Why is it that you press down the guitar string closer to where you pluck when you play a high note? The physics of sound can explain such phenomena.
When you pluck a guitar string, you are essentially inducing what is known as a standing wave on the string. The plucked string is fixed at both [...]
Being a (slightly) proud New York City native, I couldn’t pass up this opportunity to share video that I watched this past Independence Day weekend. It’s an episode of the show “Man Made” titled Bridges of NYC (via Hulu). In its history, New York City has held consecutive world records for the longest bridge, and [...]
Have you ever looked at a car’s radiator or a computer’s cooling mechanism and wondered why they consist of several thin protruding surfaces? These protruding surfaces are known as fins, and they are key elements in effective heat transfer for components such as a radiator or a computer that require effective cooling.
What makes fins so [...]
While we’re on the topic of airplanes and things related to airplanes, here is an interesting article from The New York Times about a safety board meeting regarding US Airways Flight 1549, which landed safely in the Hudson River earlier this year as a result of an unfortunate rendezvous with some Canada geese (a bird [...]
Greetings! The semester is over now, and we are back. Many thanks to all you loyal readers and casual readers out there, and your patience during our recent “down time.”
We now return to the feature presentation…
It turns out that aircraft wings are specially designed to provide an upward lift force when the aircraft is moving [...]