Seen and heard
Weird and wonderful stories from the world of physics
Jurassic race
Could the Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt have beaten a 400 kg dinosaur in a 100 m sprint? It’s probably not a question you’ve wondered about before, but Scott Lee, a physicist from the University of Toledo in Ohio, thought it would be a good problem for his students to solve. To make it a fair race, Lee choose the theropod dinosaur Dilophosaurus wetherilli as it’s thought to have had a top running speed of about 10 m/s, which is just a shade over Bolt’s 9.58 s world record that he set in the 100 m sprint at the 2009 World Athletics Championships in Berlin. Using concepts from 1D kinematics and numerical techniques, the students discovered that Bolt’s acceleration at the start would leave the Dilophosaurus in the dust, with the legendary sprinter winning the race with a good two seconds to spare (The Physics Teacher 60 169). Given that the Dilophosaurus had razor-sharp claws and the ability to spit venom at its pray (as DNA thief Dennis Nedry discovered in the hit film Jurassic Park), we imagine Bolt – in any hypothetical race – would have plenty of motivation to smash his own record.
In the doghouse
The auction house Christie’s held its annual sale of rare and unusual meteorites in late February. The 66 lots included a 15 g fragment of the Winchcombe meteorite, which last year became the UK’s most coveted rock after it was seen across the sky over the Cotswold town. It sold for a cool $30,240 while a smaller 1.7 g fragment fetched $12,600. Another item under the hammer was a meteorite that in April 2019 created an 18 cm hole in the oxidized tin roof of a doghouse in Aguas Zarcas, Costa Rica. Its resident, a German shepherd named Roky, survived unharmed. The kennel-striking meteorite, which is 70% covered with “fusion crust”, had a guide price of $40,000–60,000 but in the end went for a disappointing £21,240. But that wasn’t the most unusual item. “Lot 4” was the doghouse itself, placed on some artificial grass together with an orange dog bowl. The lot had a guide price of $300,000, and though it went for a paltry $44,100, that’s still probably enough to buy Roky a nice new home.
Space tele-soap
Do you remember the $70 dress featuring the pattern that adorned the parachute of NASA’s Perseverance Rover when it landed on Mars in 2021? Well, NASA’s next big space mission – the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) – has also inspired an amazing array of merchandise. Molly Peeples, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute, took to Twitter to show a bar of “James Webb Tele-soap” emblazoned with the JWST’s now-iconic mirror plus a few stars, galaxies and planets. Containing olive oil, cocoa butter, castor oil and Shea butter, it is made by the Canterbury Soap Works in the US and is available from the Etsy website for £5.68. As Physics World went to press, the soap had sold out, with a waiting time of four weeks for the next batch. But there’s no need to get into a lather: order now and it should be with you before the JWST’s first images are released in June.
Top stargazing spots
What do Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge in Northern Ireland (pictured, left), Compton Bay on the Isle of Wight and Llynnau Cregennen in Snowdonia National Park in North Wales all have in common? They are just some of the top 10 places in the UK to do stargazing, according to astronomer and science communicator Jenifer Millard, who has compiled the list along with details of what you might be able to see from the locations with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope. Two sites in Scotland – in the Cairngorns and Upper Loch Torridon – could even give you a glimpse of the Aurora Borealis. Millard also offers advice to ensure you have the most “epic experience” when stargazing, which include wrapping up warm, going on moonless nights and using a red-light torch to preserve your “dark adaption”. Millard came up with the list in partnership with the UK car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover, although other vehicles are obviously available.