Examples of In-text and Parenthetical citations:
Decorticated sesame seed can supply us with nutritious, functional and healthy meals
at relatively low cost (Quasem, Mazahreh, & Abu-Alruz, 2009). We need to try and eat in a
healthy manner whenever, and low cost meals are an added bonus so this sesame seed stuff
sounds as if it’s a good thing to me.
In a different vein, we need to make sure that we always play pool with the right pool
cue (Shepard, R., 2002). I mean, what would the game of pool be if we weren’t using the
right equipment? A slate board is always best so that the table stays level, although slate is
rather heavy and you don’t want the floors in your house to sag so make sure that you have
extra support under any floor with a slate bed pool table (Shepard, R., 2002). As R. Shepard
(2002) states in his very interesting book, playing pool is full of physics and math problems
just waiting to be solved since pool is all about angles.
Now if we go back to sesame seeds, we see that they really don’t have as much to do
with physics as playing pool does. Decorticated sesame seeds are about 50% oil, 25% proteins,
14% carbohydrates and about 3% ash (Quasem et al., 2009). That’s not much physics at all,
but it is lots of biology. Quasem et al. (2009) found that in recent years much attention has
been given to using oilseeds in new ways.
Moving on, if one talks about earth orbiting satellites, one is using physics in very
interesting ways. Those satellites can observe changes in the earth’s crust very early so that
scientists can predict volcanoes and earthquakes with increasing accuracy (Dash, 2002).
That’s a good thing because we don’t want to have volcanoes and earthquakes that can’t be
predicted. That would be very dangerous to all life on earth. Mechanical pumps may also be
one answer to predicting earthquakes and volcanoes. Vibert (2004) makes the point that
mechanical pumps can be used with pipes inserted in the volcano. Those pumps would act as
dissipaters of the hot gasses that make the volcano explode and would be very cost-effective
to the tune of only millions of dollars instead of the billions we spend each year on volcano
damage repair (Vibert, 2004). It’s really hard to understand how a mechanical pump could
vacuum all the hot gas out of a volcano, but that’s a merging of physics and earth science
that will be forever hazy in most peoples’ minds (Effects of color, 2005).
Physics was a major part of the 20th century, although all the sciences made an
appearance during that time period. Now that particle physics is such a big thing, people
really should be studying about quantum ideas and multiple universes. What if we are
surrounded with universes in other dimensions? Kragh (1999) tells us that we may not be able
to see them with our limited senses, but they are there all around us. Those dimensions
weave in and out of the quantum world and are what 20th century physicists would love to
find (Shepard, A., 2003). String theory was one of the most revolutionary ideas in the last
century. Physicists posited that ours is an elegant universe with interfolding dimensions
(Kragh, 1999). Wouldn’t it be interesting to find that your double is living in another
dimension right alongside of you, but that you can’t see him? If your double made different
choices, your life in a different dimension might not be much like your life in this dimension
and, who knows, you might be freezing water just as your other self was boiling it (Levine,
2009). Wouldn’t that be something to see?
Disclaimer: There are only a few facts in the above that are true. Most of it is made-up for the purpose of an
example so don’t go telling folks that the librarians told you that there are different universes and that
mechanical pumps can control volcanoes.