of Science and Beauty

Continental drift

Philip — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 23:19:35 +0000

It’s just like a giant puzzle:

Continental what?

Sodium Chloride

Philip — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 00:12:28 +0000

What do you get if you mix two dangerous chemicals? Table salt.

Salt

Geocentrism

Philip — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 22:34:59 +0000

The theory that the earth is the centre of the universe.

Geocentrism

(Hint: it isn’t.)

Oh, and source here.

Acid

Philip — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 00:34:42 +0000

Just some sketches today:

Acid 1

Acid 2

Jasmin

Philip — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 22:21:11 +0000

Jasmin

This is what jasmin smells like.

Harmonics

Philip — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 01:08:27 +0000

Harmonics

Design based on the harmonic series, the mathematical relationship between different notes.

Crypsis

Philip — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 22:52:42 +0000

Crypsis is any way in which animals and plants make themselves harder to see, for example, by camouflage.

Crypsis

Tides

Philip — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 00:12:32 +0000

The last entry on the theme of water: tides. Tides are the physical effects of the gravitational pull of the moon and sun on the earth. Here’s an explanation:

Tides

Basically, when the earth, moon and sun all line up, we get bigger tides, and when they’re at right angles the tides are lesser. The moon has about twice the effect of the sun on tides (the sun is much heavier, but gravity is more sensitive to distance than mass). It’s not only water that is affected by the tidal force, so is solid rock, so the earth is actually deformed slightly by these forces, bulging out around its waist. Also, as well as the moon’s effect on the earth, the earth asserts much larger tidal forces on the moon: the moon’s shape is seriously deformed by the earth. (Interestingly, these strong tidal forces have caused the moon to ‘lock‘ in place, which is why we only ever see one side of the moon.)

If you’re interested, there are wikipedia links in there. You should!

The Universal Solvent

Philip — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 00:13:53 +0000

A whole lot of stuff dissolves in water.

The Universal Solvent

Water molecules look a lot like a certain mouse. I hope Disney doesn’t mind.

ice floats

Philip — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 00:32:51 +0000

Ice

Answer: yes. It’s weird. You probably never thought about it before, but water is one of the only chemicals where the solid floats rather than sinks in the liquid.