• Who am I?

    I am Qrystal; or at least, that's my dot-name! Har har. (My name is really Crystal, but that's not as internet-searchable; hence, switching the C for the little-used letter Q.)

    I am here because I enjoy writing. I do this mostly for myself, but I also have a passion for helping others learn things from the things I write. Now that I am done my Ph.D. in Physics, I am stepping away from academic research so that I can indulge in some creative ways to share my knowledge and inspire the appreciation of scientific thinking in others. I am also working as a tutor, which is one of the jobs I've most enjoyed doing in my life so far.


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    • Relativity and its non-paradoxes

    Wednesday, May 13th, 2009

    The Clock Paradox illustrates how relativity theory does indeed contain inconsistencies that make it scientifically problematic. So says Dr Peter Hayes, a senior lecturer in politics (yes, politics), as quoted in an article at Science Centric entitled “Has Einstein failed physics?” I am getting really sick and tired of people trying to bring down Einstein. [...]

    Answering Questions as a Teaching Assistant

    Tuesday, February 24th, 2009

    The following questions and answers are from a course called Physics and Society, offered at the University of Windsor. I am the teaching assistant for the course, and as such I answer the students’ questions on a private online discussion board. The current unit covers the basics of electromagnetism and relativity, and I have included [...]

    Boldly trying to explain spacetime

    Friday, February 20th, 2009

    There seems to be some confusion [among the students in my Physics and Society class] about spacetime, which is completely understandable because it’s difficult to visualize. I’m going to review some of the main ideas of it here, hopefully clearing up some confusion along the way. The main quote many people gave in their summaries [...]

    Relativity and Time Dilation

    Friday, February 6th, 2009

    The fact that time isn’t consistent for everyone is a very troubling idea, and even physicists have a hard time learning about it initially. Imagine how difficult it was for Einstein to convince his peers about it originally! He didn’t even have the benefit of science fiction to lean upon for sparking the imagination! In [...]

    Relativistic World Line Animation

    Monday, August 11th, 2008

    I’m totally in awe of this image every time I come back to the Wikipedia article on Special Relativity. This animation shows how events in spacetime (the background dots) at various distances (horizontal axis) appear at various times (vertical axis, ticking by at a constant rate) to the observer (whose trajectory in spacetime is passing [...]