Hobbies
Playing With Electricity – Part 3
“Your nose will grow…” I’m sure that we can all recall some of these admonitions from our youth: “Keep looking like that and your face will stick!” – Why? To what? Surely that isn’t in [more…]
Physics
Hobbies
Playing With Electricity – Part 2
T.I.B Or Not To T.I.B? PersonX: “Doc, can you just have a look at the vacuum cleaner it’s making a funny noise?” Doc: “Err…well..err…you see I’ve got…err…an appointment with the dentist…” PersonX: “There’s no mention [more…]
Hobbies
Playing With Electricity – Part 1
Sponsored Introduction – SPAD Report Sir Montague Snoddgrass KC the special advisor to the Prime Minister’s Secretary’s budgie, Fred, has replaced his cleaner with a newer model. The old one, Elsie Dustall sucked-up one of [more…]
20th Century
Is there life on (somewhere other than) Mars?
Once upon a time we knew our place in the universe. The science was settled and the experts agreed. The Earth was at the centre of the universe and everything we could see in the [more…]
Engineering
America
Richard Phillips Feynman
Recruited to work on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos, New Mexico under J Robert Oppenheimer, Feynman was also tasked with co-ordinating research and development between Los Alamos and the Oak Ridge Laboratory in Tennessee. [more…]
Engineering
The Helium-Neon Laser
Introduction In my laser articles Iv’e often mentioned the helium-neon (He-Ne) laser which I have used to align the feedback mirrors and make holograms. I thought that it would be remiss of me not to [more…]
Engineering
Yes, I Got a Heat Pump or, Why Greta Loves Me Longtime
Previously, on “Heat my House” My house is a fairly typical Swedish design, built in the 60s ( it’s 2 years younger than me) with hot water radiators. The whole house, including the heated cellar, [more…]
America
Notes from an American Road Trip
My wife and I recently drove just shy of three thousand miles to see friends and family in the American Midwest. We started just outside Philadelphia, located in the southeast corner of Pennsylvania on America’s [more…]