Top all-time · #356
Forrest M. Mims III
Personal blog · amasci.com · on HN as wbeatysciencehardware
Forrest M. Mims III writes SCIENCE HOBBYIST: Top Page, a personal blog at amasci.com about science and hardware. Since 2008, 148 different Hacker News readers have linked it 257 times, most often “Invisible Electrostatic Wall at 3M plant (1996)”. No feed was found, so read it on the site itself.
Often recommended · 19 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Bill Beaty's amasci.com as a source on electricity misconceptions, airfoil lift, holograms and amateur science. Most comments praise it or cite a page.
- Recommended for · 19 comments
- Called amazing, wonderful, a fun website and a great resource on electricity; one commenter loves the writing.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 40 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Contains both useful science education and TOTAL CRACK-BRAINED DETRIUS. Amateur science resources, many new science projects for kids, textbook errors, Tesla coils, physics teaching, electricity articles, electrostatics projects. Weird science including antigrav, free energy, ball lightning, a
Most-linked posts?
- Invisible Electrostatic Wall at 3M plant (1996)14 people · 15 mentions · first linked 2010-10-12
- Holography without lasers: hand-drawn holograms13 people · 14 mentions · first linked 2008-04-29
- Why three prongs?10 people · 10 mentions · first linked 2009-01-22
- Science hobbyist website since 199410 people · 10 mentions · first linked 2011-11-24
- Articles about "Electricity"9 people · 17 mentions · first linked 2015-11-13
- What is Electricity? (1996)9 people · 11 mentions · first linked 2015-11-13
- How transistors really work (1995)9 people · 9 mentions · first linked 2010-06-25
- How electricity doesn't work7 people · 11 mentions · first linked 2010-04-02
- /emotor/cap1.html5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2016-11-08
- Airfoil Lifting Force Misconception Widespread in K-6 Textbooks5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2013-08-06
What Hacker News says?
That's exactly what is happening. But it is also not enough for the airplane to fly. In a normally flying airplane, the wing compresses and pushes an amount of air under its wing. But there is actually even greater amount of air sucked down by the region of underpressure created above the wing and by the laminar flow directing it downward. Here, the drawing at the top of the page makes it clear: http://www.amasci.co…
Comment linking /wing/airfoil.html
on “Airfoil”- xd · 2012-06-02
Submitted Why three prongs? as a story · 581 points
HN discussion Bill Beaty's site was the one that opened my eyes to these misunderstandings: http://www.amasci.com/wing/airfoil.html If the diagram shows lift but doesn't show the air being directed downward after leaving the tailing edge of the wing, I basically stop reading. That's the whole thing.
Comment linking /wing/airfoil.html
on “Airfoil”Submitted Invisible Electrostatic Wall at 3M plant (1996) as a story · 403 points
HN discussionHow many times has the word "globalisation" been used in the comments ? Do you know what it means ? Does it have only one meaning ? Just previously a subject was opened "Why is electricity so hard to understand? (1989)" http://amasci.com/miscon/whyhard2.html
Comment linking /miscon/whyhard2.html
on “Donald Trump is the president-elect of the U.S.”Submitted Why is electricity so hard to understand? (1989) as a story · 388 points
HN discussionYeah. The antithesis of the blog is the evergreen page, where you collect and systematize information about one thing you're interested in, and keep improving it over the years. A great example is Robin Whittle's page about pink noise algorithms: http://www.firstpr.com.au/dsp/pink-noise/ It covers the topic from more angles than any single blogpost. Then at some point your page can become a collection of pages, like…
Comment linking /miscon/whatis.html
on “If I could bring one thing back to the internet it would be blogs”Submitted “Invisible Electrostatic Wall” at 3M adhesive tape plant (1996) as a story · 293 points
HN discussionYes, probably the most comprehensive site about making and using IR goggles is here: http://amasci.com/amateur/irgoggl.html He has some very interesting photos taken with them. He also cautions about the iris being opened wide when wearing them, although he claims that he's suffered no ill effects after using them for years (avoiding looking at the sun, of course).
Comment linking /amateur/irgoggl.html
on “Artem vs. Predator”Submitted "Invisible Electrostatic Wall" at 3M adhesive tape plant (1996) as a story · 271 points
HN discussionIf you don't know it, you may find this interesting: Bill Beaty's amasci.com, with What is Electricity? [0], with a lot of pages explaining misconceptions about electricity, currents, transistors, capacitors etc etc. Or "Science Myths" in K-6 Textbooks and Popular culture [1] - Bad Electricity, Bad Physics etc. There's much more. Even if it all seems wrong to you it may be useful to you as a model or spur! I love hi…
Comment linking /faq.html
on “Why I Keep a Research Blog”Submitted Why Three Prongs? (1996) as a story · 249 points
HN discussion"the time for jacking around with Tesla coils and ball lightning in the garage is over." -Abe, PRIMER Few additions http://amasci.com/news.html The Trafficwaves article made the WSJ, even with video. And Crown Flash (leaping sundogs) is now all over the place (see my upcoming bit on TV show Strange Evidence.) Magnetic analogy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tH-CAhtXBfQ Fortunately (unfortunately?) I only posted exa…
Comment linking /freenrg/wasser.html
on “Teach Yourself to Echolocate: A beginner’s guide to navigating with sound”Submitted Why is electricity so hard to understand? (1989) as a story · 168 points
HN discussionI like this page, on creating 3d 'holograms' by hand: http://amasci.com/amateur/holo1.html
Comment linking /amateur/holo1.html
on “Teach Yourself to Echolocate: A beginner’s guide to navigating with sound”Submitted Science hobbyist website since 1994 as a story · 149 points
HN discussionFrom the amasci.com FAQ: NEVER EVER move one single html file or change an URL. Don't you hate it when you click on a link and it says "404 file not found"? Well, I've been here since 1994, and all the links to my site still work! He's full of what seems to me good advice, e.g. from the same page: Make your website be your filing cabinet. If you have little projects underway, put them on your website while working o…
Comment linking /faq.html
on “I've been writing TILs for 5 years”Submitted What is Electricity? (1996) as a story · 113 points
HN discussionThere is another side to this lesson. I cannot count the amount of times I've read about scientists in the past getting ridiculed for some "crackpot" theory only to be vindicated later. A perfect example is Ohm's law: "Ohm's initial publication was met with ridicule and dismissal; called "a tissue of naked fantasy." Approx. twenty years passed before scientists began to recognize its great importance." The site here…
Comment linking /weird/vindac.html
on “How crazy am I to think I actually know where that Malaysia Airlines plane is?”Submitted How transistors really work (1995) as a story · 102 points
HN discussionBill Beaty's list of Ridiculed science mavericks vindicated has dozens, most with the story in a nutshell + links. http://amasci.com/weird/vindac.html
Comment linking /weird/vindac.html
on “Hundreds of extreme self-citing scientists revealed in new database”Submitted "Invisible Electrostatic Wall" at 3M adhesive tape plant (1996) as a story · 96 points
HN discussionI also have ADHD and have an adoration for old-style website design. Not necessarily the 2008 - 2013 era (which I like to call the 1970's of the web), but websites before that which were more cluttered and unrefined. Websites from the old days surface far more relevant information on the first fold than do contemporary sites, which I believe have gone overboard with Swiss Style design inspiration such that they thin…
Comment linking /
on “Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years”- bd · 2010-06-27
Submitted Holography without lasers: hand-drawn holograms as a story · 71 points
HN discussion http://amasci.com/ele-edu.html Great resource, which dispels a lot of myths and misused terminology in many other traditional explanations. Fun read!
Comment linking /ele-edu.html
on “Ask HN: What are some good resources to learn how electricity works?”Submitted Right angle circuitry as a story · 62 points
HN discussionFirst, it is important to distinguish between electricity and electronics. The difference is like being physicist and mechanic. Do you want to be physicist and understand electricity as a phenomena or do you want to be an engineer and use it for something useful. Believe me, there is less overlap than you think. One good resource I have found is series of articles on http://amasci.com/ele-edu.html which mixes a litt…
Comment linking /ele-edu.html
on “Ask HN: What are some good resources to learn how electricity works?”Submitted How electricity doesn't work as a story · 53 points
HN discussionBill’s “What Is Electricity?” essay [1] was discussed on HN two weeks ago [2]. [1]: http://amasci.com/miscon/whatis.html [2]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23442181
Comment linking /miscon/whatis.html
on “Ask HN: What are some good resources to learn how electricity works?”Submitted Holography without Lasers: Hand Drawn Holograms (1995) as a story · 49 points
HN discussion
