Fryeburg Academy Physics

Here’s a fun site when you have a few minutes.  It might help you on the SAT, and it could definitely improve your vocabulary.  For every right answer, they donate 20 grains of rice to the World Food Program.  Be a nerd and do some good in the world.

http://www.freerice.com

There are still those who are convinced that the Large Hadron Collider will destroy the planet… check this graphic for a status update.

Have you ever been in a discussion with someone who just doesn’t seem to respond to logic?

“There’s nothing in the water supply that causes rainbows; it’s a natural phenomenon that happens with any water and the right lighting,” you say.

“But the government is always trying to control what we think and say, so they must be behind it,” says dbootsthediva.

Notice how the response doesn’t really address the question?  This is what’s known as a non-sequitur, a response that doesn’t really have anything to do with anything at all.  This is just one type of logical fallacy, and if you do any amount of debating or intelligent discussionizing you should be familiar with these.

This link is to an episode of a podcast called “Skeptoid,” which addresses common beliefs from a skeptical point of view. This episode deals specifically with logical fallacies, non-sequiturs and the like, and is an entertaining way to spend a few minutes.  Read the transcript or listen to the episode (about 15 minutes), it’s worth your time.

Let me know what you think!

By the way a skeptic isn’t one who automatically doubts and discries everything; instead a skeptic says “Show me proof.”  If you listen to episodes regularly (you can subscribe with iTunes) it’s tempting to think that this guy doesn’t believe in anything at all, but he actually researches the topics and applies a little common sense. I can’t really find fault with what he says, even though I don’t agree with him on everything.

You’ve lived here on planet Earth all your life, but have you thought about it from a scientific point of view?  Here’s a list of facts that you probably didn’t know about your home planet, and if some of the information isn’t new I bet all of it is.

My favorite is that the Earth is smoother than a billiard ball; what do you think?

Big in the news this week was the activation of the Large Hadron Collider, the largest and most powerful particle accelerator constructed by humans upon this planet.  It’s intended to search for the Higgs boson, verify the standard model of particle physics, and do other cool stuff with really high energy protons.

There has been speculation that the collisions in the LHC will cause a mini-black hole, which will in turn destroy the planet.  I’m not all that concerned about it actually happening, and even if it does things will be over so fast no one would notice.  Which is why I think this website is pretty funny, and it made me chuckle.

Now the thing hasn’t actually made any collisions yet, which means no black holes.  The preliminary testing happened on September 10 2009 to make sure it works.  The first experiments with collisions will not happen until it’s officially opened on October 21, 2008, so we have at least a few more weeks to live.

Yesterday I asked what you thought about the pronunciation of “kilometer,” and if you’ve been paying attention in class you’ve probably figured out where I stand.  The video below is the reason for my choice of pronunciation, though I must that before I saw it I hadn’t given it much thought.  He makes a good argument, and while he has swayed me (and likely some others) I can’t say as I think it’s all that important.  No matter how you say it, people will know what you’re talking about.

There seems to be a world-wide debate over the pronunciation of a word used by many people every day.  The unit of length equal to 1000 meters can be said two different ways: ki-LOM-eter, or KILL-a-meter.

Which do you say?  Why?  Have you ever really thought about it before?  Please chime in, I want to hear what you think.

Here’s the video I showed on the first day of class. Like I said, I hope it makes all of you feel smart, and certainly by the end of my course I hope you are able to attack unknown phenomena with logic, common sense, and not assume everything is a government conspiracy.

I invite your comments!