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( Home → Science )

I pay my bills by working as a scientist in the nuclear industry.  As I'm getting older, I'm beginning to realise that the science that gives me so much pleasure in my career is fairly inaccessible to the majority of people who don't have a scientific background.  In these pages I try to give a flavour of what science is all about, hopefully in a form that is interesting to the intelligent non-scientist.

 

Presented here are a series of articles about subjects that we have probably all heard about, but which perhaps we don't really understand.  This is not to imply any sort of ignorance, but perhaps our aptitudes are for things other than scientific reasoning or analysis.  For my part, I am hopeless when it comes to things artistic.  But I do have some aptitude for science, and hopefully through these articles I can convey to you the ideas associated with things that you may have heard of, but which are as mysterious to you as artistry is to me!  Some mathematical items are also included at the bottom of list.

Hit the blue or red boxes to go to the subject area you want to investigate:

 

An introduction to quantum physics

 

The death of classical physics

Wave-particle duality

Heisenberg uncertainty principle

Wavefunctions

Energy quantisation

Tunnelling

Bohr theory of the atom

 

Basic concepts

The hydrogen atom

Corrections to the Bohr Theory

The result from quantum mechanics

The correspondence principle

Deuterium

Radioactive waste disposal

 

Deep repository design

Radionuclide transport

Risks to future populations

Regulatory requirements

Performance Assessments

An introduction to special relativity

 

The postulates of relativity

Time dilation

Length contraction

Relationship between mass and energy

The twin paradox

Relativity and Electricity

Superconductivity

 

Electrical resistance

Superconductivity

Meissner Effect

Type 1 and Type 2 Superconductors

Origin of Superconductivity

Cooper pairs

An introduction to radiation and radioactivity

 

What are atoms

What is radioactivity

Radiation Effects

Classifying radiation effects

Natural radiation

Frequently asked questions

Non-ionising radiation

Health effects from non-ionising radiation

Gravity and Gravitation

 

Basic Concepts

Laws of Gravity and Gravitation

Motion of the Planets

Gravitational Potential

Introduction to General Relativity

The Principle of Equivalence

Curvature of Space-Time

Gravitational Time Dilation

Harmonic Motion

 

Simple harmonic motion

Energy considerations

Damped harmonic motion

Forced harmonic motion

Anharmonic oscillations

The triatomic molecule

Rotational Motion

 

Coordinates and vectors

Inertial forces

Rotation and angular velocity

Coriolis and centrifugal forces

Theory of projectile motion

Examples of projectile motion

Estimating car performance

 

Newton's laws of motion

Torque and horsepower

Equation of motion for a car

Solutions neglecting friction

A more detailed analysis

Fun with Maths

 

Review of calculus

Snell's law

The brachistochrone

Reflections from mirrors

The hanging chain

Dogs chasing rabbits

Sailing boats

Probability Theory

 

Probability basics

Counting events

Bayes' theorem

Worked Examples

The Game of Craps

The Gambler's Ruin Problem

Mathematical Proof

 

Induction and contradiction

Sum of cubes

Prime numbers

Induction in calculus

Square root of 2

Irrationality of e

Irrationality of π