30 JAN 2015 by ideonexus
Science of the Rainbow
The spectrum depends upon light of different colours being slowed by
different amounts: the refractive index of a given substance, say glass or
water, is greater for blue light than for red. You could think of blue light
as being a slower swimmer than red, getting tangled up in the
undergrowth of atoms in glass or water because of its short wavelength.
Light of all colours gets less tangled up among the sparser atoms of air,
but blue still travels more slowly than red. In a vacuum, where ther... 1 
notes
notes30 JAN 2015 by ideonexus
Unweaving the Rainbow Makes it More Beautiful
Newton's unweaving of the rainbow led on to spectroscopy, which has
proved the key to much of what we know today about the cosmos. And
the heart of any poet worthy of the title Romantic could not fail to leap
up if he beheld the universe of Einstein, Hubble and Hawking. We read
its nature through Fraunhofer lines - 'Barcodes in the Stars' - and their
shifts along the spectrum. The image of barcodes carries us on to the
very different, but equally intriguing, realms of sound ('Barcodes on the
... 1 notes
notes29 DEC 2013 by ideonexus
Making Forced Connections
The basic process for making forced connections, as outlined by Koberg and Bagnall, is simple and sound.
List possible features of the object you are trying to creatcte, one le feature per column. For example, the features might include cololor, size, anc shape.
2. In the column under each feature variable, list as many values for that variable as you can. For example, under color you might list all the colors of the rainbow, as well as black, white, gold, and silver.
3. Finally, random...Folksonomies: ideas creativity
Folksonomies: ideas creativity
1 A technique for coming up with new ideas. This could be done with the mxplx rand() function, using it to find random memes and then forcing onseself to find connections between the ideas.
29 DEC 2013 by ideonexus
Reality Teaches Us
At birth one may stand at the cross-roads for only a few lal. The adjustments are peremptory. The human mechanism must adjust itself to the new world. If it does,—then life. Sometimes it is necessary to "slap" it. That is "science" giving a first lesson in adjustment. An adequate supply of oxygen for the cells of the body is the first problem man faces when he comes into this world. Every pink pill is not a piece of candy. Science goes to the rescue and re-establishes adjustments. Man tires... 1 notes
notesWe start out trying to figure out the world, and science teaches us the lessons, but when we overbelieve--go beyond empirical evidence--we "may spoil the garden."
01 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Newton's Experiment Proving White Contains All Colors
Newton wasn't the first person to make a rainbow with a prism. Other people had already got the same result. But many of them thought the prism somehow 'coloured' the white light, like adding a dye. Newton's idea was quite different. He thought that white light was a mixture of all the colours, and the prism was just separating them from each other. He was right, and he proved it with a pair of neat experiments. First, he took his prism, as before, and stuck a narrow slit in the way of the co... 1 notes
notesUsing a prism to split light into a rainbow, he then used a lens to merge the rainbow back into white light and split it apart again.
01 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
How a Rainbow Works
If you want to see a rainbow you ' have to have the sun behind you when you look at a rainstorm. Each raindrop is more like a little ball than a prism, and light behaves differently when it Sits a ball from how it behaves when it hits a prism. The difference is that the far side of I raindrop acts as a tiny mirror. And that is /hy you need the sun behind you if you want 0 see a rainbow. The light from the sun turns somersault inside every raindrop and is reflected backwards and downwards, wh...A fantastic explanation of how sunlight reflects off of raindrops to form a rainbow, which would be a rain-circle if the ground didn't get in the way.
01 SEP 2011 by ideonexus
Rainbow More Beautiful Through Science
Nor ever yet
The melting rainbow's vernal-tinctur'd hues
To me have shone so pleasing, as when first
the hand of science pointed out the path
In which the sun-beams gleaming from the west
Fall on the watery cloud.Folksonomies: rainbow appreciating science
Folksonomies: rainbow appreciating science
1 Poet describes how his appreciation of the rainbow's hues are increased by knowing through science that they are created by sunbeams on watery clouds.
18 JUN 2011 by ideonexus
It is Ridiculous to Embelish Already Fantastic Things
Therefore, to be possess'd with double pomp, To guard a title that was rich before, To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, To throw a perfume on the violet, To smooth the ice, or add another hue Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish, Is wasteful and ridiculous excess. 1 notes
notesThis quote refers to adding additional pomp to a coronation, but it could also serve as a metaphor for adding supernatural aspects to wonderful natural phenomena.
