The Flying Circus of Physics is a book of questions and answers about curious events and effects of the everyday world. The "Spotlight" lead story and samples from the book are given below. At the left, click on the menu for the following:
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News/Updates: more new stories added around the first of each month. Many archived stories, all free. Many hundreds of video links, including me on television.
Topics: Click on a chapter and then the PDF icon near the armadillo to find all the new stories, almost 2000 links to videos and photos, and over 10,000 references. View them on screen and save or print anything you want, all free. To print something, highlight it, copy it (control-C), and then paste it (control-V) into a word document. Also, under "Physics for...", catch the minor adventures of physics major Jay Waller, who shows that physics is everywhere.
Blog: Links to photos of me (bed of nails and fingers in molten lead), messages to/from me. I would love new ideas and references.
---- Jearl Walker
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Flying Circus of Physics Spotlight
As of May 1, details of the new Indiana Jones movie (due out on May 22) are closely guarded, but speculation based on the released title is that it centers on the crystal skulls that first appeared in the hands of archaeologists and would-be archaeologists about 60 years ago. Such a skull . . .
Flying Circus of Physics Sample
Wintergreen glow in the closet
You and a friend first adapt your eyes to darkness for about 15 minutes in a closet or outside on a moonless night. Then have your friend chew a wintergreen Life Saver candy (a candy in the shape of a marine life saver and infused with the oil of wintergreen) with the mouth as open as possible so that you can see inside. Why does each bite initially produce a faint flash of blue light, and why do later bites fail to produce the light? (If you don’t want to eat the candy, squeeze it with a pair of pliers until it fractures.) Why does tonic water have a faint blue tint? MORE
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