The moment when eyes cannot see

This is one of my favorite illusions. It tells us that seeing is mostly in our brain. Try this out, it is really interesting: Just look at the image below. What do you see?
Two gray rectangles, one is darker than other.. So what?
Now cover the border between the two regions by holding your pencil vertically over the boundary. What do you see now? One gray rectangle!!
Two regions magically combined to one single color. Our brain can tell the difference only when there are boundaries. If there is no border, it assumes simple all the same. So sometimes, we see only what our brain lets us to see…
(For details see Paul Hewitt’s Conceptual Physics book)

Playing MJ-Billie Jean on Ruben’s Tube

My students built a Ruben’s Tube to “see sound waves”. The Rubens’ tube, also known as the Standing wave flame tube, or simply flame tube, is a physics experiment demonstrating a standing wave. It shows the relationship between sound waves and air pressure. We just did it for fun to see the “equalizer effect” while playing famous song of Michael Jackson, Billie Jean. Unfortunately the rubber membrane caught fire and this was the end of the song… Watch it on YouTube below:
Rubens Tube Experiment and its dramatic end!

Wolfram Demonstrations Project

Wolfram Demonstrations Project is an open-code resource that uses dynamic computation to illuminate concepts in science, technology, mathematics, art, finance, and a remarkable range of other fields.
Its daily-growing collection of interactive illustrations is created by Mathematica users from around the world. All Demonstrations run freely on any standard Windows, Mac, Unix, or Linux computer. In fact, anyone can preview a Demonstration online, and interact with it using the free Mathematica Player. Browse by Topics here…

Online Physics Games

Do you have some spare time? Why not playing some physics-based games. Here is a nice collection of different types of physics games. It has Block Removal, Construction, Demolition, Platform, Projectile, Stacking categories. Have Fun!
www.physicsgames.net

Robobees

Busier than robotic dogs, or even so-called robotic vacuums, a colony of robotic bees is being built at Harvard University thanks to a $9.3-million grant from the stimulus bill. The goal? No honey-making here, but the results might be even sweeter—scientifically speaking. The team, led by Robert Wood, an assistant professor of electrical engineering at Harvard’s Microrobotics Laboratory, aims to create “a colony of autonomous, microscale flapping-wing robots,” the researchers explained in an e-mail. [...]

Free Online Courses – This is great!

The National Repository of Online Courses (NROC) is a growing library of high-quality online course content for students and faculty in higher education, high school and Advanced Placement. This non-profit project is an Open Educational Resource, and its content is distributed free-of-charge to students and teachers at public websites. Click this link to access your online course materials now: http://www.hippocampus.org
For Physics, you can click&go directly: http://physics.hippocampus.org. Have a nice lesson!

Flash Player Failed to Install after SmartBoard Notebook Software Update!

If you are using SmartBoard Notebook Software and recently updated to the most recent 10.6.94 version, you might have noticed that after you install this update, flash files are no more displayed in Notebook. This happened to me as well, and after a long search and trials I finally solved the “Error: Failed to Register” problem. I downloaded necessary files from different sites and zipped them all. So let me share with everyone: [...]

Freezeray “Applications for Interactive Boards”

Here is another site with flash made teaching and learning resources -especially designed to use with Interactive Whiteboards. This is the link for the physics part:
http://freezeray.com/physics.htm

Wireless Electricity – WiTricity

Eric Giler-CEO of MIT-inspired WiTricity- wants to untangle our wired lives with cable-free electric power. Here, he covers what this sci-fi tech offers, and demos MIT’s breakthrough version, WiTricity — a near-to-market invention that may soon recharge your cell phone, car, pacemaker.

World Space Week Activities

This week, 04-10 October is celebrated as the World Space Week for 10 years by more than 80 nations. Here is the list of the activities planned in our school, Liceul International de Informatica Constanta:
Wednesday, 7th Oct. 10:30 Who wants to be a millionaire? Space Version
                                            12:30 Visit to UMC Navigation Simulators
                                            14:30 The Universe-Saturn Documentary
                                           20:00 Night sky observation at planeterium
Thursday, 8th Oct. 10:30 Building and launching Model Rockets
                                        13:30 RC plane-helicopter flight demonstration
                                        14:30 “Unmanned Aerial Vehicle” project presentation
Friday, 9th Oct. Closing ceremony at CNMB

You can find the official Activity Guide with many ideas from www.worldspaceweek.org.