Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 09/06/2026A few of my better pictures with the Seestar s50 and the Unistellar smart telescopes from this year. Observing conditions are rarely good for long enough to get good stacked images here. 020
Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 01/06/2026Using the standard drag equation and some back-of-the-envelope assumptions: 🐈 mass ≈ 4 kg 🪂 parachute diameter ≈ 1 m 🌍 air density ≈ 1.225 kg/m³ 📉 drag coefficient ≈ 1.5 The well prepared cat would have a terminal velocity of roughly 7 m/s 371
Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 28/05/2026Finishing up a new version of my "Millikan- fraud" graph and an updated Substack to go along with it. A great experimentalist, but guilty of modifying data and a eugenicist. How do we present the work without diminishing the atrocities? Well, #ITeachPhysics and I hope to have a few suggestions... 230
Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 24/05/2026Sorting through some files today and I found this old video of a favourite friction/cons angular momentum demo that I did to test a microphone out. It's unscripted waffle but it might be useful to someone!🎢 162
Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 23/05/2026The thing is, it works both ways - at EMS we ran uni-style project work. Students picked an idea - they had to produce a formal report and do a 20 min poster defence in the second year (Y13) - here's a randomly picked one and yes that's latex. More here; exetermathematicsschool.ac.uk/study/exeter... 120
Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 28/04/2026Some musings on the ubiquitus value of g. #ITeachPhysics open.substack.com/pub/thescien... 230
Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 04/02/2026Made up a batch of Uv fluorescent, clear ink today. I’d almost forgotten how pretty it is. 120
Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 04/02/2026Orion Nebula captured between breaks in the cloud last night. 000
Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 26/01/2026g by freefall graphs plotted in R. RStudio is SUCH a useful tool. #ITeachPhysics 130
Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 15/01/2026Hot on the heels of talking about teaching physics with whatever you have, what about this Doppler effect Saucer from what used to be my local cafe! 060
Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 15/01/2026#ITeachPhysics benefits from using everyday items - not just in demystifying the lab but also injecting some creativity. I used to do a CPD session on creative teaching and I've written it up here. Hopefully you'll find it interesting #physics #teaching thesciencelab.substack.com/p/rubber-duc... 155
Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 14/01/2026Messing about with Red onion and saline solution today. Poor little cells. 000
Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 05/01/2026Messing about with my IPEVO Visualizer and a microscope. Always fun to display cells HUGE on the board and have the students annotate the features with whiteboard pen. 000
Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 02/01/2026Very often we ignore drag because it's hard but we can investigate it in the lab - here's a nice set-up with a lever, fan, trolley, ramp and a force meter. Students can streamline the car and lowest force recorded wins! #ITeachPhysics 170
Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 02/01/2026Another image from the random pictures from textbooks that make me laugh 020
Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 17/12/2025Thanks Richard - I've a collection of weird radioactive product images etc - Have you ever seen the radium toothpaste? 100
Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 17/12/2025From Radium water to wellness. Some stories for your classroom; open.substack.com/pub/thescien... #iteachphysics #physics 110
Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 16/12/2025I am pleased to report that Physics and science teaching in Seychelles is awesome. I've been up to all sorts of tricks in physics chemistry and biology, some old, some novel. Favourite thing recently? using thymolphthalein in agar as a way to investigate diffusion. Wayyy clearer than phenolphthalein 120
Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 21/05/2025I often recommend doing the “radioactive balloon” demo (charge balloon, hang it up to collect daughter ions of natural decay processes, wait, measure) when talking about background. Here’s the trace from before, to after placing the deflated balloon next to the Radiacode. 110
Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 21/05/2025Another shot of the Radiacode app. The green is a 7day background reading I took at home, in modern brick built. The yellow is current picture building up underground in an old stone home in Devon. 010
Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 20/05/2025Not sure if I shared this here - this is my new Radiacode detector the WWII clock that lives (in a case) on my desk at home. Using it with the app is even better. 120
Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 07/05/2025Getting fancy now with my Birdnet plots #Birdnetpi #pretty_graphs 030
Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 06/05/2025Apparently red is the most common colour on a national flag, but not everyone uses the same red. (I'm interested why it's so common). It's not my idea then but I was able to make it with R. Having ideas like this is really helping me learn the language. I wonder what I should do next. 120
Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 06/05/2025New toy for pointing out stars. It’s supposed to be sub 1mW. I really don’t think it is. Remember folk, these are not toys, they’re jolly dangerous and it is criminal to sell lasers under rated like this. If anyone has a good source for a genuinely 1mW green laser pointer, please let me know. 000
Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 28/04/2025Joy-bird, the intersection of pop album covers and data from the garden.... www.jrowing.com/posts/MoreBi... 252
Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 28/04/2025I've been playing with my BirdnetPi recently. A good excuse to learn some R and brush up on the statistics. In the manner of an irreformable tinkerer, I've re-written my website (again), another thing done in R. www.jrowing.com/posts/Confid... 120
Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 08/12/2023It has been a little while since I did a radioactivity, or any CPD sessions. Looking forward to talking to ITT teachers from Exeter University. Resources at bit.ly/keepfitonthewireless #iTeachPhysics 020
Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 22/11/2023Another day, another proof of gravitational attraction. I'd like to try and get a value for G sometime. #iTeachPhysics 271
Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 17/11/2023Staggeringly this actually worked in that the central bar rotated over 40mins and rotated back on the removal of the bowling balls #iTeachPhysics 430
Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 11/11/2023How does the mirror KNOW? (Spoiler: it doesn't, it's just reflection) www.geogebra.org/m/kfvrkxnf 371
Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 08/11/2023I am often moving around between lab rooms and schools. This is my trunk of essentials. I'll list what I have soon but I was wondering what you would include... #iTeachPhysics 120
Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 07/11/2023Found some old photos of "my" inductive gate. Just up the road from me. The induced e.m.f. in this gate is enough to light a bulb, or create a spark to an earthed passing walker (yes, me). 251
Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 06/11/2023Posted this elsewhere recently but it's too good... Note: it's a re-used balloon, please don't waste helium. Also note - the box has a mass inside that looks like it's balancing it but in reality it's taped to the table. Moral: even the obvious solution might not be as it seems #iTeachPhysics 040
Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 06/11/2023One of my favourite images - I really need to update it though #iTeachPhysics 290
