Reference Frames: Recent Episodes
Will Riihiluoma and Ian McKeag
Reference Frames is a Physics podcast in which co-hosts Ian and Will seek to educate and entertain listeners about various Physics principles by using easy-to-understand popular media.Tweet at us with your Physics thoughts and questions! @PodcastFrames
After her house lands on a witch somewhere over the rainbow, young Dorothy must walk the yellow brick road in her ruby slippers to the emerald city. Once there, she will turn away her blues by clicking her heels together and chanting "there's no place like home!" But how do these colors come into existence? That's the subject for learning in this episode of Reference Frames!
Topics of Discussion
- Happy birthday?
- Andor AND Rings of Power (shocking)
- Dorothy's trip to Oz
- Colors!
- Will's a big fan of these charts
- Rods and cones!
- The color's Dorothy didn't see...
- Brown.
- Purple Earth?
- We get Mythbustersy and bust a myth!
As always, contact us on Twitter @podcastframes or email us at referenceframespodcast@gmail.com
Everyone knows the famous horns of Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra thanks, primarily, to its presence in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. When used, the viewer is witnessing the advancement of technology -- from bone tools to satellites seemingly floating above the big blue ball called Earth. But Kubrick's vision of the future wasn't unfounded. The ships, floating effortlessly and motionless above Earth, are simply in orbit -- a physics principle that kept the astronauts of Apollo 8 from crashing into the moon, keeps the moon from crashing into the Earth, and keeps Earth from crashing into the Sun. But how? That's what we dive into today!
Topics Include
- It's fall, y'all!
- Third consecutive episode mentioning Rings of Power
- Bone tools, the invention of beat-downs, and imagery of satellites
- Orbits: just falling too fast (or not fast enough, depending on your perspective)
- Cannonballs and thought experiments
- Will's soon-to-be famous geography tirade
- Shutter Shades, LMFAO, and privacy screens for your computer
Want to contact us? You can!
@podcastframes
referenceframespodcast@gmail.com
After being caught in Ithilien, Sam and Frodo are blindfolded and taken to the hidden refuge of Henneth Annûn to be questioned by Captain Faramir. Upon removing the blindfolds, Sam and Frodo are dazzled by a plethora of chromatics cascading from the The Window of Sunset. Will and Ian dive deep into the wondrous world of scattering sunlight and the beautiful colors contained within.
Video on why light slows down in waterVideo on why light changes its direction of travel in water
Topics Include
- Will's excitement for the new Lord of the Rings show
- Ian's excitement to annoy his coworkers
- A vocal fold correction!
- A hidden refuge and a rainbow of light
- The Pink Floyd Effect
- Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
- Lord of the Flies by William Golding
- Rainbows
- Twinkle twinkle little star
- String Theory and those silly physics types
Got a correction? Question? Contact us!
@podcastframes
referenceframespodcast@gmail.com
When Flick is triple dog dared to touch his tongue to the frozen flagpole in his school's courtyard, it's his honor on the line. With his friends watching, he cautiously places his tongue on the pole, before realizing (a moment too late) that the warmth of his body is not enough to keep his saliva unfrozen and separate from the pole. In this episode we learn about temperature, in particular the phenomenon of conduction!
Topics of Discussion:
- Apologies to Matt
- Discussions of Disclaimers
- An update on some movies we've seen
- Ralphie's Frozen Friends (and why Flick can't Let It Go)
- A Boy Named Flick
- Conduction!
- Wetsuits!
- The return of the Ant Man (and the physics of Pym particles)
Catch us out? Let us know! @podcastframes
Following a truck hijack in New York, five criminals are arrested and brought together for questioning. The men stare into bright lights and a bright mirror. Behind the mirror, officers stand in a dark room, judging the way they read the provided lines. but why can't the criminals see the police? And why can the police see the criminals? Today on Reference Frames, we talk about one-way mirrors!
Discussion Topics
- The midsummer Reference Frames break
- Sword in the Stone vs Excalibur?
- The Usual Suspects
- Car paint!
- Mirrors!
- Windows at night
- Water on phones
- Share your knowledge with your friends (and this podcast too)
Tweet at us! @PodcastFrames
It takes a man like Paul Rudd to pull of Ant-Man. And it takes a team of quantum powered heroes to save the day via building shrinking and Pez-dispenser-growing powers. But there's a trick about changing the scale of an object -- and that's exactly what Will and Ian explore in this episode!
Topics Include
- How great LOST is
- The lore of Toy Story
- A Star Wars fight
- Ant-Man and the Wasp and the Square-Cube Law
- Ian's failure to come up with real life examples
- Airships!
- Where do days, hours, and minutes come from?
Interesting article going into detail on Square-Cube Law with respect to movies & TVScientific American article on time
When Patches O'Houlihan shows up to train a raggedy group of gym rats, the first thing he does is tell them "If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball." Most people laugh at this line, but upon deeper reflection, it becomes obvious that Patches is, himself, a physics enthusiast, and is exactly right. Today we talk projectile motion and how our brains are able to rapidly process things flying through the air!
Topics Include
- Kenobi and Ian's woes watching Star Wars
- Dr. Strange and Ian's woes seeing movies
- Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
- There are no other quotes from Dodgeball
- Sports ball and projectile motion
- The terminal velocity of a cow
Subway Sandwich Airstrike:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/0saOV9HJP_U?&ab_channel=Wian
Scene from the film:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peUyLXrgYZ0&ab_channel=Movieclips
Work on cow terminal velocity:
http://www.obsidianfields.com/lj/fallingcow.pdf
When Bruce Wayne dons the mask and cape to become the Batman, he not only needs to master many forensic and martial arts. His understanding of the natural world and its phenomena must be top tier! When the League of Shadows threatens Gotham, Batman knows that the microwave emitter is turning water into steam and aerosolizing a fear-toxin! Thanks to his scientific knowledge, Gotham is saved by its masked knight. Today on Reference Frames, we use the caped crusader's escapades to learn about state transitions and how they appear in the world!
Topics:
Questionably appropriate etymology
The Dweebs of Maine
Batman!
Spaghetti water
Ice cubes
Towels
Ian is a sweaty dude
Clouds
Freeser burned peas!
Tweet us: @podcastframes
Email us: referenceframespodcast@gmail.com
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Before Marty McFly is flung into the past, he is first flung into a bookshelf after blowing out a stack of guitar amplifiers. Will and Ian learn about sound and whether or not young Marty could have been launched as a result of a sick power chord.
Contact Us: @podcastframes
Topics Include
- The new lord of the rings show
- Spiders in movies = bad
- Doc's house
- Sound, of course
- Cars with sick sound systems
- Ultrasound for creation and destruction
- Acoustic Levitation
- How are instruments different?
- Opera singers!
The Nature of Music by melodysheep used under Creative Commons 3.0 -- find the whole album here
How is it that Ellen Ripley is able to glass an Alien by simply opening the airlock in a spaceship? That's what Will and Ian talk about on this episode, along with a plethora of other conversation topics.
Topics Include:
- Will's conference
- Different Network Analysis for different industries
- Ellen Ripley and the defeat of a Xenomorph
- Dolphin hands!
- Ships filled with water
- Time Turners
- Fun measurement types
When Marta Cabrera accidentally kills esteemed mystery novelist Harlan Thrombey, she must outsmart and outmaneuver private investigator Benoit Blanc. In particularly cunning scene, Marta scrambles the contents of a security tape using nothing but a magnet. How can this be? In this episode, we learn about magnets, magnetic fields, and their usage in modern life.
Topics Include
A follow up on the stew
Ian's poor social media execution
Bobo Fett
Lord of the Rings (nerds)
Daniel Craig's accent
Magnetic domains unified under a leader
Magnetic lava flows
Sharks-in-motion
When Gollum snatches the One Ring from Frodo (along with a finger to boot), he unfortunately plummets to the liquid rock below. Before his ultimate demise, Gollum hoists the One Ring overhead while he bobs briefly in the lava. But what is bobbing? And how do things float? Will explains to us Archimedes' Principle and we discuss where it is found in the real world through the lens of one of the the greatest novel/movie trilogies!
Topics:
Will's Birthday!
Not doxxing our friends
Sad lunches and garbage pail sushi
Nicole's Stew!
Return of the King, baby
Car-balloon physics experiments
Boats and SCUBA
The Electric Boy Launcher
When the last hope for humanity is ejected in an escape pod, it takes the plucky robot Wall-E to rescue it -- and himself -- by propelling himself through space using naught but a fire extinguisher. Come learn about how Wall-E's understanding of the conservation of momentum got him out of a bind!
Topics Include
A significant delay in episode release
Who is the real Santa?
Cute robots
Rocket science
Nozzles!
Marvel's usage of real words, not buzzwords
When Doc Ock threatens the good commuters of New York with a dip into the Hudson, it is up to Spider-Man to stop a speeding train from taking a plummet. Will and Ian discuss Newton's second law (some may recall "Fma" from their high school Physics courses) and how it works in everyday life.
Discussion Topics
Thanos can't snap with metal gloves?
Invisible flames and Talladega Nights
NYC Train conductor snark
Bad jokes
A very heartfelt sign-off
The firebending duel between Princess Azula and her exiled brother Zuko is nothing short of scorching. The cold blue flames of the cruel Princess collide with her brother's passionate red-orange flames. But how do flames get these colors? Let's learn about that.
Discussion Topics Include
- It's a Dune cast!
- Should I laser my retina?
- Green lasers: the complete picture
- Fire!
- Why does wifi go through walls?
Intro/Outro by John Bartman
Narrative music by xelementumign1s
In 1964's Goldfinger, the titular character manages to ensnare agent 007 in a dubious trap. Everyone's favorite secret agent watches as Goldfinger's bright red LASER inches slowly towards him, scorching the gold table he rests upon. But did you know that Goldfinger was really using cutting edge technology? Come learn about the history, principles, and design of LASER beams!
The scene at hand
LASER jock discusses the possibility of Goldfinger's laser
LASER jock part two
Discussion Topics Include
Appropriate circumstances for viewing Over the Garden Wall
How we catapulted to 17th hottest podcast in the Physics subcategory in the USA on Apple podcasts
Our first corrections!
Ian's sad impressions of Goldfinger
Google Fiber
LASIK
LASER tag
Why don't atoms push themselves apart?
Nowadays, much like on Isla Nublar, electricity matters! When the lights go out and the dinos roam free, the only thing that saves young Tim Murphy is the brains, brawns, and electrical understanding of Dr. Alan Grant.
Topics Include
Literary discoveries of a bygone age
Charge, current, and zaps
Electric fence theory and application
The best looking Jurassic Park character
Best practices when confronted with lightning strikes
Homogenous vs homogenous
All those videos of flowing but not flowing water
Our #1 fan: Ian's grandma
Tweet at us! @PodcastFrames
"Black Vortex" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Whilst resting from a long day riding, TE Lawrence reclines on the hot sand and gazes across the scorching desert landscape. As if riding from the sky itself, a mysterious figure descends upon the British intelligence agent and his guide. Before the he can grasp the gravity of the situation, the mysterious rider is an arms length away and his guide is slain. Ian and Will talk about mirages; what they are, how they work, and where else we see the underlying principle elsewhere in daily life.
Topics of Discussion:
- Disney's jungle cruise
- Lawrence of Arabia's resting position on hot sand
- The sorceress Morgan le Fey
- Snakes as siege weaponry
- Maine based poets
Helpful Links!
Scene from Lawrence of ArabiaA material with an extreme refractive index gradientNYT article on 2020 flying snake studyH. W. Longfellow Poem,Fata Morgana
Tom Cooper's voyage to a distant galaxy results in a strange twist of time. Understood as parts of Special and General relativity, time dilation catapults Cooper years into the future in the span of a few hours. Come learn about it with us!
Topics Include
Will's microphone volume
Mathew M impressions
How to distinguish yourself from your twin
US Navy Alarm Clocks
Links:
Excerpt of Kip Thorne’s book about the science of Interstellar
Explanation of why black hole spin affects gravity on the planet
Explanation of GPS relativity
Brief explanation of math behind GPS relativity
Explanation of gold & relativity Support this podcast by leaving us a review on Apple and Google podcasts, tweeting us @PodcastFrames and sharing this podcast with the physics and science lovers of your life!
How do Olympic high jumpers make such incredible heights? By manipulating their center of gravity using the famous Fosbury flop, of course!
In this episode, Will and Ian discuss the concept of Center of Mass/Gravity using the 2020 Olympic Games.
The video example discussed
Topics Include:
Homemade jingles
Our favorite mascot
Two incredible sportsmen
Ian's CRV 2Fast2Furious experiences
Will's love for novelty toys from Cracker Barrel
Confirmation of MCU Phase 4 physics???
In the debut episode of Reference Frames podcast, we use the quick wits of the blacksmith apprentice turned swashbuckler William Turner.
The clip under question
Topics include:
A pirate's use of torque
Keeping an eye on a wrench
The perfect screwdriver
Will's love for Babu Frik
The mentioned Twitter account mysteriously disappeared, so...
Tweet us with your physics questions, corrections, memes, and thoughts: @PodcastFrames
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If you know somebody at Disney, help us get into the Star Wars universe.