Wondering

A common sight here in the Seattle area: puddles in the rain. A drop hits, then a circular wavelet expands outward. When watching this happen, I tend to just see larger wavelet rings, never noticing the small initial waves. Do the waves start out very fast, then slow down as they get larger? The...

It seems like it should be a law of nature: reflections of a source cannot be brighter than the source itself. How could it be otherwise? To be otherwise would imply that the object somehow amplifies the light, which is impossible. And yet, there are situations that seem to bend this obvious “law”....

Many of these leaves were on the forest floor. They look to be from different plants. Yet they are both leaves from the common English Ivy. There are several varieties, though probably all of the common (and invasive) types have this funny characteristic. In fact, as a further surprise, I learned...