Takahiro Wada, Normia Kamiji, and Shunichi Doi of Ritsumeikan University recently examined an application of a model of motion sickness incidence (MSI) (which Wada, Kamiji, and others developed in a 2007 paper) to vehicle passengers. They generalized earlier work by including more types of motion — especially head rotation — and they used the model […]
About: Mason Porter
Posts by Mason Porter:
Shepherd physics: Capturing a skittish lamb, using statistical physics
A trio of theoretical physicists have recently used ideas from statistical mechanics and probability theory to try to develop an optimal strategy for capturing a skittish lamb near a precipice. The situation that they model is an idealization of “the capture of a diffusing, but skittish lamb, with an approaching shepherd on the left and […]
“Finding a Mate With No Social Skills”
Computer scientists Chris Marriott of the University of Washington and Jobran Chebib of the University of Zürich recently posted a paper on the arXiv preprint server with the provocative title of “Finding a Mate With No Social Skills.” Well, that title gives many of us a lot more hope, doesn’t it? In fact, there is […]
The Physics of Water-skipping Stones
In stone skipping, one tosses a stone with a flattened surface across water (or other fluid) to try to get it to bounce as many times as possible. (There are also military applications, but let’s stick to the fun stuff.) A few months ago, mechanical engineer Tadd Truscott and collagues wrote a quick study on […]