Category Archives: Physics

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The Future: At the Corner of Close and Soon

January 3, 2014 Nicholas Gerbis Leave a comment

Somehow the future we get is never quite the one we were promised. Then again, sometimes the very ideas wrapped in the pages of sci-fi and Popular Science are right under our noses, in disguise. After all, we have hand-held sensor-communicators and miraculous supermaterials – they just take the rather mundane form of carbon-fiber-wrapped smartphones.

Maybe our blindness arises from our physical and electronic architecture. Has exchanging Googie buildings for Google caused us to overlook the flying-car equivalents that fill our everyday lives, or soon will? Read on.

Our 10 Favorite Replacements for ‘Where’s My Flying Car?’

Astronomy, Computing, Consumer, Electromagnetism, Engineering, Health, Imaging, Internet, Physics, Science, Space, Technology

Laser Communications Gets a Zap(pa) from Moon Unit

November 25, 2013 Nicholas Gerbis Leave a comment

Lasers rank among the most vital and widespread technologies in the industrialized world, but for years they were considered a solution looking for a problem. One possible application lay in communications: Lasers, being of higher frequency and energy than radio, held the potential to communicate more information per second.

Fast-forward to October 2013, when NASA pulled off one of the most impressive proofs-of-concept in history. That month, a spacecraft orbiting the moon sent data 239,000 miles to Earth via a pulsed laser beam at a download rate of 622 megabits per second (by comparison, high-speed consumer data plans are usually measured in the tens of megabits). Everyone from cryptographers to high-speed Wall Street traders sat up and took notice. Sound cool? Read on as I explain…

How Laser Communication Works

Engineering, Geoscience, History, How To, Materials, Physics, Technology, Travel

Like a Bridge Under Troubled Waters

November 8, 2013 Nicholas Gerbis Leave a comment

A partially disassembled tunnel boring machine (TBM). Photo by Mike.

Between the years of 1825 and 1843 , through floods and financial failures, Marc Isambard Brunel and his son dug a tunnel under London’s Thames River. Our ambitions have grown since then, but the technology we use still bears a striking resemblance to Brunel’s shipworm-inspired device.

In this article, I look at some of the worlds most breathtaking underwater tunnels and delve into how they were constructed.

How do you build an underwater tunnel?

Auto, Consumer, Engineering, Green, Maintenance, Physics, Science, Technology, Top 10, Travel

Going the Extra Mile (on the Same Tank of Gas)

September 7, 2013 Nicholas Gerbis Leave a comment

Call it ecodriving, hypermiling or plain old frugality, people today are trying every trick they can think of to wring a few extra miles from a drop of gas. Unfortunately, most fuel-saving tips range from the dubious to the downright dimwitted. Even the ones that work — such as making only right turns — veer into the ridiculous. In this Top 5 list, I’ve separated the classics from the clunkers and saved you the trouble of doing your own Mythbusters episode. Read on to discover….

Everyday Driving Tips to Save Fuel

Baseball, History, How To, Physics, Sports

The Art of the Bunt: Deconstructing Dickey’s “Tricky Hit”

July 7, 2013 Nicholas Gerbis Leave a comment

Aki Iwamura lays down a bunt. Photo by imagesbyferg.

Bunting, says Bill James of Sabermetrics fame, is “the only play in baseball that both sides applaud.” But years ago, every player – even sluggers like Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle – used bunting as a fundamental part of the game, and some coaches still prefer the bankable bunt when it comes to advancing runners, especially when a weak hitter steps to the plate.

Whatever your viewpoint, there’s little doubt that bunting is an art. Read on for the ins-and-outs of this venerable and controversial technique.

How Bunting Works

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