Physics, Pixelated

Pixel-art illustration for this Pixelated Physics post: a puzzled pixel lithium atom character in an old star, looking for its missing two thirds of friends, early-universe glow behind

The Cosmological Lithium Problem: Big Bang’s Mi...

The Big Bang’s first minutes forged hydrogen, helium and a trace of lithium, and the theory matches deuterium and helium beautifully. Lithium-7 is the odd one out: the oldest stars...

The Cosmological Lithium Problem: Big Bang’s Mi...

The Big Bang’s first minutes forged hydrogen, helium and a trace of lithium, and the theory matches deuterium and helium beautifully. Lithium-7 is the odd one out: the oldest stars...

Pixel-art illustration for this Pixelated Physics post: a pixel proton character revealed as three tiny quark characters swimming in a big glowing sea of gluon energy

Where Does the Proton’s Mass Come From? (Hint: ...

A proton weighs 938 MeV/c², but its two up quarks and one down quark add up to only about 9 MeV/c², roughly 1%. The rest is energy: the motion of...

Where Does the Proton’s Mass Come From? (Hint: ...

A proton weighs 938 MeV/c², but its two up quarks and one down quark add up to only about 9 MeV/c², roughly 1%. The rest is energy: the motion of...

Pixel-art illustration for this Pixelated Physics post: a pixel liquid-helium character creeping up the wall of a cup and spraying out of a tiny fountain, icy blue sparkles

What Is a Superfluid, and Why Does Helium Climb...

Cool liquid helium below 2.17 kelvin and it turns into a superfluid: it pours through gaps too fine for ordinary liquids, creeps up the walls of its container and can...

What Is a Superfluid, and Why Does Helium Climb...

Cool liquid helium below 2.17 kelvin and it turns into a superfluid: it pours through gaps too fine for ordinary liquids, creeps up the walls of its container and can...

Pixel-art illustration for this Pixelated Physics post: a tiny pixel charged-particle character riding a glowing helix spiral around magnetic field arrows, like a corkscrew roller coaster

Why Do Charged Particles Spiral in a Magnetic F...

A magnetic field pushes a moving charge sideways, never forwards, so the charge curves into a circle, or a helix if it also drifts along the field. The time per...

Why Do Charged Particles Spiral in a Magnetic F...

A magnetic field pushes a moving charge sideways, never forwards, so the charge curves into a circle, or a helix if it also drifts along the field. The time per...

Pixel-art illustration for this Pixelated Physics post: a cartoon pixel noodle-shaped astronaut-free character being gently stretched long and thin as it approaches a black hole character

What Is Spaghettification? Tidal Forces Near a ...

Spaghettification is the stretching of an object by tidal forces: gravity pulls harder on the near end than the far end. Near a stellar-mass black hole it would tear a...

What Is Spaghettification? Tidal Forces Near a ...

Spaghettification is the stretching of an object by tidal forces: gravity pulls harder on the near end than the far end. Near a stellar-mass black hole it would tear a...

Pixel-art illustration for this Pixelated Physics post: a small dense pixel white dwarf star character, packed with tiny electron characters standing shoulder to shoulder holding it up

What Is Degeneracy Pressure, and What Holds Up ...

A white dwarf has no fusion left to hold it up. What stops it collapsing is electron degeneracy pressure: the Pauli exclusion principle forces electrons into ever-higher momentum states as...

What Is Degeneracy Pressure, and What Holds Up ...

A white dwarf has no fusion left to hold it up. What stops it collapsing is electron degeneracy pressure: the Pauli exclusion principle forces electrons into ever-higher momentum states as...