Break it!

It shakes, vibrates, and - yes - breaks! Watch how sound (not even very loud) shatters a wine glass:

Balancing Stick - A feedback system

A really fun Exploratorium snack in a new light. Balancing a stick with a weight is a challenge that requires good hand-eye coordination. Let's explore this feedback system: Hand - Stick - Eye. Read more...

Find the activity here.

Physics and Music Field Trip

Awesome! Our Berkeley students of "Physics and Music" went on a field trip to the Exploratorium. Thanks everyone for coming, love your Physics and Musics T-Shirts!
More

Handmade Earbuds

Making funky earbuds for IPods. Forgot your IPod headphones? You need nothing but a coil of wire, a magnet, and a small plastic cup to make your own!

Many thanks to Modesto Tamez for showing me his magic...

Sound Bite

The latest experiment of "Physics and Music": Bite on a music-box! Read more:
orgmusicboxsound.mp3

Room Acoustics

Playing a pure 200 Hz tone on two speakers created an unexpected sound scape in the Berkeley lecture room:

Signal and Noise Game

A new game on "Signal and Noise": We made up sentences (a signal) and then randomly replaced letters (we added noise to the signal). Here are some examples, try to guess what the original sentence said:
Gon towee eogy looking
Eudolph soe red noae
(click on comments to see the answers)

Christmas Lights

There are new photos of "Physics and Music" on Flickr, the class I am co-teaching in Berkeley:
Photos of Harmonics. Photos by Andrew, Glory, and Steve