Applied Physics

Scientists have developed a soap composed of iron rich salts dissolved in water that responds to a magnetic field when placed in solution.  That's right, magnetic soap. But there is a practical…

When Electricians Were Opticians Up until the late 19th century there were very few practical applications of experimental findings concerning electricity.  Today, an electric circuit consists…

The Genius Of Georg Ohm Much of the genius of Georg Ohm is forgotten.  He is remembered mostly as the scientist who defined the relationship between electrical resistance, electric force and…

Ohm For Christmas The ohm is the unit of electrical resistance.  It is named in honor of the genius of Georg Ohm, who figured out that the flow of electricity in materials from a 'hot' source…

Scientists aren't sure what causes clogs in flowing macroscopic particles, like corn, coffee beans and coal chunks. But new experiments suggest that when particles undergo shear strain, they jam…

Researchers have developed what they are billing as the world’s lightest material. With a density of 0.9 mg/cc, it is about one hundred times lighter than Styrofoam™.  The new material redefines…

Loudspeakers have improved a lot in the last 50 years but one pesky issue has remained; dead spots.    Modern oudspeakers can be designed to deliver the full frequency range of audible…

Electrocrystallization, electric-field-induced phase transformation, predicts that under the influence of sufficiently high electric fields, liquid droplets of certain materials will undergo…

Efforts have long been underway to make the Système Internationale d'unités (SI Units) more accurate. If you know your science history, SI units were devised during the French Revolution as an…

We like to think some things are constant, like temperature, and they are as long as everyone agrees.  That does not mean they are accurate.  The metric system is a famous example of a…