October 2010

Math at the Boundary

While in Maine, I took some nice photos of the boundary between the beach and the sea:

Shoreline

It made me think of something I saw a long time ago (maybe on 60 Minutes?) about a scientist who thought deeply about coffee spills on his countertop. The power of the internet helped me locate Sidney Nagel, a physicist who studies the physics of drops, why things get “jammed”, and why a coffee spill leaves a dark ring after it dries.

Is there any way to predict the kind of edge this water will make as it crawls up the beach? Is there any order in this chaos? If this inspires you to great scientific accomplishment, please remember where you got your start.

By patrick honner, ago

The Levytator

LevytatorFrom the “Why Didn’t I Think of This?” files comes the Levytator,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC_se2zrmLM

The Levytator is a more efficient and flexible take on the escalator.  It runs in a circuit, instead of conveyor-belt style, so you don’t lose half your steps to the useless, upside-down underground path, like in a traditional escalator.  Thus, you get more transportation per square foot of step.

In addition, the interlocking steps are curved and not rectangular, meaning that not only can the Levytator turn around corners, but essentially it can be designed to follow any kind of path a planner might need.

Be sure to check out the video for some cool demonstrations (which remind me a lot of closed-loop integrals).

By patrick honner, ago
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