Category: Author: Charles Xie
Run this simulation. The Kármán vortex street is a repeating pattern of swirling vortices caused by the unsteady separation of flow of a fluid over bluff bodies. It is named after the great scientist Theodore von Kármán who co-founded NASA’s JPL. This effect is observable in nature like in a stream, but you need some […]
As we make our award-winning Molecular Workbench software more accessible and widely available, we’re documenting our story at the same time. Google’s grant to the Concord Consortium funds the conversion of MW from Java to HTML5 so it will run in modern Web browsers. This will reduce barriers for using the next generation MW in schools. Students will be able […]
Click here to watch a video.Microsoft’s Kinect controller offers the first affordable 3D camera that can be used to detect complex three-dimensional motions such as body language, gestures, and so on. It provides a compelling solution to motion trackin…
IR: Watch the YouTube videoAugmented reality (AR) presents a live view of the real world whose elements are augmented by computer-generated data such as sound or graphics. The technology promises to enhance the user’s current perception of reality. AR …
This is a video recorded using an IR camera (FLIR E30bx) about what happens when you put a piece of paper on top of a cup of tap water. The tap water has been put in the room for a long time.The water in the cup appears to be blue under an IR camera be…
Click to enlarge
This week 11 students of different ages (10-17) participated in our three-day summer school for the Engineering Energy Efficiency project. They were charged with using Energy3D to design their own model houses on a computer first and…
One way to tell if a plant is a plastic fake or not is to touch a leaf. If it feels cool, the plant is a real one. Have you ever wondered why a leaf feels cool? (A leaf of an indoor plant always rests at about the room temperature, plastic or real. It …
Is a moth warm-blooded or cold-blooded? If you google this, some would tell you it is cold-blooded. They are not completely right. This infrared study shows how a moth warms up before it flies. So at least a moth is warm-blooded when it moves.Click to …
Energy3D is a free, open-source tool we are developing from scratch to empower students to design, make, and test energy-efficient model houses.Today we had some students design and make their own houses. One student succeeded in designing a model h…
A bumble bee.
I have been wanting to see what I can do with IR imaging in my backyard. Folks at the Discovery and Animal Planet channels use IR imaging regularly to show thermal patterns of animals and plants. So I guess I could do something with…