http://www.flyingcircusofphysics.com/ The July stories are (1) the physics of tossing a pizza, including both the single-toss technique and the multiple-toss technique. (2) Dead water refers to a strange sea condition when a ship is stopped, even though it is at full power, the sea is calm, and there is neither wind nor current. What would it be like to swim across a region of dead water? (3) The pub trick of the month is about how to allow a ring to fall down a loop of string and end up tied in a ring hitch at the bottom. It is easy to do if you know how but stumps everyone else in the pub. The photograph here depicts part of the wrapping-up process. (4) Suppose you have two containers with equal amounts of water, and you heat one of them. Then you place both containers, one hot and one not hot, in a sub-freezing environment, either a freezer or outside on a cold night. Which will freeze first? Well, very surprisingly, the container that starts from the higher temperature can freeze first.

The June stories at the FCP site: (1) rattlesnakes versus squirrels and death, and how a decapitated rattlesnake can strike you. (2) why dry spaghetti always breaks in three or four parts, not in two parts. (3) pub trick --- how to hang a beer bottle on a wall. (4) why haboobs (giant dust storms) are electrified. (5) the catastrophe optics that appears in an illuminated drop of water. http://www.flyingcircusofphysics.com

www.flyingcircusofphysics.com The new stories for May include:

1. the optics of mirror mazes, including their virtual hallways (as shown in the photo here) and how maze monsters can hide in the mazes

2. the acoustics of blowing raspberries, or how you can do physics while also insulting someone

3. the effects of lightning hitting a car --- are you safe or are you in danger?

4. headbanging and other activities that lead to retinal detachment

5. pub trick of the month: blowing out a candle when there is a wide bottle between you and the candle.

The April 2009 stories at http://www.flyingcircusofphysics.com/ include

1. Robbie Maddison's remarkable jump onto the top of a structure that is 37 meters high and then down again. If he had not understood some very subtle physics, he would have died in the stunt.

2. Charles Taylor's strange one-wheel vehicle, balanced by gyroscopes. A video shows him tooling along a road.

3. Pub trick of the month. The very old pub trick of exchanging a shot glass of water and a shot glass of whisky without using a third container. There is some obvious physics and some not-so-obvious physics here.

4. Holding a cylindrical container on a table and then giving it a good flick with your finger results in a surprising landing on the table when it falls over.

5. The article of the month is about the physics and design of kaleidoscopes, including some very novel designs.

I gave The Flying Circus of Physics talk at a section meeting of the American Association of Physics Teachers in March 2009, discussing such topics as the Cheerios effect, the shower curtain effect, the teapot effect, and the tea leaves effect. I also showed a few photos from my collection of crack photos. No, I don't mean "crack" as in "really good". Rather I mean cracks in sidewalks, dried paint, ceramics, and solidified magma --- I collect photos of cracks. Now, that may sound pathetic (and actually it is a bit pathetic), but many material scientists are fascinated with the networks that cracks form in various types of materials that are under stress.

In the photo here, taken right after the talk, I am posing with Kevin McChesney who instructs at Pickerington High School Central in Pickerington, Ohio, and who is the District VI Director for SECO (Science Education Council of Ohio). You can visit his web page at http://fc.pickerington.k12.oh.us/~kevin_mcchesney/?OpenItemURL=S01D40775 The top button in his menu shows him with his hand on fire.

Kyle Taljan of Oberlin College stands on Jearl Walker while holding some of the books Jearl has written. Jearl, who is sandwiched between two beds of very sharp nails, is wishing he had written less weighty books. Dan Styer, a physics professor at Oberlin, looks on with mild concern. (Photo courtesy of Professor Jason Stalnaker, also of Oberlin College.)

For the physics of the beds-of-nails demonstrations, go to
http://www.flyingcircusofphysics.com/News/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsID=25

The February stories at http://www.flyingcircusofphysics.com/ include

1. Landing an airplane on water --- why, exactly, is it so dangerous and how did Captain Sullenberger do it so well?

2. "Hang on a minute, lads. I've got a great idea." How would you solve the greatest cliffhanger in movie history, the ending to the "The Italian Job" in which we last see Charlie Croker and his mates on a bus that dangles over a steep mountainside in the Alps?

3. How can you crush an exceptionally strong railroad tanker car in minutes with nothing more than steam and a really big physics mistake?

4. Why do penguins huddle in groups of many thousands?

5. Pub trick of the month --- balancing forks, spoons, and other objects on a match stick that straddles the edge of a drinking glass.

6. Article of the month: the strange acoustics in the whispering gallery in the dome at Saint Paul's Cathedral in London. A whisper can be heard a surprising distance if you face the wall of the gallery but not if you face away from it.

The photo here was taken by Tara Peppard as I was about to stick my fingers into molten lead (see the pot on the left) in front of my class at Cleveland State University. I am showing that I have all of my fingers intact, at least before I do the stunt.