Advertisement
Whether it’s a screech, a squeal, a squeak, or a much more pleasant sound—a violin bow rubbing across a string is another stick-slip example—sound energy is a form of mechanical energy that travels through a medium (usually air, water or solid objects) as a wave.…
Actually, a Fourth of July picnic in the park with family, friends and neighbors presents the perfect scenario to think about all the ways we use chemical potential energy without even thinking about it. On a deeper level, the bonds we chemically make or break—and maybe make again—are reflected in the bonds we create or destroy with other people, locally and nationally.…
When you compress a spring, like the one in the click mechanism of a ballpoint pen, you’re using the force (the physics version, F = -kx, not the “Star Wars” version, sorry) to push the spring in, and this force, exerted over a distance, gives you work—which, as we covered in February, is measured in the same units as energy: joules.…
Potential energy is the energy stored in an object because of its position, condition or state. It’s the energy of anticipation, the calm before the storm, the coil in the spring, the water held back by the dam, the double-A battery fresh from the factory, the caterpillar before the butterfly, that butterfly and all his friends and relatives in your stomach right before the roller coaster’s plunge.…
As a pioneering philosopher-mathematician in France, Émilie Du Châtelet argued, as Leibniz did, that a fundamental quantity of motion existed beyond the idea of momentum, which she called the force morte, “the dead force”...…
This year, join me as we bridge the gap between understanding energy in the scientific sense and harnessing it in our daily lives. As we increase our knowledge of energy, we can also adopt practical, tried-and-true methods to boost our own energy levels...…
Filtering water closely parallels the filtration of our daily information intake. It takes time and effort. Full filtration is particularly expensive, costing a great deal of time and effort; however, the cost may be less severe with cleaner sources.…
When we’re young, the world unfolds in found talismans and nursery ditties. Singsong superstitions are verses in the narratives we construct about our lives. I was no exception. Sidewalks transformed into mythical landscapes, each crack a fault line through which my mother’s well-being might crumble.…
...conspiracy theories have steep costs for Americans, both as individuals and as a society. They erode trust in institutions, from the government to the press, making it harder for these bodies to function effectively on our behalf. Personal relationships become strained as folks become deeply invested in views that set them at odds with friends and family.…
Asimov then traces 1,500 terms through history, starting at their roots—their etymologies, their origins. Because so many science words have Greek and Latin roots hidden inside them, learning even a few of these roots can seriously help students, professionals, and anyone frustrated by their doctor’s medical gibberish.…