@sstoneb
Your basic child of the 80s nerd. I love #Transformers and #ITeachPhysics in Massachusetts. Posts prior to July 2023 were imported from Twitter using BlueArk's service. Mastodon: https://retro.pizza/@sstoneb
So sort of like stating the slope of the line it is parallel to, and then which direction along that line?
That obviously COULD be reduced down to one value, but it’s interesting to hear that they typically talk about them as two.
Just below Yoshi near the logo.
A great illustration for students about planes having TWO normal directions and the importance of a convention to define which one is which.
(The guy they interview, Tim Cook, was at BU when I did my brief astro grad school stint there and I remember the Terriers mission being under development.)
Today I Will Look The Burrito Man In The Eye and other stories of manifesting success
Ever wondered who the people behind NYC’s street names are?
A new interactive map reveals the stories behind 2,500 co-named street signs honoring famous New Yorkers—and unsung heroes—across the five boroughs.
Check it out here: on.nyc.gov/4iIjQvY
did u know new sata ssds are mostly empty inside but just the right size for a custom enclosure
I joked to some friends that I relate to the part where the chimps sorted a pile of pebbles into crystal and non-crystal categories.
Here's a #GiftLink to a charming little NYT article: Chimpanzees Are Really Into Crystals
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/04/s...
Oh, the video is now up! It's about solar neutrinos. So wonderful to see her talking physics again. #ITeachPhysics #SciComm
www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3m3...
The Adventures of Prince Achmed, the Oldest Surviving Animated Feature Film, Is Now in the Public Domain (1926) www.openculture.com/2026/03/the-...
What's scary about this story is the surveillance it hints at. This trans woman had changed her name, legally, but chose not to change her gender marker. She was apparently flagged in the DMV system as trans and her license was invalidated under a law that supposedly only concerned gender markers.
Never heard of this thing before Steve Mould's new video: vortex tube. A device with no moving parts that separates an incoming stream of air into two output streams, one warmer and the other cooler. #ITeachPhysics #SciComm
www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_Ja...
At long last we have created WOPR, the AI that thinks about nothing but World War III and decides on its own whether the USA will engage in said war, as imagined in the classic 80s film WarGames, or "Why Nobody Should Have A WOPR".
BlueSky your watch for today is the nineties UK TV version of Macbeth for schools. Starring Shaun Pertwee, Greta Scacchi and Shane Ritchie (among others).
It is the most nineties Shakespeare adaption ever. And i have unironically loved it since it first aired.
youtu.be/xiKaGQmYo0A?...
Try disabling all your extensions and see if it still happens?
... he continued... "why doesn't martian manhunter just shrink into a subatomic-sized particle with the same mass as a dragon and suck the Hawkpeople into the black hole he creates"
damn, son
Report provides helpful data showing what we knew: students do not feel faculty impose their beliefs on them. Cost of college matters. My additional explanation: the wedge driving public perception of college is anti-black/brown/LGBTQ/intellectual discourse.
www.insidehighered.com/news/student...
I suppose the course audit process could be used to require—on paper at least—certain sorts of readings. But in physics at least (my subject) the audit has basically no validity, it’s just an honor system to protect CB.
I have many issues with the College Board, but I wonder if it’s even possible to write to write an exam which can be administered widely for which this isn’t true? “It’s not and that means APUSH shouldn’t exist” is a valid answer of course.
He really said "I love your spirit, but also people should own homes. Mmhmm, that's a good point you make, but also hoarding real estate costs people lives. Yeah, the snow is beautiful but you know what else is beautiful? Having a roof between you and it."
🤣🤣🤣👑
"Love comes quickly", one of Neil and Chris's personal favourite PSB songs, was released as a single 40 years ago today.
#OnThisDay #PetShopBoys
BREAKING: A push to name one of Chicago’s snowplows “Abolish ICE,” clearly linking the humorous pun to efforts to oppose President Donald Trump’s mass deportation effort, won the city’s annual snowplow naming contest, officials announced. @wttw.bsky.social
This graph helps show why that's bad! The KE and p equations have different solution sets. Their intersection represents the elastic case, but in general they differ.
With the shading turned on it can help show why a completely inelastic collision can't (in general) remove all KE from a system.
Part of a Desmos graph. A green elliptical area is shaded, with a hole in the middle. Various colored lines pass through it at different places and angles.
In my graph you can also turn on shading to show the energetically-permitted final states. (Assuming no hidden energy is released and you aren't lowering the KE below a stick-together value.)
My students often use a constant-KE method even without knowing if the collision is elastic. #ITeachPhysics
And, I made some updates to my own 1D collisions graph! It illustrates solution sets in a v1 v2 phase space.
You set the masses and initial velocities, and it shows the solutions (as a function of v1f) found from different procedures.
www.desmos.com/calculator/b...
He hasn't posted here lately, but on the PrettyGoodPhysics list @danhosey.bsky.social shared a neat #Desmos graph he made about 1D collision outcomes based on mass ratio and elasticity:
www.desmos.com/calculator/x...
It emphasizes the continuous changes as you adjust the sliders. #ITeachPhysics
Please forgive another little push for Generation Mechs: Transformers Fan Culture in the 90s, which is available to order until the end of March. New photos attached. The book doubles as a meticulous account of Transformers in the 20th century, commercially and culturally
Let's try this again 👋
Hi Bluesky - I'm Massachusetts' Attorney General. You might know me from suing President Trump nearly 50 times, beating Uber and Lyft in court, or being the first woman of color elected to statewide office in MA.
I officially left X today - help me find my MA people?
