I know this is weird, but I find the questions asked on OkCupid more interesting than the “matches” it comes up with. Of course, since I don’t make the first move, ever, time spent browsing matches is largely wasted for me, anyway.
I end up marking many of them as “irrelevant,” though. I cannot see ruling out a relationship based on whether or not someone can cook, has ever been in an election, or is familiar with the second movement of Dvorak’s 9th symphony. Then again, the things that are important are truly important—like whether the other person would consider a relationship with someone who has a chronic illness.
Uncanny physics of comic book superheroes
Can you teach a physics class with only comic books to illustrate the principles? University of Minnesota physics professor James Kakalios has been doing it since 1995 when he explained the principle of conservation of momentum by calculating the force of Spider-Man’s web when it snagged the superhero’s girlfriend as she plummeted from a great height. “Comic books get their science right more often than one would expect,” said the gregarious Kakalios. “I was able to find examples in superhero comic books of the correct descriptions of basic physical principles for a wide range of topics, including classical mechanics, electricity and magnetism, and even quantum physics.”
