![]() The GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) mission, launched by NASA in 2002, makes use of two satellites, Tom and Jerry, in order to map the Earth’s gravitational field. The bulb’s luminosity has decreased over its life: it was initially rated at 60 W but now has an output of only 4 W. A light bulb at a fire station in Livermore, California has been in nearly continuous operation for a hundred years.The Science Museum in London houses ‘The Clock of the Long Now’, a timepiece designed to display the correct time for 10,000 years.The Beverly clock has, in principle, not needed winding since its manufacture in 1864 because it is driven by ambient fluctuations in air temperature which cause an airtight metal box to expand and contract. A clock that rivals the Clarendon bell for its longevity can be found in the foyer of the physics department at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand.The bell’s clapper oscillates at a frequency of about 2 Hz and draws 1 nA from the cell. In 1840, the Reverend Robert Walker set up a bell connected to a dry pile (a type of battery) in the entrance to the Clarendon Laboratory at the University of Oxford – the bell has been ringing continuously ever since.The ninth drop fell in 2014 and it is possible to join the watch for the tenth via a webcam at: It takes between 7 and 13 years for a drop to form, but only a tenth of a second for the fluid to fall. The experimental apparatus consists of a quantity of pitch in a glass funnel which scientists monitor to study the flow of the viscous material and the process of drop formation. What is possibly the world’s longest running science experiment was set up at the University of Queensland, Australia in 1927. So, let me tell you some stories about physics… I am also grateful to Stuart Redfern for his witty illustrations that have brought the stories to life. I would like to thank Caroline Davis for championing this project and her careful and thoughtful editing. I am grateful to the Institute of Physics for their support and encouragement with the Stories from Physics project. When planning a lesson related to forces and motion, dip into the booklet to find stories related to the topic you are teaching that enrich your lessons and spark interest in physics. I have compiled these booklets to provide short stories that you can add to your lessons alongside the conceptual content. The booklet will tell you how physics can help you to avoid speeding tickets and how a manhole cover became one of the fastest man-made objects ever recorded. You will read about the forces exerted on shoelaces, penguin poo and on henchmen in James Bond films. The stories about forces and motion cover a wide range of scales: from the smallest force ever measured to the bite strength of an extinct mega-piranha. Or, you can find out how the Tom and Jerry satellites precisely measure the Earth’s gravitational field. For example, you can read the story of how Clarence Birdseye (of frozen food fame) came to finance a stock market trader’s anti-gravity institute. The stories in this booklet are drawn from both the history of science and cutting-edge research. The domain of forces and motion is rich in stories that can enhance physics teaching. IOP Head of Education Message from the author These anecdotes bring to life the people behind the well-known names who, over the last 500 years, have contributed to the explanations with which we are now so familiar - their eccentricities, frailties, mischievousness and humanity. This booklet is the second in the series and, appropriately, takes us into some of the stories behind quintessential school physics: the Galilean and Newtonian view of the world. ![]() They will be of interest to any teacher and are ready to use with students to bring the discipline alive and illustrate its reliance on human ingenuity and frailty. I’m sure that you will be inspired by the stories and their engaging retelling here. Richard has collected some amazing, amusing and enlightening stories and I am very pleased that the IOP is able to help him to share them. The story of physics is intertwined with the stories of people.
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