skip to content

The Flying Circus of Physics is a book about curious events and effects of the everyday world. This site is an extension of the book.

Spotlight story for this month: Click on the title down below here
Secondary stories for this month: Click on "News/Updates" in menu at the left
Archived stories and links (hundreds): 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E, 1F2A, 2B, 2C, 2D, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7
Index to this site and the book: A-C, D-K, L-Q, R-S, T-Z

Store
(books, tee shirts, mug): click on "Store" in the menu at the left
Videos and photos of me:  myspace and blogger and facebook 
Jay Waller stories: Physics for
Citations (over 11,000) and links (over 2000) for items in the book (pdf files):
       Chap 1, Chap 2, Chap 3, Chap 4, Chap 5, Chap 6, Chap 7
A random sample from the book appears at lower right each time you come to this site.

----  Jearl Walker
ps. If the biplane at the top of the page doesn't have sound and motion, download the free flash player from Adobe.com.

Flying Circus of Physics SpotlightFlying Circus of Physics Spotlight

Cell phones popping popcorn
Monday, March 01, 2010

For the last two years, videos such as this one have gathered huge numbers of views, partly because they are just unbelievable and partly because they are a bit scarey. Several cell phones (mobiles) are positioned around popcorn kernels. Soon after the phones are activated, the kernels ...

Flying Circus of Physics SampleFlying Circus of Physics Sample

Circular water-flow pattern in a sink

When a smoothly flowing water stream from a faucet hits a flat sink with an open drain, why does a circle form around the impact point, with deeper water on the outside of the circle? MORE

book

Designed by Optiem   Powered by Bonfire™ CMS