I made this video to demonstrate how you can levitate something using diamagnetism. The video is pretty self explanatory but leaves out some details... Continue reading →
Science
15
May 10
3D pictures (of me and Ben Miller)
I recently had the privilege of hosting a Q&A with Ben Miller, from double act Armstrong & Miller, at the Brighton Science Festival. There was a man there called Mark Bennett taking 3D pictures of us. He has very kindly let me have the originals so I thought I'd write a blog post about 3D photography using these images as examples. Continue reading →
15
Jan 10
How 3D cinema works
I recently saw Avatar in 3D and 'forgot' to hand my glasses back in at the end. I thought I knew how this technology worked so I was very surprised when I started doing some experiments.
I saw Avatar at a Vue cinema that recently had 3D installed and the way it works is quite different to the IMAX. Continue reading →
13
Nov 09
Burning paper with giant steel balls
I bought these enormous ball bearings from this guy. They're fantastically heavy. When you whack them together you get a lovely sound. But for that brief moment and in that small space you also get really high temperatures and you can easily burn holes in paper. Here's a video:
8
Nov 09
How to cheat with Frank Benford
Pick a number at random from the universe. Not just from inside your head. Open a page of the financial times or look up the size of a planet; convert you height to cubits or measure the weight of your favourite book. Something like that.
Don't actually do it, it's hypothetical. But ask yourself a question. What are the chances of that number starting with a 1? Continue reading →
23
Oct 09
The curious case of Magenta
Magenta is a peculiar colour. We use it all the time in printers along with cyan and yellow.
The weird thing is, you won't find magenta in a rainbow!
21
Sep 09
Magnetic balls: reloaded
16
Sep 09
Magnetic balls: the beginning
I bought these magnetic balls off eBay and I've made loads of cool stuff with them.
Trouble is, after I've made one cool thing I have to destroy it before I can make another cool thing. So this blog will also serve as a photographic record of my achievements.
Let's get started then. These are the balls in an unordered state:
And here they are as a Möbius Strip:
