October at the main FCP site

October stories at the main FCP site: (1) As a World Series game was to begin in 1989 in Oakland, seismic waves hit the area. Part of the Nimitz Freeway collapsed, with an upper deck falling onto a lower deck. But the rest of the freeway did not collapse even though the design was similar. What happened? (2) Pub trick: several more ways of opening a wine bottle without a corkscrew. You know, when you suddenly need a drink while trapped in a hotel room after the hotel bar has closed. (3) The physics that explains the warmth in a greenhouse also explains why children die when left in a closed car in sunlight. While I was writing this story, CNN published yet another story about a child left in a closed car. (4) Friction welding, in which two metal surfaces are rubbed together hard enough to melt the surfaces, so as to form a bond between them when they then cool. Main FCP site