Archives for March 2007
Rendering Lego Figures
Published on 21 Mar 2007 at 3:28 am.
4 Comments.
Filed under Fun, Lego, Software.
A couple of weeks ago, I described the free software package called LDraw that with MLCad and POV-Ray allows you to design Lego creations and illustrate them with ray tracing software. The software actually goes far beyond this, as MLCad is a real Computer Aided Design program that allows you to save the steps so [...]
Double-Angle Formulas
Published on 20 Mar 2007 at 12:40 am.
1 Comment.
Filed under Mathematics.
To display equations, I recently installed LaTeX into WordPress by using a Latexrender plugin and it works great! I am going to try it out by blogging about a relatively easy way to derive the double angle formulas for the sine and cosine. The double angle formulas relate [tex]\sin( 2\theta)[/tex] and [tex]\cos( 2\theta)[/tex] to [tex]\sin( \theta)[/tex] and [...]
Celestia
Published on 18 Mar 2007 at 1:32 am.
No Comments.
Filed under Astronomy, Exploration, Fun, Mars, Software.
This semester, I am teaching a course on Star Systems, and I have found the free software package Celestia to be excellent. Celestia performs 3D real-time rendering of the planets and stars with high-quality graphics and allows you to travel through both space and time.
You can watch a lunar eclipse from Earth, and then go to [...]
How to Set the Path in Windows 2000 and Windows XP
Published on 17 Mar 2007 at 1:01 pm.
No Comments.
Filed under Internet, Note to Self, Software, Solutions.
Another note to my future self…
The path is now handled by Windows 2000 and Windows XP, so forget about autoexec.bat and the like. The path is a system environment variable, which can be changed by:
1. Go to the desktop and right-click on My Computer.
2. Click on Properties. This brings up a System Properties window.
3. Click [...]
Read ‘How to Set the Path in Windows 2000 and Windows XP’
Sonofusion
Published on 17 Mar 2007 at 1:13 am.
No Comments.
Filed under Acoustics, Inventions, Physics, Research.
I am the chair of our physics department’s weekly colloquium, and this week our guest speaker was Dr. Richard T. Lahey Jr., the Edward Hood Jr. Professor of Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Dr. Lahey spoke to us about his recent successes in sonofusion. In short, sonofusion is the act of achieving nuclear fusion by [...]
