Daily post on science and medicine from @JohnDCook

Houston
Joined January 2012
Include

Only show posts containing:

Exclude

Hide posts containing:

Time range
-
Minimum likes
Vacuum tubes were first called 'valves' because they act analogously to valves on water pipes.
3
938
Low-frequency radio waves travel better than high-frequency waves through salt water.
1
1
10
1,344
Covalent bonds form when two atoms share one or more pairs of electrons.
7
1,174
Charles Steinmetz (1865 - 1923) introduced the use of complex numbers in analyzing AC circuits.
10
1,051
Oddo–Harkins rule: elements with an even atomic number are more common than those with odd atomic number
1
5
1,226
Jupiter's Great Red Spot is twice the size of Earth.
4
644
FM radio is analogous to sending messages with a flashlight by varying the color of the light.
1
5
1,322
AM radio is analogous to sending messages with a flashlight by varying the brightness of the light.
1
4
1,200
Differential equation for LRC circuit has exact same form as a mass-dashpot-spring mechanical system.
1
2
13
1,299
'Water continually dropping will wear hard rocks hollow.' -- Plutarch, c. 100 AD
2
3
1,109
Faraday discovered in 1831 that changing magnetic fields generate electric currents.
10
1,289
Science and Medicine retweeted
A useful way to tell African and Indian elephants apart
94
639
41
20,476
538,714
Oersted discovered in 1820 that electric currents generate magnetic fields.
1
3
1,100
'It's not so easy to free oneself from the idea that coordinates must have an immediate metrical meaning.' -- Albert Einstein
2
3
1,170
There were several competing theories of E&M during Maxwell's lifetime. Maxwell's theory triumphed a decade after he died.
1
3
1,157
Kinetic energy = 1/2 mass * velocity²
2
1,282
Maxwell published the laws of E&M as 20 equations. Now in modern notation they are four equations.
1
1
4
1,188
Technicium is mostly man-made, though traces have been found in nature.
1
2
1,291