#E1523D

Jaq Chartier.Sun Test: Color Shifters
acrylic, stains and paint on wood panel

A stain is a discoloration that can be clearly distinguished from the surface, material, or medium it is found upon. Stains are caused by the chemical or physical interaction of two dissimilar materials. Stains are used intentionally in a variety of fields, including in research, technology, and art.

14-billion-years-later:

How X-rays Work.

X rays hold a certain fascination in their ability to peer into the unknown and see bizarre things like snakes that have ingested light bulbs but like a lot of good things in science, X-rays were discovered entirely by accident. They’re usually attributed to Wilhelm Rontgen who noticed that a film across his lab begun to fluoresce during experiments with a Crooke’s Tube despite taking action to block radiation (in the form of a sheet of black card). It was then discovered that by moving his hand in between the Crooke’s tube and fluorescing screen he could see the bones in his hands.

The ability for X rays to penetrate flesh and render hidden things visible lies in the amount of energy contained within them. They simply cannot be absorbed by most atoms because there is not enough of an energy difference between electron orbitals, as such they pass through most molecules and atoms unhindered. However heavier elements, such as calcium, are capable of absorbing X rays and so effectively block them. The formation of X rays lies in the reverse process. To produce high energy electromagnetic radiation electrons are accelerated and fired at a metal (typically tungsten) plate. These high velocity electrons ionize the metal by bumping off one of electrons in a lower energy orbital causing a higher energy electron to fall to the lower state and emit the difference of energies in the process as an X ray photon.

Some photographs by Berenice Abbott

1. Wave Interference Pattern, 1950s
2. Focusing Water Waves, 1950s
3. Expanding Circular Waves, 1950s
4. Periodic Straight Waves, 1950s
5. Reflected Water Waves, 1950s
6. Reflected Water Waves, 1950s
7. Water Waves With Bubbles, 1950s
8. Soap Bubbles, 1946

Milk Drop Falling Into Reservoir of Milk by Harold Edgerton, 1935, printed later

via: Metropolitan Museum

Test Tube Shattering by Harold Edgerton, 1930s

Edgerton’s 1932 invention of the stroboscopic or electronic flash quickly effected a revolution in photography by enabling artists to work in locations and under conditions that had never before been possible. Although he himself was a scientist, Edgerton’s achievement with the camera secured his place as much in the history of photography as in science.

via: Metropolitan Museum

14-billion-years-later:

The physics behind raindrops.

If I were to ask you to picture in your head the shape of a raindrop you’d probably think about the standard, idealized almost pear shaped tear drop. This however is no more accurate a depiction of rain as those drawings of hearts or atoms. In reality water flattens out due to the force of the air rushing past and this effect only becomes more noticeable as the size increases. In fact smaller droplets of rain are almost totally spherical but as the size increases they get flatter and wider. Raindrops larger than about 4.5 mm however are torn apart by this force and bulge out the back, being thicker at the bottom edge. This causes them to disperse into smaller raindrops once again until they either hit the ground or join back up with other droplets and the process is repeated.

Print - Elektronische Grafik (Electronic Graphics)
Franke, Herbert W. (artist), 1970

This screenprint, by Herbert W. Franke (born 1927, Austria), is from a photograph of the screen of a cathode-ray oscilloscope. Oscilloscopes produce electrical signals that are displayed visually on the fluorescent screen of a cathode ray tube. Franke worked with a simple analogue computer, designed by physicist Franz Raimann, which was connected to the oscilloscope. The artist used the computer to manipulate and direct the electronic signal, or beam, and overlapped the forms that appeared in real-time by using a mixing console. The only means of recording these images at the time was to photograph the screen, which was only 5 cm wide. From the image, the artist produced this screenprint some years later. Artists began experimenting with producing graphical images using oscilloscopes in the 1950s and 1960s, and they are considered a precursor to computer art.

Herbert W. Franke is a pioneering figure in the history of computer art. In 1971, he produced one of the first accounts of computer art entitled ‘Computer graphics - Computer art’. In 1979, he co-founded the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, Austria, an annual event that combines art and technology. Franke is also well known as a successful author of science fiction novels.

found: here

The evolution of Physics by Albert Einstein and Leopold Infeld
from Nasser M. Abbasi’s book list

Found: here

Natural philosophy, for the use of schools and academies (1883)

Author: Gillet, J. A. (Joseph Anthony), 1837-1908; Rolfe, W. J. (William James), 1827-1910
Subject: Physics

Fundamental and Harmonic Vibrations.
Strew sand upon a horizontal plate of brass, and then, holding it with the thumb and finger, draw a bow across the edge of the plate so as to throw it into vibration. The sand will be tossed up and down, and first, but will quickly come to rest in definite lines, called nodal lines.
These are lines of rest which separate the vibrating segments of the plate. By touching the plates at different points with the thumb and finger, a great variety of figures may be produced with the sand, showing that it is possible for the plate to break up into vibrating segments in a great many different ways. A series of these nodal figures is shown in fig. 125

via: archive