Category Archives: fun

Helium whistling

Posted on May 14, 2017 by Andy Rundquist

Earlier today my son asked me a question I didn’t know the answer to. So I took to twitter: son asked if inhaling He raises you whistle. I say yes but I'm not sure. Anyone know? — Andy Rundquist (@arundquist) … Continue reading →

Posted in fun, physics, teaching, twitter | 3 Comments

Blooming energy

Posted on April 17, 2017 by Andy Rundquist

Today I saw that the tree outside my office window had blossomed over the weekend: So I got to wondering how much energy it had used to do that. I asked the question on twitter this tree sprouted over the … Continue reading →

Posted in fun, mathematica, physics, technology | 3 Comments

Lasers bouncing inside stuff

Posted on February 10, 2017 by Andy Rundquist

I’ve written before about how I sometimes like to imagine what would happen if you shot a laser in a fully mirrored room. Back then I did a bunch of cool stuff with flat walls, mostly by calculating the distance … Continue reading →

Posted in fun, mathematica, physics | 3 Comments

Best bingo board

Posted on December 11, 2015 by Andy Rundquist

My son is in the third grade and his math homework is to play games. The other night we played one that really got me thinking. Each player makes a 4×4 board and puts in any even number between 8 … Continue reading →

Posted in fun, math, mathematica, parenting, Uncategorized | 9 Comments

What does the conducting paper lab teach?

Posted on November 12, 2014 by Andy Rundquist

At my school we have a lab for electric fields/potentials where they measure potentials at different locations on a piece of conducting paper that has been attached to a power supply (the + lead and – lead of the power … Continue reading →

Posted in fun, mathematica, physics | 5 Comments

Evolution of the traveling salesperson

Posted on November 9, 2014 by Andy Rundquist

The traveling salesperson problem is a relatively famous math/geometry/computer science problem. The version I’ll be talking about in this post is where the salesperson has to visit several points on a map, minimizing the travel distance. Repeating a point on … Continue reading →

Posted in fun, math, mathematica | 11 Comments

Taking it up a notch: nail beds

Posted on March 22, 2014 by Andy Rundquist

About a month ago, I had an extraordinary experience: It was Bill Nye standing on me while I laid on a nail bed. Lots of fun, for sure, and I pointed out to the audience that it was the one … Continue reading →

Posted in fun, physics, teaching | 7 Comments

Human loop speed

Posted on February 28, 2014 by Andy Rundquist

Rhett Allain’s post about a human running around a loop has really got me (and him!) thinking (click through to see the video). I wondered if there was a more sophisticated way to do the calculation for the minimum speed … Continue reading →

Posted in fun, physics, twitter | 3 Comments

Clock hands symmetry

Posted on September 1, 2013 by Andy Rundquist

A long time ago, Dan Meyer took to the twitter-sphere with a question: "When do the three clock hands form three 120-degree angles?" Fun problem from Bowen Kerins. http://t.co/afEAGP8 — Dan Meyer (@ddmeyer) June 30, 2011 Note, it seems that … Continue reading →

Posted in fun, math, mathematica | 4 Comments

Rubik’s cube test development

Posted on March 1, 2013 by Andy Rundquist

This week I was inspired by this intriguing post by my friend Ian Beatty. He talks about what it might be like to use a test-driven development process for teaching. Here’s the short version of what I got from that: … Continue reading →

Posted in fun, physics, physics problem db, teaching | 12 Comments