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Ellis Abel Learns.

In my own words

Why I love physics

The Cold Atom Laboratory, two white equipment containers packed with lasers and vacuum hardware, on a bench before flight. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Physics" page.
The Cold Atom Laboratory, two white equipment containers packed with lasers and vacuum hardware, on a bench before flight. NASA/JPL-Caltech · Public domain
  • The same rules work everywhere. Even out in space.
  • If I know how it starts, I can say how it ends.
  • Nothing here is an accident.

What it really is

Physics is the small set of rules everything else has to obey.

Three things to try today

  1. Drop two different things at the same time.
  2. Guess which lands first. Then check.
  3. Try it with a flat paper and a crumpled one.
Astronaut Christina Koch floats in the space station while unloading new hardware for the Cold Atom Lab experiment. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Physics" page.
Astronaut Christina Koch floats in the space station while unloading new hardware for the Cold Atom Lab experiment. NASA/JPL-Caltech · Public domain

For the grown-up reading this

The paper demonstration separates gravity from air resistance in ten seconds.

Why I love physics — 4,299 places across America

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Love something else too

Five labeled water-quality sample bottles lined up in a bag, ready to be carried to the laboratory for analysis. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Chemistry" page.Why I love chemistryA Keyence optical microscope set up on a laboratory bench with its monitor and sample stage. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Microscopes" page.Why I love microscopesAn optical bench in the Laser Optics Laboratory at Ames Research Center, crowded with mirrors, lenses and beam paths. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Lasers" page.Why I love lasersThe last of four gold solar array wings is lowered into place on the Orion spacecraft's European Service Module. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Solar Power" page.Why I love the sunTwo large gantry 3D printers extrude curved concrete walls of subscale habitat structures side by side at NASA's 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love 3D Printing" page.Why I love 3D printersPale rock outcroppings breaking through prairie grass in Big Cypress National Preserve. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Geology" page.Why I love the earthCylindrical rock cores laid out in trays at the USGS Core Research Center, showing bands of different rock layers. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Rocks" page.Why I love rocksThree orange lava fountains jet more than 100 feet above the fissure 8 cone during the 2018 Kilauea eruption. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Volcanoes" page.Why I love volcanoes

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