jhayes

How about calling it Last Chance Saloon? (Just to be colourful and dramatic!).

This clip (and the others posted by 'ChristopherJSykes') are from the BBC show "Fun to Imagine". Been a few months, but I remember the 'Magnets (and 'Why?' questions...)' segment being particularly worthwhile if you're looking for good bang-for-buck timewise.

Incidentally, the guy releasing this also directed it.

Also in case you prefer text: http://varatek.com/scott/feynman_problems.html

Again with the visualizing of a pre-newtonian world, a few years ago a physics TA (now a lecturer) made some observations on his Q&A sessions with some 1st years in Cambridge- they didn't hold up too well either but then again, changing your mental model of how the world works is no easy task I guess.

http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0512158

"1.4 Heavier objects fall faster

The classic Aristotelian belief is that heavier objects fall faster than lighter objects. Surely three hundred years after Galileo showed otherwise, students no longer share this belief? Unfortunately, many do, but the belief shows up only in novel situations. Students know that if a stone and a cannonball fall, they should say that both objects hit the ground ‘at the same time’; if they have been carefully taught, they might even say ‘roughly at the same time’. They also know what to say about two objects sliding down an incline, that mass is irrelevant. However, when the problem includes the novel effect of rolling (yet more trouble with circular motion!), many students have no practiced Newtonian answer to quote, and reveal their gut-level Aristotelian belief. For example, in Problem 23, about objects rolling down a plane, some students reasoned that an object with a large moment of inertia, such as a disc, rolls faster than an object with a small moment of inertia, such as a solid sphere. Two students argued that ‘moment of inertia is analogous to mass, and heavier objects fall faster than lighter objects’! I could not agree with the analogy, but I admired its boldness.

The way that rehearsal hides this misconception reminds me of the theory of the English accent: that if you step on an Englishman’s toes in the middle of the night, he’ll shout at you in an American accent. On this view, the one true accent is American. An English accent is just an act, a mask dropped upon surprise. Similarly, the students’ response that ‘all objects fall at the same speed’ is carefully rehearsed. It falls away when we step on their toes by asking about it in a novel context, whereupon they reveal their true belief, that heavier objects fall faster.""

A similar idea is this firefox plugin, TeX the World: http://thewe.net/tex/

Pros: - Works on any site (I've only checked it out in gchat though).

Cons: - Not as pretty (if it matters to you) and requires both sides to d/l firefox extension really (not for emails though).

In case anybody's interested in making one:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Crazy-Star-Cube-!/

Looks to be an hour long project tops, requiring just starched paper and sellotape.

If you want to see some sample articles first, you can login to http://pcm.tandtproductions.com/ with U/P : guest/PCM - he put this information up on his blog a year ago perhaps. Look under 'Resources/Sample Articles'.

I have a book called "The Art and Craft of Problem Solving" which uses climbing terms to describe various techniques and tools used in IMO problems. It wasn't a very forced analogy at all.

Also, for interest's sake, a few years ago a physicist (http://insectnation.org/projects/nightclimbing/) even scanned in an old book on climbing; t'was pretty nifty! (but slightly off topic here probably).

http://www.metafilter.com/58583/Youre-so-smart-you-probably-...

Similar story by same author with some interesting comments from the blue.

Japan, I guess. They were fast to strike in Pearl Harbour (i.e loading speed). However, their extensions are lacking (nuclear capacity) and so they suffer for it.

How about WWII?

Mozilla coming from the remnants of Netscape was like the transition from the decimated Weimar Republic to Third Reich, starting over.

Microsoft of course would represent USSR, and just to force the analogy, because their PR in retrospect seems to be terrible (this western education of mine re:USSR & considering that bashing MS is the standard online really).

And I guess that leaves Google with America, only entering into the (browser) war half way through.

Not implying anything about the future of course, just forcing an analogy.

(And sure, let's stretch it and have Safari as Britain, because it's an island, independent of the bigger land masses).

Sister's doing a PhD here (or there rather, from your POV). Back of the envelope calculation, she'd be earning roughly 10% more than the minimum wage if you view a PhD as a 36 hours/week job (I wouldn't).

Pretty sure that that's close to the norm for PhD pay though.

(Sorry, no hard figures to compare, due to a feeling that I shouldn't discuss someone else's financial situation candidly online, even if details probably just a google away).

"And lucky indeed is the writer who has grown up in Ireland, for the English spoken there is so amusing and musical."

Jaysus! Hasn't a bleedin' notion what he's bleating on about there; we're not like that at all, like. A right lula.