When an ice cube floating on water in a container melts, it is said in some textbooks that the water level does not change. However, as pointed out by Lan in a recent work, when the buoyant force from a less dense fluid resting above the waterline is taken into account, one should expect a detectable "increase" in the volume of water. Here in this…

While the Clausius-Clapeyron equation is very important as it determines the saturation vapour pressure, in practice it is replaced by empirical, typically Magnus-type, equations which are more accurate. It is shown that the reduced accuracy reflects an inconsistent assumption that the latent heat of vaporization is constant. Not only is this…

It is shown that, by applying elementary concepts in electromagnetism and electrochemistry to a system consisting of salt water flowing in a thin rectangular pipe at an average velocity v[subscript A] under the influence of a transverse magnetic field B[subscript 0], an electromotive force generator can be conceived. In fact, the Lorentz force…

During the century from the publication of the work by Einstein (1905 "Ann. Phys." 17 549) Brownian motion has become an important paradigm in many fields of modern science. An essential impulse for the development of Brownian motion theory was given by the work of Langevin (1908 "C. R. Acad. Sci.", Paris 146 530), in which he proposed an…

Dimensional analysis is a simple, clear and intuitive method for determining the functional dependence of physical quantities that are of importance to a certain process. However, in physics textbooks, very little space is usually given to this approach and it is often presented only as a diagnostic tool used to determine the validity of…

Theories of wetting of liquids on solid surfaces under the condition that van der Waals force is dominant are briefly reviewed. We show theoretically that Zisman's empirical equation for wetting of liquids on solid surfaces is a linear approximation of the Young-van der Waals equation in the wetting region, and we express the two parameters in…

We report on the competition problems given at the 39th International Physics Olympiad held in Hanoi, Vietnam, which consist of three theoretical and one experimental problems. The abbreviated solutions are presented. The distribution of marks for the problems is also shown. (Contains 2 tables and 8 figures.)

A simple rocket can be made using a plastic bottle filled with a volume of water and pressurized air. When opened, the air pressure pushes the water out of the bottle. This causes an increase in the bottle momentum so that it can be propelled to fairly long distances or heights. Water rockets are widely used as an educational activity, and several…

An account of peculiar light patterns produced by reflection in a pool under falling rain droplets was recently reported by Molesini and Vannoni (2008 Eur. J. Phys. 29 403-11). The mathematical approach, however, only covered the case of a symmetrical location of a light source and the observer's eyes with respect to the vertical of the falling…

Light beams in wavy unclear water, also called underwater rays, and caustic networks of light formed at the bottom of shallow water are two faces of a single phenomenon. Derivation of the caustic using only simple geometry, Snell's law and simple derivatives accounts for observations such as the existence of the caustic network on vertical walls,…

We propose an "ab initio" introduction to the well-known Minnaert pulsating bubble at graduate level. After a brief recall of the standard stuff, we begin with a detailed discussion of the radial movements of an air bubble in water. This discussion is managed from an acoustic point of view, and using the Lagrangian rather than the Eulerian…