The Sciences
The Amateur Scientist, April 1990
A homemade copper chloride laser emits powerful bursts of green and yellow light
Stories by Jearl Walker
The Sciences
The Amateur Scientist, February 1990
When a polymer sheet is stretched, it may "neck" long before it snaps
The Sciences
The Amateur Scientist, January 1990
A backyard version of a Stirling engine can be built with common materials
The Sciences
The Amateur Scientist, December 1989
Why are the first few puffs the hardest when you blow up a balloon?
The Sciences
The Amateur Scientist, November 1989
Colored segments of a grid can shed a diffuse glow like tht from a neon tube
The Sciences
The Amateur Scientist, October 1989
How to build a Hele-Shaw cell and watch bubbles Playing tag in a viscous fluid
The Sciences
The Amateur Scientist, September 1989
A drop of water becomes a gateway into the world catastrOPhe optics
The Sciences
The Amateur Scientist, August 1989
How to analyze the shock waves that sweep through expressway traffic
The Sciences
The Amateur Scientist, June 1989
The mechanics of rock climbing, or surviving the ultimate physics exam
The Sciences
The Amateur Scientist, May 1989
How to stop worrying about vibration and make holograms viewable in white light
The Sciences
The Amateur Scientist, March 199
How to get the playground swing going: a first lesson in the mechanics of rotation
The Sciences
The Amateur Scientist, February 1989
In an emergency stop, should a car's wheels be locked or should the braking be controlled?
The Sciences
The Amateur Scientist, January 1989
The colors seen in the sky offer lessons optical scattering
The Sciences
The Amateur Scientist, December 1988
The distorted images seen in Christmas-tree ornaments and reflecting balls
The Sciences
The Amateur Scientist, November 1988
The cafe-wall illusion, in which rows of tiles tilt that should not tilt at all
The Sciences
The Amateur Scientist, October 1989
Drop two stacked balls from waist height the top ball may bounce up to the ceiling;
The Sciences
The Amateur Scientist, September 1988
Shock-front phenomena and other oddities to entertain a bored airline passenger
The Sciences
The Amateur Scientist, August 1988
Some entertaining lessons in optics that may make air travel easier to endure
The Sciences
The Amateur Scientist, July 1988
Shadows cast on the bottom of a pool are not like other shadows. Why?
The Sciences
The Amateur Scientist, June 1988
Does convection or the Bernoulli principle make the shower curtain flutter inward?
