Archive for category Physics
The First Meteor Shower of 2012
Posted by Mark Hewitt in NASA, Physics on January 6th, 2012
Tonight January 6th will be a peak opportunity to watch the Quadrantid meteor shower – predicted to be nearly 100 events per hour the sky will be spactactular. The Quadrantid shower is the result of left over rements of a comet that broke apart many centuries ago.
While it may be difficult to capture sky images with your Droid or iPhone – if you have a camera that can be programed set the lens to f/2.8 or better and on a tripod open the shutter until you capture with some luck a streak or two. Space.com is accepting amature photo submissions and I’m sure there will be some great shots come in from all over the world.
Good Luck tonight and enjoy the night sky.
Why do we balance an egg on its end?
Posted by Mark Hewitt in Physics, Science and Engineering on December 21st, 2011
My daughter called today to obtain the correct window of time where during the Winter Solstice (and yes I know we normally do this during an equinox event) however she is correct that the gravitational pull on the Earth during the Solstice is just right for a few hours and you actually can balance an egg on its large end. (by the way official Winter Solstice is at 5:30 UT – or 12:30 am December 21st 2011 – EST) (and a PS for the EGG on its end urban myth – yes you can balance an Egg almost anytime however during these four events it becomes so simple that a child can do it)
So how did I get so lucky to have kids with such inquisitive minds? It all starts with the excitement around discovery and this has been quite a year. This year CERN has proven the mass of the Higgs boson particle and proven that particles do actually travel beyond the speed of light.
I won’t get into a long dissertation of how important these discoveries are to our everyday life however believe me your life is about to change as a result of exactly how we can now use these discoveries to unmask the physics of everything. Read the rest of this entry »
Sustainability
Posted by Mark Hewitt in Broadband, Broadband Stimulus, Cooperatisim, Earth Day, Economy, Physics on July 27th, 2011
by Mark Hewitt
May you live in interesting times… an old Chinese saying that sometimes is called a curse; and as I watch our political leadership mire itself in their own self-interest jockeying for position as to which political party will survive the 2012 election at the expense of not only our economy; at the expense of lives and our future.
This process however is as predictable as knowing that the Sun will rise in the East; Interesting to realize that the only way to succeed at the point of the greatest level of complexity in a society is to not play the game. I hope that most of you have had the opportunity to read some of the work from Physicist Geoffrey West who properly states Read the rest of this entry »
The “End” is NOT near….
Posted by Mark Hewitt in Broadband, Cooperatisim, Economy, Physics, Science and Engineering on April 13th, 2011
by Mark Hewitt
14 quantum bits
I got into a conversation the other day reguarding how close we are to the upper limits of fiber and broadband so I thought I might examine this with a closer eye to the future of Broadband.
A simple statement clearly shows us why this is important ”Broadband is one of the cornerstones of our Economy”
I would argue that the foundation of any Economy is energy however from that point forward it becomes Communications and Transportation; the availability of a work force and proximity to resources simply follow the three pillars of any economic system.
It is widely assumed that the physical limits of optical fiber are confined by the frequency limits of light waves or 12.5 THz and while we are still not nearly there yet it doesn’t seem far away as I have seen reports of Read the rest of this entry »
What you don’t know can hurt you!
Posted by Mark Hewitt in Economy, Health & Wellness, Physics, Science and Engineering on April 13th, 2011
However what you think you know that is incorrect can destroy you.
Question Everything
Never before in human history have we had so much access to each other and to information. The Internet has become the great equalizer granting the most common amongst us access to rich and useful information. It is though a world of information and knowledge riddled with miss-conceptions; errors; omissions; and sometimes intentional misleading facts.
For example:
- The Flat Earth – hmm guess science showed them
- July 4th – actually the Declaration of Independence did not occur on July 4th, 1776 – it was signed on August 2nd, 1776
- Sushi – is not raw fish rather the type of rice folded with vinegar, salt and sugar.
- Lemmings do not engage in mass suicidal dives off cliffs when migrating
- Bats are not blind
- Sugar does not cause hyperactivity in children Read the rest of this entry »
What does Apple and BP have in common?
Posted by Mark Hewitt in Broadband, Physics, Science and Engineering on July 3rd, 2010
iPhone 4 Antenna
by Mark Hewitt
I could only guess why Apple did the antenna design they used for the iPhone 4 however I can guess that it most likely had to do with an attempt to not violate the Nokia patent. The engineering mistake that placed the dual antenna arrays on the outside edge of the iPhone is a first year product engineering mistake – one that I would not assume Apple made due to lack of senior engineering expertise. We knew this kind if design was flawed at Motorola in the early 90′s and Nokia was the first to lead the Cell phone market with it’s famous body antenna design.
Apple and HTC have been hammering away at each others patent portfolio when most of the actual intellectual property patents are completely obvious to any designer in the industry. I would expect they will wipe out each others patent claims and in light of the recent Biliski case Read the rest of this entry »
Earth Day – what we have learned
Posted by Mark Hewitt in Broadband, Cooperatisim, Earth Day, Economy, Health & Wellness, Physics on April 17th, 2010
by Mark Hewitt
Earth Day Coopertisim
April 22nd 2010 On this auspicious 40th anniversary of Earth Day I would like to take a moment and reflect not only on how important Earth Day is to our growing awareness of how important Mother Earth is to our quality of life but also to reflect on our own evolution and perhaps even speculate on what one possible future may bring.
Earth Day did not just happen, it was an eight year journey seeded in the grass root movements growing from the Viet Nam war and Read the rest of this entry »