Introductory biology textbooks often use the example of sickle-cell anemia to illustrate the concept of heterozygote protection. Ordinarily scientists expect the frequency of a gene associated with a debilitating illness would be low owing to its continual elimination by natural selection. The gene that causes sickle-cell anemia, however, has a…

The physics of sound is often studied in introductory physics class experiments involving a tube of resonating air. In typical setups, pistons control the length of a cylindrical space or a microphone is moved within a tube. While these activities are useful and can be made very quantitative, they don't directly demonstrate the sounds that are…

Many teachers administer a force concept test such as the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) to their students in an effort to evaluate and improve their instructional practices. It has been commonly assumed that looking at class normalized gains allows teachers to compare their courses with other courses. In this paper we present evidence to suggest…

A challenging task in physical studies of the upper ocean using underwater sound is the interpretation of high-resolution acoustic images. This paper covers a number of basic concepts necessary for undergraduate and postgraduate students to identify the most distinctive features of the images, providing a link with the acoustic signatures of…

We study four non-Newtonian fluid mechanics problems using Mathematica[R]. Constitutive equations describing the behavior of power-law, Bingham and Carreau models are recalled. The velocity profile is obtained for the horizontal flow of power-law fluids in pipes and annuli. For the vertical laminar film flow of a Bingham fluid we determine the…

This study aimed to describe seventh grade English and Turkish students' levels of understanding of decomposition. Data were analyzed descriptively from the students' written responses to four diagnostic questions about decomposition. Results revealed that the English students had considerably higher sound understanding and lower no understanding…

Because evolution in natural systems happens so slowly, it is difficult to design inquiry-based labs where students can experiment and observe evolution in the way they can when studying other phenomena. New research in evolutionary computation and artificial life provides a solution to this problem. This paper describes a new A-Life software…

There are a number of ways of exciting standing waves in ropes and springs using non-commercial vibrators such as loudspeakers, jigsaws, motors, or a simple tuning fork, including the rhythmical shaking of a handheld Slinky. We have come up with a very simple and cheap way of exciting stationary waves in a string, which anyone, particularly…

Science museums and popular physics shows often exhibit a blower in whose air stream a ball is held hovering in equilibrium some distance above the jet's orifice. The weight of the ball, "mg," is balanced by the drag force of the turbulent air stream, often written as ?Cv[superscript 2]A, where "?" and "v" are the…

Presents an approach to the understanding of gas laws using such common phenomena as insect fogging, sea breezes, and hot air balloons. (GS)

RESEARCH WAS CONDUCTED TO ESTABLISH THE DEGREE OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE THAT IS REQUIRED TO UNDERSTAND SCIENCE ARTICLES IN CURRENT NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINES. ALL ARTICLES ABOUT SCIENCE OR REQUIRING SCIENCE FOR INTERPRETATION WERE COLLECTED FOR A 6-MONTH PERIOD FROM NINE MAGAZINES AND 22 NEWSPAPERS. TERMS WERE CATEGORIZED AND RELATED TO THE…

This document presents a discussion and conceptual derivation of Einstein's postulates of special relativity. The perceptron approach appears to be a fundamentally new manner of regarding physical phenomena and it is hoped that physicists will interest themselves in the concept. (Author)

The focus of this paper is on Michael Polanyi, a contemporary scientist and philosopher, and on some general features which are embedded in rhetorical theory's traditional bases and contemporary manifestations and which are seen from Polanyi's vantage point. The author discusses the basic features which undergird rhetorical theories and are…

Rules in this study are limited to linguistic entities which are said to have truth value, to be followable and prescriptive, to have been adopted and remain in force until unadopted, and to be conditional. The concern is with the nominal referential use of rules rather than their verbal use. The book is divided into four sections. The first…

Action research is presented as a method for generating knowledge that corrects the deficiencies of positivist science. Action research is shown to base its scientific legitimacy in philosophical traditions that are different from those that legitimate positivist science. (Author/IRT)