BeautifulPhysics.com

The Physics Around Us: 100 Post Ideas

am positively giddy about this blog, and am really looking forward to sharing my observations of the beauty of physics. I’ll never run out of things to write about, either, because physics is everywhere and I am fascinated by all of it!

I recently encountered the idea that writing a list of 100 things in a single sitting can be an effective brainstorming tool, because once you get the “obvious” ideas out of the way, your mind opens to different sorts of ideas that can be real gems. I was also inspired by the entries to a list-writing contest, and if I had started this blog just a few days earlier, I would have been able to participate in it! Ah well, I can still participate “in spirit” by making my own list.

As I use the following ideas, I will update this post with links to the articles. Hey, that will inspire me to focus on brainstorming specific post topics rather than vague subjects that would be better used as tags! Awesome! And what better way to demonstrate the kinds of things this site is going to feature, and kickstart my writing so that I can get more content out without having to deal with blogger’s blog block! :)

100 Ideas for BeautifulPhysics.com posts

1. Derivation in time
2. Position, Velocity, Acceleration
3. Vectors and Components
4. Newton’s Laws
5. Laws of Thermodynamics
6. Fun With Entropy
7. Rollercoasters: Playing with Gravitational Potential Energy
8. Elastic-Potential-Energy Powered Car
9. Static Equilibrium of a Ladder Against A Wall
10. The Generalized Coordinates of a Bicycle
11. Tour of the Electromagnetic Spectrum
12. Wave-Particle Duality of Light
13. Quantum Computers: When Do I Get Mine?
14. Water in Video Games
15. “Rag Doll Physics” in Video Games
16. Refraction of Light
17. Rainbows
18. Gyroscopes
19. The Shape of a Coffee Mug and its Efficiency
20. Why Snuggling is Warm
21. The Yo-Yo
22. The Q-Ray Bracelet
23. How Electricity is Like Water
24. Star Trek’s Transporters
25. Good Posture
26. Happy Posture
27. Lasers
28. Electroshock Weapons
29. Microwave Cooking
30. Cooking Onions
31. Leaking Energy from Buildings
32. Orbital Mechanics of our Solar System
33. Iridescent Clouds
34. Evolution and Explosion of Massive Stars
35. Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars (books by Kim Stanley Robinson)
36. Chaos and Order Magic (as described in L.E. Modesitt’s Recluse novels)
37. SOH CAH TOA Trigonometry
38. Sheet Music: The First Time Axis
39. Sound Frequencies and the Human Ear
40. Wind
41. Audiophile Cables
42. Acoustic Guitars
43. Electric Guitars
44. Headphones
45. Light Emitting Diodes (LED)
46. Television Technologies
47. How Can I Avoid Getting Shocked When Exiting a Vehicle?
48. Colourful Sunsets and Sunrises
49. Setting your Camera’s White Balance
50. H2O
51. Waves on Lakes
52. Boiling Water: To Salt or Not To Salt?
53. The Algebra of Physical Space
54. Quantum Entanglement
55. The Constancy of the Speed of Light
56. My PhD Research: Boosted Entanglement in the Algebra of Physical Space
57. Lagrangians and Hamiltonians
58. The Portable Telephone
59. Cellular Telephone Radiation
60. Bouyancy (Experiment)
61. Bubbles! (Experiment)
62. Playing Dice with the Universe
63. What’s “100 Amp Service” Mean, in household circuits?
64. How Computer Processors Work
65. Moore’s Law
66. Your Brain on Chocolate
67. How Eyeglasses Work
68. The Gravitational Constant
69. The Psychology of Symmetry and Sine Waves
70. The Accelerating Expansion of the Universe
71. Thunder and Lightning and the Speed of Sound
72. Why Lightning Happens
73. How Speakers Work
74. Setting Up for Stereo Listening
75. Setting Up for Surround Sound
76. Subwoofer Crossover Frequency
77. Blu-Ray Technology
78. Record Players
79. Aurora: Curtains of Ions
80. As the World Turns…
81. The Direction of Water Whirling
82. Simulations of Weightlessness
83. Weight vs. Mass
84. Hydrogen Fuel Cells
85. Heat as Wasted Information
86. The Shape of Snowflakes
87. Meditation on Gravitation
88. How to Use a Nutcracker
89. Paper Airplanes
90. The Spin of an Electron
91. Accelerating Towards the Speed of Light
92. Warp Drives and other Faster-than-Light Travel
93. Tachyons: Hypothesized Time Particles
94. Sound Reflections inside a Spherical Yoga Ball
95. Plasma: the Fourth State of Matter
96. Magnets and Paper Clips
97. Making Your Own Compass
98. Why is the Sky Blue?
99. Polarization in the Sky
100. Relative Velocity: How Much Faster than Me?

If you are inspired by any of these ideas, please send me the link to your own article! I love learning about how others are appreciating the beauty of physics around us!

December 1st, 2007 Posted by Qrystal | This Site | one comment