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Physics Facts

The Physics of Sandcastles

Give a plastic bucket and a shovel to a child, then turn her loose on a beach full of sand. She'll happily toil the day away building the sandcastle to end all sandcastles. It's pure fun. It's also ... Continue reading

So much going on in a grain of sand.

Single Molecule Electroluminescence

Incandescence and luminescence are two main ways of producing light. In incandescence, electric current is passed through a conductor (filament of a light bulb for example). The resistance to the ... Continue reading

(A) Silver oxide film exposed to DC current; (B) activated regions emitting light when conected to AC current; (C) zoom shows single molecule electroluminescence

When Do We Encounter Ionizing Radiation In Our Daily Lives?

Everyone who lives on this planet is constantly exposed to naturally occurring ionizing radiation (background radiation). This has been true since the dawn of time. The average effective dose ... Continue reading

Bizarre Boiling

The next time you're watching a pot of water boil, perhaps for coffee or a cup of soup, pause for a moment and consider: what would this look like in space? Would the turbulent bubbles rise or fall? ... Continue reading

Without buoyancy, the vapor produced by boiling simply floats as a bubble inside the liquid after the heating has stopped. Surface tension effects cause the many small bubbles produced to coalesce into one large sphere.