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Joe Rowing

@jrowing.com
581 followers 68 following 296 posts

Physics. Education. Other things.

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Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 16/07/2026
I already had it mostly ready - I plotted my bird net data in the same way just for fun - see here: www.jrowing.com/resources/bi...
jrowing.com
Bioacoustics
Automated acoustic monitoring — bat ultrasound detection on Praslin, the curious failure of BirdNET-Pi in the Seychelles, and what it produces when pointed at the Devon countryside.
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Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 16/07/2026
I found the plot and quickly put a page together in case anyone wants to re-create: www.jrowing.com/resources/cp...
jrowing.com
Cp1919
Educator, Physicist, Explorer
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Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 16/07/2026
I have the data and the R code somewhere if you'd like to plot it yourself
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Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 14/07/2026
Have a play with this whilst you wait for the book to arrive: www.jrowing.com/resources/dr...
jrowing.com
Drake Equation Explorer
Educator, Physicist, Explorer
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Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 06/07/2026
I spent a lot of time looking for an ethical alternative that wasn’t going to leave me out of pocket and couldn’t find anything suitable so it’s back to static website on GitHub. I know that’s not exactly ethical either but I’m ignorant of a better alternative.
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Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 06/07/2026
Thanks Marco. Somehow I had missed the controversial side of it till a few weeks ago. I had a bit of umming and decided I had to pull it. I’ll migrate things over to my site and if I feel rich someday I’ll buy a bear blog lifetime membership and start the email newsletter up again.
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Reposted by Joe Rowing
Cool Bike Art @coolbikeart1.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
Calvin and Hobbes cartoonist Bill Watterson expresses a Calvin-esque sentiment in a cycling self-portrait he drew for his college yearbook Happy #BicycleBirthday, Bill! Born July 5, 1958
Cartoon illustration featuring a young man riding a road bicycle on a country road. There's a thought bubble with the text: "Ah, I can take physics tests any day."
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Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 02/07/2026
a) Good pun, you've got it dialled in... b) Oh no! c) I'm sure there's an argument about necessity of scientific education here somewhere.
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Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 23/06/2026
One of my favourite pearls popped up for me today: www.jrowing.com/resources/pe...
jrowing.com
A Pearl of Physics Teaching Wisdom — Joe Rowing
365 things to make you think
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Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 19/06/2026
Room for international attendees?
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Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 15/06/2026
@coralreefresearch.bsky.social Hey there. I have some ideas for bioacoustics - are there any notable folk in the reef world I should chat to?
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Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 10/06/2026
We were using Jupyter notebooks in order to integrate a bit of python and modelling at A-level
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Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 09/06/2026
A 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.
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Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 08/06/2026
Do you use Typefully or similar - that looks like a 3rd party option. It's certainly not available in the web app...
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Reposted by Joe Rowing
Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
When even the most dystopian science fiction does not go as hard as reality.
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Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 02/06/2026
Well put! The right tool at the right time is what it’s all about!
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Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 02/06/2026
This has reminded me of a great article about playground concussions going up with introduction of rubber matting over sand/bark at playgrounds because the poor kids heads were bouncing. Can’t find it anywhere though. (Counterintuitively there’s more force on brain in a bounce for non physics bods)
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Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 02/06/2026
I have this concern a lot too @crossjack.bsky.social, I try to use them to illustrate things that can’t otherwise be easily shown, though that said i do a practilcal version of this with a moving visualiser on occasion www.jrowing.com/resources/sk...
jrowing.com
Skydiving frames of reference — Joe Rowing
They don't fall up...
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Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 02/06/2026
Definitely some survivor bias going on there, not sure we can make such a famously useful diagram on this occasion though!
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Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 02/06/2026
That’d make a good difference. Glad she’s ok!
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Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 01/06/2026
I'm sure that you'll be glad to know (in case it;s not self-evident), that 7m/s is the equivalent of a fall of about 2.5m for a cat, entirely survivable and probably without injury.
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Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 01/06/2026
Thanks - *exactly* the kind of problem I love!
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Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 01/06/2026
Using 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
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Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 01/06/2026
I'm game...
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Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 01/06/2026
Genuinely terrifying
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Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 01/06/2026
I think Ben Crowell has a good one (www.lightandmatter.com)
lightandmatter.com
Light and Matter: open-source physics textbooks
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Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 31/05/2026
Thank you. A fun one to put together, trying not to be too doom and gloom!
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Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 31/05/2026
This is neat! I often find a misconception lurking out of sight when I teach this - The students sometimes think the parachutist goes UP when they first pull the chute because of the way jumps are filmed. I've put together a complimentary sim for this misconception: www.jrowing.com/resources/sk...
jrowing.com
Skydiving frames of reference — Joe Rowing
They don't fall up...
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Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 31/05/2026
The Cracked Mirrors of Genius: Why We Need to Stop Worshiping Textbook Heroes. #ITeachPhysics #Physics open.substack.com/pub/thescien...
open.substack.com
The Cracked Mirrors of Genius: Why We Need to Stop Worshiping Textbook Heroes
From Schrödinger’s diaries to Newton’s gallows, a look at the deeply dark human realities behind history's greatest equations—and the rare few who chose a different path.
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Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 30/05/2026
I wish I’d done that. I would have as an American teacher but subscribing to that as well as all the other UK things like IoP, ASE, teaching union, was just about justifiable. For a long time my schools paid as CPD for me.
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Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 29/05/2026
I look forward to it, though I can't promise not to heckle ;P
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Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 29/05/2026
Oh! that's cool, thank you! I'll look that up as I think AAPT is great. I was trying to be quite tongue-in-cheek about a free membership whilst making the gentlest of comments about how access to good CPD is very much dependent on where in the world you are.
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Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 29/05/2026
Sad days. my AAPT and ASE memberships have now lapsed. Any good ideas on affording the memberships on an Africa wage? #ITeachPhysics might have some ideas? Perhaps I just need to find a billionaire with a thing for physics education. Maybe I need to do something grand enough to become a fellow?
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Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 29/05/2026
This is sure to be fun. Hard to beat good stories of science.
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Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 29/05/2026
Oh man - that looks great! @toomanyspectra.bsky.social will there be an e-book version please, getting dead tree media is a complete impossibility.
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Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans @astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
If you haven't already, please support our campaign by writing to your MP to tell them that funding fundamental physics is crucial and important for both science and the economy. 🔭 ℹ️: ras.ac.uk/news-and-pre...
The UK’s extensive and leading role in the international endeavour to understand the Universe and our place in it is something to truly celebrate. With less than 0.1% of the UKRI budget, the future of UK astrophysics could be saved, alongside the equally groundbreaking and world-class research in particle physics and nuclear physics, which faces the same existential crisis. If you agree with the UK Minister of State for science, that curiosity-driven research “matters enormously” as it “ultimately creates wealth”, please support our campaign by writing to your MP. Tell the government that they should be proud to invest in blue-skies physics and astronomy research, as humanity’s innate curiosity about the cosmos is the inspirational gateway, for so many, into our science ecosystem.
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Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans @astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
"Someone, somewhere, has taken the decision to defund astrophysics research in the UK, but no-one seems quite sure who that was, or why." The latest on the impact of the catastrophic funding cuts to UK astrophysics, by me, in @natastron.nature.com 👩‍🔬🧪🔭 ✒️ www.nature.com/articles/s41...
World View:  A change in UK policy jeopadizes the future of UK astrophysics - By Catherine Heymans

The latest budget proposal announced by the largest UK science funding agency threatens to severely affect UK astrophysics research. My colleagues and I are fighting back.
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Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 28/05/2026
Yes, I didn't know for ages. It's a shame as the experiment is phenomenal. I started to dig deeper into the ethics of the textbook physicists because of his fraudulent behaviour. I was amazed to find how sordid so many "greats" actually were.
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Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 28/05/2026
Finishing 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...
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Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 28/05/2026
I made a little interactive tool so you can play with the equation in honour of today; www.jrowing.com/resources/dr...
jrowing.com
Drake Equation Explorer — Joe Rowing
Educator, Physicist, Explorer
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Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 28/05/2026
Staying near Brixton market is often my favourite. Some fantastic food and drink there.
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Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 28/05/2026
If you ( #edusky #ITeachPhysics or other) have any pearls to add please feel free to share them with me, I'd love to add them. I've also made this into a little pdf with space for reflection in case that's of interest.
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Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 28/05/2026
I'm a bit obsessed by the Drake equation, I think it says a lot about us and how physics works. It's important for #ITeachPhysics and this is why... open.substack.com/pub/thescien...
open.substack.com
Seven Numbers and a Galaxy
the Drake equation, the art of the good-enough guess, and a calculator to play with
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Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 28/05/2026
This is great for y13 Physics
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Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 26/05/2026
Thank you! - feel free to add to the collection!
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Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 26/05/2026
Hmm. best I can do is suggest you demonstrated thermal contraction as an analogy for orbital mechanics, cool a clamp and point out the tiny dimensional changes are akin to the tiny deviations in Mars’ orbit which were enough to overthrow circular orbits. Did you play with the N2?
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Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 26/05/2026
Thanks! Hope the sabbatical is good. I'd love to go back to uni for a few years
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Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 26/05/2026
Share it with whomsoever you like!
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Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 25/05/2026
Oh that’s the worst. Combine with maths to get the two different vector notation joy too
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Joe Rowing @jrowing.com · 25/05/2026
This calculator talk has awakened my desire for a curta to use day to day...
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