What Are All These Science Equations? A Look at Some Jimmy Kimmel Decorations.
You know Jimmy Kimmel, right? What about Will Ferrell? Yup — you know him. There’s also Science Bob, but I don’t think his real first name is “Science”. Actually, his name is Bob Pflugfelder, he just goes by the name “Science” because I guess it’s cool.
So, here is a nice video showing some fun science demos from Jimmy Kimmel Live. Check it out.
I’m not going to go over the science explanations for these demonstrations (maybe I will do that later). Instead, I want to focus on the chalkboard int he background. Notice all those fancy science equations? Really, there’s two cues that shows use to “turn on science” — tons of complicated equations and lab coats. In this case, the lab coats are a good idea (they are a form of protection), but the equations are just decorations.
OK, I get it — you need a bunch of equations. I’ve even done this for episodes of MacGyver (but I always tried to use equations that go along with the scene).
So, just for fun — let me see how many of these Jimmy Kimmel decorative equations I can identify. Here is the best shot of the whole board (but maybe I can see more as people move around).
There’s a bunch of stuff here — so let’s get to it. I’m going to start from the left of the board and move my way to the right.
Magnetic Field Lines
You can see this in the image above. It shows a bar magnet and the magnetic field lines that you would get for a magnetic dipole. Yes, field lines point from the North pole to the South pole. There are two things in that diagram. One looks like an “n” pointing to the middle of the bar magnet. I think this might be representing the magnetic dipole moment. Normally, we use the symbol μ (mu). If that is indeed the magnetic dipole moment, it’s very possible that someone copied the μ as an “n” (I’ve had stuff like that happen to me).
There is another symbol at the bottom. I honestly don’t know what it is.
Rotating Disk
Here’s the diagram.
I’m pretty sure these equations go with the circle. The first one says that the sum of the forces in the y-direction is zero (this is from Newton’s 2nd Law). The other equation probably says that the sum of the normal force plus the perpendicular force is equal to zero. That’s sort of odd since “normal” means “perpendicular”. It might be better to say that F-parallel + F-perpendicular equals zero — but in that case, both F’s and the 0 would have to be vectors.
Now for the diagram. It shows a disk of radius R and a mass m_d (m sub d). The center of mass is a distance of h below some point (o) and there is something else a distance L (maybe it’s a string). Other than that, not sure about this one.
Oh, there’s also this thing. I’m not sure if it’s part of this problem or the electric circuit.
It looks like a velocity vector but it’s also very close to the circuit diagram. You decide.
Circuit Diagram
It’s a circuit — that’s for sure. The squiggle parts are resistors (one is even labeled as 5 Ohms). At the bottom, it looks like a battery with an internal resistance. The arrows probably represent the direction of the electric current. The x in a circle with the lines leaving it is a circuit symbol to represent a light bulb.
Maybe a Kinematics Equation?
This one is tough.
At first I was thinking this might be dealing with a ball tossed straight up with an initial velocity of v_i and an acceleration of g. If the ball is tossed up, you could get an equation like this:
But I’m not sure about the subscript “i” on the g. If it’s the gravitational field (g = 9.8 N/kg = 9.8 m/s²), then what is the “i” for. Normally, that means the initial value but g is usually constant. Then there’s the symbol φ (phi). This is normally an angle — so, I’m stuck.
Torque
I feel confident about this one.
The left side is the Greek letter τ (tau) for torque. On the right, it’s r*M*g*sin(π/2) = D*m*g. The r is the distance from an applied force to the point about which torque is calculated. Mg is the force (gravitational force) and the sin(π/2) is for the angle between the force and r. Below this shows the real definition of torque:
OK, I got that one.
Density (I mean destiny — no, wait)
Let me write this one out so it’s easier to see.
Physicists use the Greek letter “rho” for density (because we think it makes us look cool). This is defined as the mass (M) divided by the volume (V). The last part is a differential density. You would need this if you want to do some type of change of variables in an integration.
Planck’s Constant
Here it is:
They are probably trying to show the relationship between the wavelength of light interacting with matter in a quantum system. They probably mean to write this:
This says the change in energy is equal to hc (Plank’s constant times the speed of light) divided by the wavelength of light. I’m really not sure about the pi or phi at the end. Oh, here is a bonus for you — you can experimentally determine the value of Planck’s constant using LEDs (my post from WIRED.com).
Oh, notice that this equation actually appears twice on the board. Another version is at the very bottom.
Maybe Something About Electric Fields?
All I know is that the electric field is a vector (with an arrow over it) and usually represented by the symbol E. This could be some type of relationship between E and B (the magnetic field) however, that looks like a β (beta) and not a B.
Pendulum
I’m guessing here.
It has to be a pendulum, right? I mean it shows something with a mass m swinging on a string at some angle. I’m not sure about the integral of sin(theta) cubed from 0 to pi. Weird. Also, there is a cosine cubed term in there.
That Δy term in the bottom left shows the change in height going from the far end to the middle. This pops all the time when you use energy to find the velocity at the lowest point.
Feynman Diagram
A Feynman diagram is a way to represent the interaction between subatomic particles. In this case, it shows two electrons interacting via the exchange of a virtual photon.
This seems fairly legit, but it’s also the most out of place diagram on the board. It doesn’t really match the other stuff — but I guess it looks cool.
Call Me.
BTW — if you need some cool looking equations for your show, give me a call. I can do this stuff. Trust me. I make the best equations.
