Here are some posts for you.
- If the moon was a cube, what would the phases of the moon look like? – wait! I even model a cubical moon phase with python. It’s awesome.
- How to find your location on the surface of the Earth with a watch and a protractor (from MacGyver).
- I hate the term “super moon” – the moon is already awesome.
- Could the interstellar asteroid (Oumuamua) be a spacecraft?
- Estimating how many people in the USA could watch the total solar eclipse.
- Does a solar eclipse change the Earth’s temperature? An estimation problem.
- LIGO isn’t a gravitational wave detector – it’s an observatory. How do you use two detectors to pinpoint the location of a gravitational event.
- What is a leap second and why do we use it?
- Why is it so difficult to see Pluto? Why is New Horizons so much better than the Hubble Space Telescope?
- What’s so special about the Vernal Equinox? A short story in the style of Dr. Seuss.
- How do we know the Earth orbits the Sun and not the other way around?
- Comets don’t “zoom” across the sky – and other answers to questions about comet ISON.
- Parallax is important in astronomy – you can see an example in the iPhone iOS wallpaper.
- How do you find the average density of a planet like Saturn?
- No, Saturn wouldn’t “float in water” – that’s just silly, here’s why.
- The physics of why a comet has two tails.
- Does the moon orbit the Sun or the Earth?
- Why doesn’t the moon crash (fall) into the Earth?
- What is Daylight Saving Time?
- How did humans use the transit of Venus to find the distance (and size) of the Sun?
- A super nova is so bright you can see it happen in a different galaxy.
- Estimating the radius of the Earth using a big lake.
- Why is there so much carbon in the universe? Nuclear fusion and the Hoyle State.
- The moon has the same side facing the Earth – but we can see more than half the moon – here’s how.
- Speaking of the moon – here is an epic old model of the moon and it tells us something about the nature of science.
- Explaining the Earth’s ocean tides is pretty tough, but here is my attempt. Yes, you can explain that.
- Modeling the debris field for a broken meteor in the Earth’s atmosphere.
- xkcd had a great comic on gravity wells – here is my explanation.
- Explanation of some of the cool things the Greeks did in astronomy: size of the Earth, size of the moon, size of the Sun.
- What causes the seasons?
- When is the sun directly overhead?
- My interview with Neil deGrasse Tyson about video games and space stuff.
- Yes, there IS gravity in space – a look at a space scene from the show The 100.
- Why do astronauts “float” in space? All about gravity and “weightlessness”.
- Why are planets spherical but asteroids are not (an example from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2) – python stuff included.
- How to calculate the universal gravitational constant (G) with a pendulum and a mountain.
- Saturn’s rings have gaps – here’s how to model ring gaps with python.
- Crashing into the Sun isn’t very easy – here’s why. Python included.
- The only way to solve the “three body problem” is with a numerical calculation – here’s how to do it with python.
- 6 things you probably didn’t know about gravitational waves.
- Calculating the speed of light using the moons of Jupiter.
- If we lived on Mars, how would we play American Football?
- Modeling humans running on the moon.
- What are Lagrange Points in orbits?
- What’s so special about Low Earth Orbit?
- Physics homework questions for the New Horizons Pluto mission.
- Using images from New Horizons to calculate the mass of Pluto.
- Python tutorial – gravity and orbits.
- Could a human walk on the surface of a comet?
- Explaining the tides in 10 seconds (not really).
- Cool things about gravity on Gravity Day.
- Why is a comet’s tail curved?
- How fast would the Earth have to spin to fling people off?
- Video analysis of the acceleration of moon dust from the Apollo mission.
- xkcd’s interplanetary cessna.
- How much energy does it take to get candy into orbit at the ISS.
- How long would it take to fall through a hole that goes through the center of the Earth?
- Gravitational weight in Jules Verne’s “From Earth to the Moon”
- Would it be better to launch a spacecraft from the equator or a mountain?
- If you rode on the ESA space craft Rosetta, could you jump onto a comet as it moved past it? (ESA blog post).
- How many trips would the ESA ATV need to supply the Death Star? (ESA blog post).
- Measuring the acceleration during an ATV reboost for the ISS (ESA blog post).
- Physics of the Mars Helicopter.
- Three ways to make a rocket with a bottle. Bottle rockets.
- Nuclear rockets vs. ion rockets. Is it better to have one big shot or a bunch of tiny ones?
- The difference between visible light and infrared light.
- Three observations you can make to support a heliocentric model of the solar system.
- An explanation of the Astronomical Unit, the Parsec, and the Light-year.
- Video analysis of the lunar ascent from Apollo 17
- Newton’s cannonball considers the motion of a ball fired from a tall mountain. I have reproduced this with python.