband post the way I had originally intended when I began them. That intent goes back to the beginning; the first Sideband post was my second post here. For better or worse, the original intent didn’t last long.

In fact, it’s hard to see much difference between the Sideband posts and the other posts. That probably reflects a lack of focus on the main topics. Sidebands were intended for stuff that was off topic. But I’ve been so all over the map on topic that at least one blogger asked if I had a short attention span. [insert here one of the short attention span jokes you’ve heard before]

That’s not going to change. I’m eclectic; so is my blog. Sidebands will evolve. For now, here’s a Sideband on yesterday’s post, just like Blogger originally intended.

Continue reading


Chillaxmas Tertius

Dug-SquirrelI had thought, on this third day of Chillaxmas, that to entertain and terrify you, I would post a true tale of alien invasion and species murder. I know you’re expecting the punchline to be that I would if I could, but I don’t have such a tale, so I can’t, ha, ha. Well, I do have just such a tale, and I could, I’m just not.

Not today, anyway. It’s all queued up for tomorrow, and it’s just as well. This will give me a chance to issue a little advance warning. I have pictures of the aliens! War is never for the faint of heart; it’s all the worse with an exoskeleton-wearing alien enemy!

Today, very much like Dug, I was distracted by some virtual philosophical squirrels.

Continue reading


Infinity is Funny

You probably have some idea of what infinity means. Something that is infinite goes on forever. But it might surprise you to know that there are different kinds of infinity, and some are bigger than others!

As an example, a circle has an infinite number of points. (Yet the circumference of the circle has finite length.) Compare that to a straight line with infinite length. Both have infinitely many points but does the finite length circle have fewer? [The answer is no.]

To understand all this, we have to first talk a bit about numbers.

Continue reading


Doesn’t Look Like a Duck!

Saw something worth sharing on the most excellent Bad Astronomy blog today. It’s a series of images by reddit user, jerfoo. Click the picture below to open a window on the whole thing (it’s very tall and skinny, so restore it to 100% magnification and scroll down as you read the “story’).

Continue reading


Sideband #42: Half Time

Tonight’s sky holds a half-moon that looks somewhat like the picture on the right. Can you tell me, just by the picture, is the moon getting bigger or getting smaller?

Of course, the moon isn’t really changing size. We use the shorthand “bigger” and “smaller” to refer to how much of the moon we see. Or more properly, how much of the moon is illuminated by the sun. Or even more properly, how much of the moon’s surface facing the Earth is illuminated by the sun.

You can see why we often just say it’s getting “bigger” or “smaller!”  Or we can use the terms waxing (getting bigger) and waning (getting smaller).

So, can you tell, from the picture, is the moon tonight waxing or waning?

Continue reading


Wednesday Wow!

Welcome to Wednesday Wow, an irregular series appearing from time to time when I want to write about something that made me say, “Wow!” Or which made me say, “Weird!” Or, “Wonderful!” Or possibly even, “Wild!!”

There may also be posts about Widgets, Whirligigs, Wiccans, Waffles, Wallpaper, Whimsy, Wisdom, Wit, Weather, Wind, Winter, Wushu, Wackos, Whatnots, Wherefores or Whatever.

But not about Women, Wenches or Wahines; they’re too special to be limited to a day, even though they often make me say, “Wow! Wonderful!”

Nor will it be about Work, War or Woodlands. Also, no Whining, Whipping, Whispers, Whistling, Windows, Wine or Whiskey. And I’ll try to not be Wanton, Wonky, Whistful or Worrisome. I can’t guarantee I won’t wander into being a Wry Wiseass. And I hope my Words won’t be Wrong, Wasted or a Wreck.

Continue reading