• The Physics of Rugby

    Blending simple physics with anecdotes from the world of rugby, this informative reference demonstrates how to improve rugby techniques. Tackling, passing, running, and kicking are analyzed from a scientific perspective, incorporating Newton�s Laws, and then discussed in the wider context of the game. This valuable guide will not only instruct but also entertain sports-oriented students of all levels.

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  • Albert Einstein: A Biography (Greenwood Biographies)

    Lipscombe et al. covers the entire history of this brilliant physicist's life and career, including his: early education; struggles to find an academic position; troubled marriages and family life; rise to international fame and using this fame to fight for world peace; and Einstein's major contributions to physics, explained in ways that can be understood by anyone.

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  • Double Fourier harmonic balance method for nonlinear oscillators by means of Bessel series

    with C. E. Mungan. published in International Journal of Mathematical Engineering and Science 3(3) (2014). They propose a mathematical method to work out at what frequency an object subjected to certain types of forces, vibrates.

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  • When experiment and simple theory collide: Video analysis of an unrolling mat

    While laying new carpet in our house, seeing all the carpet rolled up neatly in a spiral, I wondered how long it would take to unroll if it were kicked. Turns out the standard theory doesn't agree with experiment. Published with Carl E. Mungan in the European Journal of Physics. 

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  • The Electrobrachistochrone

    The brachistochrone problem consists of finding the track of shortest travel time between given initial and final points for a particle sliding frictionlessly along it under the influence of a given external force field. Solvable variations of the standard example of a uniform gravitational field would be suitable for homework and computer projects by undergraduate physics students studying intermediate mechanics and electromagnetism. An electrobrachistochrone problem is here proposed, in which a charged particle moves along a frictionless track under the influence of its electrostatic force of attraction to an image charge in a grounded conducting plane below the track. The path of least time is found to be a foreshortened cycloid and its properties are investigated analytically and graphically. Published in European Journal of Physics 39(3) (2018) 035006. 

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