Physics education research, electronic materials, and the musings of Christopher Moore, Ph.D.
Sep 28th, 2006
Written and produced by three of my former students (Kenneth Hall, Heather Kotwas, Sarah Chakales) the following video shows three superheros doing battle using concepts in projectile motion that they learned in physics class. They also poke fun at some of my quirks, specifically my use of made up words such as “detangify”, the manner [...]
Sep 27th, 2006
This is the first video in our homework problem solution series. It is a classic example of a one-dimensional motion problem most students would encounter in an introductory physics class. The problem: I go outside and climb onto the roof of the building. I drop a rock off of the top and with a stopwatch [...]
Sep 26th, 2006
Written and produced by my former student, Jennifer Seese, the following video provides an entertaining introduction to the concept of momentum and its conservation. Click play. If you do not see the video above, then you do not have Macromedia Flash. You can check out the video in Quicktime and/or download the latest Flash player [...]
Sep 22nd, 2006
A former student of mine, Daniel Casanova, wrote and produced the following video exposing the fraud that is centrifugal force. For an entertaining tutorial on circular motion, click play. If you do not see the video above, then you do not have Macromedia Flash. You can check out the video in Quicktime and/or download the [...]
Sep 21st, 2006
NASA scrubbed its “Teachers in Space” program after the tragic Challenger accident that led to the death of Christa McAuliffe. The program was reintroduced nearly a decade later, only to be slowed to a near halt along with the entire shuttle program with the break-up of Columbia over Texas. I was teaching high-school right before [...]
Sep 13th, 2006
Here is an interesting story about a group of teachers floating in freefall during the “Weightless Flights of Discovery” program, sponsored by the aerospace company Northrop Grumman in cooperation with Zero Gravity Corp. On one level, the exercise gives educators a chance to demonstrate the laws of physics in an environment like nothing on Earth: [...]
Sep 6th, 2006
I’ve just wasted about an hour playing on a new search engine called Trumalia.com. If you like riddles, then you’ll have a great time traipsing through their search engine. In addition to more than 2,000 challenging questions on topics such as art identification and the history of science, Trumalia also features several difficult enigmas and [...]
Sep 5th, 2006
Among scientists the title of this post is not at all controversial. But among evangelical Christians, the topic is open to debate. I’m currently working on a longer article about what is an isn’t science, but I thought I’d take a quick break and jump into this topic. It is important, because there is a [...]