1ucasvb's lab

Animation I’ve done for explaining part of my research.

Animation I’ve done for explaining part of my research.

Photo

Photo

Photo

A star is born. One of the prototype openings for the YouTube...

A star is born. One of the prototype openings for the YouTube channel project. I have not given up on it, I just really need to get this academic life sorted out!

Photo

One of the best TV shows about physics is now on YouTube!

Caltech recently announced the release on YouTube of the excellent educational TV show The Mechanical Universe , which gives an accessible but still formal approach to physics and physics history. The show pioneered the use of technical 3D animations as a way to explain complex math and physics concepts in an accessible way. The animations were created by none other than computer graphics legend…

Vote on which topic you want to see covered next!

I’m planning a few posts in the near future, but I’m wondering which topic interests people more. The topics I’m considering: Mirrors of different shapes : I’ll explore how rays and waves are reflected by different shapes, and some interesting properties of these shapes. I have more ideas beyond the typical parabolic/elliptical/spherical mirrors, so I’m sure…

Can you flatten a sphere? The answer is NO, you can not. This...

Can you flatten a sphere? The answer is NO , you can not. This is why all map projections are innacurate and distorted, requiring some form of compromise between how accurate the angles, distances and areas in a globe are represented. This is all due to Gauss’s Theorema Egregium , which dictates that you can only bend surfaces without distortion/stretching if you don’t change their Gaussian…

“Why do some objects emit a 'pitchless' sound when hit, and others a 'tuned' sound?”

This question was asked today on Reddit’s /r/AskScience by /u/silverben10 , and I decided to pitch in and give an in-depth answer. Below is a reproduction of my answer there. I figured my Tumblr followers might enjoy it as well. In order to understand this better, we gotta talk about the frequency spectrum of a sound. An important result in mathematics is that any “reasonable”…

Frequently unanswered questions

Over the past couple of years I received a lot of messages and questions, but since I kinda disappeared from Tumblr at that time (due to work, studies, depression, etc.) I never got around to answering them. Answering some of them seems moot at this point. I’d like to apologize to everyone I left hanging. One of the most frequent questions/requests is for an expansion on the easing functions…

Hi! I realise this is anonymous, but I still hope you might answer my question. I am a 24 y.o. medical student from Europe nearing the end of my MD. Incidentally, I have some spare change (due to programming work mostly) and I was considering starting a physics degree after I graduate. In your experience, how difficult is it to start doing high-level stuff this late? I never did anything beyond basic calculus and some linear algebra. Thanks so much! Oh, and loads of awesomeness on here and wiki!

Well, right off the bat, I can tell you I started my physics bachelor at 26, and I haven’t even graduated yet! (An exchange program set me back about a year and a half). So I know the feeling. But I always kinda knew this is what I wanted to do. I started late because I had to work and save up money to move to a different city to study. I worked as a web developer in the meantime, doing things I…

Hi! My name is Joe. I’m a soon-to-be Physics freshman at the University of Colorado at Boulder. I admire your animations! I read in your FAQ that you use PHP/GD. I was hoping I could ask what is the “right track” for making my own animations and diagrams like you. I must make a Calculus presentation on the topic of quaternions soon; I would like to make animations for my presentation. I have some knowledge in Python but that’s about it. Any help would be much appreciated! Thank you so much!

Oooh, quaternions! Awesome topic to tackle! I did a presentation on them once as well. It’ll be tricky, but wrapping your head around them pays off!I would suggest you try picking up Processing for this. It’s an incredibly easy language to pick up, and a very versatile language/platform to create animations in. It’s especially well suited for interactivity as well (keyboard, mouse, sound, video,…

In Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, space and time...

In Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity , space and time are unified in a single entity called spacetime. This is the “stage” in which the laws of physics operate. In Einstein’s theory, the presence of mass and energy warps spacetime, and it is this curvature that affects objects in the way we perceive as gravity. The basic idea is that while we see objects accelerating towards a mass by the…

Figured I’d add a mass in there. See also: previous GIF.

Figured I’d add a mass in there. See also: previous GIF .

Hello, everyone! Yes, I’m alive! Here’s a WIP of a...

Hello, everyone! Yes, I’m alive! Here’s a WIP of a thing I did while working on my next animation, explaining Einstein’s general theory of relavitiy. I also got a MAJOR project coming up soon. Stay tuned for more information! :)

How much time does it take to you to make a simple animation? Which program do you use? Do you do it frame-by-frame or by interpolation? (by the way, this blog is the BEST!)

Takes me anywhere from 5 to 40 hours for an animation, maybe more for complicated stuff.For the programs I use, check my FAQ page .As for the animation, it’s neither frame-by-frame or interpolation, it’s a weird mix of both. All my animations are done entirely on code. I only use visual interfaces for adding text and controlling their animation, because doing this with code is usually rather…

Hi Lucas. I will give a talk about polygon waves at the ICMC/SMC 2014 an International Computer Music Conference in Athens on Monday 15th of September. In the talk I will present the paper “N-gon Waves – Audio Applications of the Geometry of Regular Polygons in the Time Domain” (D. Chapman, Dr M. Grierson, Goldsmiths, University of London, 2014). Would you allow me to use some screenshots of your polygon sine wave synthesiser? Best Dominik

Hey, that sounds like a really cool talk!Yes, you can use anything as long as you give proper attribution. :) You can just mention Lucas Vieira and drop a link to my Tumblr blog.Preferably on the same slide (or same time) as it is being presented, instead of a tiny footnote at the end of the presentation, because when people do that I never manage to get the links of the cool stuff people show! So…

Quick update: I'm alive! More stuff soon.

Hey, everyone! Sorry for the lack of updates, but I’m very much alive. I recently arrived in the United States and will be studying at Georgetown University in Washington-DC for the next year. Expect new stuff from me soon. I just need to settle down on the new class schedule first. :) Cheers!

What are your thoughts on the pi v. tau debate?

(For those unaware of the Pi. vs. Tau debate, read the Tau Manifesto and then the Pi Manifesto ). I'm actually extremely pro-tau, but only under certain conditions . I'll explain. Warning: The following is my personal take on these subjects. I'm no authority. This is pretty much late night armchair philosophy and ramblings of a madman. It's just how I make sense of some of these ideas, and it's…