Author: haroonkhan

Imagine you were stranded on a desert island with only a block of pure gold and a very, very sharp knife. Given that there’d be nothing much else to do, you might just take that knife and cut the block of gold in two. Having managed that feat, you might eventually get around to cutting…

We have now learned about the greatest triumphs of classical physics, summed up nicely by Newton’s laws of motion and Maxwell’s equations along with a dab of thermodynamics. We will see how eighteenth and nineteenth century physicists applied these concepts to explore the microscopic world—the domain of quantum physics. We will learn how scientists at…

Though he’ll be forever remembered as the father of electromagnetism, one of James Clerk Maxwell’s most famous lectures had nothing at all to do with this subject. In 1873, he addressed the British Association for the Advancement of Science on another topic close to his heart. He spoke of “molecules,” though he was referring more…

Today, we know that visible light isn’t the only kind of electromagnetic wave out there. The radio waves picked up by your cell phone and the microwaves that cooked your leftover meatloaf are both waves that fit into a broad electromagnetic spectrum. The only difference between these different types of waves is the rate at…

When Maxwell arrived on the scene, physicists had already learned that static electricity is created whenever they rubbed, say, a piece of amber with a rabbit fur. They had also discovered that a compass needle could be moved whenever a magnet is brought nearby. Given the very different nature of these effects, these two phenomena…

Now that we’ve given away the ending, let’s go back and explore the wave theory of light a bit further. First, we need to establish some basics about wave phenomena. Imagine sitting in a fishing boat on a perfectly calm and windless morning. Then, imagine that a speedboat whizzes suddenly past. Just after lamenting the…

Sports fans of a certain age will recall marveling at the versatility of Bo Jackson. Not only was he a star baseball player for the Kansas City Royals, he was also a celebrated football player for the Los Angeles Raiders. While many youngsters dream of greatness in one sport, Mr. Jackson managed to be great…

Sports fans of a certain age will recall marveling at the versatility of Bo Jackson. Not only was he a star baseball player for the Kansas City Royals, he was also a celebrated football player for the Los Angeles Raiders. While many youngsters dream of greatness in one sport, Mr. Jackson managed to be great…

Now that we’re familiar with the first prominent branch of classical physics, we will briefly explore the second. Only then will we have the perspective needed to truly appreciate just how wacky—and wonderful—quantum physics really is. We will meet a bearded man of greatness who brought two seemingly irreconcilable halves into a whole in the…

Newton showed us that the gravitational attractiveness of a body depends on its mass. We’ve also learned that a heavy object produces a stronger gravitational field than a lighter one. Our joke about midnight snacks notwithstanding, we’ve been treating mass as something that is constant and does not change. But surely, you must be saying,…