Astronomy references

I've collected a considerable library of references over the years. Many of them are stored on my phone. The first three below are great places for ideas for projects on any of the sciences.

Science Buddies

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/science-projects#findprojectkits

Aimed toward school kids developing science projects, the many ideas on this website are useful for any explorer of the sciences.

Science Notebook

http://science-notebook.com/index.html

I've mentioned this site before. One cool thing about it is their repository of manuals from old science kits, back when they were not lame.

MIT Opencourseware

https://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm

All of MIT's course materials including many of the textbooks, lecture notes, lecture videos, and even a few lab guides.

Olcott, William (1907) A Field Book of the Stars (available in various forms at the Gutenberg Project site). 

A nice thing about old do-it-yourself books is that they were printed back when people had to use what they had at hand to do things. You won't find out anything about black holes but there is all kinds of observational information.

NASA Imagine the Universe Dictionary online at https://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/resources/dictionary.html useful for figuring out what you're talking about and how to talk about it.

Astronomy Merit Badge Handbook

What do you need to know to prove you know the Stars? Ask the Boy Scouts! You can look at their merit badge guides at https://www.scouting.org/programs/scouts-bsa/advancement-and-awards/merit-badges

Astronomy Wikibook

The Wikipedia offers textbooks on many topics including astronomy at https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Main_Page

BEST-NGC.XLS

Astro-Tom provided a list of New General Catalog objects and their observational data at http://www.astro-tom.com/technical_data/files_to_download.htm . It's an Excel spreadsheet so you'll need a spreadsheet app that's compatible with Excel. 

Binocular Astronomy

Tonkin, Stephen (2007) Binocular Astronomy, Springer-Verlag, London. A guide to exactly what I'll be doing in 2020 - low power astronomical observation.

Brightstars.xls

Also from Astro-Tom (see BEST-NGC.XLS above for the link), a list of data for the brightest stars in the sky.

Cambridge Illustrated Dictionary of Astronomy

Mutton, Jacqueline (2007) Cambridge University Press. 

A beautifully Illustrated dictionary of astronomical terms and bodies.

Dictionary of Geophysics, Astrophysics, and Astronomy

Matzner, Richard A. Ed.(2001) CRC Press. Articles by 52 acknowledged experts in the field.

Geometry_of_science.xls (https://www.csun.edu/science/ref/spreadsheets/xls/) among many useful Excel spreadsheets, this one has a section of the intensity of light on the planets.

HERSCH.xls (http://www.astro-tom.com/technical_data/files_to_download.htm) another spreadsheet from Astro-Tom. It's the Herschel 400 listing.

Isaac Asimov's Guide to Earth and Space

Asimov, Isaac (1991) Fawcett Books

A lot of astronomical, physical, and geological information from the master of scientific popularization.

And more spreadsheets from Astro-Tom providing much observational data.

mesr-mas.xls

messier-plus.xls

NEBULA.XLS

next-100.xls

OBSRVTRY.XLS

OCULAR.XLS

planetary_data.xls

planets.XLS

solar_system_calc.xls

STARS.XLS

TELESCOP.XLS

TRAKSAT.XLS

Your New Telescope: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

This is a page by Tom Koonce on the Astro-Tom website (http://www.astro-tom.com/download/presentations/new_telescope.pdf).

Physics - From Stargazers to Starships

Stern, David P.  And Alex A. Zaliznyak (2023) CK-12. 

This CK-12 textbook focuses on the physics of space, written at a beginner's level and in a very readable style. How did astronomy get started and how did it get to where it is today?

Schaum's Outline: Astronomy

Palen, Stacey (2002) Schaum's Outlines: Astronomy. McGraw Hill.

As always, Schaum's Outlines are great study resources, dense with information, examples and problems, worked and unworked.

Taki's 8.5 Magnitude Star Atlas

Toshimi Taki (2006) Can be downloaded from Taki's website with lots of other information here http://www.takitoshimi.shop/

MIT 12.409 Hands-On Astronomy

Among MIT's many other online courses is this beginner's astronomy course. Get it at https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/earth-atmospheric-and-planetary-sciences/12-409-hands-on-astronomy-observing-stars-and-planets-spring-2002/

Star Date Online

https://stardate.org

This website is great for keeping up with what's going on I'm the sky and in astronomy.

A Simple Guide to Backyard Astronomy Using Binoculars or a Small Telescope

Beigel, Carol (2007) available at www.carolrpt.com/astroguide.htm (accessed 10/17/19)

This is a nicely packaged reference for the amateur astronomer.

Night Sky - A Falcon Field Guide

Nigro, Nicholas (2012) Morris Book Publishing. 

All the Falcon Guides are fairly complete, portable, and inexpensive. Not a lot of technical information, but that's why all the other references.

Sky Watching. The Teaching Company

Alex Filippenko (2011)

I highly recommend the lecture series (buy it when it's on sale). It's beautiful and packed with information from someone who knows what they're talking about, but the course guide that comes with the videos should definitely go with you into the field.

A Visual Guide to the Universe

The Teaching Company

David M. Meyer (2014)

A gorgeous guide to the Universe through the lenses of our orbiting telescopes.

Understanding the Universe: An Introduction to Astronomy

The Teaching Company

Alex Filippenko (2007)

The astronomy course from the teaching company. It's a great start to you career in astronomy.

I'm all about getting out of the house to learn about the world, but the best place to start is in the library...yours or the one down the street. Get a preview before you hit the trail.

Astronomy tools

Again, I try to keep my equipment portable and inexpensive. You won't get clear, crisp photos of the crab nebula with my setup, but you might be surprised what you can do with it.

As always, my central and most expensive piece of equipment is my computer, currently a…..

Motorola Moto E5 Cruise phone

https://support.motorola.com/us/en/products/cell-phones/moto-e-family/moto-e5-cruise

In preparation for excursions into astronomy next year, my phone is packed with camera and astronomy apps and I have loaded my SD card with astronomy field guides.

This phone has 16 gigabytes of internal memory and an added SD card with another 31 gigabytes, plenty for my purposes. It's moderately priced (between $100 and $200 dollar) and it even serves as a phone!

The camera gives nice results with 8 megapixel resolution plus video and will magnify to 8 times (though the result at 8x is grainy).

Camera hardware

I supplement my phone's camera with a fanny pack full of hardware that I've collected over time including phone clamps, assorted tripods from  desk-size to an eight foot tall tripod. I also have an assortment of standard quarter inch screws, nuts, and bolts that I can use to attach the phone-camera to hardware that isn't particularly for cameras, like Erector set parts and pipe clamps.

I've also collected microscopic, telescopic, fish-eye, etc. lenses and eyepiece adapters for my assorted binoculars, monoculars, and rifle scopes. All this "stuff" is inexpensive at places like American Science and Surplus, Home Science Tools, and numerous other suppliers that cater to the backyard scientist.

The key...be a packrat.

Open Camera

Mark Harman

https://opencamera.sourceforge.io/#licence

The camera in my Android phone isn't all purpose but camera apps are inexpensive or free and they all have their special features. The camera that came with my phone is great for point-and-click photography, but there aren't many bells and whistles. 

The Open Camera app allow quick series of shots and allows for time/date/location stamped photos. It also provides slow motion and Bluetooth shutter release capabilities.

Snail Camera

https://apkhome.net/snail-camera-pro-0-44-01/

The Snail Camera app is very flexible with lots of color, contrast, etc. settings. Practically anything you can do with a DSLR camera except change lenses (but see the mention of my packrattery above.)

It even lets you take multiple and extended exposures. The timed exposure is important for astronomy because you will be trying to capture some dim images.

Note: astronomy requires a remote shutter release and stable mount. With telephotography, barely touching the camera will move it quite enough to lose the object you're photographing. The tripod should also have fine adjustments because aiming a phone camera with a telephoto lens is hard enough.

USB Camera app

Infinitegra Inc.

This app, plus a USB to microUSB plug converter lets me connect other cameras and webcams to my Android. This doesn't work with some smartphones (it requires the phone to be otg, On The Go, enabled) but it's had no problem with my Motorola. If you wonder if you're phone has the right software, there are free apps that you can download (if you have an Android phone, the Google Play store will have what you need) that will test for otg.

Heavens Above

Chris Peat and Jen's Tinz

https://www.reddit.com/r/heavensabove/comments/6pmhu7/app_faq/

This app will keep you up to date on things happening in the sky including satellites and their tricks, like Iridium flares.

Stellarium

https://stellarium.org/

My favorite astronomy app, the Stellarium is a planetarium you carry with you on your phone. There are also versions for laptops and desktop computers. It will orient you to where you should look in the sky and, like big planetariums, it's loaded with educational extras.

Night Sky Guide

Shiny Objects LLC

This is a no-frills table of observable objects and where to observe them, plus an observation log that you can save as a csv (comma separated values) file.

SkyWiki

http://www.kiranbagul.in/skywiki/

Sky map, calendar, astronomy news, image gallery, compass, and periscope all rolled into one package. (The periscope tells you where the sun, moon, and planets are right now, indoors or outside.)

Atmospheric

Check out this location on Astrospheric https://www.astrospheric.com/?Latitude=39.694538116455&Longitude=-104.9259262085

Atmospheric conditions are important for skywatching. Pollution, dust or light, can create a beautiful sunset, but they can also wreck an astronomical outing. This app provides a summary of weather and predictions for your area.

That's a lot of apps but they will all fit on one phone and are all free or inexpensive. They are programmed for an Android phone but many have versions for other kinds of phones, tablets, and laptops. If not, there are probably similar products that you can find with a little Internet search.

That's my lineup, Track down yours and join me for a year of sky watching and physics.

If you find references or equipment that you just can't do without, add a comment to the blog to let us know about it.

Physics references

I've collected a considerable physics reference library over the years. Much of it is portable, either as ebooks or in my Kindle reader. Here's an annotated bibliography. Some items may no longer be available. Many are free downloads, but most of the books are fairly inexpensive and remember that your public library may have any or all of them.

Science Toys

https://scitoys.com/

This website by Simon Quellen Field is an excellent source of projects in several fields of science. They are generally inexpensive and use readily available parts, but some require considerable work and assembly time. They are all well explained.

Science Notebook

http://science-notebook.com/index.html

This website reminds me a lot of the Engineer's notebooks by Forrest Mim's. It's oriented toward children and beginning science explorers - much of the material is very basic, but one of the fascinating things is that they include a library of manuals from old science kits. See how they don't make science kits like they used to.

MIT Opencourseware

https://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm

You get all the course materials the MIT students get (except the items they have to buy) often including textbooks, lecture notes, and recorded lectures. What you don't get are the credits.

BYU Optics Book

By Justin Peatross and Michael Ware. 

Get the latest edition at https://optics.byu.edu/textbook.aspx

This is the textbook used at Brigham Young University for Optics classes and it delves as far as you might want to go. Expect advanced math.

CK-12 Basic Physics

CK-12 People's Physics Book

CK-12 is an organization that makes quality textbook (kindergarten to high school level) available free. The books can be obtained from dealers like Amazon or in online, interactive format at the CK-12 website: 

https://www.ck12.org/student/

There are also several other CK-12 physics textbooks and other learning materials.

Common Equivalents Weight and Measures (https://www.sccgov.org/sites/weights/Pages/Equivalents.aspx) Santa Clara County provided a nice table of weights and measures. Another option is the Google unit converter. Just type "convert" one unit "to" another unit (for instance "convert inches to centimeters") into your browser search bar.

CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics

John Rumble, editor in chief

Published by CRC Press

Now in it's 99th edition, this monster tome is useful as a doorstop or weapon, and it also has every table imaginable that a normal person might want for scientific inquiry. New editions are sorta expensive but older editions can be found, especially in college bookstores or online for less than $20, and it's well worth every penny

Forrest Mims library. Remember the Engineer's Notebook series - those tiny paperback books sold at Radio Shack that were loaded with information for electronics hobbyists back in the 70s and 80s? They are still available here

http://www.forrestmims.org/

And here

http://www.forrestmims.com/

And at Amazon.

Although I will get around to electronics, it's really useful to be able to create your own equipment and these tiny, inexpensive books are just what you need.

FHSST_Physics

Stands for "Free high school science textbook" and it's a Wikibook available here

https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/FHSST_Physics

Fundamental Optics

Published by CVI Melles Griot, this book is the reference of optical information. Find it at https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~lah/ay105/pdf/Fundamental-Optics.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjl2KeI5OXkAhVNop4KHbJfAzgQFjAAegQIAhAB&usg=AOvVaw35Hzf9r7zagQEA6PIKMBhn&cshid=1569201831073

Make:The Annotated Build It Yourself Science Laboratory

Raymond Barrett and Windell Oskay (2015) published by Maker Media, Inc.

Way back in the 60s Raymond Barrett produced an amazing book that wowed science enthusiasts by showing them how to build things like carbon arc furnaces and cloud chambers. Now you can get an annotated edition created by Windell Oskay. Double wow!

Mathematical Tools for Physics

James Nearing

Available at https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~lah/ay105/pdf/Fundamental-Optics.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjl2KeI5OXkAhVNop4KHbJfAzgQFjAAegQIAhAB&usg=AOvVaw35Hzf9r7zagQEA6PIKMBhn&cshid=1569201831073

This is an extensive university level textbook of mathematics for physicists.

Electrical Engineer's Portable Handbook

Robert B. Hickey

2nd edition (2004). McGraw Hill

Just what it said, it's a reference book for electrical engineers.

Mechanical Engineer's Handbook

Myer Kutz, editor

(2006) John Wiley and sons

Another reference tome, this time for mechanical engineers.

Nuclear Science Merit Badge Handbook

What do you need to know to qualify for a Boy Scout merit badge? Well, first, be a boy scout. Next, check out this site:

http://usscouts.org/usscouts/mb/mb137.asp

And, yes, there are requirements for various fields of physics, but they change, so keep up.

pendulum.xls

You might notice that I recommend several spreadsheets. If you have the software to read them they can be a lot of help. Several such phone apps are available. The spreadsheets might or might not be online at this writing so, do a search and, if you don't find the one I reference, there's probably an equivalent one somewhere.

Physics Study Guide (Wikipedia website) The Wikipedia offers this concise and extensive college level physics Study Guide at: 

https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Physics_Study_Guide

Physics Wikibooks. They also have a wide range of Wikibooks (free textbooks) here:

https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Subject:Physics

Schaum's Basic Electricity: Schaum's Outlines are all good - concise, complete, inexpensive, full of solved and unsolved problems, and written by acknowledged experts. What more could you want. A few more of the many titles in physics are….

Schaum's Easy Outlines: College Physics

Schaum's Electronic Devices and Circuits

Schaum's Outline of Optics

Schaum's Outlines: Thermodynamics for Engineers

Schaum's Outline of Theory and Problems of Basic Circuit Analysis

temperature_scales.xls I have one from https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://academic.pgcc.edu/~ssinex/excelets/temperature_scales.xls&ved=2ahUKEwjBrMqu6-nkAhWLup4KHYN-B_0QFjAAegQIARAB&usg=AOvVaw0ja8Prre4gQB0KuIrW3Xv9&cshid=1569341192825

But similar spreadsheets are all over the Internet.

Turning the World Insideout (1990. Robert Ehrlich. Princeton University Press)

I keep this one with my field guides. The excellent demonstrations are inexpensive, mostly "simple" enough to be portable, and theoretically both deep and well written (understandable). This book is a treasure.

The next two items are user guides for two of my favorite science explorer apps, so see my blog on Physics Tools for more information. Both have great ideas for experiments and demonstrations in all the sciences.

Physics Toolbox Play User's Guide (by APD net and available at www.vieyrasoftware.net )

Getting Started with Google Science Journal. Check out the Google Science Journal website at https://sciencejournal.withgoogle.com/ .

Understanding the Quantum World

The Teaching Company

Erica Carlson

Particle Physics for Nonphysicists

The Teaching Company

Steven Pollock

Physics and Our Universe. 

The Teaching Company

Richard Wolfson

Understanding Modern Electronics

The Teaching Company

Richard Wolfson

And lots more. Frankly, all of the Teaching Company's courses are excellent. They won't get you to the practical level of an engineer, but you'll learn a lot. The presenters are experts in their fields, so the lectures provide very up to date information. Also, the sets are expensive but the Teaching Company places each of them on sale at least once a year so, with some patience, they're quite affordable. And many public libraries carry them.

Check out their website.

https://www.thegreatcourses.com/

Physics can be fascinating and fun as a study or a hobby. Engineering is applied physics so, when you design and build something, you are using your knowledge and skills in physics. Check out the resources in your local library. See what you can find on the Internet. See if physics is for you, and join me next year for adventures in physics.

Physics tools

One key to adventuring (in a lifelong learning sense) is packrattery. I collect materials because I don't want to have to go shopping or wait for deliveries every time I want to do something. So I have glassware, office supplies, science kits (an inexpensive source of materials and equipment), and chemicals stockpiled in my bedroom.

I had an apartment full in Selma, but, when I moved, I had to get everything into a Chevrolet Astrovan so most of that went to a flea market vendor and I started over in Denver.

I have a standing desk and an old television stand rigged as laboratory desks and a large tool chest for…..well, tools. I've also picked up an Erector set and collect Lego parts for building experiment setups.

My cell phone, a midrange purchase, is my most expensive item but, for these blogs, I assume that most of my readers have one. As always, I try to keep my excursions portable and inexpensive.

Motorola Moto E5 Cruise phone

https://support.motorola.com/us/en/products/cell-phones/moto-e-family/moto-e5-cruise

This is my main lab recorder. Modern cell phones come with several built-in sensors: accelerometers to sense orientation, a light sensor to determine screen brightness, a proximity sensor to detect the nearness of a user's face, and a sound sensor to detect background noise. There's also the camera, GPS, and the phone itself. All these sensors are available to free or inexpensive phone apps for recording things. Some phones have extra sensors. The Moto E5 Cruise has a built in magnetometer which can serve as a compass or electromagnetic field sensor.

Since I already have a portable weather instrument, I did not need the barometer/thermometer/hygrometer available in some phones. 

This phone will also pick up Bluetooth signals so, if it's not set up to measure something I want to measure, I can rig up my Bluetooth enabled Arduino microcomputer to do the job. I also plan to pick up a Bluetooth enabled multimeter soon. Less than $50, it'll be a useful alternative to the Arduino, especially when I start looking at electronics.

I'm well prepared for a year of astronomy and physics.

I have a collection of sensor recorders installed on my phone. Each has its own strengths and limitations. Together, they fulfill my needs quite well.

Physics Toolbox Suite

Vieyra Software

https://www.vieyrasoftware.net/

This app is designed for educational activities and the website offers documentation for teachers and students. It has a long list of capabilities including a stroboscope, color generator, tone (signal) generator, sound analyzers, proximeter, and color analyzer, along with the usual acceleration, light, and sound recorders.

It will record point measurements or graphs over time, and will also save .csv files that can be downloaded into a spreadsheet for further analysis. I can stay right with the phone and use Google Docs or transfer it to my borrowed laptop for analysis with DANSYS.

Sensors

ExaMobile

http://examobile.pl/

The Sensors app opens all the sensor traces on a single display page, so it's useful for testing the phone's built-in sensors.

Smart Kit 360

Kafui Utils

https://www.facebook.com/KafuiUtils

Kafui's Smart Kit brings together much of the functionality of a phone including a file browser and memory cleaner, list manager, translator, unit converter, dictionary, recorder, video editor...

[5/29/23 This app has been discontinued and recalled by Google Play. It turns out that it was a major security risk.]

Compass

https://goo.gl/4G7iVZ

The Smart Kit is great but it has some glitches, so there's a need for gap management. Particularly, the compass doesn't work with my phone, but there are other compass apps and this one works very well.

Google Science Journal

https://sciencejournal.withgoogle.com/

Created by Google designers and user's, this open source science recorder brings together sensor measurements and tracings (including signals from Bluetooth enabled instruments), narrative text, photographs, and videos to compose complete research reports. There's also lots of documentation and recommendations for experiments and demonstrations.

Just as sensor recorders all have their strengths and weaknesses, so do cell phone cameras. If you plan to rely on your phone for photography, you might want to download multiple camera apps. Get to know your phone and the apps. Understand that your phone might be surprisingly good as a camera, but it isn't perfect. 

For instance, I installed a color meter that surprised me by displaying a nice spectrophotometer chart. The problem is that my camera adds a lot of blue to photographs so it's out as a spectrophotometer unless I can figure out how to true the colors.

[5/29/23 the Google Science Journal is now the Arduino Science Journal]

Android camera

But I have always been impressed by the photography from built-in Android phone cameras. My current phone, a Motorola Moto E5 Cruise, produces clear photographs. It is capable of enlarging scenes 8x, and it's good for point-and-click photography.

Open Camera

Mark Harman

https://opencamera.sourceforge.io/#licence

The Open Camera has an option for repeat exposures, a series of quick shots to catch frames of action. 

Snail Camera

https://apkhome.net/snail-camera-pro-0-44-01/

The Snail camera app provided a lot of control over the phone's camera including prolonged exposure, multiple exposures, and remote shutter release with Bluetooth. It also provided bracketing - you can automatically take a series of photos at different exposures to get an idea of the correct value.

Camera hardware

Over the years, I've collected many camera clamps, brackets to attach them to other things, and tripods. They all reside in a fanny pack, except for the big tripod.

Geogebra

https://www.geogebra.org/?lang=en

Geogebra is great for creating diagrams, graphing, and calculating. The recent versions are in two parts, a graphing calculator and a geometry program. It's the best all around math package I've seen.

Color Grab

http://www.loomatix.com/

A colorimeter program that analyzes color by components or standard name. I expect that it will be useful for measuring relative light absorption but my camera does not accurately reproduce colors, so it probably won't be much use for spectroscopy.

USB Camera

Infitegra Inc.

http://www.infinitegra.co.jp/

Physics Pro app

Ananthakrishnan K. R.

https://www.apkmonk.com/app/com.alpha.physics/

Physics pro is a reference program providing information, tables, and formulas.

Physics is a very….well, physical science, so you might want to hook up with some suppliers than can provide stuff at reasonable prices. Some of my favorites are:

American Science and Surplus - https://www.sciplus.com -yeah, their ads look like jokes but they're flat serious, cool.

Home Science Tools - 

https://www.homesciencetools.com - suppliers for homeschoolers, they also sell to individuals with prices intended to make homeschooling affordable.

Sparkfun - https://www.sparkfun.com - another company based on making stuff affordable, this time, for electronics hobbyists. They also have lots of books and tutorials.

No need to be out of the loop, so be a circuit rider. Jump on the physics bandwagon and mix a few metaphors with me.

Physics: The Fundamental Science

I'm not a physicist, but I will be impersonating one on this blog for the next year or two  Actually, I love science demonstrations and have since I was a kid with my science kits.

Why is physics fundamental and in what way?

Well let's think about the prairie dogs out in the Bear Creek Greenway. They would be (and are currently) of interest to biologists. But, being animals, they have to eat to survive and they get most of their energy from carbohydrates, much like humans. The processes they use to extract that energy has to do with the interactions between molecules and atoms. Now, we're in the realm of chemistry, but the interactions between chemical substances care governed by charges, so, now we're solidly in the realm of physics.

The furry little things move around (a lot!) and their bones and muscles work by the same principles as any other machines - again, physics.

The Table Mountains in Golden are geologically interesting remnants of ancient volcanoes. They have deposits of basalt to prove it. Basalt is like granite but hardened so quickly that  large crystals could not form. The way substances change phase are physical phenomenon, and the processes that uncovered those ancient volcanoes are also physical forces.

The point is that all the sciences, at some level become the purview of physics. The ways we measure things are governed by physical processes. If you pour a liquid into a graduated cylinder, you will see that the surface is curved and accurate measurement requires that you take that curvature into consideration. The forces that curve the surface of the liquid are physical. The smartphone I use to measure things on the trail and make photographs relies on electronics to function.

Physics is at the bottom of all the sciences.

There are several "flavors" of physics that have developed over the years. The more intuitive, everyday version is Newtonian mechanics. Most folks have a pretty good grasp of the regular push and pull of things although some of the details may be surprising, but Newton died with a serious question on his mind. He knew how gravity worked, but he didn't know what it was, and his idea that light was particles was not completely right. By the time James Clerk Maxwell came along, it was well established that light had a wave nature and he gathered all the parts of electromagnetic theory together. 

A lot of people think that Einstein's theories of relativity replaced classical physics, the combined physics of Newton and Maxwell, but again, that's not quite true, in fact, Einstein started with the proposition that classical physics had to be true for every observer in every (inertial) frame of reference. From this seemingly innocent proposition, things began to get weird. As an object gets faster, both its size and time contracts (time runs differently for objects moving at different speeds), and the speed of light in a vacuum is the upper limit of speed in our Universe. But the theories of relativity have been soundly verified.

During Einstein's life, physicists came to the surprising conclusion that in the subatomic world, things did not move smoothly but in discrete steps, things could jump from one place to another without existing anywhere between, and we could not simultaneously know the position and velocity of an electron. Some things are, in fact, indeterminate.  The atomic world was weirder than we had ever imagined. Quantum physics shocked everyone, including Einstein.

So what does the future hold? It seems to be deeper down the rabbit hole. The future of physics is sure to be an adventure.

But, for awhile, let's go back to the comfortable world of Newton and explore how our everyday physics works and, yes, it still works.

Classical physics starts with observation and that means measurements. If you've been following my blog, you've seen me measure trail distances and altitude, barometric pressure, weight vs. mass, and temperature vs. heat. The thing is... there's only three fundamental measurements…..three things you can measure directly. For instance, you measure temperature either by measuring the change in length of a substance that changes size when they heat up or cool down, or you can measure voltage differences across a material which changes its resistance in relation to its temperature. Temperature is the average internal energy in a mass and you would have to measure the energy of all the particles in the mass to measure the temperature and, even if you could go that route, the unit of energy is a joule which is the force of one newton acting through a distance of one meter. A newton is the force of one gram accelerated at one meter per second, per second. In other words, temperature and energy are composite measurements, measurements made up of other measurements.

The three fundamental measurements that make up all the others are position, time, and amount (count). That's all. Distance is the difference between two positions and time duration is the difference between two times. I'll be talking about mass later. It's actually an amount, but all three of the fundamental measurements are weirder than you might think.

In the meantime, check out my creations.

I use constructions from construction kits as structures for demonstrations and experiments. I have an Erector set and a Lego set and I order separate parts as I need them. Here are two contraptions I built. 

[Escapement mechanism]

[Gear train]

Every.mechanical clock has one. Clocks are driven by motors, mechanical or electric, which are usually continuous. The old grandfather clock had a weight that slowly unwound a chain on a spool. Later clocks and watches used a wound spring. The problem with both was that they moved smoothly. Clocks have to tock, chopping time up into seconds, minutes, and hours. That is the job of the escapement mechanism. In old clocks, that was usually driven by a pendulum, which can be a very precise time keeper (I'll be looking at pendulums later). Later, escapements used a rebound effect to keep going.

This one uses a swinging weight that slaps a post to interrupt the motion...not very useful for clocks but very visual. The gear train shown above scales down the speed of the unwinding rubber band and transfers the motion to the swinging weight. Watch it go!

[Escapement video]

A company called "Klutz" publishes book-based action kits (project books with kit parts) including Lego compatible construction kits. The escapement mechanism parts and plans were in their Crazy Action Contraptions kit.

I also built a cart out of my Erector set. I'll be using it later when I explore motion in the playground. It has a phone clamp that lets me send my smartphone along for a ride and the Science Journal app can record the trip.

[Phone cart]

The thing about construction kits is that their parts are standardized. All the holes and interlocking dots are the same distance apart. All the parts fit all the other parts. In fact, Lego makes their specifications available to other companies, like Klutz, so there is a wealth of parts out there to do just about whatever you want.

By the way, keep workshop pegboards and circuit plugboards in mind, too. They usually fit into this standardization philosophy. If one system doesn't fit another, a little finagling will usually do the trick. A few holes drilled in some Lego bricks will nicely connect Erector to Lego. (Hint: use washers when using screws in soft plastic parts.) Back a circuit plugboard with Lego bricks using double sided tape and your electronic project integrates into your Lego set.

Check out some construction kits. In addition to science adventures, they make great, creative hobbies. Many regions even have clubs for construction enthusiasts, especially Legos.

Tales of passion and loss

Well, maybe not quite so dramatic, but certainly aggravating.

My intention was to create a series of educational home videos to accompany my upcoming explorations of the hard sciences and I did produce about 10 hours of video...before my computer died.

The files aren't actually lost...not really. They're in the hard disk, but I would have to wait until I get a new computer that can read the hard disk or find someone that doesn't mind me installing my old hard disk into their computer and transfer all the files onto my external drive and that's a whole 'nother can of worms. I'm not into biology yet so the worms are out for the time being. I'm 66 years old and too old to be wasting that kind of time so….

Tack and yaw (whutever that means)

There are actually some great video series already out there and I will recommend a few. Then, I will integrate the demonstrations I planned to do into my excursions. I'll start (as usual) by telling you about my setup, the references and tools I will be using. Then, I will find a local playground and….well, play, and I will record my motions using my smartphones to show you how classical mechanics works in the real world. Then, I'll bring it into the lab (my bedroom) to open it up and show you what's under the hood. And there will be short videos.

As for the series, if you have the money or can check it out at your local library, The Teaching Company has an excellent introduction to physics presented by Richard Wolfson called Physics and Our Universe: How it All Works. It is a 60 lesson series that is light on math but deep on understanding. Dr. Wolfson believes in demonstrations.

One of the stellar personalities from the physics classroom was Walter Lewin (of "physics works!" fame). His classes were deep and his demonstrations were fascinating. You can still find them on YouTube (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCiEHVhv0SBMpP75JbzJShqw&ved=2ahUKEwiK2L3wgcrlAhVHrZ4KHUtABCkQjjgwFHoECAgQAQ&usg=AOvVaw09SeYA_wzqGTJhlVHpa8Ry) 

A little more "introductory" but very well done are the videos from the California Institute of Technology, The Mechanical Universe … And Beyond. A blend of classroom lectures, science demonstrations, and historical documentary, this series is available for download from the Internet Archives (https://archive.org/search.php?query=mechanical%20universe&and[]=mediatype%3A%22movies%22) 

And, of course, check out the offerings at the MIT Opencourseware website (https://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm). Physics and astronomy are waiting for you, hopefully sans the drama, loss, and agony of de feet, next year, here on Adventuring: The Bear Creek Commentaries.