The Science Works Links Page

Here we have gathered references to some interesting and useful internet sites.

• General science references

  • Eric Weisstein's online encyclopedia of science It's a bit technical, but accurate.
  • Hyperphysics Another on-line encyclopedia, more oriented towards pictures than words or equations
  • Physics 2000 An exposition of physics, with some neat applets.
  • The Physics Classroom A high school physics text
  • Some hands-on science activities and More science activities (both pages are from the San Francisco Exploratorium)
  • Astronomy links from Sky and Telescope
  • Question of the Week from the University of Maryland. Every week they publish a physics puzzle, and give you a week to figure it out.
  • Physics Demonstrations A page of links to physics demonstration resources.
  • PSRC Physical Sciences Resource Center. It's aimed more at college teaching, but it has a section on demonstrations and labs that might be inspirational.
  • From Stargazer to Starships A book-on-the-web about spaceflight, spacecraft, and orbital motion of the earth, with digressions into Newton's Laws. By David P. Stern Also available in Spanish , French and Italian
  • The Physics of Amusement Parks It has some cute simulations.
  • Ask AmyA review of websites for children, emphasizing content. The backissues archive is well worth browsing.
  • Physics toys that you can make It's quite an amazing collection. Some require special materials (which are offered for sale) or more than ordinary mechanical skills, but they are fun to read about.
  • Sites-for-Teachers Many pages of resources for teachers, ranked by "popularity."

• Applets.

  These are interactive demonstrations, in the form of programs that run on your computer.
  
  • Kamikawa's applets The Convex Lens, Rainbow, and Colors applets are particularly recommended.
  • Fu-Kwun Hwang's applets Some of these are complicated, but correspondingly there is more to learn. And there are lots of them! Click on the bar "light/optics" and then choose one of the many applets on the list. Particularly interesting are "reflection/refraction", "physics of rainbow", "the world above the water surface", "The world through a hole", and "prism: reflection and refraction" -- and that's just from the optics list!
  • Kiselev's applets Check out the one called "Image formation by a converging lens"

• Optics examples

  Pages that discuss particular issues relevant to optics.
  
  • Light and optics A short course on optics
  • Making a splash with color from the Tech Museum, San Jose, CA
  • What wavelength goes with a color?
  • An on-line textbook on optics
  • Paul Doherty's page He ran a summer workshop on light, and has posted his notes.
  • An explanation of rainbows
  • Color deficiency and color blindness 5% of males see colors differently from the rest of us.
  • polarization of light (from Physics 2000)
  • A discussion of Fresnel Lenses
  • Explaining how a Fresnel lens is used in lighthouses
  • A discussion of the polarization of light
  • polarization of light
  • A presentation on the role of optics in minerology
  • telescopes explained by Celestron, who makes and sells them.
  • Some links about pinhole cameras
  • Pinhole cameras Cameras don't need lenses! This site tells you how to make and use a lensless camera.
  • Some pages about color
  • A set of pages about colour from the Australian Museum. Most of this site deals with the wonderful plants and animals and people of Australia, but this set of pages deals with the physics/psychological concept of color.
  • Why the sky is blue
  • How Liquid Crystal Displays Work

• Temperature and heat examples

  Pages that discuss issues relevant to the study of temperature and heat
  • About Temperature A short and slightly technical discussion of temperature. Originally prepared for middle school mathematics teachers.
  • Frequently asked questions about hurricanes
  • Icestorms
  • How salt melts ice
  • Steam engines

• Electricity and magnetism examples

  • Static electricity A large set of short essays and experiments on this subject
  • Static electricity and how to avoid it
  • Static electricity a simple explanation
  • Lightning and static electricity
  • Lightning and electrostatics
  • Electricity The beginning of a tutorial on electricity, intended for high school students
  • lemon battery with great photos
  • How batteries work
  • Electricity and Magnetism
  • Making motors
  • How electrical motors work
  • More about motors, transformers, and other electromagnetic devices
  • The Great Magnet, the Earth by David P. Stern
  • The Exploration of the Earth's Magnetosphere" by David P. Stern.
  • Ground fault detector
  • Where Does Electricity Come From? How does electricitymake it to your home?
  • What is power? Conservation and other views from a power company.

• Other subjects

  • The Particle Adventure An exposition of the current understanding of what is inside the atom, by the scientists who are involved in discovering this.

• Science supply companies

  • Of course, you should always ask us first if you need something!
  • Sciencestuff.com
  • Specializing in single-concept kits, especially strong on environmental science issues.
  • 3DLens.com A supplier of Fresnel lenses, polarizers, and other optical materials

• Question and Answer pages

  There are several sites that offer to answer any questions sent in. The quality of the answers are rather highly variable.
  • If you would like your question incompetently answered by a Kentucky professor, you could send it to the Question Board!
  • How Things Work according to Professor Louis Bloomfield at the University of Virginia. And he is quite generally right!
  • PhyslinkWhat we like about this one is that several of the answers have corrections posted -- so someone is paying attention to accuracy.
  • Ask-a-scientist Answers to various physics questions, of somewhat variable quality from Argonne National Laboratory.
  • Questions and answers on all sorts of science questions. Unfortunately, no one checks the answers, and too many of them are poorly presented, fail to answer the original question, or are simply wrong.