Browsing Archive: June, 2015

Philae's Alive!

Posted by on Sunday, June 14, 2015, In : Astronomy 
There is some great news from the Rosetta mission this morning, as the Philae lander which was not entirely successful in landing on its cometary target last has today come back online and is broadcasting data back to Earth.

Some of you will remember the roller-coaster ride of news from the Rosetta mission back in November 2014. The Philae lander successfully deployed after spending the better part of a decade flying out to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The plan was for it to descend to the...
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No Warp Drive...

Posted by on Thursday, June 11, 2015,
Once more the internet is buzzing with reports over the past few weeks and months that NASA has successfully tested a 'warp drive' prototype, leading to many fanciful speculations about travelling to distant stars in the near future. I have said from the start that I do not believe these reports - for several reasons based in accepted science - and indeed today NASA has officially denied it.

First, what NASA actually tested is a device called an EMDrive, in which microwave radiation is contain...
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Free Will vs. Determinism

Posted by on Monday, June 8, 2015, In : Philosophy 
Over the weekend I happened upon a discussion online on whether the Universe and the laws of nature support free will or not. This is not a simple question, and the technical details are well beyond the scope of this blog. However I thought I would spur further debates with a simple model that suggests how the Universe could be deterministic and support free will at the same time. I must also add a disclaimer that this is a very simplistic overview of a much bigger debate, and I will be skipp...
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The Random Maze

Posted by on Friday, June 5, 2015, In : Puzzles 
Earlier this week I wrote an article about an interesting (and possibly previously unpublished) about a mathematics puzzle that so far as I know does not have a simply solution. Apparently it was popular, and as such I have decided to devote today's article to another interesting puzzle. As with the previous one, I have asked a number of mathematician friends about this one and as yet I have not found a previously published source, or a solution for it. Perhaps one of you reading this will fi...
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The Greedy Snake Puzzle

Posted by on Monday, June 1, 2015, In : Puzzles 
Today I thought I would take a break from serious science and mathematics, and present for your viewing pleasure a beautiful little puzzle. This puzzle comes from a discussion I had with a student I was tutoring many years ago, and although it seems quite simple as yet no one I have shown it to has been able to solve it (and I must admit, that includes me). I also do not know the origins of this puzzle, as I have never seen it published before and so I do not know whether or not it is already...
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About Me


Dr. Chris Bird I am a theoretical physicist & mathematician, with training in electronics, programming, robotics, and a number of other related fields.

   


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