Physics the Google Way

Are we smarter now than Socrates was in his time? Society as a whole certainly enjoys a higher degree of education, but humans as a species probably don't get intrinsically smarter with time. Our knowledge base, however, continues to grow at an unprecedented rate, so how then do we keep up? The printing press was one of the earliest technological advances that expanded our memory and made possible our present intellectual capacity. We are now faced with a new technological advance of the same magnitude, the Internet, but how do we use it effectively? A new tool is available on Google^TM (http://www.google.com)that allows a user not only to numerically evaluate equations but also to automatically perform unit analysis and conversion, with most of the fundamental physical constants built in. This paper describes some of its capabilities. ©2005 American Association of Physics Teachers

Contents

• BODY OF ARTICLE
• The Fundamental Constants
• Unit Conversions
• Illustrative Examples
  • How much do I weigh on the Moon? On the Sun?
  • Einstein's car
  • Electrostatic versus gravitational force
• Conclusion
• REFERENCES
• About the Author
• FIGURES
• TABLES