Eureka! The lab is open!

It seems the best ideas come to us when we least expect them to.

What were you doing last time you were hit by a stroke of genius?

According to legend, Archimedes had his most famous idea when he was soaking in a public bath. He was so giddy he allegedly ran out immediately, without getting dressed first, screaming “Eureka!”.

Eureka means I found it. The legend does not tell us whether anyone asked him if he should focus on finding his pants instead.

What we do know he found is how fluids behave when an object is immersed in them. Next time you step foot in the bath, know that the water exerts a force on your feet equal to their volume multiplied by their density multiplied by gravity.

Why is that any useful? It was useful to Archimedes because it enabled him to devise a way to evaluate if a piece of jewelry was made of solid gold or not without destroying the shiny object. In modern times, from hot air balloons to astronaut training facilities, Archimedes’ principle is used extensively.

You want to try it? Log on to gameforscience and try it out at the Lab! A new interactive animation by eduMedia allows you to experiment with it. No public bath needed.

It’s makeover time at gameforscience!

Sometimes a fresh start brings welcome change. This is one of those times, as we’ve added avatar customization to gameforscience.ca.

There are hundreds upon hundreds of different possible combinations so head in there and try it out!

Quiz time :
What are the odds of you and I making exactly the same avatar if we both pick our character’s sex randomly?

Female avatars may choose from the following:

Male avatars may choose from the following:

Answer : (16 x 3 x 2 x 3 x 2 x 2) + (16 x 3 x 3 x 3 x 2 x 2) = 2880 different combinations, for odds of 1 :2880

Live the dream!

Have you ever dreamed of walking on Mars’ soil? Mars has captured the imaginations of both scientists and non-scientists alike for thousands of years. It is the second most monitored planet in our solar system, with 3 unmanned spacecraft orbiting it.

There are several key challenges we need to overcome before we can achieve the dream of having a human walk on its surface.

According to Wikipedia, these include :

• physical effects of exposure to high-energy cosmic rays and other ionizing radiation
• physical effects of a prolonged low-gravity environment
• physical effects of a prolonged low-light environment
• psychological effects of isolation from Earth
• psychological effects of lack of community due to lack of real-time connections with Earth
• social effects of several humans living under crowded conditions for over one earth year
• inaccessibility of terrestrial medical facilities

Want to know if you’re up to some of those challenges? We built a game just for that purpose. What’s more, you’ll get to know more about different career paths related to those challenges.

It’s called M.A.R.S. and it’s available both on the games page and at the arcade in the game for science virtual world.

Try it out and let us know what you think!