I think we've found coal

We went to stay at the highest pub in Britain, set in bleak moorland just over the county boundary into Yorkshire. As you can see from the photograph, it was a mining inn. What was odd was that they were mining coal. I am struggling to think of a coal mine that high up. We walked along the Pennine Way for a couple of miles and found this black outcrop of rocks. I guess it must be coal. Closer inspection revealed poor shale not really good enough for burning, but look at the think layers of sandstone between the shales. This would suggest episodes of flooding washing sand across the swamps that would have provided the mud and vegetation for the black shales. Not really physics, I know, but I love geology too.

Cairngorm Mountain

We drove through the night on Friday to see rare wildlife in the woods at dawn. Mid-morning we were up watching the skiers on Cairngorm Mountain. They get them up the mountain with a funicular railway. You can see it snaking upm to the ski station on the second picture. In fact, there are two trains that are strung together on a long cable. One goes up whilst the other comes down. Hence gravity is doing a lot of the work of lifting the lower train as the upper train falls. The falling train gives its gravitational potential energy to the rising train. It is a single track but there is a short section of double track half way. There is no other place where they will meet because they are tied by a cable.

Sk8r Boi

We've bought two skateboards for the Physics Department to help us to demonstrate Newton's 3rd Law and the conservation of linear momentum. If you'd been in Silloth this afternoon you'd have seen Mrs B and me having our first ever goes on a skateboard. Deprived childhoods, I'm afraid. I want to learn to skateboard...can anyone help? The picture shows the bottom of one of the boards: 1. Another mess up with mass and weight. Oh dear. 2. I'm 65kg. This surely can't be right.