I came across this apocryphal puzzle recently, attributed to both Albert Einstein and Lewis Carroll, although there’s no evidence for either. Einstein is said to have asserted that it was impossible for all but 2% of the population: perhaps he used it to deter students asking for tutoring from him. It exists in a number of different forms: one of my advanced higher students proudly brought me his (correct) solution to one of them this morning. It took him an hour and a half to solve. How long will you take to solve this version?
There are five houses.
The Englishman lives in the red house.
The Spaniard owns the dog.
Coffee is drunk in the green house.
The Ukrainian drinks tea.
The green house is immediately to the right of the ivory house.
The Old Gold smoker owns snails.
Kools are smoked in the yellow house.
Milk is drunk in the middle house.
The Norwegian lives in the first house.
The man who smokes Chesterfields lives in the house next to the man with the fox.
Kools are smoked in a house next to the house where the horse is kept.
We all love Seasick Steve, the former tramp made famous when Jools Holland got him to play his blues on the 2006 Hootenanny TV show. One of his favourite instruments is the one-string guitar, known as a “Diddley Bow“.
A great lesson in the physics of sound can be had at all ages and stages by introducing the idea that to make a sound, something has to vibrate. Starting with twanging rubber bands and rulers, investigating the effect of changing tension and length, pupils can be set a great project to do at home – build your own diddley bo! A friend did this with her primary 5/6 class quite recently. Here are some of their instruments, and the master himself:
You can find more info on how to build your own over at One String Willie’s.
There’s a new TV series coming up very soon, made by Professor Brian Cox. It’s called “Wonders of the Solar System” and begins on BBC2 next Sunday, 7th March 2010, at 9 p.m. In it, Professor Cox ventures to some of the most extreme locations on Earth – including the tallest mountain, the bottom of the Pacific Ocean and the world’s driest desert – to paint a dazzling picture of a Solar System we are only now beginning to understand. Not to be missed!
Post script: there’s a children’s version of this series called “Space Hoppers”. It is being shown, also on BBC2, starting on Tuesday 9 March at 7:30 in the morning. More information here.
Here’s a brand new opportunity to join the Institute of Physics – for free. If you’re a physics student aged 16 to 19 in school or college, you can now join the IoP for free and get access to these benefits:
regular updates on what’s new in physics
exam and university guidance
information about careers from physics
the chance to interact with other young physicists
This is worth checking out as you begin the hard work you need to do to be successful in the exams coming up in May. There are some really handy tips and information about how to get the best out of your brain through knowing a little about how it all works. Check it out here or by clicking on the brain.
I had an interesting lesson in Physics today from an experienced roof and chimney man, Jimmy Simpson. He came to my house to check out the chimney stack, to make sure it was safe for a new stove.
The idea is to check that the chinmey isn’t blocked or leaking, so smoke is sent up the chimney to see if it’s OK, but before he does that, he uses sound:
Sound placed at base of chimney stack
What next? Then, he just nips up on the roof to listen to the sound. Muffled means there’s a blockage of some kind. Too clear down the other stacks and there’s a leak. Look at him go:
Up to the roof...
... to listen for leaks
After this, he lit a smoke stick at the base of the chimney to see it went where it was supposed to go, and didn’t, where it wasn’t. For once, something to be sniffed at.
Finally, one more trip up to the roof to give the flue a brush before cleaning up and calling the job done. Jimmy says I can go ahead and get my stove fitted.
Chim-chiminy, chim-chiminy, chim-chim-cheree, Good luck will rub off when you shakes hands with me!
Today is the anniversary of the Queen’s accession to the throne and there was a 21-gun salute from Edinburgh Castle to mark the occasion. You can see part of last year’s taken by video on the castle on YouTube. I happened to be down on Princes Street today, and caught a couple of the shots on video. Physics students should be able explain why you see the smoke from the cannon before you hear the bang. If the speed of light is 300 thousand kilometres per second and the speed of sound in air is 340 metres per second, can you work out how far away I was from the cannon?
The stunt is performed by a guy who claims to have invented a zero-friction material. If he’s right, all of the jumper’s gravitational potential energy at the top of the slope is turned into the kinetic energy of his motion at the end of the ramp. Make some assumptions and try to calculate the velocity vector of the jumper at the end of the ramp – compare your findings with the gravitational potential energy available and decide if it is at least theoretically possible to perform such a cunning stunt. If so, how much higher should the start point be, above the take-off point?
Here is my own argument for a solution for the Fermi Problem renewed in the previous post. Click on the thumbnails for each page of working… compare and contrast your own submission, perhaps.
We have winners of the competition, prizes will be presented period 2 Friday in my lab, M211.
