Ken's blog

we calculate the minuscule accelerations that the planets and other bodies gravitationally exert on the sun: a = F/sunmass = G*planetmass/r...

ball bounces along a flat surface, uniform gravity, perfectly elastic collisions with the floor.  trajectory is sequence of congruent parabo...

in an alternate universe, Gregor Mendel tries to understand genetics, but the traits he experiments on happen to be the result of viral infe...

what would we observe if the earth, or the solar system, passed though a dense cloud of dark matter? assume WIMP.  we would see not the da...

model a spherical solid as a lattice of atoms connected by springs.  let the solid's own gravity compress itself.  how much energy gets ...

e.g., accidentally set the number of dimensions in the universe to not an integer. ...to not a real number. previously, gods stupidly at...

model a real scalar field oscillating in space and time as a sum of cosines: f(t,x,y,z) = sum over i of a[i]*cos(b[i] + c[i]*t + d[i]*x + ...

is the 21 cm (1420 MHz) hydrogen line the easiest radio astronomy "target"?  not really a target if observing the hydrogen radiati...

order the objects in the solar system by decreasing mass.  what is the mass of object number N, where N is human population (currently 8.2 b...

solutions to the Thomson problem up to 12 points (excluding 11) have nice symmetry.  (though I feel that the solution for 1 point also lacks...

0 K = -273.15 C 10^-12 K = -273.149999999999 C 10^-11 K = -273.14999999999 C 10^-10 K = -273.1499999999 C 10^-9 K = -273.149999999 C...

project a dodecahedron onto the celestial sphere, then present each of the 12 faces as star chart images for a monthly calendar.  the images...

when not obliterating planets, which was most of the time, the Death Star emitter dish was used as a radio telescope by astronomers on board...

let (relativistic kinetic energy) = (relativistic mass-energy) - (rest mass-energy) (rest mass-energy) = m * c^2 let resq = "remain...

if we hypothesize that the 21 cm hydrogen line is produced by a half-wave dipole emitter, then this predicts that the hydrogen atom is 10.5 ...

now that Peter Jackson has established that New Zealand is Middle Earth, go on a real-life quest to dispose of a replica One Ring into some ...

when has a volcano's lava flow into water conveniently built a bridge over a gap that humans wanted to bridge? there must be evidence ...

a coined word in the style of walkie-talkie: sproingly-oingly.  not sure exactly what it should mean.  maybe chaotic motion of a system with...

the Moon has texture.  Venus has phases.  Jupiter has moons.  Saturn has rings.  there are many stars, much more than 7, in the Pleiades.  t...

volume of average human = 62 liter = 0.062 m^3 = 2.2 ft^3 = 16 gallon blend.  (but how much of the internal volume of a human is gas?) s...