Physics | Get Smarter, Solve Problems, And Make Your Knowledge Really Count

Logarithms: The Long Forgotten Story Of Scientific Progress

Published on January 14, 2022 by Hemanth

The story of logarithms: Portrait of John Napier on the left and the cover his book on logarithms on the right

Computing logarithms was not my favourite activity at school. It was much later that I understood the genius behind logarithms. In this article, I elaborate.

How To Use Science To Answer: “Should You Walk Or Run In The Rain?”

Published on January 11, 2022 by Hemanth

A stick figure image with dark clouds on top. As rain pours down, a stick figure walks on the left and a stick figure runs on the right. There is a red, circled question mark at the centre. Question: Should you walk or run in the rain?

When you are caught off guard, should you walk or run in the rain? I was four or five years old when this question first crossed my mind. This article answers..

How To Tell A Real Law From A Fake One?

Published on January 9, 2022 by Hemanth

Telling a real law from a fake one: A flowchart with "Observation" at the bottom. Observation leads to "Facts", and Facts lead to "Hypothesis". And hypotheses warrant "Experimentation". Experimentation leads simultaneously to laws as well as theories. Laws and theories intereact with each other as well as with experimentation.

When was the last time you believed someone quoting a so-called scientific law? Telling a real law apart from a fake one is a necessary skill.

What Really Happens When You Measure A Coastline?

Published on January 9, 2022 by Hemanth

How to measure a coastline: An arbitrary island with an arbitrarily curved and jagged coastline. The coastline of the island is drawn using a peculiar brown colour. The island is surrounded by blue water waves of the sea.

Say that you are tasked with figuring out how to measure a coastline. To do this, you are given a very detailed map of an arbitrary island. How do you procced?

What Is the Shortest Road Connecting 4 Cities?

Published on January 9, 2022 by Hemanth

Puzzle: Shortest Road Connecting 4 Cities. The image has 4 points: bottom left: A, bottom right: B, top right: C, and top left, D. The points together form a square that has a side length of 1 Km.

Say that you have been tasked with figuring out the shortest road connecting 4 cities. These four cities are located at the vertices of a square. What now?

The Thrilling Story Of Calculus

Published on January 9, 2022 by Hemanth

The story of calculus is seldom told in schools. Most students learn calculus as a rigid block of algorithms. This article aims to to change this situation!

What Is Special About Absolute Zero That Makes It Impossible?

Published on December 31, 2021 by Hemanth

An image of Bose-Einstein condensate to demonstrate what happens close to absolute zero

Absolute zero is the scientific term used to define the lowest possible temperature. But in practice, absolute zero cannot be reached. Why is this?

How Easy Is It Really To Predict The Future?

Published on December 31, 2021 by Hemanth

Image of a postcard trying from victorian Germany in 1900 trying to predict the future year 2000. People are seen to be flying using dragon-wing and bee-wing like contraptions.

It takes skill and knowledge to predict the future. In fact, most scientific methods revolve around this notion. Yet, we are unable to predict the future. Why?

Why Do You See Mirrors Flipping Words?

Published on December 25, 2021 by Hemanth

A photo explaining the concept of mirrors flipping words. In this photo, it appears that the text is flipped horizontally even before the reflection occurs.

Mirrors flipping words is a common observation, yet most of us don't know why. I represent our united curiosity about this topic and will be investigating it.

The Fascinating Reason Why Temperature Has No Upper Limit?

Published on December 1, 2021 by Hemanth

A Graphical representation of why temperature has no upper limit

Did you know that temperature has a lower limit of -273.15°C, and yet it has no upper limit? In this article, we look at why temperature has no upper limit.

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