Wednesday, January 05, 2011




Jan 2011 The stories this month at the Flying Circus of Physics web site are: (1) cars on ice, the 2010 video collection, but also the challenge about the physics of what you see, (2) liquid origami, in which a water drop causes a small plastic cutout to fold up to enclose the drop, and the parchment-paper effect (this may be a brand-new effect) in which kitchen parchment paper curls up and then uncurls when placed on water, (3) the putt-putt boat, the very old toy that involves a complex oscillatory motion, (4) the pub trick of the month in which you can make the paper sheath of a common straw momentarily crawl along a table, (5) my old article about the patterns that develop in seemingly random cracks in mud and other materials. At the Flying Circus of Physics Facebook site, I have posted the video where I explain putt-putt boats to Jay Ingram, the host of "The Daily Planet" show on Discovery Channel Canada.

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