There are many situations in the real world where small initial differences can easily grow into very large differences just out of pure chance.
Since we are on a social network, let's create a toy model* where a number of posts all have the same probability to be reposted/shared/boosted by any person seeing them. Since the more people see a post, the more people have a chance of boosting it, the posts with more visibility are also the ones that are likely to gain more visibility. So small initial fluctuations (just one or two extra boosts at the beginning) can lead a post to skyrocket in popularity, even though it is not intrinsically "better" than any of the other.
If we simulate this process numerically and make a histogram of the result, we see that the distribution of how many boosts a post had rapidly grows a tail, with most posts having no visibility whatsoever, and a few having a LOT more than the average.
#ITeachPhysics #ProbabilityTheory #ToyModel

* In the #Physics jargon, a "toy model" is a very simple (often unrealistic) model, which nevertheless capture the essence of the problem, without being burdened by all the real world complications. If you ever heard about spherical cows in vacuum, that is a toy model!

#FediLZ #PhysikEdu #physik #iteachphysics

Schönes Experiment mit einem Fresnel-Spiegel, dessen spiegelnde Oberflächen sich leicht gegeneinander verkippen lassen:

https://youtu.be/OUXfykHvwi0?si=FvLvKniBUzuGTdS4

Ich frage nur mal so aus Neugier: Habt ihr einen solchen Spiegel oder eine vergleichbare Apparatur in Eurer Physik-Sammlung?

@tewe #FediLZ #PhysikEdu #iteachphysics

Danke für das tolle Video. Das nehme ich gleich mal als stummen Impuls im Leistungsfach Physik nach den Sommerferien…

Der Austausch solcher Fundstücke ist ein echter Gewinn für meinen Unterricht…

#FediLZ #PhysikEdu #Physik #MintEdu #iteachphysics

Abstoßende Coulomb-Kraft zwischen Luftballon und Kraftsensor mit Messwerterfassung

https://youtu.be/Vma68VYUaVE?si=BSc-iG8V1OM8MJFT

On my 20th first day of teaching, I've been reflecting on this career.

I estimate I've taught 1500 students everything from designing MySpace pages that don't suck (https://kalamitykat.com/2005/10/16/myspace-as-an-educational-tool/), to finding the circumcenter of a triangle, to solving electric circuits that feel like puzzles (https://kalamitykat.com/2023/06/06/spring-lab-practical-1-electricity/).

It all started while I was collecting unemployment from a tech industry layoff and I answered a Craigslist ad for a computer tech teacher in Roswell, GA.

#ClassroomMath #ITeachPhysics

College Board shares GPA, SAT scores w/social sites. wow.
#iteachphysics
https://gizmodo.com/sat-college-board-tells-facebook-tiktok-your-scores-gpa-1850768077#:~:text=After%20receiving%20this%20comment%2C%20Gizmodo,actually%20does%20share%20this%20data.

Should be of interest to #ITeachPhysics types. A web-based tool similar to Audacity. https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@zeh/110896930023505955

#FediLZ #Physik
#PhysikEdu #iteachphysics #mintedu

Warum ist man bei Gewitter im Innern eines Autos (=Metallkäfig) vor Blitzschlag geschützt?

Schönes Erklärvideo zum Faraday‘schen Käfig:

https://yewtu.be/watch?v=pda98jkZSkg

Insightful article from Physicist Dr. Natasha Holmes: “ A single line in the Barbie movie left me laying awake at night. "Why does Physicist Barbie want to wear pants?"

#iteachphysics

https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/views/2023/08/22/why-does-physicist-barbie-want-wear-pants-opinion

#FediLZ #PhysikEdu #physik #iteachphysics

Schönes Freihandexperiment zur gegenseitigen Abstoßung von gleichnamigen Ladungen

https://yewtu.be/watch?v=P8HJNRWNJ7A

Ich liebe solche Experimente, die sich ohne großen technischen Aufwand durchführen lassen

#FediLZ #PhysikEdu #physik #iteachphysics

Schönes Freihandexperiment zur gegenseitigen Abstoßung von gleichnamigen Ladungen

https://yewtu.be/watch?v=P8HJNRWNJ7A

Ich liebe solche Experimente, die sich ohne großtechnischen Aufwand durchführen lassen…

it's sunday morning at 9 am in california so that means it's time for a #physics #biophysics #iteachphysics @physics #officehour

join us here: https://meet.google.com/ydb-pxdz-rst

If you are a #Physics student/PhD/etc in a less privileged country, would a fully online "summer" school with no fees for attendees be useful to you?
(Just ruminating ideas so far, nothing concrete yet. But feedback and ideas are more than welcome.)
#ITeachPhysics

In #Physics there are a lot of topics that are widely considered to be hard to understand (entropy is a famous one, but my favourite example is coherence theory in #Optics). Imho, this is almost invariably because of the historical baggage of how they were described originally, before a full understanding was developed.
#ITeachPhysics

What papers, articles, etc have informed your thinking about discussion, particularly Socratic Dialog, in math/science classes?

I recently read "Engaging students in conducting Socratic dialogues: Suggestions for science teachers" and am thinking of how to explicitly teach student questioning. It's an area I don't know much about but would like to change.

#ITeachMath #ITeachPhysics #ModPhys

#ITeachPhysics During this academic year, Illinois Wesleyan University is searching for TWO (yes, 2!) tenure-track Physics faculty members, who will begin their appointments in Fall, 2024. Bring a friend! https://www.iwu.edu/human-resources/job-openings/2023-24-assistant-professor-physics.html

Extrait de la préface de Thermodynamique par Yves Rocard, 1952, Masson &Cie.
Quels étaient les défauts de l agrégation il y a 70 ans ?
Quel est cet élève conventionnel ?
#sciences #thermodynamic #iteachphysics

@physics #biophysics #iteachphysics

it's 9 am in california on a sunday morning and that means it's time for a #physicsofficehour. join me and at least one other to talk about ballistic motion or anything even remotely related to physics.

https://meet.google.com/gbj-muyx-jdu

A little classical mechanics problem you can solve without doing any calculation:
Consider the hyper-simplified problem of a bell-shaped hill, and a point rock that can slide without friction up and down the hill. If you start with the rock at the bottom, and give it exactly the kinetic energy needed to arrive to the top and stop there without sliding on the other side, how long will it take to arrive there?
#Physics #ITeachPhysics

Does anyone have any good books/curriculum for an algebra-based physics course? #iteachphysics #mtbos #classroommath