Idle Analytics» Science

Statisticians need to see how experimental science really works, then shut up about it

Reuben — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 04:46:34 +0000

This kind of irks me. The plague of non-reproducibility in science may be mostly due to scientists’ use of weak statistical tests, as shown by an innovative method developed by statistician Valen Johnson, at Texas A&M University in College Station. The article goes on to specify an amazing new Bayesian test the person invented which …

Thermo for Normals (part 30): Complicated things

Reuben — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 19:50:24 +0000

All cars have to keep themselves cool. The reason for this, as we've seen, is the inefficiency of the engine: you can't convert the heat, made in the burning of gasoline, into work without creating some waste heat. If we take the energy stored in gasoline to be the "free energy" of the chemical bonds, …

Thermo for Normals (part 29): Radiation, continued

Reuben — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 05:40:46 +0000

Now we know the amount of radiation coming from an object with a surface at temperature . And we know the amount for each frequency of light. It's where is frequency you're interested in, is the speed of light, and is a property of the object called emissivity. Emissivity measures the fraction of white light …

New American Cancer Society report

Reuben — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 17:16:04 +0000

The American Cancer Society just published their 2013 Facts and Figures report. It's kind of interesting to look at the time dependence of the rates. First for men: Since 1990, the rate of lung (mostly smoking induced) cancer has been falling, presumably due to the government's concerted effort to force people to stop---absent any other …

Thermo for Normals (part 28): How things radiate

Reuben — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 04:47:51 +0000

Every object, including you, radiates all the time. The radiation comes in the form of light, also known as electromagnetic radiation. Most of the time, this light isn't visible. Right now I'm radiating, and almost all of what is coming off is infra-red (IR), though there is also a tiny amount of radio, and microwaves. …

Thermo for Normals (part 27): Diffusion and sound

Reuben — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 21:42:54 +0000

The other day, my wife cooked up some microwavable popcorn while I was down the hall in the bedroom. The sound of the popcorn being made traveled seemingly instantly, but it took a full 5 minutes before the buttery smell came down the hall. Why is one so slow and the other so fast? Both …

Thermo for Normals (part 26): A gas in detail

Reuben — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 17:30:03 +0000

A molecule in a gas is being knocked into by lots of surrounding gas molecules. This is a very complex, almost random-seeming process. And yet we know that at higher temperatures the gas molecules simply must be moving faster on average. There must be a relationship between the temperature and the average energy. Moreover, we …

GOP is anti-science: Marco Rubio Earth creation edition

Reuben — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 16:01:13 +0000

From GQ magazine's interview with Marco Rubio: GQ: How old do you think the Earth is? Marco Rubio: I'm not a scientist, man. I can tell you what recorded history says, I can tell you what the Bible says, but I think that's a dispute amongst theologians and I think it has nothing to do …

Republicans are anti-science: SST committee edition

Reuben — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 16:31:14 +0000

Now that the current chairman of the House committee on Science, Space, and Technology, Ralph Hall, is retiring, there are three Republicans up for his office. They're all climate change denialists. The first is the congressman that represents Orange County, CA, Dana Rohrbacher. Phil Plait has a ... let's just say strange quote from him …

Thermo for Normals (part 25): The odds of being (energy) rich

Reuben — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 04:13:42 +0000

In a gas such as the air you're breathing, not all of the molecules are flying around with the same speed. If they were, that would be pretty amazing. Nevertheless, most of the molecules are flying around at about the same speed. And the speed is related to the energy. We'd like to know what the …