Two visual demonstrations of levitation, each using known physics properties: 1. Using sound waves to levitate particles [REFERENCE: “Three-dimensional Mid-air Acoustic Manipulation by Ultrasonic Phased Arrays,” Yoichi Ochiai, Takayuki Hoshi, Jun Rekimoto, (2013) arXiv:1312.4006.. Thanks to @BetsytheDevine for bringing this to our attention.]: 2. The Ig Nobel Prize-winning levitation of a frog, using magnets [REFERENCE: “Of […]
Tag: frog
A mathematical look at frog choruses
A further attempt to understand croaking: “Spatio-Temporal Dynamics in Collective Frog Choruses Examined by Mathematical Modeling and Field Observations,” Ikkyu Aihara, Takeshi Mizumoto, Takuma Otsuka, Hiromitsu Awano, Kohei Nagira, Hiroshi G. Okuno and Kazuyuki Aihara, Scientific Reports, vol. 4, Article 3891, January 27, 1014. The authors, at Brain Science Institute, RIKEN and Kyoto University, and […]
A Measured Celebration of the Jumping Frog
Mark Twain’s short story “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” became the jumping off point, more than a century after the story was written, for a scientific study of frog-jumping performance: “Chasing maximal performance: a cautionary tale from the celebrated jumping frogs of Calaveras County,” Henry C. Astley, E.M. Abbott, E. Azizi, R.L. Marsh […]
Geim’s surprises about (1) materials and (2) a historic hamster
Andre Geim, interviewed in YourIs, reveals two surprises, one speculating about materials he intends to study, the other about the existence of a predecessor to the celebrated levitating frog: Andre Geim: graphene is only the beginning Andre Konstantin Geim is the only person who ever received both a Nobel and an Ig Nobel [editor’s note: this almost — but not […]