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Full-Text Articles in Physics
Fractal Dimensions In Perceptual Color Space: A Comparison Study Using Jackson Pollock’S Art, Jonas R. Mureika
Fractal Dimensions In Perceptual Color Space: A Comparison Study Using Jackson Pollock’S Art, Jonas R. Mureika
Physics Faculty Works
The fractal dimensions of color-specific paint patterns in various Jackson Pollock paintings are calculated using a filtering process that models perceptual response to color differences (L*a*b* color space). The advantage of the L*a*b* space filtering method over traditional red-green-blue (RGB) spaces is that the former is a perceptually uniform (metric) space, leading to a more consistent definition of “perceptually different” colors. It is determined that the RGB filtering method underestimates the perceived fractal dimension of lighter-colored patterns but not of darker ones, if the same selection criteria is applied to each. Implications of the findings to Fechner’s “principle of …
Multifractal Structure In Nonrepresentational Art, Jonas R. Mureika, C. C. Dyer, G. C. Cupchik
Multifractal Structure In Nonrepresentational Art, Jonas R. Mureika, C. C. Dyer, G. C. Cupchik
Physics Faculty Works
Multifractal analysis techniques are applied to patterns in several abstract expressionist artworks, painted by various artists. The analysis is carried out on two distinct types of structures: the physical patterns formed by a specific color (“blobs”) and patterns formed by the luminance gradient between adjacent colors (“edges”). It is found that the multifractal analysis method applied to “blobs” cannot distinguish between artists of the same movement, yielding a multifractal spectrum of dimensions between about 1.5 and 1.8. The method can distinguish between different types of images, however, as demonstrated by studying a radically different type of art. The data suggest …
Toy Blocks And Rotational Physics, Gabriele U. Varieschi, Isabel R. Jully
Toy Blocks And Rotational Physics, Gabriele U. Varieschi, Isabel R. Jully
Physics Faculty Works
Have you ever observed a child playing with toy blocks? A favorite game is to build towers and then make them topple like falling trees. To the eye of a trained physicist this should immediately look like an example of the physics of “falling chimneys,” when tall structures bend and break in mid-air while falling to the ground. The game played with toy blocks can actually reproduce well what is usually seen in photographs of falling towers, such as the one that appeared on the cover of the September 1976 issue of The Physics Teacher.1 In this paper we describe …
The Effects Of Temperature, Humidity, And Barometric Pressure On Short-Sprint Race Times, Jonas R. Mureika
The Effects Of Temperature, Humidity, And Barometric Pressure On Short-Sprint Race Times, Jonas R. Mureika
Physics Faculty Works
A numerical model of 100 m and 200 m world class sprinting performances is modified using standard hydrodynamic principles to include effects of air temperature, pressure, and humidity levels on aerodynamic drag. The magnitude of the effects are found to be dependent on wind speed. This implies that differing atmospheric conditions can yield slightly different corrections for the same wind gauge reading. In the absence of wind, temperature is found to induce the largest variation in times (0.01 s per 10◦C increment in the 100 m), while relative humidity contributes the least (under 0.01 s for all realistic conditions for …
Optical Spectroscopy Of The Surface Population Of The Ρ Ophiuchi Molecular Cloud: The First Wave Of Star Formation, Bruce Wilking, Michael Meyer, John Robinson, Thomas Greene
Optical Spectroscopy Of The Surface Population Of The Ρ Ophiuchi Molecular Cloud: The First Wave Of Star Formation, Bruce Wilking, Michael Meyer, John Robinson, Thomas Greene
Physics Faculty Works
We present the results of optical spectroscopy of 139 stars obtained with the Hydra multiobject spectrograph. The objects extend over a 1.3 deg2 area surrounding the main cloud of the ρ Oph complex. The objects were selected from narrowband images to have Hα in emission. Using the presence of strong Hα emission, lithium absorption, location in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, or previously reported X-ray emission, we were able to identify 88 objects as young stars associated with the cloud. Strong Hα emission was confirmed in 39 objects with line widths consistent with their origin in magnetospheric accretion columns. Two of the …