Group items tagged

Bill Nye and the Discovery Channel give you the greatest discoveries in physics. Nye explores how the universe operates and why things move and work the way they do. He also explains the second law of thermodynamics, electromagnetism, and how superconductors can help accelerate particles to near the speed of light. He illustrates Albert Einstein's theory that clocks tick slower at the speed of light and even on an airplane, and discusses how E=MC2 helped develop nuclear power, the quantum leap, the power of electromagnetic energy, the structure of an atom, and the subatomic particles known as quarks.

"A report released late Thursday in London and discussed Friday at the U.N. climate conference in South Africa said that - in theory - reflecting a small amount of sunlight back into space before it strike's the Earth's surface would have an immediate and dramatic effect. Within a few years, global temperatures would return to levels of 250 years ago, before the industrial revolution began dumping carbon dioxide into the air, trapping heat and causing temperatures to rise."

"Building scientists have known for a long time that glass-walled structures are less energy efficient than the stone and concrete buildings that were put up forty of fifty years ago. But the market demand for glass combined with the relatively low cost of glass-wall construction means the building industry has been happy to oblige."

Throw-away Buildings Thermal Window Failure: How it Happens Virtually all glass condominium towers feature window wall systems (floor-to-ceiling walls of glass) enclosing the entire facade. Window walls yield spectacular views, but owners who buy a condo unit for the view may not realize that they're relying on a couple of panes of glass separated by less than an inch of insulated space to protect them from the elements. That insulated barrier will degrade over time, even as energy costs increase. On some buildings, five per cent of the thermal windows may have failed before they're even delivered to the construction site. Another 10 - 15 per cent will fail by the 20-year mark as they're exposed to the physics of heat expansion. By the 25 year-mark, a growing number will fail every year.

HyperPhysics is an exploration environment for concepts in physics which employs concept maps and other linking strategies to facilitate smooth navigation. For the most part, it is laid out in small segments or "cards", true to its original development in HyperCard. The entire environment is interconnected with thousands of links, reminiscent of a neural network.