Tag: curiosity

News Release: Buddy System

Posted on by Brian Garthwaite
“Where’s his buddy? They all have a buddy!”

We’re not arguing here: contingency plans in a potentially dangerous situation are essential. One can reasonably assume that any and all tasks undertaken by astronauts while naut-ing in the astro are, if not inherently dangerous, at least dangerous-adjacent. And, as that time Tom Hanks almost died in space taught us, you can’t call 911 from space and expect them to do anything about it.

In case you were curious: the first 911 call was in Haleyville, Alabama in February, 1968. The Apollo 13 mission went sideways in April, 1970. Presumably any connection between the two would have to have been routed through CAPCOM anyway.

News Release: Satellites

Posted on by Brian Garthwaite
NASA press release of satellites in orbit
It’s a space race score sheet!

April 14th, 1961: NASA publishes a list of satellites and space probes orbiting the Earth, Moon, and Sun, and it all fits on a single, ordinary, typed sheet of letter-sized paper. Twenty-six in all.

Just take a moment to marvel at that.

Now, of course, we (as in humans, not the physics shop) are still sending scads of objects into space, and NASA maintains the ARES Orbital Debris Program to keep track of all the crap up there.

Remember: wishing upon the burning reentry of space debris is just as good as on the remnants of comet dust!

News Release: Space Toilet

Posted on by Brian Garthwaite
Title: Bathroom Commode Design for Space Shuttle Passengers
Cannot overstate the importance of this project.

In cleaning out decades of old papers, attempting to determine what’s worth saving, one occasionally stumbles across the in-betweens: those bits worth remarking upon, but not worth keeping.

For those who’ve kept up on reading Mary Roach’s books, the importance and extreme engineering challenges of making a good space toilet are immense. Suffice to say, the problem was far from solved in 1972.

Fire Pit

Posted on by Brian Garthwaite
Embers in process.

S’mores! Pretty much everyone likes s’mores, and they’re a great excuse to get outside and be social. And to make a cozy fire on an October evening.

Of course, if you also attempt to do this with physicists, the discussion is bound to turn to fluid turbulence and vortices and all of that…

In case you were wondering: there is a version of this which involves watching the fluid flow with lasers, because of course they have another way to play with lasers…

Meteorites

Posted on by Brian Garthwaite
Meteorite.
Dense.

In our cabinet of meteorites – because everyone has one of those in an odd corner, right? – we have a number of surprisingly-dense space rocks. You can’t really hurt them, considering they’ve already been dropped far harder than any puny human can manage, so occasionally we get to pass them around.

Here we have the Plainview meteorite, from Hale County, Texas. Discovered in 1917, the original find weighed over 400 kg (a lot!), and our little chunk is a mere 184 g. Isn’t it adorable?

Constellations

Posted on by Brian Garthwaite
Triangulum on a celestial globe.
Triangulum, the Triangle.

For the most part, deciding on constellations is hard. A few really stand out (Orion, Cassiopeia) as do a number of bold asterisms (the Big Dipper in Ursa Major, the Teapot in Sagittarius). The rest of the sky, where there are stars but no super-obvious pattern stands out? Oof.

Picking all 88 sounds like a beastly challenge.

Still… sometimes it seems like someone just starting phoning it in in the end.

Triangulum and Norma on a celestial globe.
Norma, the Square, and a second Triangulum.

Declaring Norma to be a carpenter’s square isn’t helping your case.

Beats

Posted on by Brian Garthwaite
wobblewobblewobble

In acoustics, there’s a phenomenon known as beats, which is when two similar tones generate an interference pattern that sounds like a pulsing beat. It happens with waves of all kinds, waves being moving energy and all that, but sometimes it’s easier to really get the sensation when you hear it. Graphing out the sinusoids and showing the constructive and destructive interference helps explain it. Hearing that wubwubwubwubwub cements it.

We have what looks, at first glance, like a glockenspiel, with its metal bars all in a row. Tap one with the mallet, and it sounds almost the same as the one next to it. Almost. Tap two at once, and you get the beats.

At one end, it’s 440 Hz. Then 439, 438, 437, 436, and 435 Hz. Not only can you hear the beats, but you can very clearly hear the change in beat frequency as you combine tones in different combinations. It’s very cool.

Also quite unnerving after a while. woobwoobwoobwoobwoob

Compass

Posted on by Brian Garthwaite
Magnetic compass face.
North!

We have many, many compasses scattered about the department. The vast majority come and go as part of the toy kits for PHYS 212, tiny ones useful for illustrating the effects of magnetic fields. Probably more that than for wilderness orienteering. Note: a physics toy kit, despite its educational and entertainment value, is probably insufficient on its own for wilderness survival. Check with the fine folks at Outdoor Education & Leadership for that.

One of the entertaining compass demos is to array a circle of them around an unshielded wire, and seeing the effect of turning the current on and off. Half a dozen little red arrows snapping to attention never loses its neat-o quality.

There’s also this little gem, tucked away in one of our closets. Inscribed with a nice little dedication, reading “TO BUCKNEL / A FRIEND” on the side. Which, the longer you look at it, seems a little less clear each time.

Compass inscription.
Oh. Okay?

Maybe you had to be there? Interpret it as you will.

“The Perfect Cleaner”

Posted on by Brian Garthwaite
Capital Metal Polish can.
Buddy Brand!

Sometimes, stuff just lingers. It’s unclear how long it’s been sitting on this or any shelf, whether it has any use anymore, how on earth to dispose of it, etc. Of course, those odd objects tend to sport some of the coolest old labels.

So much to enjoy here! Buddy the dog, holding a flag with his name, but also helpfully labeled below as “Buddy,” just in case it wasn’t obvious enough. Directions for using metal polish on non-metallic surfaces, which – to be fair – might not be obvious. (Still mostly amounts to wipe on with a soft cloth, wipe off with a soft cloth.) The prime visual real estate for “Non-Inflammable,” which is an entertaining reminder of the flammable/inflammable quirk of the English language. What a country!

It’s not entirely clear if the yellow color was an original choice or has been caused by many years of aging paper.

Capital Metal Polish can back.
Seems pretty straightforward.

At any rate, the steel cap is thoroughly corroded shut, so there’s no telling what remains inside. Whether that corrosion is caused by or despite the contents of the Capital Metal Polish container, we’ll never know.