Piecewise, some of the mysteries about stacking blocks reveal themselves (or get revealed). This study looks at some of the stochastic stability of some kinds of heaping of blocks: “Stochastic Stability of Random Stacking of Blocks,” V. Denoël, International Journal of Solids and Structures, vol. 305, 2024, article 113094. The author, at the University of […]
Many physicists like to drink coffee. Some of them like to write about coffee. Some of them like to write about things they notice while they look at a coffee cup. Here’s a new example of one or more of those things: “Science of a coffee cup: a physicist walks into a bar…,” Aleksi Bossart, […]
Another attempt to use physics to try to begin to understand the behavior of children: “Emergence of Social Phases in Human Movement,” Yi Zhang, Debasish Sarker, Samantha Mitsven, Lynn Perry, Daniel Messinger, Udo Rudolph, Michael Siller, and Chaoming Song, Physical Review E, vol. 110, no. 4, 2024, article 044303. The authors explain: “We observed two […]
What’s new in knitting, you might wonder after having wondered what’s new in sewing. Some physics is new, says this study: “Programming mechanics in knitted materials, stitch by stitch,” Krishma Singal, Michael S. Dimitriyev, Sarah E. Gonzalez, A. Patrick Cachine, Sam Quinn, and Elisabetta A. Matsumoto, Nature Communications, vol. 15, 2024, article 2622. (Thanks to […]