Heisenberg’s Chicken

Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle states that there is a lower limit to the product of the uncertainties in position and momentum of a wave-particle. (ΔxΔp > h/4π). This comes about because every wave-particle has an associated wave function which describes the probabilistic existence of the wave-particle. Interestingly, any attempt to constrain a wave function in position inevitably results in the wave function being less constrained in momentum.

In this comic, an attempt to restrict the chicken to a smaller space (reduce Δx) inevitably results in faster motion of the chicken (increased Δp). Haha.

 

Wannabe Vector

Work is a scalar quantity that is often mistaken by students to be a vector quantity.

While it is true that work done on an object depends on the direction of the force (a vector) with respect to the displacement (also a vector) (W=FΔscosθ), work itself is a scalar quantity. Positive work done on an object implies an increase in the object’s energy. Negative work done implies a decrease. The plus and negative sign convention for work clearly does not imply any spatial direction.

In this comic, work is acting snobbish because he mistakenly thinks he belongs to a higher class than mass, area and time. Haha.

Hammer and Feather

During one of the Apollo missions, an astronaut demonstrated that a feather and a hammer fall at the same rate when dropped on the Moon where the air is very thin. On Earth, due to air resistance having a much bigger effect on the feather than the hammer, the feather attains a much lower terminal velocity than the hammer.

In this comic, feather and hammer are depicted as a romantic couple. Standing at the edge of a cliff, the lovely feather muttered the famous line from the movie “Titanic”. Poor hammer. Haha.

Action Reaction Twin

When an object is resting on a surface, its weight W and the normal contact force N are equal in magnitude but opposite in direction. This misleads many students to mistake them as a action-reaction pair. This is actually quite an absurd mistake because W (gravitational pull) and N (electrical repulsion) are not even forces of the same nature.

In this comic, the panda and the goose are shocked by the DNA test results which showed them to be not biological twins. Haha.

Bohr’s School Rule

In the Bohr’s model of the hydrogen atom, the electron trapped in the atom is only allowed to occupy specific energy levels. All the other energy levels are forbidden. This reminds me of students who do not have the freedom to have any hairstyle they want when they are “trapped” in the school. Haha.

Molecular Squeeze

When fluid molecules repel their neighbours in all directions, we get the phenomenon called fluid pressure.

This comic takes an atomic view of a fluid. See if it explains some of the properties of fluid pressure, e.g. pressure acts in all directions, and pressure increases with depth.

Alpha Sneeze

The helium-4 nucleus carries away most of the energy released during the alpha-decay. The daughter nuclide recoils.

Rutherford’s Interrogation

Rutherford interrogated the atom to find out its composition, by firing alpha particles into the atom. Haha.

Rutherford’s Tissue Paper

This comic depicts the famous analogy by Rutherford.