Rhett AllainWhat Is the Eigenvalue Problem and How Do You Solve It?This won’t make sense (yet), but the eigenvalue problem looks like this:9 min read·2 days ago----
Rhett AllainShould Students Take Pictures of Class?Let’s be clear. Students are going to take photos (and videos) during class no matter if it’s a good idea or not. But is it a good idea…·3 min read·5 days ago----
Rhett AllainPhysics Analysis: Penguins Jumping Off a Giant Ice CliffThere’s this super awesome trailer from National Geographic about penguins. Check it out.·4 min read·6 days ago----
Rhett AllaininPython in Plain EnglishSolving a System of Linear Equations with Python and MatricesThis is part of a series that I like to call “things that I will forget if I don’t write it down”. It’s how to solve a system of linear…·6 min read·Apr 29, 2024--1--1
Rhett AllainReal Life Projectile Motion: Peyton Manning Throws a Football From 23 Stories HighWhat do you do when you have a bunch of money to just do fun stuff and record it? Well, one option would be to recreate a 1920’s football…·9 min read·Apr 16, 2024--1--1
Rhett AllainHow Do You Stop a Massive Ship?It was a tragedy. There was a loss of life, huge economic impact as well as damage to infrastructure. Yes, I’m referring to the to…·6 min read·Mar 29, 2024--9--9
Rhett AllainWeb VPython Road TestLet’s suppose that you are in a physics course that includes some type of numerical calculations. Maybe that course uses python — but not…·10 min read·Mar 24, 2024----
Rhett AllainThree Awesome Scientific Discoveries From the Solar Eclipse.My first full solar eclipse was in August 2017. We piled a bunch of people in a van and drove 4 hours to see the eclipse. I thought it…·7 min read·Mar 19, 2024----
Rhett AllainWhy Is There a Connection Between Pi, the Gravitational Field, and the Meter?Here’s a fun one to try. Take out your calculator. Now use it to take the square root of 9.8 (remember that g = 9.8 Newtons per kilogram)…·5 min read·Mar 12, 2024--7--7
Rhett AllainSolving the Damped Harmonic OscillatorMaybe you have a solution for the harmonic oscillator. One example would be a horizontal mass on a frictionless surface connected to an…·9 min read·Mar 8, 2024----