physics

The physics of baseball

SAN FRANCISCO--If you were at the Exploratorium here the other day, you might well have needed to be wary of flying objects.

That's because, way in the back of the world-class science exploration museum, senior scientist Paul Doherty was giving a primer on why the curveball--one of the most important pitches in baseball--curves.

Of course, being a hands-on kind of scientist, one who had kindly taken time out of his day to explain the physics of baseball, the only way Doherty could explain the science was to demonstrate it. So he was flinging balls everywhere, and boy were they … Read more

CEO sees less Intel and more Nvidia in PCs

The graphics processing unit (GPU) is in, the central processing unit (CPU) is out. That was one of the main themes running through the Nvidia fourth-quarter conference call earlier this week. Nvidia is the largest graphics chip supplier.

During the call on Wednesday, Jen-Hsun Huang, President and CEO of Nvidia, repeated one thing often: GPUs are playing more of a central role in PCs, CPUs less so. "The CPU has become fast enough for the vast majority of (PC) users," he said. "PC enthusiasts, gamers, and design professionals have know this for some time." The GPU … Read more

Time waster: Cloth made by robots

While having a fast gaming rig lets you experience games with high frame speeds and ridiculous polygon counts, there are some simple pleasures in the realm of Flash gaming. For such an endeavor, check out this cloth physics simulation created by Web developer Jeff Nusz.

The "tool" (as I'll call it loosely, since you're likely not worried about air speed effects on large pieces of cloth frequently enough to use it) lets you futz about with an imaginary cloth that can be resized and put up against a fan. You can tune the speed of the … Read more

'Xtensor' claims CrackBerry rehabilitation

We recognize that "BlackBerry Thumb" can be an all-too-real affliction but, seriously, if you need something like this therapeutic contraption you've really got to let it go. Literally.

The "Xtensor" claims to be "the first product on the market to perform with true bio-mechanically correctness and treats the direct cause of this pain." That may be so, but to us it looks like a bowling glove combined with those elastic bands that pitchers use for to exercise their rotator cuffs.

In any case, the makers of the Xtensor say it can help rehabilitate … Read more

Keeping it real: What's up with the continuing allure of physical media?

I've always thought it was strange that so many people who bought VHS tapes rarely watched them. And then a lot of them bought them again on DVD! They needed to own Sex in the City, The Godfather, or the Star Wars trilogy, but never even broke the seal. Maybe they buy them as keepsakes, to remind them how much they loved the film or TV show, but don't actually need to see it. Or they watch it once and that's all they need. Big multi-disc box sets can be daunting, I bet half the ones sold … Read more

iTunes vs physical media, and the urge to purge

I own 3,000 CDs and 4,000 LPs. They take up a lot of space in my apartment, and that's OK with me. They're lined up in metal racks, wood shelving, and stacked up in piles on the floor. But a lot of my friends with just a few hundred CDs are in a big hurry to dump them into their computers and get rid of the discs. I just had lunch yesterday with an audiophile friend who is in the midst of transferring all of his CDs as WAV files to his new HD. As always … Read more

Let's get PhysX-al

Unless you're a hardcore gamer type, you've probably never heard of Ageia and their PhysX processor. This add-on card for your desktop PC works with certain supported games to provide additional processing power for in-game physics, leading to bigger explosions, more interactive environments, etc.

Of course, there are only a handful of games that support PhysX (Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2, and Unreal Tournament 3 are the only notable ones that come to mind), and game developers aren't exactly lining up to create extra content for a proprietary physics system that very few consumers will ever be … Read more

PhysX game shows promise

We finally got around to testing out CellFactor: Revolution for ourselves this week. To recap, CellFactor is a free downloadable game designed to show-off those fancy Ageia PhysX cards we're sure at least two or three of you may have purchased for your gaming PCs.

CellFactor is basically a straightforward fragfest, either with bots or with real players over a LAN. You can choose from three difference character types, but we spent all of our time with the Bishop character, whose psi-powers seemed best suited to trying out the advanced physics.

We definitely experienced some ooh and ahh moments … Read more