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Month: July 2009

New page: “Becoming a physics teacher””

We’re adding a new page to the NCNAAPT web site, “Becoming a physics teacher.” The goal of the site is to support people who are interested in becoming physics teachers, but have not yet enrolled in a credential program. We have a few links on it, but will be flushing it out over the next few weeks/months. If you have any suggestions of what should go on the page, please email them to web@ncnaapt.org and we’ll incorporate them You can find the page here: https://ncnaapt.org/index.php/links/becoming-a-physics-teacher/, or find it in the menu in the right column (in the “Links” sub menu).

Jupiter pummeled, leaving bruise the size of the Pacific Ocean

By Robert Sanders, UCB Media Relations | 21 July 2009 Complete article here: http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/07/21_bruise.shtml The scar from the probable impact appeared July 19 in Jupiter’s southern hemisphere, and has grown to a size greater than the extent of the Pacific Ocean. This infrared image taken with Keck II on July 20 shows the new feature observed on Jupiter and its relative size compared to Earth. (Paul Kalas ,UCB; Michael Fitzgerald, LLNL/UCLA; Franck Marchis, SETI Institute/UCB; James Graham, UCB) BERKELEY — Something slammed into Jupiter in the last few days, creating a dark bruise about the size of the Pacific Ocean.…

NASA Releases Restored Apollo 11 Moonwalk Video

WASHINGTON, July 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — NASA released Thursday newly restored video from the July 20, 1969, live television broadcast of the Apollo 11 moonwalk. The release commemorates the 40th anniversary of the first mission to land astronauts on the moon. The initial video release, part of a larger Apollo 11 moonwalk restoration project, features 15 key moments from the historic lunar excursion of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. A team of Apollo-era engineers who helped produce the 1969 live broadcast of the moonwalk acquired the best of the broadcast-format video from a variety of sources for the restoration effort. These…

Using Google Maps to show wave refraction in water

Physics educators have used photos of natural and man-made breakwaters to show refraction for probably as long as we’ve had photography. But now online mapping web sites (Google, Yahoo. etc.) allow you to find locations near you to make the images more tangible to your students. Oceans and bays are full of images of refraction, but you may also find diffraction patterns in a large lake. Below is an example from a breakwater in Berkeley, CA, in the San Francisco Bay View Larger Map Check water bodies around your institution to find examples you can use with your students. Most…