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Saturday, April 10, 2021
Friday, October 25, 2019
James Lincoln to Portray Richard Feynman
As part of PhysicsCon 2020 - Celebration of Physics, James Lincoln (AAPTFilms) will portray Richard Feynman, accent and all, and give a 1 hour lecture on physics – with questions. The lecture will take place in the same Caltech lecture hall that Richard Feynman delivered his famous lectures in 1962-63. Richard Feynman (1918-1988) is often regarded as the greatest teacher of physics and brought colorful stories and eccentricities along with his enthusiastic instruction. In this lecture, Lincoln celebrates the mannerisms, energy, charisma, and gusto of the Nobel-Prize-winning professor as he might have been when he stood in the same place all those years ago.
Where did you get the idea to do this?
“I didn’t set out to set out to impersonate Richard
Feynman, but I have been studying his work for a long time,” says Lincoln. “As
I became a teacher myself, I learned more about Feynman the man, and I was
intrigued by his work on the Challenger Investigation; an event I remember. But
my favorite aspect has always been these lectures, and I wanted to actually
watch one to know more about how they were made.”
How did you prepare for
this lecture?
“I already had listened to all of the original audio
recordings of The Feynman Lectures on Physics, which are available on
CDs, and I got at my local library. These helped me understand what it was like
to attend these lectures, but also I became very familiar with the teaching
style of Richard Feynman. I was always impressed by Feynman’s enthusiasm for
physics and in the recordings, there are a lot of ‘Feynmanisms’ – quirks, tricks,
and untold stories - that didn’t make it into the three red books. I shared
some of these at a national AAPT meeting [American Association of Physics
Teachers].”
What makes you think you
can pull this impersonation?
“Well,
during my presentation I would often have to quote him [Feynman] and I found I
was able to imitate his voice and word choice quite easily. I have always done
voices and impressions, and I also did plays in high school, and of course I
make films. But Richard Feynman is a unique character to play because he was
also a great physicist. I think it might take a physicist to get this part
right. Hopefully, people will learn some physics as well as get a chance to
experience one of these historic lectures. I suppose that I am mostly doing
this for the fun of it, which is very much in the spirit of Feynman, and
probably the only reason he might approve of such a performance.”
PhysicsCon 2020 is set to
take place in the Feynman Lecture Hall of Caltech and features demo shows,
workshops, and other talks on physics.
Register to attend at
www.PhysicsCon.org
Wednesday, November 14, 2018
BLUE SKY IN A CUP
There are many demonstrations on how and why the sky is blue. But this one might be the simplest. In this video, Anna Spitz shows how to create a blue sky effect with just a glass of water and a drop of milk. It is called Rayleigh Scattering.
The AAPT Films Video: Blue Sky in a Cup - Starring Anna Spitz. Written and Directed by James Lincoln.
Of course, Anna Spitz has already hosted a video about the blue sky in this video from Arbor Scientific:
Check out more videos like these at PhysicsVideos.com
Friday, January 27, 2017
See Inside Your Own Eye and Hear Your Own Muscles
HOW TO SEE YOUR RETINA
The
human eye is not without its flaws. Some
of these include the blind spot, poor peripheral vision, and the fact that our
retina is covered by blood vessels!
Normally, these arteries are invisible to us, but they can be made
visible with only a cell phone flashlight.
In this video Anna Spitz explains how to use a
flashlight to see your own retina.
The experimental set up – only a gently closed eyelid
and flashlight are needed.
All
human skin is partially transparent to light, especially red light, and we can
use this to see through our own eyelids.
(This experiment works, no matter what skin color you have!).
To perform the experiment, turn a flashlight on and hold it DIRECTLY UPON your gently closed eyelid. Then wiggle the light as you look around with your eyes closed. It seems to work best when the light is near the nose.
A simulated
image similar of what you will see on the surface of your retina.
When
you succeed you will see several arteries emerging from a single location. This is the optic nerve. You might also notice a dark or grainy spot
in the center of the retina that has very few arteries near it. This spot is called the Fovea, the most
sensitive part of your eye.
A view of the author’s retina from a recent visit to
the eye doctor. Notice there are very
few arteries on the fovea, thereby not interfering with this most-sensitive
part of the eye.
The
optic nerve obstructs a small part of the retina from seeing. This location is known as the blind
spot. Our brains hallucinate a patch
over this blind spot so that we generally do not notice it.
The
fovea is darker because it absorbs more light, being the most sensitive part of
the eye. It is also the part you use to
read and see color. Generally, light
that is not landing on the fovea is quite blurry and the color vision is poor
peripherally. You can notice this by
looking at the wall and trying to read what is on the computer screen. YOU CAN’T DO IT! Even though you know there are words, they
aren’t legible. Also, at night, your
color vision is very poor so the fovea isn’t much help and your peripheral
vision is just as good as your central vision.
As
a final note, everyone’s retinas are different as you will easily see by
comparing these pictures, or any picture of a retina to your own. Thus, you can use retinal scans as an
alternative to finger print identification.
If
you are surprised that you have arteries in your eye and have been looking at
them your whole life but haven’t noticed, then consider this test. Are you wearing a shirt? You didn’t notice until you were asked
because you are used to it. Similarly,
we don’t notice we have arteries on our retina until a light hits them at an
angle to which we are unaccustomed.
HOW TO HEAR YOUR MUSCLES
Another experiment you can do with almost no equipment is to hear your muscles. By simply putting your fingers in your ears.
Anna Spitz demonstrates that by putting your fingers
in your ears, you can hear your own muscles.
That
low frequency rumbling about 30 Hz is the twitching of the muscle fibers in
your arms. Muscle cells are fibrous
bundles that grow and contract. They are
all over the body, but they only do one thing.
PULL. Muscles pull on tendons. They are even pulling when you think you are
at rest. They are pulling repeatedly
just to hold you in place.
A microscopic view of muscle cells. All they ever do is pull.
Watch Anna Spitz explain how to hear your muscles in
this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5xlLaO8e-A
Flexing will increase the loudness of the muscle
twitching.
Many
people mistakenly believe that this sound is the flowing of blood, but this is
not the case. The twitching sound is not
timed with the heartbeat, and if you flex the muscle cells get louder.
Flexing
is when two or more muscle groups pull against each other. For example, biceps and triceps can pull
against each other and the arm will stay in place even through the muscle
fibers are pulling and pulling. The
repeated pulling action of muscles we call twitching. The frequency of this action must be between
20 and 40 Hz because that is the frequency we hear.
Anna Spitz attempts to listen to other peoples’
muscles.
Check out more videos like these at PhysicsVideos.com
Tuesday, April 19, 2016
Physics Video Tuesday - Electric Field Demos!
Physics
Video Tuesday April 19, 2016
Visualizing
the Electric Field by James Lincoln
For
as long as I have been a Physics Teacher, I have been interested in making the
Electric Field visible to my students.
This is IMPOSSIBLE because it is literally imaginary. Despite this challenge, I have researched and
demonstrated the best ways to display it.
What follows is a collection of videos I have created to demonstrate and
describe the Electric Field.
Perhaps
the best way to demonstrate it is with Potassium Permanganate crystals which
dissolve slowly on a damp saline cloth.
ELECTRIC
FIELD Visualized with Crystals
For
AAPT Films, I created a two-part documentary on all of the best ways I know to
demonstrate the electric field:
Ten
Ways to SEE the Electric Field - Part 1
Ten
Ways to SEE the Electric Field - Part 2
It
is not enough that we simply show the effects of the electric field, but we
must also know the rules of how it behaves.
Here are two videos I made for UCLA Physics on the Rules of Drawing
Electric Field Lines and Rules regarding the behavior of Conductors:
5
Rules of the Electric Field
5
Rules for Conductors
In
my research, I did create an original contribution to these demonstrations that
I think makes a classic work much better.
In this video, I have some more of my lettuce seed demonstrations. I have written an article about making this
yourself from a coat hanger and Styrofoam cups:
Lettuce
Seed Demonstrations
This demonstration is typically performed using grass seeds:
Grass Seeds Electric Field Demos
Monday, January 25, 2016
Physics Video Tuesday - January 26, 2016
AAPT’S
Physics Video Tuesday January 26, 2016
Sulfur
Hexafluoride and Helum – At the Same Time! Explained by James Lincoln
Sulfur
Hexafluoride vs Girl (Anna Spitz) by James Lincoln and Anna
Spitz
These two videos we made to feature some
of the demonstrations that can be done with Sulfur Hexafluoride.
The first was made by James Lincoln as
part of a video contest and the second was made by James Lincoln and Anna Spitz
as part of a video demonstration series.
Sulfur Hexafluoride is available from
Flinn Scientific, and should only be inhaled from a balloon, as should helium,
and never from the bottle directly.
OTHER
VIDEOS
Sulfur
Hexafluoride with Musical Instruments by Kyle Forinash
Using Helium and SF6 in a trombone and a few other
instruments.
Sulfur
Hexafluoride Deep Voice Gas by Steve Spangler Science
Spangler does the voice demo, and floats a boat on it,
as well as show that SF6 prevents sparks.
Related
Articles from The Physics Teacher
Helium & Sulfur in Musical Instruments: http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/1.4897582
Helium Speech - Applied Standing Waves: http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/1.3566028
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Monday, January 18, 2016
Physics Video Tuesday!
AAPT’S
Physics Video Tuesday January 19,
2016
Polarization
Physics: AAPT FILMS
by James Lincoln
Also included are explanations and instructions on how to succeed doing them.
1. Crossed
Polarizers
2. The Mechanical Polarizer (analogy)
3. The Construction and Axis of Polarizers
4. The Triple Polarizer
5. Light waves as vectors
6. LCD Screens
7. Circular Polarization
8. Stress in Plastics, Glass, & Packaging tape
9. Prince Rupert’s Drop
10. Reflected Glare
11. Glare on surfaces
12. Polarized Sun Glasses
13. The Polarized Sky
14. 3d Glasses
15. Malus’ Law (Angle vs Intensity)
16. Brewster’s Angle
17. The Faraday Effect
18. The Verdet Constant
19. Microwave & Radio Polarization
20. Projector Polarization
2. The Mechanical Polarizer (analogy)
3. The Construction and Axis of Polarizers
4. The Triple Polarizer
5. Light waves as vectors
6. LCD Screens
7. Circular Polarization
8. Stress in Plastics, Glass, & Packaging tape
9. Prince Rupert’s Drop
10. Reflected Glare
11. Glare on surfaces
12. Polarized Sun Glasses
13. The Polarized Sky
14. 3d Glasses
15. Malus’ Law (Angle vs Intensity)
16. Brewster’s Angle
17. The Faraday Effect
18. The Verdet Constant
19. Microwave & Radio Polarization
20. Projector Polarization
This video was created as part of the AAPT Films
Series.
The series is written, directed, and hosted by James Lincoln.
This particular video was funded by the AIP Meggers Grant.
The series is written, directed, and hosted by James Lincoln.
This particular video was funded by the AIP Meggers Grant.
OTHER
VIDEOS
UCLA Physics: Polarization of Light by James Lincoln
60
Symbols
Polarization (of Microwaves too!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM2TkM0hzW8
Circular Polarization:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quoySiCVFfw
Iceland Spar / Calcite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1oh3lXR5PE
Paul
Hewitt
Hewitt-Drew-it Polarization: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsrq4RTHJvc
Polarized Glasses Explained: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCE1JZ3bKMg
Related
Articles from The Physics Teacher
Polarized Glare:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/1.1517889
Microwave Polarization: http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/1.2340822
Malus’ Law (using Lasers): http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/1.880421
Model
of Polarizers: http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/1.3685128
Polarized
Projector: http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/1.2824007
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To submit a video or make a suggestion email James Lincoln: James[at]PhysicsVideos.net
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