The Department of Physics at MIT pushes back the frontiers of human understanding of space and time and of matter and energy in all its forms, from the subatomic to the cosmological and from the elementary to the complex.
A sand-carrying cart on a track leaves a trail of sand when it travels over a rotating table. This demonstrates the Coriolis Effect. For more, watch The Coriolis Effect.
A mysterious phenomenon detected by space probes has finally been explained, thanks to a massive computer simulation that was able to precisely align with details of the spacecraft observations.
An MIT take on the Lagrangian skeleton of turbulence in an experimental fluid flow.
An air puck is attached to a string that passes through the center of an air table. A weight is attached to the end of the string. The ball is set into rotation in a horizontal circle. When the weight is released, creating a constant force inwards, the radius of the path is shortened and the ...
A New Generation of Insulators for the Electronics Future Dr. David Hsieh, 2009-12 Fellow (Condensed Matter Experiment) Electrical insulators have long been believed to be completely understood systems with uninteresting electronic properties. Over the past few years, ...
Is Evolution Reversible? Dr. Jeff Gore, Assistant Professor of Physics, MIT; 2007-10 Fellow (Biophysics) The degree to which evolutionary changes are reversible has long intrigued biologists. A famous example of reversibility in evolution is the emergence and ...
Astronomers-to-be at MIT Dr. Paola Rebusco, 2007-10 Fellow (Theoretical Astrophysics) During my time at MIT, I had the good luck to mentor three talented students. My talk will present the cutting edge work done by Ana-Maria Piso, Kristi Schneck and Shannon Grammel. ...
Applied String Theory: From Gravitational Collapse to Heavy Ion Collisions Dr. Paul Chesler, 2009-12 Fellow (Nuclear & Particle Theory) A remarkable result from heavy ion collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider is that, shortly after a collision, the medium ...
Universal Physics with Ultracold Atoms Dr. Yusuke Nishida, 2008-11 Fellow (Nuclear & Particle Theory) Physics is said to be universal when results are independent of the details of how particles interact with each other. Universal phenomena appear in many ...
Introductory Remarks Dr. Marin Solja?i?, Assistant Professor of Physics, MIT; 2008 MacArthur Fellow; 2000-03 Pappalardo Fellow
First, liquid oxygen is made by passing gaseous oxygen through a tube submerged in liquid nitrogen. Then the oxygen is poured between the poles of a strong electro magnet. The paramagnetic nature of the oxygen causes an induced dipole. As a result, the oxygen is suspended in the magnetic ...
Dr. Jocelyn Monroe 2006-2009 Pappalardo Fellow
Professor Peter Fisher's main activities are the experimental detection of dark matter using a new kind of detector with directional sensitivity and understanding the weak interactions using tau decays detector with the BaBar detector. His other projects include ...
Professor Peter Fisher's main activities are the experimental detection of dark matter using a new kind of detector with directional sensitivity and understanding the weak interactions using tau decays detector with the BaBar detector. His other projects include ...
A solid metal ring is placed on an iron core whose base is wrapped in wire. When DC current is passed through the wire, a magnetic field is formed in the iron core. This sudden magnetic field induces a current in the metal ring, which in turn creates another magnetic field that opposes the ...
Two bar magnets of the same size are dropped through an aluminum tube and a glass tube. The magnet dropped in the glass tube falls at the normal rate of acceleration due to gravity, but the magnet falling through the metal tube is slowed.This slowed acceleration occurs because the falling ...
A toroid with three different wire windings is connected to 220 VAC 3-phase voltage. The voltage phase of each of the three windings lags 120 degrees behind the next, creating a changing induced magnetic field. The changing field causes metal objects to rotate when placed inside.Motors using ...
A bismuth-based superconducting disk sits on a copper base and is immersed in liquid nitrogen. Two small, very strong magnets are placed on top of the superconductor. The magnets levitate due to the expelled magnetic field from the superconductor.Superconductors have the unique property of ...
Knight Science Program seminar with Josh Winn, MIT professor of physics and researcher of "extrasolar planets" September 30, 2010
