Monthly Archives: July 2018

Q: Given two points on the globe, how do you figure out the direction and distance to each other?

Physicist: The very short answer is: use the spherical law of cosines so you can do trigonometry on a sphere. This is a seriously old problem that needed to be solved before we became a routinely globe-trotting species.  If you … Continue reading

Posted in -- By the Physicist, Geometry, Math | 9 Comments

Q: Is it possible to eat all of the ice cream in a bowl?

Physicist: If you’ve ever sat next to someone as they rang an almost-empty ice cream bowl like church bells on Sunday, then you’ve probably asked yourself some variation of this question. Clearly, the issue is that a spoon and a … Continue reading

Posted in -- By the Physicist, Geometry, Philosophical | 11 Comments