Pages on topics in physics

• Pages on Electrical circuits. AC is an area in which animations really are helpful for understanding phase differences and phasor diagrams, so we made some.
  • AC circuits.
  • Power, RMS and 3-phase AC circuits.
  • Filters.
  • Transformers.
  • Motors.
  • Drift velocity and Ohm's law.

• Relativity
  • Relativity in ten minutes — or ten hours. Can relativity be understood by someone with little or no background in physics?
    "Einstein Light" uses animations and film clips to explain relativity at a range of levels.

• Pages involving unexpected use of quantum physics
  • Heisenberg's uncertainty principle and the musician's uncertainty principle.
  • The quantum mechanics of cricket.

• Pages related to thermal physics
  • Thermal radiation (and why clothes work).
  • Superheating and microwave ovens: why you should be careful boiling water in microwave ovens.
  • Boiling and freezing: the effects of solutes and of pressure: a simple, non-technical (biologist-friendly) account.
  • The Mpemba effect: why hot water can sometimes freeze faster than cold.
• Pages related to biophysics
  • Cellular Thermodynamics: my chapter in the Encyclopedia of Life Sciences (http://www.els.net), Nature Publishing Group, London.
  • Cryobiology and anhydrobiology The physical causes of cellular damage due to freezing and drying, including my research.
  • What is 'unfreezable water'?: a question asked by people working in cryobiology and anhydrobiology.
  • Membranes: homeostasis and regulation of area and tension: An area of my research in membane mechanics.
  • The human eye and colour vision (from Physclips)
  • The human voice and hearing (from Physclips)

• Pages on miscellaneous topics in physics (Some of these now moved into Physclips)
  • The electromagnetic spectrum.
  • FAQ for high school physics, collecting and answering many of the questions put by students, mainly in New South Wales, to the
  • The Foucault Pendulum at the University of New South Wales. Does the earth go around the sun and how do you know?
  • What are coriolis forces and why do the major ocean currents and winds go clockwise in the Northern hemisphere and anti-clockwise in the South?
  • The physics of speech, including helium speech and why it makes your voice sound funny.
  • Using a vanilla slice to demonstrate various material properties.
  • Cosmology, Teleology and Danish Grandmothers: a critical examination of the argument for design in the universe.
  • The physics of sailing: how boats can sail upwind, how they can sail faster than the wind, etc.
  • Wheels and rolling: why the rolling point of a wheel is stationary, and what part of a train goes backwards.
  • What is the green flash and what causes it?
  • How big is a meteor? A simple calculation to determine the size from its perceived brightness.
  • The monkey and the hunter. Featuring a slow motion video of this classic physics question.
  • A simple introduction to calculus. Some of the most important ideas that will be needed in first year physics.

Pages on sound, hearing, speech and music

• Music acoustics home page
• Voice acoustics home page
• What is a decibel?
• Measure your own hearing response curve.
• What are interference beats and Tartini tones?
• Helmholtz resonators: How do whistles work? Why does blowing across a bottle make a note?
• Chladni patterns: what are they and what causes them?
• Bows and strings. How bows interact with strings in musical instruments.
• Waves in strings, reflections, standing waves and harmonics.
• 'Warming up' wind instruments
• Air speed and blowing pressure in brass and woodwind instruments
• What is a sound spectrum?
• Pipes and harmonics. Why do closed conical instuments (like the oboe and saxophone) have the same set of resonances as open cylindrical instruments (like the flute)? (This seems to be one of the most FAQs in music acoustics.)
• How harmonic are harmonics? (A more subtle FAQ in music acoustics.)
• Note names, MIDI numbers, frequencies and keyboard positions, and translating from one to the other.
• Harmonic singing vs normal singing. How sygyt or xoomi singers (from Tuva, Mongolia and elsewhere) make those high, whistling tones.
• An introduction to voice acoustics.
• An introduction to flute acoustics.
• An introduction to clarinet acoustics.
• An introduction to saxophone acoustics.
• An introduction to oboe and bassoon acoustics.
• An introduction to brass acoustics.
• An introduction to guitar acoustics.
• An introduction to violin acoustics.
• An introduction to didjeridu acoustics.
• An introduction to shakuhachi acoustics.

Pages related to learning and teaching in general

• How to write a PhD thesis. Strangely enough, this is a big hit. Either there are lots of students writing theses, or lots of people procrastinating.
• Writing and publishing a scientific paper.
• Hints for doing tests. All obvious advice, but it may help.
• Disappointed with your results in your intro physics test? These study hints may help.
• Tips for giving talks: some basic tips written for students who may not have given talks before.
• Some ideas about using film clips and animations in teaching physics.
• Some guidelines from the literature, and examples of how we use them in Physclips.

Miscellany.

• My blog on the Solar Car Race, from Darwin to Adelaide. UNSW had a great result
• Venice: an acoustical paradise. The Sydney Morning Herald, June 16, 2001, p1 of the travel section.
• Cool Scientist. A story about Joe by Stephen Luntz in Australasian Science, March 2006, p47.
• Margaret Throsby did an interview with me for the ABC's The interview.

Material for high school physics students and teachers.

• Interesting and inexpensive experiments for high school physics. Written for teachers and students using the New South Wales syllabus, but more widely applicable.
• FAQ for high school physics. Originally set up for teachers and students using the New South Wales syllabus.

Material for primary school physics students and teachers.

• Glimpses of science for primary schools. A set of investigations and kits may by Jacinda Ginges, George Hatsidimitris and me.

Awards for university and web teaching

• Australian College of Educators Award for University Teaching, 2006.
• Scientific American Science & Technology Web Awards 2005. The editors of Scientific American chose Einstein Light for one of these awards. The editors of Scientific American also chose the Music Acoustics website for one of these awards.
• Review of Einstein Light in the journal Science, 17 June, 2005.
• The MERLOT Editorial Boards chose the Music Acoustics website for exemplary online learning resources.
• Australian Award for University Teaching (AAUT). 2004 award for Physical Sciences and Engineering.
• Acoustical Society of America Science Writing Award 2002 for Introduction to clarinet acoustics.
• Vice-Chancellor's Award for Teaching Excellence, 2002.
• Review of Music Acoustics website in the journal Science, 30 November, 2001.