The Physics Of Baking Pizza

For those who are purist and prefer the thin-crust, Neopolitano-style pizza, this one might be right up your alley.

This preprint on ArXiv tackles the question on whether baking such pizza is better done in a stone over rather than the standard metal ovens. Which one do you think will win?

Stone ovens heat up to very high temperatures, higher than typical home ovens. But ceramic or stone surface also has low thermal conductivity while having a high specific heat. It means that it retains heat longer and does not cause the dough to burn. It is why this is also the preferred way to bake rustic, crusty bread.

I guess we all just have to build a brick pizza oven in our backyards! :)

Zz.

The Science of Sports

With the Olympics in full swing right now, the Perimeter Institute has released a series that discusses the physics behind various sports at the Games. Called The Physics of the Olympics, it covers a wide range of events.

Zz.

Debunking Three Baseball Myths

A nice article on the debunking of 3 baseball myths using physics. I'm not that aware of the first two, but that last one, "Swing down on the ball to hit farther" has always been something I thought was unrealistic. Doing that makes it more difficult to get a perfect contact, because the timing has to be just right.

This is no different than a serve in tennis, and why hitting the ball at its highest point during a serve gives you a better chance at getting at the racket's sweet spot.

Zz.

The Physics of Mirrors Falls Slightly Short

This is a nice, layman article on the physics behind mirrors.

While they did a nice job in explaining about the metal surface and the smoothness effect, I wish articles like this will also dive in the material science aspect of why light, in this case visible light, is reflected better off a metal surface than none metalllic surface. In other words, let's include some solid state/condensed matter physics in this. That is truly the physics behind the workings of a mirror.

Zz.

The Physics Of Sports That "Defy Physics"

I love this article, and it is about time someone writes something like this.

Chad Orzel has a nice article explaining why the often-claimed event in sports that "defy physics" actually happened BECAUSE of physics.

Of course, as several physicists grumbled on Twitter this morning, “defied physics” is a silly way to describe these plays. These aren’t happening in defiance of physics, they’re happening because of physics. Physics is absolute and universal, and never defied– the challenge and the fun of these plays is to explain why and how these seemingly impossible shots are consistent with known physics.

What is being "defied" is one's understanding and expectations of what would happen and what looked seemingly impossible to happen. This is DIFFERENT than discovering  something that "defies physics", and that is what many people, especially sports writers and TV heads do not seem to understand. The fact that these people often lack any deep understanding of basic physics, but somehow seem to clearly know when something they don't understand well is being "defied", appears to be lost in all of this. It is like me, having never visited France or know much about the French people, making a claim that something isn't consistent with that country or people simply based on what I understand from watching TV.

I wish they stop using the phrase "defy physics" in situation like this the same way I wish reporters stop using the phrase "rate of speed" when they actually just mean "speed"!

Zz.

Football Physics and Deflategate

This issue doesn't seem to want to go away.

Still, anyone who has been following this (at least here in the US) have heard of the "Deflategate" controversy from last year's NFL Football playoffs.

Chad Orzel has another look at this based on a recent paper out of The Physics Teacher, this time, from the physics involved with the football receivers.

Most of the coverage of “Deflategate” has focused on Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, and speculation that he arranged for the balls to be deflated so as to provide a better grip. The authors of the Physics Teacher paper, Gregory DiLisi and Richard Rarick look at the other end of the problem, where the ball is caught by the receiver, thinking about it in terms of energy, an issue with major implications for the existence of atomic matter.

It certainly is another angle to the issue. I hope to get a copy of the paper soon and see what it says.

Zz.

The Physics of BB-8 Star Wars Toy

Did you get caught up with the release of the new Star Wars toys and merchandise this past week?

It turns out that one of the toys, the BB-8, is quite astonishing. Rhett Allain has an interesting article on how this toy works.

The last part on inductive charging shouldn't be a puzzle anymore, should it? I've had a tea kettle for at least 6 years that used inductive heating. So inductive charging shouldn't be unusual anymore, I would think.

Still, like he said, this might be a toy that could be a very good physics class demo.

Zz.

The Physics Of Air Conditioners

Ah, the convenience of having air conditioning. How many of us have thanked the technology that gave so much comfort during the hot, muggy day.

This CNET article covers the basic physics of air conditioners. Any undergraduate student who had taken intro Physics course should know the basic physics of this device when studying thermodynamics and the Carnot cycle. This is essentially a heat pump, where heat is transferred from a cooler reservoir to a warmer reservoir.

But, if you have forgotten about this, or if you are not aware of the physics behind that thing that gives you such comfort, then you might want to read it.

Zz.

More Physics Of Bicycles

I've already covered the topic on why a bicycle can be balanced easier when it is in motion many times in this blog. But here's another entry on this matter, this time it is a video from Minute Physics. Unfortunately, the explanation comes too rapidly for one to actually understand this simply by listening (you may have to play the video a few times).



Zz.

The Physics Of Tesla Home Battery

Elon Musk is at it again.

Rhett Allain has a nice article giving you some of the background physics you need to evaluate the effectiveness of the new Tesla's Powerwall home battery unit.

I would get this if it can be sustained for a full day with a single, full charge. So now I have to figure out how much my computers, entertainment system, freezer, refrigerators, and my central air system need! :)

Zz.

The Physics of Thor's Hammer

Not that you should take any of these seriously, but some time, entertainment reading like this can be "fun".

Jim Kakalios, the author of The Physics of Superheroes, has written an article on the physics of Thor's hammer. I think what I am more interested in is the details trying to explain the initial inconsistencies of what was seen (such as the hammer appearing to be too heavy for everyone to lift, yet, it isn't so heavy that it crushed the books and table that it was resting on). I think that is more fascinating because in many storyline, such inconsistencies are often either overlooked or simply brushed aside. To me, that is where the physics is, because someone who notices such inconsistencies are very aware of the physics, i.e. if such-and-such is true, then how come so-and-so doesn't also occur?

Zz.

How Modern Light Bulbs Work

A summary of how our modern light bulbs (beyond the incandescent light bulb) work, all in one place.



Zz.

Figure Skaters and Newtonian Physics

With the Sochi Olympics going on now, it is inevitable that articles on the physics of the various sports at the winter games will appear. This is one such article with an instructive video of Walter Levin explaining the physics of figure skating.

Zz.

The Physics of Whistling Tea Kettle

I kid you not.

I would think that, considering that this is quite common already, people would have known the intricate physics of the whistling kettle. Turns out, I was wrong!

Cambridge University researchers recently published a paper in the journal The Physics of Fluids, describing what’s considered the first accurate model for kettle whistling dynamics.

Think this is trivial research? It actually has more far reaching implications. According to the press release, these dynamics could be used to stop pipes in household plumbing from squealing or car exhausts from sounding, well, exhausted.

There you have it!

Zz.

Flames In Microgravity

This is actually an interesting video on the physics of flames, and the physics of flames in microgravity. It shows a flame experiment on the International Space Station.



Zz.

The Physics Of Toasty Buns

It's summer (at least, here in the northern hemisphere), and lots of outdoor grilling goes on. So what a timely article on the secret to getting proper grilling of food.

At high temperatures -- about 400 degrees and up -- a substantial part of the heat that reaches the food arrives in the form of infrared light waves rather than via hot air or steam.

The higher the temperature, the bigger the part that radiant heat plays in cooking. But this form of heat interacts with color in a profound way.
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A silvery, mirror-like fish skin is even more reflective than a white car. About 90 percent of the radiant heat striking it simply bounces away. Because only around 10 percent of the energy sinks in and warms the fish, cooking initially creeps along slowly but steadily.

That changes rapidly, however, as soon as the food gets hot enough to brown. It's like changing from a white shirt to a black shirt on a sunny summer day.

As the food darkens, that 10 percent of energy absorbed rises by leaps and bounds, and the temperature at the surface of the food soars.

So learn your physics to understand how to be good in grilling! :)

Zz.

Physics And Your Food Blender

I've mentioned several times on here on the effort to clearly demonstrate how physics is at work in the world of gastronomy. This is not entirely there, but certainly related to it. It is a Wired article on how the blender works, including a video that demonstrate what happens during its operation.

Question is, will it help me to make a better margarita? :)

Zz.

The Physics Of Pole-Vaulting

Of course, with the London Olympics going on, there's a lot of articles examining the physics associated with various athletic events.

This one is rather interesting, because it shows you the WRONG way of analyzing the physics of pole vault, and that using such a result will produce a ridiculously fast speed that a pole vaulter will need to clear such heights. Often, this is how we do physics, and when we realize that there has to be something more beyond what we currently understand. When the result of a current idea doesn't match reality, we have to figure out what went wrong - whether we didn't account for everything that's involved, or that our description is inadequate. In this case, it is the former (not accounting for the flexing of the pole), while our description (Newton's laws) is still valid.

Zz.

The Physics of Firewalking

You get a rather good article on the physics of firewalking, and you don't even have to pay $2000 for it. You get it for FREE! Such a deal!

Last Thursday, close to two dozen participants at a motivational seminar hosted by Tony Robbins suffered burns on their feet, while attempting to tromp across lanes of red-hot coals. So what did these burn victims do wrong?
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A layer of ash atop the coals serves as an additional protective barrier. Like the coals beneath it, ash is a poor conductor of thermal energy (so poor, in fact, that it has a history of use as insulation material in ice boxes). Add to this the fact that the ash is no longer producing any heat itself, and one can begin to appreciate how walking over a bed of 2000-degree coals might be possible.
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If I had to guess what happened with the people who suffered burns Thursday night, I'd say that they spent too much time looking into "the power within themselves" and "focusing on walking on the fire," and not enough time focusing on actually getting themselves off the coals.

Some time, some people shouldn't be saved from themselves.

Zz.

The Physics of Floating Pyramids

Or as the title of this article goes, it is the UNUSUAL Physics of Floating Pyramids.

It turns out that, based on the research being reported in the article, a top-heavy pyramid appears to be better at straightening itself out when it is floating on a stream of air from below.

The researchers placed hollow paper pyramids inside the cylinder. The objects were about 1 to 5 centimeters high and were made of tissue paper or letter paper on carbon fiber supports, like tiny homemade kites. Physicist Bin Liu led the experiments, attaching a beadlike weight to a post running down the center of the pyramid and changing the height of the bead to give the object a different center of mass. Common sense says that the pyramid should be most stable when the bead is at the bottom of the post, like ballast in the hold of a ship. But when the team released the pyramids over the subwoofer, the opposite was true: The bottom-heavy pyramids were likely to flip over and fall, whereas the top-heavy ones remained upright and continued to hover (see first video), the group reports in an upcoming issue of Physical Review Letters.

The video is available in that link. I'll keep an eye out on PRL and update this entry when I have
the exact citation for the paper.

Zz.

Edit: We have a synopsis of this work AND the exact reference to it.