Philosophy
They are everywhere...coffee mugs, posters, pens, T-shirts, panties.
The eyes may be the windows to the soul, but it helps to have other reference points. Celtic dragon knots, Che Guevara headshots, Dilbert cartoons and Shrödinger’s equation all fit the bill in the realm of expressive T-shirts.
If you're one of those people who can never have enough physics in your life, you may enjoy digging around the physics-related shirts, mugs, clocks, and other merchandise available on the Internet.
In the online age, where everybody can participate, ventures like cafepress.com allow users to design their own products and have them made on demand, either for themselves or to sell in their own stores. At the site, a simple search for "physics" returns more than 7000 matches, and even though many of the items available are not really physics-fan desirables, there is a wealth of paraphernalia to explore.
A few ideas turn up often enough to vouch for their secure place in popular consciousness: references to Schrödinger's cat, quotes by Einstein, and quantum mechanics' allotment of a general sort of freakiness.
Other items offer assurances that science is hip: "PHYSICS BABE" shows a slinky cartoon woman in a space suit wielding a ray gun, while another shirt proclaims "Science makes me cool." There are cheat-sheet designs that all but replicate a student's notes onto a shirt; there is self-deprecating humor. "Research…screwing up for fun and profit," one T-shirt cracks. Or maybe it really is the case that "78% of all statistics are made up on the spot" and "Progress is directly proportional to equipment ruined."
Many of these designs are in-jokes, intelligible and interesting primarily to those already in the know. Anyone want a Maxwell’s equations wall clock? How about this message: "Let's put the fun back in wavefunction!"
I prefer designs that communicate through graphics: pictures of archaic physics equipment, the iconic head of Nikolai Tesla with his name all in caps, or "Chillin' with my [ohm]ies." A simple image of a lab-coated man pouring liquid into a vial, labeled "SCIENCE!", appeals to me more than the slogan, "Quantum physics says you'll never find me if I stand still."
One particularly obscure shirt features a kinematic equation purporting to show "the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow." I didn't get it, but my fellow intern Calla Cofield chuckled, explaining that it was a reference to Monty Python. "Yeah," she said, "you have to be a double nerd to get that."
And I am a sucker too...
- An Argument For "classical Physics" Or An Argument Against "theoretical Physics"
Abstract... In this paper, it is argued that theoretical physics is more akin to an organism than to a rigid structure. It is in this sense that the epithet, “sick”, applies to it. It is argued that classical physics is a model of a healthy science,...
- Five Years Ago...world Year Of Physics 2005
The World Year of Physics (WYP 2005) was a worldwide celebration of physics and its importance in our everyday lives. Physics not only plays an important role in the development of science and technology, but also has a tremendous impact on our society....
- Nikolai Nikolaevich Bogoliubov...anecdotal Recollection
Nikolai Nikolaevich Bogoliubov August 21st, 1909 to February 13th, 1992 Dmitry Shirkov has written an interesting anecdotal paper on Nikolai Bogoliubov...a Russian theoretical physicist. My first impression dates back to the spring of 1947 when N.N....
- Physics History--appreciation
You cannot appreciate the richness of physics or understand the implications and complexity of modern physics without some sort of historical perspective. To indulge in strictly current trends without an historical approach is doomed to an incomplete...
- "misuse" Of Science Words--a Problem?
A concerned student once wrote: "One thing I have noticed lately and become moderately mad at is companies using terms like "quantum" to name and advertise their products. I have seen the term on everything from cigarettes to drills. Do you think the...
Philosophy
Marketing physics
They are everywhere...coffee mugs, posters, pens, T-shirts, panties."Got enough physics?"
by
Zoe Macintosh
July 28, 2008
Symmetry
by
Zoe Macintosh
July 28, 2008
Symmetry
The eyes may be the windows to the soul, but it helps to have other reference points. Celtic dragon knots, Che Guevara headshots, Dilbert cartoons and Shrödinger’s equation all fit the bill in the realm of expressive T-shirts.
If you're one of those people who can never have enough physics in your life, you may enjoy digging around the physics-related shirts, mugs, clocks, and other merchandise available on the Internet.
In the online age, where everybody can participate, ventures like cafepress.com allow users to design their own products and have them made on demand, either for themselves or to sell in their own stores. At the site, a simple search for "physics" returns more than 7000 matches, and even though many of the items available are not really physics-fan desirables, there is a wealth of paraphernalia to explore.
A few ideas turn up often enough to vouch for their secure place in popular consciousness: references to Schrödinger's cat, quotes by Einstein, and quantum mechanics' allotment of a general sort of freakiness.
Other items offer assurances that science is hip: "PHYSICS BABE" shows a slinky cartoon woman in a space suit wielding a ray gun, while another shirt proclaims "Science makes me cool." There are cheat-sheet designs that all but replicate a student's notes onto a shirt; there is self-deprecating humor. "Research…screwing up for fun and profit," one T-shirt cracks. Or maybe it really is the case that "78% of all statistics are made up on the spot" and "Progress is directly proportional to equipment ruined."
Many of these designs are in-jokes, intelligible and interesting primarily to those already in the know. Anyone want a Maxwell’s equations wall clock? How about this message: "Let's put the fun back in wavefunction!"
I prefer designs that communicate through graphics: pictures of archaic physics equipment, the iconic head of Nikolai Tesla with his name all in caps, or "Chillin' with my [ohm]ies." A simple image of a lab-coated man pouring liquid into a vial, labeled "SCIENCE!", appeals to me more than the slogan, "Quantum physics says you'll never find me if I stand still."
One particularly obscure shirt features a kinematic equation purporting to show "the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow." I didn't get it, but my fellow intern Calla Cofield chuckled, explaining that it was a reference to Monty Python. "Yeah," she said, "you have to be a double nerd to get that."
And I am a sucker too...
- An Argument For "classical Physics" Or An Argument Against "theoretical Physics"
Abstract... In this paper, it is argued that theoretical physics is more akin to an organism than to a rigid structure. It is in this sense that the epithet, “sick”, applies to it. It is argued that classical physics is a model of a healthy science,...
- Five Years Ago...world Year Of Physics 2005
The World Year of Physics (WYP 2005) was a worldwide celebration of physics and its importance in our everyday lives. Physics not only plays an important role in the development of science and technology, but also has a tremendous impact on our society....
- Nikolai Nikolaevich Bogoliubov...anecdotal Recollection
Nikolai Nikolaevich Bogoliubov August 21st, 1909 to February 13th, 1992 Dmitry Shirkov has written an interesting anecdotal paper on Nikolai Bogoliubov...a Russian theoretical physicist. My first impression dates back to the spring of 1947 when N.N....
- Physics History--appreciation
You cannot appreciate the richness of physics or understand the implications and complexity of modern physics without some sort of historical perspective. To indulge in strictly current trends without an historical approach is doomed to an incomplete...
- "misuse" Of Science Words--a Problem?
A concerned student once wrote: "One thing I have noticed lately and become moderately mad at is companies using terms like "quantum" to name and advertise their products. I have seen the term on everything from cigarettes to drills. Do you think the...