3 "Physics" Posts

Rethinking the Three-Second Traffic Rule: When Physics Says It’s Not Enough

Oct 23, 2025 • Categories: Applied Modeling & Simulation, • Tags: #kinematics, #physics, #Python, #simulation

While researching why car insurance rates are so extremely high in Las Vegas, I started thinking about the three-second rule and its validity. As I’ve always heard, the three-second rule refers to how far you should be behind a car in traffic. The idea is that you pick out a fixed roadside marker and you are supposed to pass that marker at least three seconds after the car in front of you. That rule is simple enough, yet deceptively deep once you unpack the physics.

“Three seconds is a rule of thumb. Physics reveals the truth.”

The Five-Second Rule Explored with Math & Python

Sep 4, 2025 • Categories: Applied Modeling & Simulation, • Tags: #physics, #Python, #probability, #simulation

You know the story: drop a cookie on the kitchen floor, swoop in before five seconds are up, and declare it safe. It is comforting. It is also wrong.

“Germs don’t wait five seconds. They start the party the instant your food hits the floor.”

The truth is much more interesting than the myth. Germs do transfer gradually, but they are especially fast at the beginning. That means if you want to know whether your floor-cookie is still edible, you need to think in curves, not in timers. And curves are something we can model.

Should You Walk or Run in the Rain? The Puzzle That Sparked a Passion

Aug 18, 2025 • Categories: Applied Modeling & Simulation, • Tags: #modeling, #physics, #probability, #Python

To walk or to run. That is the question. Early in my programming career, I came across a coding challenge that stuck with me for many years: “If it’s raining, will you stay drier by walking or running through it?” At the time, I didn’t have the skillset or tools to simulate the problem properly. It became one of the first exercises that nudged me toward a lifelong fascination with modeling the real world through code.