10 Examples of Physics In Daily Life

Physics is not just about solving the problems and finding the right answer. From atoms to galaxies, everything is governed by physical laws. Not only is physics responsible for modern technology but also an active part of day to day life without us even realizing.

Following are ten such examples of physics in daily life:

1. In winter season, the act of rubbing your hands together to create warmth is a norm. Friction generates heat as well as responsible for static electricity. Have you heard sparkling noise while removing woollen clothes?

2. The refrigerator is made up of sheet metal so we can have thermal insulation between the strong metal and the food inside. That is why we use the surface of fridge to hold up a magnetic note or picture.

3. As we throw a basketball into the hoop or hit the soccer ball with foot, the curve traced by ball is called a parabola, and there is a certain angle at which you need to throw the projectile so it covers maximum distance. Athletes use this physics all the time.

4. Feeling the pressure change when riding in an elevator. Not only that, when you move from plains to mountains, there is also a pressure change and breathing becomes more difficult. This also happens with divers.

5. Using glasses or contact lenses to correct vision. Approximately 64% of adults use some form of vision correction, including eyeglasses, contact lenses, and/or vision correction surgery. Also, rear view mirror in vehicles is a convex mirror, bulged outward, to give a wider field of view.

6. Semiconductor physics used in electronic devices like smartphones, laptops, and TVs. When we buy a new smartphone, we tend to compare which chip the device is powered by.

7. When a baseball pitcher throws a curveball, the spin on the ball creates a pressure difference on its surface, causing it to curve due to Bernoulli's principle.

8. Ferrofluids are used in high end speakers to improve sound quality. Ferrofluids are liquids that become strongly magnetized in the presence of a magnetic field, thus dampening vibrations, and cooling the speaker coils.

8. Flicking a light switch involves a combination of mechanical and electrical processes. When the switch is flipped, it completes an electrical circuit, allowing current to flow and illuminate the light bulb.

9. The popping of popcorn kernels occurs due to the buildup of steam inside the kernel as it heats up. When the pressure inside the kernel exceeds its structural integrity, it explodes, turning inside out to form the fluffy snack we enjoy.

10. Elasticity is everywhere around us - from springs to rubber bands to bouncing a ball. Even trains are powered by thick metal springs. Springs are also used as a power source in mechanical watches.

5 Biopics Like Oppenheimer Everyone Should Watch

Did you enjoy the performances by Cillian Murphy and Benny Safdie as Robert Oppenheimer and Edward Teller, respectively? The depiction by Christopher Nolan has won praises from audiences and critics alike.

If you liked Oppenheimer, the following are five other biopics on scientists that you might like:

1. Theory of Everything (2014)

The Theory of Everything is set at the University of Cambridge, as it shows the life of the English theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, who is well known for his work on black holes.

The movie also details the romantic life of Hawking with Jane Hawking, who was married to the scientist for 30 years. More than astrophysics, this film is about hope, positivity and love.

2. Infinity (1996)

Infinity is a biographical drama film about physicist Richard Feynman. You must remember Feynman from Oppenheimer, played by Jack Quaid. In this movie, Feynman was played by Matthew Broderick, who also directed and co-produced the film.

Richard Feynman was a Nobel laureate who is widely known today as the physicist who played the Bongo. In Oppenheimer, as the Trinity Test succeeded in the morning, Feynman could be seen playing his favorite musical instrument.

3. Einstein and Eddington (2008)

This is a historical film that featured David Tennant - doctor who - as British scientist Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington, and Andy Serkis as Albert Einstein. It is the story of Einstein's general theory of relativity as it developed in the backdrop of world war.

4. Radioactive (2019)

Radioactive is a British biographical drama film starring Rosamund Pike as Marie Curie. Curie was not only an acclaimed chemist but also a physicist - who won Nobel Prizes in both the sciences. She is the only person to have that honor.

Marie Curie was widely respected across the scientific community. Einstein considered Curie as his idol. Marie Curie is known for her discovery of elements like Radium and Polonium. This movie is a must watch who wants to learn more about her life struggles.

5. Tesla (2020)

What a brilliant performance this was by Ethan Hawke playing the role of Nikola Tesla - Serbian engineer and physicist. Anyone who wants to understand the genius and flaws of Tesla should definitely give this movie a watch.

If you are among the very few who don't know who Nikola Tesla is ... he is the inventor of such technologies like remote control and alternating current electrical system. This movie shows a different side to Tesla no one knows.

10 Famous Physicists Who Played Chess

Chess is a tactical board game that is enjoyed by professionals and hobbyists all over the world. It is well known that chess playing not only develops concentration but also improves memory. In this post, let us look at ten physicists who enjoyed the game of Chess.

Paul Dirac

Growing up, Dirac played Chess on the Sundays with his father. He learned it quickly and went on to become the president of chess club of St. John’s College, Cambridge. Paul Dirac also played chess with the Nobel Prize winning physicist friend Pyotr Kapitsa.

Roger Penrose

He won the Nobel Prize for physics in 2020 for the work done on black hole singularities. His brother is the chess Grandmaster Jonathan Penrose. Their love for chess emerged thanks to their father Lionel Penrose who was a geneticist, mathematician and chess theorist.

Stephen Hawking

Hawking played chess just for fun with his youngest child, Timothy.

picture credit: pinterest

Albert Einstein

The renowned physicist was friends with German chess player and world champion Emanuel Lasker. In 1933, Oppenheimer played against Einstein in Princeton, USA and lost by resignation. Einstein was a good player but played very little chess.

Richard Feynman

American physicist Richard Feynman was drawn to chess in the high school. He was particularly interested in observing the chess gameplay. In one interview, Feynman said, in regards to physics: The gods are playing a great game of chess and the scientists are merely observers trying to figure out the rules of the game.

Werner Heisenberg

As a young boy, Heisenberg spent his free time in the evenings playing chess against neighborhood friends. His love of the game grew and became intolerable for teachers and professors. Especially Arnold Sommerfeld, Heisenberg's doctoral advisor, forbade him to play chess.

Edward Teller

Hungarian physicist Edward Teller learned to play chess from his father at the age of 6. Like his doctoral advisor Werner Heisenberg, Teller was also an avid chess player. Unfortunately, he could never beat Heisenberg at chess, though he was able to defeat Heisenberg in table tennis.

picture: ESVA

William Henry Bragg

He won the Nobel Prize in physics along with his son for their work in the analysis of crystal structure using X-rays. He was the secretary of the Adelaide University Chess Association.

Erwin Schrödinger

Erwin Schrödinger shared the 1933 Nobel Prize in physics with Paul Dirac. He once wrote "I do like chess, but it has turned out to be not the appropriate relaxation from the work I am doing."

Max Planck

German physicist Max Planck, who proposed the quantum theory, played chess with the world chess champion and mathematician Emmanuel Lasker.

10 Albert Einstein Quotes To Succeed In Life

Apart from making groundbreaking discoveries in physics, Albert Einstein also played the role of a motivational guru quite often. So, following are 10 Einstein quotes that will change your life.

1. Everyone sits in the prison of his own ideas; he must burst it open, and that in his youth, and try to test his ideas on reality. [Meaning: Don't keep delaying what you really want to do. Try it out for who knows what is possible?]

2. Joy in looking and comprehending is nature's most beautiful gift. Never lose a holy curiosity for it has its own reason for existing. [Meaning: Every child is born curious. Keep your mind open to new adventures.]

3. Try to become not a man of success, but try rather to become a man of value. Because, only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile. [Meaning: Our relationships are just as important as goals.]

4. Life is like riding a bicycle. In order to keep your balance you must keep moving. [Meaning: Enjoy the ride. Don't be afraid to fall.]

5. Don't think about why you question, simply don't stop questioning. Don't worry about what you can't answer, and don't try to explain what you can't know. [Meaning: Curiosity is a quality one must never let go of. Ask questions as they will lead you to life's answers.]

6. Blind obedience to authority is the greatest enemy of truth. [Meaning: Don't follow people blindly.]

7. The value of a college education is not the learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think. [Meaning: Learn how to think, not what to think.]

8. I never think of the future. It comes soon enough. [Meaning: Live in the moment. Act now.]

9. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly. [Meaning: Break the mould you were born into.]

10. If A is success in life, then A = x + y + z. Work is x, play is y and z is keeping your mouth shut. [Meaning: Work hard. Play hard. Stay humble.]

5 Qualities That Made Albert Einstein Genius

Collaborative instinct

Einstein mastered the art of collaboration like no other physicist of the time. He worked with his first wife Mileva Marić, British astronomer Arthur Eddington, with his professor, mathematician Hendrik Lorentz and most importantly with Indian physicist Satyendra Nath Bose, with whom he formulated the Bose-Einstein statistics and Bose-Einstein condensate.

Powerful Imagination

When Einstein first published his ideas in the early half of the 20th century, none in the scientific community took them seriously. They were too imaginative as well as complex at the same time. For example the concept of space-time curvature was first thought of in 1911 but only verified and accepted 8 years later when Arthur Eddington confirmed it.

Childlike curiosity

Einstein's work was a result of his childlike curiosity. He had once famously declared: 'Never lose a holy curiosity'. Despite several rumors, he was an excellent student who taught himself algebra at the age of 12. For simply wanting to learn was a pleasure for his kind. At the same age, he also discovered an alternative proof of Pythagorean theorem. By age 14, he had self-taught himself differential and integral calculus.

Challenging the norms

Einstein was also a rebel. As a 15 year old, he had clashed with the authorities at his school for differences on the teaching method. He later wrote that creative thought was lost in a strict rote learning and he hated it. He said: 'School failed me and I failed the school'. His father wanted him to become an electrical engineer but he went with physics against his father's wishes.

Einstein's big brain

There has been a lot of talk about Einstein's brain and why not. He was the greatest mind since Newton and perhaps more famous worldwide. After his death, it was found that Einstein's brain included a greater density of neurons in some parts of the brain. His prefrontal cortex, which is linked to planning, focused attention, and perseverance, was also greatly expanded, unlike other test brains observed.

5 True Love Stories In The Physics World

Marie and Pierre

The two were among the greatest scientists of the 20th century and married on 26 July, 1895. For their honeymoon, Pierre and Marie took a bicycle tour around the French countryside.

In Pierre, Marie had found a caring and a brilliant lab partner. In Marie, Pierre discovered the love of his life. And together, they went on to win the Nobel Prize, in 1903. Marie went on to win another in 1911.

Richard and Arline

Richard Feynman was instantly smitten by Arline Greenbaum. He wrote about their journey in the autobiographical book, What do you care what other people think? which was adapted into a 1996 movie.

Despite being from two separate worlds, Arline and Richard were united by the threads of love. Although they weren't meant to be forever, as Arline was struck by tuberculosis, their love became an example for everyone.

Carl and Ann

Ann Druyan co-wrote the TV show Cosmos with Carl Sagan, whom she married in 1981. They also went on to collaborate on other projects, like the 1997 film Contact.

It was as if Carl was creatively lost when Ann Druyan entered his life, before and during the filming of Cosmos. Together they were an unstoppable creative force, a proof that true love brings the best out of you.

Stephen and Jane

Stephen and Jane tied the knot in 1965, two years after Hawking was diagnosed with motor neuron disease, that would eventually paralyse him completely. They had 3 children together - Robert, Lucy and Timothy.

When Stephen was in need, Jane was always there beside him, like a rock solid support. Stephen and Jane's story proves that true love need not fear what life has to throw at you.

Paul and Margit

Dirac married Margit Wigner, sister of physicist Eugene Wigner and a divorcee, in 1937. He was 35 years old when he took the decision against existing societal norms.

All his life Dirac waited to share his deepest thoughts and feelings with someone he could trust and admire. Paul and Margit happened to meet, although by chance but their chemistry like a classical love story it transpired.

5 Deserving Indians Who Did Not Win Nobel Prize

Yes, lately, there have been many Indian-American Nobel Laureates. But there is, so far, only one, let's say, "wholly Indian" Nobel Prize winner in science. He is C.V. Raman who won it for physics in 1930. In this post, let's take a look at deserving candidates who did not win the most coveted prize.

Satyendra Nath Bose

Bose was a brilliant physicist who collaborated with Albert Einstein to work out what is now called the Bose-Einstein statistics. Several Nobel Prizes were awarded related to the field initiated by him but Bose himself never won the top honors.

He was nominated five times but the Nobel committee did not find his work worthy of the Prize. Paul Dirac, English Physicist, coined (and popularized) the term Boson in Bose's honor (particles that obey Bose Einstein statistics).

So, when asked about his Nobel Prize snub, Bose replied: "I have got all the recognition I deserve." Surely, his name will live on forever in the scientific world, thanks to Dirac.

Meghnad Saha

He was an Indian astrophysicist who made fundamental contributions to astronomy. His work allowed astronomers to accurately relate the spectrum of stars to their actual temperatures. This is helpful in studying the composition of star and predicting its life cycle.

Saha was nominated for the Prize several times especially for the work done in astronomy. But at that time astronomy was not considered a branch of physics. Edwin Hubble tried to change that during his lifetime but to no avail.

Homi Bhabha

He was a nuclear physicist who is regarded as the father of Indian nuclear programme. Bhabha figured out the interaction of cosmic rays with the upper atmosphere to produce particles observed at the ground level.

He later concluded that observation of such particles was a straightforward experimental verification of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity. Bhabha was nominated for the Nobel Prize in 1951 and 1953-1956 but never won.

G.N. Ramachandran

He was an Indian physicist who is known for the creation of Ramachandran plot for understanding the peptide structure. He completed his doctoral thesis under the supervision of Nobel laureate Sir C.V. Raman.

He was nominated for the Nobel Prize for his fundamental contributions in the understanding of protein structure and functioning. Top scientists including Linus Pauling and Francis Crick regarded Ramchandran's work Nobel worthy.

E.C. George Sudarshan

In 2005, a controversy broke out when Roy Glauber won the Nobel Prize for Glauber–Sudarshan representation in quantum optics while Sudarshan was ignored by the committee. In 2007, Sudarshan told the Hindustan Times, "The 2005 Nobel prize for Physics was awarded for my work, but I wasn't the one to get it."

10 Galileo Galilei Quotes To Succeed In Life

Galileo played a major role in the scientific revolution during the Renaissance period. He was the first to discover the rings of Saturn. His work in physics helped Newton formulate the laws of motion. Here is a list of some of his finest sayings:

1. I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with senses, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. (context: Galileo's trial by The Church)

2. The book of the universe is written in a mathematical language, without whose help it is impossible to comprehend a single word of it; without which one wanders in vain through a dark labyrinth.

3. The sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do.

4. My dear Kepler, what would you say of the learned here, who have steadfastly refused to cast a glance through the telescope? What shall we make of this? Shall we laugh, or shall we cry? (In a 1610 letter, Galileo's trial)

5. Nature is inexorable and immutable; she never transgresses the laws imposed upon her, or cares a whit whether her abstruse reasons and methods of operation are understandable to men.

6. In the long run my observations have convinced me that most men, reasoning preposterously, first establish some conclusion in their minds which, either because of its being their own or because of their having received it from some person who has their entire confidence, impresses them so deeply that one finds it impossible ever to get it out of their heads.

7. In questions of science the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.

8. I have been in my bed for five weeks, oppressed with weakness and other infirmities from which my age, seventy four years, permits me not to hope release. Added to this, the sight of my right eye — that eye whose labors (dare I say it) have had such glorious results — is for ever lost. That of the left, which was and is imperfect, is rendered null by continual weeping. [context: His house arrest after the trial; Galileo became partially blind by looking at the Sun through his telescope]

9. Light held together by moisture. (his description of wine)

10. You cannot teach a man anything, you can only help him to find it within himself.

10 Discoveries By Newton That Changed The World

Isaac Newton is one of the few names that will forever be enshrined in physics history and that too with a lot of glamour associated. Contributions of none other physicist match his, well, probably Einstein's, or not even his!? The following are Newton's ten most well-known works that changed the world later on.

Laws of motion

1. An object will remain at rest or move in a straight line unless acted upon by an external force.

2. F=ma.

3. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Newton's three laws of motion, along with thermodynamics, stimulated the industrial revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries. Much of the society built today owes to these laws.

Binomial Theorem

Around 1665, Isaac Newton discovered the Binomial Theorem, a method to expand the powers of sum of two terms. He generalized the same in 1676. The binomial theorem is used in probability theory and in the computing sciences.

Inverse square law

By using Kepler's laws of planetary motion, Newton derived the inverse square law of gravity. This means that the force of gravity between two objects is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between their centers. This law is used to launch satellites into space.

Newton's cannon

Newton was a strong supporter of Copernican Heliocentrism. This was a thought experiment by Newton to illustrate orbit or revolution of moon around earth (and hence, earth around the Sun).

He imagined a very tall mountain at the top of Earth on which a cannon is loaded. If too much gunpowder is used, then the cannonball will fly into space. If too little is used, then the ball wouldn't travel far. Just the right amount of powder will make the ball orbit the Earth.

Calculus

Newton invented the differential calculus when he was trying to figure out the problem of accelerating body. Whereas Leibniz is best-known for the creation of integral calculus. The calculus is at the foundation of higher level mathematics. Calculus is used in physics and engineering, such as to improve the architecture of buildings and bridges.

Rainbow

Newton was the first to understand the formation of rainbow. He also figured out that white light was a combination of 7 colors. This he demonstrated by using a disc, which is painted in the colors, fixed on an axis. When rotated, the colors mix, leading to a whitish hue.

Newton's disc

Reflecting Telescope

In 1666, Newton imagined a telescope with mirrors which he finished making two years later in 1668. It has many advantages over refracting telescope such as clearer image, cheap cost, etc.

Law of cooling

His law states that the rate of heat loss in a body is proportional to the difference in the temperatures between the body and its surroundings. The more the difference, the sooner the cup of tea will cool down.

Classification of cubics

Newton found 72 of the 78 "species" of cubic curves and categorized them into four types. In 1717, Scottish mathematician James Stirling proved that every cubic was one of these four types.

some cubic curves (Wiki)

Alchemy

At that time, alchemy was the equivalent of chemistry. Newton was very interested in this field apart from his works in physics. He conducted many experiments in chemistry and made notes on creating a philosopher's stone.

Newton could not succeed in this attempt but he did manage to invent many types of alloys including a purple copper alloy and a fusible alloy (Bi, Pb, Sn). The alloy has medical applications (radiotherapy).

5 Physicists Who Were Musically Gifted

Even though physics and music are two wildly separate fields...what is life without both of them? Without physics, there is no chemistry or biology, or that which we call living. Whereas, without music, the living cannot so eloquently express feelings such as joy, heartbreak, hope and so on.

Richard Feynman

This was a man full of life...He was an American physicist who won the Nobel Prize for his contributions to quantum electrodynamics. Even at old age, Feynman did not stop performing his famous "orange juice" song.

Albert Einstein

He had once said: "Life without playing music is inconceivable for me. I live my daydreams in music, I see my life in terms of music. If I were not a physicist I would probably be a musician. I get most joy in life out of my violin."

His mother, Pauline, played the piano reasonably well and she wanted her son to learn the violin, not only to make him fall in love with music but also to help him assimilate into German culture.

Max Planck

He was a German physicist who is known for proposing Quantum theory in 1901. Planck was a father figure to Einstein yet they both played music as if members of a western classical band.

Planck was gifted when it came to music. He took singing lessons and played organ, piano and cello, and composed his own songs. However, instead of music, Planck chose physics for a career.

S.N. Bose

He was an Indian physicist and polymath who is known for having collaborated with Albert Einstein on his original work which came to be called Bose-Einstein statistics.

Satyendra Nath Bose was gifted at playing Esraj, an Indian stringed instrument, similar to violin. He used to perform for his students and colleagues in Calcutta and Dhaka universities.

Werner Heisenberg

He was a German physicist known for uncertainty principle, one of the cornerstones of quantum mechanics. Heisenberg was highly interested in music and played together with Albert Einstein if Max Planck called it off.

He started reading sheet music at the age of four! However, as Heisenberg grew older, his love for science outgrew his passion for music, despite which, music remained a lifelong hobby of his.

5 Poems Written By Famous Physicists

Although they mostly employ mathematical language in order to describe nature...but from time to time, physicists cave in to poetry. In this post, you will read some of the best poems written by the most renowned physicists in the world.

Robert Oppenheimer

He was an American theoretical physicist who contributed to our understanding of atoms, black holes and quantum tunneling. He wrote the following poem describing his memories of New Mexico.

It was evening when we came to the river

With a low moon over the desert

That we had lost in the mountains, forgotten.

What with the cold and the sweating

And the ranges barring the sky.

And when we found it again...

In the dry hills down by the river,

Half withered, we had

The hot winds against us.

There were two palms by the landing;

The yuccas were flowering; there was

a light on the far shore, and tamarisks.

We waited a long time, in silence.

Then we heard the oars creaking

And afterwards, I remember,

The boatman called us.

We did not look back at the mountains.

Tamarisks

Oppenheimer's friend, British physicist Paul Dirac, who hated poetry, quipped, "In science, one tries to tell people, something that no one ever knew before, in such a way as to be understood by everyone. But in poetry, it's the exact opposite!"


Paul Dirac

Ironically, Dirac wrote the following poem; quite full of gloom!

Age is, of course, a fever chill

That every physicist must fear.

He's better dead than living still

When once he's past his 30th year.

He was a Nobel Prize winning physicist and this poem, which is attributed to him, shows his dedication towards physics. Dirac was a complicated character; in fact, Einstein described him as an awful balance between genius and madness.



Albert Einstein

Einstein had a great reverence for Baruch Spinoza, who was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese origin, best-known for his conceptions of the self and the universe.

How much do I love that noble man,

More than I could tell with words!

I fear though he'll remain alone

With a holy halo of his own...

This poem was written by Einstein in 1920 in the honor of Spinoza. According to Spinoza, "What many people call God, few call the Laws of Physics."


Galileo Galilei

He was an Italian astronomer who is known to have broken the foundations of Aristotelian physics. Galileo discovered the law of inertia and made pioneering contributions to astronomy.

He wrote the following appreciation poem for mathematics; a free verse.

Nature is written in this grand book

Which stands continually open

Before our eyes

But cannot be understood

Without first learning

To comprehend the language

In which it is written.

Without which

It is impossible..

To even understand a word

Without which

One is just wandering

In a dark labyrinth.

According to Galileo, this was a language whose words were composed with triangles, circles and other shapes. Clearly, his intention was to say, that without math, it is impossible to understand natural phenomena.


Richard Feynman

He was an American Nobel Prize winning physicist who contributed to our understanding of the interaction between light and matter.

Out of the cradle

Onto dry land

Here it is standing:

Atoms with consciousness;

Matter with curiosity.

Stands at the sea,

Wonders at wondering: I,

A universe of atoms

An atom in the universe.

In this poem, Feynman has demonstrated the great extent of his intellect and imagination. It shows the evolution of life from the oceans to land-walking creatures. It also shows that on an astronomical scale, his existence is meaningless; but on this scale, in which he's in, he himself is the universe!



James Maxwell

He was a Scottish physicist who unified the phenomena of electricity, magnetism and optics into one single framework. His work is considered equivalent to that of Einstein's.

The world may be utterly crazy

And life may be labour in vain;

But I'd rather be silly than lazy,

And would not quit life for its pain.

This poem was written by him in 1858 in a book titled, Segreto per esser felice, meaning, Secret to be happy. Maxwell was a great lover of Scottish poetry and wrote many of his own.