Gary Garber's Blog

So I am trying to finish up answering the long pile of e-mails.  Leonardo should be asleep.  I just heard from his room “Daddy, come look at my physics experiment.  Look at what the electricity is doing.”  He has this giant 3 foot tall stuffed teddy bear.  He was rubbing it on his head and making all his hair stand up.  Or I should say he was rubbing his head on the bear.  Looks like he just touched a Van deGraff generator.  It would be really funny if it wasn’t after 10PM at night.

The American Association of Physics teachers had an interesting analysis.  The gist of the analysis consisted of the temperature differences.  In a couple weeks we will be studying gas laws in physics and I see some physics problems coming up (or maybe even a test question).

To quote the AAPT website.

In this section, I summarize a simple analysis that suggests that the under-inflation might be largely explained by the temperature difference between when the balls’ pressure was first verified by the Referee and when the balls were re-measured at half time. I assume that the air inside the football is reasonably described by the ideal gas law under the conditions used for the football preparation and during the game. Let me denote the initial pressure and temperature at which the footballs were prepared as P_i and T_i, respectively. Similarly, I denote the “final” pressure and temperature (during the game) as P_f and T_f. As almost every chemistry and physics student knows, the ideal gas law tells us that 

                                             P_f = P_i (T_f / T_i),                                (1)

under the assumption that the volume of the football and the number of molecules inside the football bladder remain the same, conditions which are at least approximately correct for the game situation. Knowing the initial pressure, the initial temperature, and the final temperature, it is easy to calculate the final pressure. I note that if the final temperature (at half time) is lower than the initial temperature (when the balls’ pressure was first verified), the final pressure will be lower than the initial pressure. At the lower temperature, the air molecules are moving less rapidly (on average) and hence exert a lower pressure on the football bladder in which the air is trapped.

Go to the AAPT website to read the entire analysis.

Neil DeGrasse Tyson has an interesting (wrong) tweet.   Read about his wrong analysis.

Of course, the most famous "science" response if from Bill Nye.  You have to remember, that Nye is from Seattle.  So his opinion...is a bit biased.  But you can watch it here.  If you look at the video, Nye actually never does a measurement.   He just goes on a tirade about Global Warming.

About a year ago I started working on a video for the classroom  with the MIT BLOSSOMS project.   You can watch my video and download the lesson plans here.

It took about a year to produce this.  I was one of several teachers selected last January to produce videos for the classroom.

To quote from the BLOSSOMS website:

BLOSSOMS video lessons are enriching students' learning experiences in high school classrooms from Brooklyn to Beirut to Bangalore. Our Video Library contains over 100 math and science lessons, all freely available to teachers as streaming video and Internet downloads and as DVDs and videotapes.

Visit the BLOSSOMS Video Library anytime to browse and download lessons to use in your classroom. Every lesson is a complete resource that includes video segments, a teacher’s guide, downloadable hand-outs and a list of additional online resources relevant to the topic. We carefully craft each BLOSSOMS lesson to make your classroom come alive. Each 50-minute lesson builds on math and science fundamentals by relating abstract concepts to the real world. The lessons intersperse video instruction with planned exercises that engage students in problem solving and critical thinking, helping students build the kind of gut knowledge that comes from hands-on experience. By guiding students through activities from beginning to end, BLOSSOMS lessons give students a sense of accomplishment and excitement.

While MIT faculty members and partnering educators in Jordan and Pakistan created the first BLOSSOMS lessons, today educators from around the world create and submit BLOSSOMS modules. We welcome you to join our international online community to learn more about our videos and to engage with educators worldwide who are looking for ways to enrich their students' classroom experiences and share their ideas.

You can watch the video below.  It is on the MIT TechTV website.

So I am buying Alejandro a Kindle for XMAS.  I was thinking what should I get for him to download, and I found this offer!  Packt has a huge range of books.  Most of them are primarily e-books.  So this is a great chance to find some winter reading!  And you can even pre-order my new book!

Following the success of last year’s festive offer, Packt Publishing will be celebrating the Holiday season with an even bigger $5 offer.

From Thursday 18th December, every eBook and video will be available on the publisher’s website for just $5. Customers are invited to purchase as many as they like before the offer ends on Tuesday January 6th, making it the perfect opportunity to try something new or to take your skills to the next level as 2015 begins.  With all $5 products available in a range of formats and DRM-free, customers will find great value content delivered exactly how they want it across Packt’s website this Xmas and New Year.

Find out more at www.packtpub.com/packt5dollar

#packt5dollar

The Spring Meeting of the New England Section of AAPT will be on the Drones.   I am in the midst of organizing this meeting.

So are Drones in the news?

A lot of people are getting drones for XMAS according to Bloomberg.

"If you find a drone under the Christmas tree next week, it may also come with a list of U.S. government guidelines for safe flying and even software to keep the device away from airports.

Sales of the small, unmanned aircraft are soaring this holiday season, prompting fears that first-time users could accidentally crash them into people, buildings or even aircraft. Retailers, including Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), are taking steps to educate buyers of the high-tech toys......The Federal Aviation Administration reported drone safety cases for the first time last month, showing incidents had grown to more than 40 per month."

What does that have to do with Education?  According the the National Journal the new regulations are inhibiting research at Universities.

"Academics who use drones for their research are pushing back on what they call overly restrictive federal regulations.

Two associations that together represent more than 200 American universities are complaining that the Federal Aviation Administration's confusing policies on commercial drones are harmful to academic research."