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Seven things everyone wants to know about the universe
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What would you like to know about your universe?

Careers with maths
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The visual effects in Harry Potter and Sweeney Todd

A favourite from the archive...
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...about what makes life interesting and why old-fashioned maths is what you need for physics.

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June 2009
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Snell's Law

Tags: lens : refraction : group velocity : phase velocity : refractive index : negative refractive index : Snell's Law : wavelength : Maxwell's equations of electromagnetism


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It's International Year of Astronomy and all eyes are on Galileo Galilei, whose astronomical observations 400 years ago revolutionised our understanding of the Universe. But few people know that Galileo wasn't the first to build a telescope and turn it on the stars. That honour falls to a little-known mathematician called Thomas Harriot, who excelled in many other ways too. Anna Faherty takes us on a tour of his work.

Tags: refraction : astronomy : algebra : Snell's Law : Kepler's conjecture : binary number


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A new liquid breaks the laws of physics

Tags: refraction : Snell's Law : symmetry : chirality : reflection