I have been introduced to a logic puzzle that was supposedly written by Albert Einstein. The version I originally read came from the Brain-Fun website. The story that goes along with the puzzle is that Einstein claimed only 2% of the population would be able to solve it. Some of the other people reading the […]
Funny Physicists on Television this Fall
If you are only going to watch one television show this fall… then watch something educational on the Discovery Channel or, better yet, the Science Channel. If you are going to watch at least two shows this fall, then add “The Big Bang Theory” to your list†. Last Tuesday evening I had the pleasure of […]
Force on a Charge in the Presence of a Conducting Plane
Perhaps the most common procedure in the study of any field of physics is to calculate the forces on various objects. Studying force problems in electrostatics is the foundation for developing a strong understanding of electrodynamics. In this topic an example calculation of the force on a charged particle in a system with another particle […]
Sample of Frequently Used LaTeX Items
Introduction I use LaTeX to write any documents that require the display of mathematics. In fact, since I will be writing my thesis in LaTeX, I am creating experiment summaries and analysis notes with it. Since I use some options very often it was worthwhile to create a simple template document. The template is the […]
Signal Decomposition Using Farge Wavelet Method
Wavelet analysis is becoming ever more popular in plasma and fusion research, though the methods have been known and applied in other fields (such as image processing and the monitoring of electrical power systems) for some time. In 2006 the following paper detailed a method for separating a time signal into its coherent and noise […]
UCLA Physics Featured in Physics Today
The UCLA Department of Physics and Astronomy is featured in the May 2007 issue of Physics Today. While the department is often featured in this publication, the May issue is the first time that I have had anything to do with it. A photo, shown below, from the PHYS 180E course (undergraduate plasma lab) is […]