Category Archive

Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Ask The Physicists”

Ask the Physicists: Are the dimensions of space constant? Is today’s metre the same as tomorrow’s meter?

We got the following question on our Ask The Physicists Facebook page that really got some heads scratching at our end: Are the dimensions of space constant? Is todays metre the same as tomorrows meter? The thought was that, if everything were expanding or contracting uniformly on an absolute scale, an observer embedded within the expanding or contracting matrix would ...

Ask the Physicists: Inspiring girls in engineering

I got a call from a mother with a daughter in year 10 that is keen on engineering and who wanted some help to find programs/initiatives to help her daughter learn and understand more about engineering and how to become one. Among ideas of seeking work experience with FLEET or getting their school to organize a lab and educational tour ...

Ask The Physicists: Did I destroy my friend’s TV with a magnet?

This question popped into the Ask The Physicist’s inbox this week. Dear Ask the Physicists. In 1995, I might have ruined my best friend's TV by waving a magnet on the screen. She was really upset. Was I really at fault. Could I have done something to fix it? We are talking about 1995 here and we can confirm that ...

Ice Ice Baby, Let it snow, let it snow….What is it?

Making snowflakes, the science of ice and freezing, and festive-like experiments that you can try at home. OK, we don’t normally get snow in Australia at Christmas, but we do like to put ice in our drinks on the hot Summer days, so why not talk about the snow and ice. Afterall, Winter is coming… But here’s the thing, we ...

Bicycle, bicycle. I want to ride my bicycle, but which wheel travels further?

This is a wheely tricky question. If a bicycle has identical wheels (same rims, tyres, etc), over any set distance does one wheel do more rotations than the other or do both wheels do the same? That is, let us say we make a cyclist pedal 5 kilometres. Does the front wheel or back wheel go around more times (go ...

Ask the Physicists: Swimming in a lightning storm

It is a dark and stormy…day. Thunderbolts and lightning, very, very frightening. Mama Mia. And you are out swimming. OMG! Got to get out of the water and dash for the car. You are dripping wet as you dash to the car – lightning strikes the Earth everywhere. As you dash to the car, are you in greater danger from ...

Making metal stuff fly, levitation and the potential of superconductors

What follows is in answer to a question about whether we could make metal object fly without any help from engine-like things. If you live on Earth or anywhere that gravity exists, and you have mass (that is, you are made up of atoms and have weight), then gravity will always want to pull you toward the Earth. Actually, anything ...

Ask The Physicists: What is light?

We observe light all around us in the form of sunlight, from torches or fire, but what actually is light? Light is not actually matter – it has no mass – so in effect it can’t be seen. We can’t hold it or smell it. We can only learn about it by how it interacts with or affects things around ...

What is an atom? Like us, mostly empty space it seems…

I have found two things the younger students struggle to conceptualize about an atom: Students perceive that an atom is an atom – they are all one in the same; and they struggle to conceptualize the massive amount of space between the nucleus and electrons. I offer some ways to help students visualize/conceptualize the atom more accurately The basics Atoms ...

How do rainbows form?

For scientists, rainbows are a beautiful, visible manifestation of relatively simple optical physics. You probably know that a rainbow forms when the sun is behind you, and is low in the sky. And you may have inadvertently created rainbows when spraying a hose in bright sun in your backyard. You may not know that the same precise mathematical relationship predicts ...

What is electricity?

From the dawn of time we have witnessed electricity as a primal force of nature in the form of lightning. The ancient Greeks would rub amber with a cloth and get small electric shocks – the same static electricity we experience when we rub our feet along the carpet and then touch something conductive, for example a metal bench or ...

Does a soft drink can weigh more, less or the same after it is opened?

This is an easy one to test. Just get an unopened can and weigh it on some digital kitchen scales that can measure milligrams. Record the weight. Open the can and weigh it again. What happened to the weight? Weigh the open can again after one hour, and then the next day. What is happening to the weight of the ...