Monthly Archives: March 2011

A new way to look at radiation

Here is a recent article in the BBC news.  It goes along with our summer reader “Physics For Future Presidents.” They main point of the article is that the radiation fears are overshadowing the real crisis which is the deaths due to the tsunami itself. BBC News Article A New Way to Look at Radiation […]

Ship makes it to Mercury!

Click here to view a nice article on Messenger! It is now orbiting Mercury!

Professor Cleveland talks about Japan’s Nuclear Disaster

Our ASM Speaker from a few weeks ago had an article in BU Today on the Nuclear Disaster. If you remember, in our talk, he discussed the economics of oil, the costs of different forms of energy, and the deep subsidies given to the nuclear industry. BU Today and Professor Cleveland Professor Cleveland sounds a […]

Japan and Nuclear Accidents

Hi, here is a link from the Journal of College Science Teaching on a nuclear power accident from 1999. http://www.nsta.org/publications/download.aspx?s=mail&d=031411&id=Z349URi8cV5jzeFc8j9Jen7lWtpc5exjvgzzl3wOvVQ=

Japan and Earthquakes

Recently, NSTA press had a nice article with some links to several web pages to learn about Earthquakes. This NASA Jet Propulasion Lab Site is middle school level, but has some nice basics of Earthquake mechanics.    http://scign.jpl.nasa.gov/learn/plate4.htm You can look at actual data on the USGS (US Geological Survey) website at http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/usc0001xgp.php To learn more […]

Lab Tour to See Something Hot

On Wednesday, the Ravenclaw Physics Class visited Professor Gevelber’s Advanced Materials Process Control Laboratory. http://www.bu.edu/pcl/ There we saw a plasma spray which is used to test ceramic coatings for the hot temperatures experiences inside jet engines. http://www.bu.edu/me/people/faculty/gn/gevelber/ We also visited the Fraunhofer Center for Manufacturing Innovation where we saw an e-beam deposition for optical coatings. […]

Cathryn’s Sterling Engine

http://blogs.bu.edu/ggarber/files/2011/03/Sterling.mp4 Wow!  Cathryn brought in a sterling engine.  Does it work?  It has been sitting on a shelf for 4 years. We just added oil. Here is a link to to the course taught by Cathryn’s Dad, Professor Hart! http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mechanical-engineering/2-141-modeling-and-simulation-of-dynamic-systems-fall-2006/projects/byl_2141_final.pdf Thanks for bringing that in!   25 points for Hufflepuff!

Lab tours to see something cold

Wednesday we went to see two exciting labs! In the morning, Hufflepuff Physics walked down to the Physics Department in the cold (brrrrr) weather to see something even colder.  We went to Professor Mohanty’s Nanotechnology Lab to see an experiment where they examine vibrations at the milliKelvin scale. You can read about this experiment at […]