The random collection of topics below share only the common feature that I find them intriguing. Much of the material is "well known", or at least in the literature somewhere. But bits are original (most probably the bits that are wrong).
As of 21/4/2012 the first item in the list below is my 'work in progress' under the working title "Theoretical Physics: Some Choice Cuts". This link takes you to a page where you can read or download various draft essays in theoretical physics (48 available at present, with a total of 58 planned).
The second item in the list below, the 'Introduction to Quantum Mechanics', is a separate tutorial in its own right, and the link starts with an introductory page.
If you spot any errors, or have any related questions or clarifications, please do let me know.
The general solution of the Newtonian two-body problem is a conic section (any of the conic sections). But what is the cone?. Remarkably, whatever the orbit in question (as defined by the energy and the angular momentum) whether circle, ellipse, parabola or hyperbola, you may choose a cone at random and there will always be a plane which intersects it so as the reproduce the desired orbit.
Feynman's Disc Paradox resolved! The paradox illustrates why it is important always to remember that a static eletric field and a static magnetic field create field momentum.
Why is it that "Which Path" Information destroys interference effects - and what do partial measurements do?
Interference, Entanglement and Quantum Erasure: The observability of counterfactuals, Wheeler's delayed choice experiment, delayed quantum erasure - it's weird, all right, but not as weird as popular accounts make out
Exactly what is the origin of the Divergences in Quantum Field Theory? It is argued that the blame lies with the cannonical commutation relations plus Lorentz covariance
The Optical Theorem in the context of particle scattering, and why it's not mysterious after all.
The coloured fringes seen when a birefringent material is viewed between crossed polars are systematised by the Michel-Levy Colour Chart. The theory behind this chart is explained here.
How Far Can You Go? How far is it possible for a single human, limited by a human lifespan (say, 70 years), to travel in the universe? No, it's not 70 light-years. It's far, far further.
The most famous equation of all time E = Mc^2 did not appear in Einstein's original 1905 paper
Are we living in The Matrix? Response to Nick Bostrom's argument and musings on the Mind-Body Problem
Kepler's Laws derived without solving the equation of motion, and clarification of their physical meaning. If the solutions are conic sections, what is the cone?
New comprehensive maps of Greenland and Antarctica show extent of glacier thinning [Credit: ICESat,NASA].
Reporting in September 2009 in Nature, researchers from British Antarctic Survey and the University of Bristol describe how analysis of millions of NASA satellite measurements from both of these vast ice sheets shows that the most profound ice loss is a result of glaciers speeding up where they flow into the sea. The authors conclude that this 'dynamic thinning' of glaciers now reaches all latitudes in Greenland, has intensified on key Antarctic coastlines, is penetrating far into the ice sheets' interior and is spreading as ice shelves thin by ocean-driven melt. Ice shelf collapse has triggered particularly strong thinning that has endured for decades.
