Dr. Staff's Greatest Hits

Dr. Staff is a faculty member at New Mexico Tech, and from any semester's course schedule, you can see that he teaches about a third of the classes in every department. Since he's such an expert on all matters, SPRIL has included a column by the esteemed Doctor in every issue since 1988. This site contains most of the questions that Dr. Staff has answered over the years.

You can read the questions in order by clicking on the icon below, or you can use the list to jump to any particular question.

First Question

Question 1: Where does all the dirt come from to bury ancient cities?
Question 2: Why is the sky blue?
Question 3: What keeps the moon from falling down?
Question 4: If the earth rotates so fast, why don't we fall off?
Question 5: How do cassette tapes work?
Question 6: Why does fizz float to the top in carbonated sodas?
Question 7: Why is Mars red?
Question 8: Why does alcohol make people drunk?
Question 9: Why again is Mars red?
Question 10: Why is the sun so bright?
Question 11: What's inside the slits in electric outlets that makes lights work?
Question 12: How does a zerox machine work?
Question 13: How do glasses and contact lenses work?
Question 14: Why is glass transparent?
Question 15: How do birds fly?
Question 16: What makes a car go?
Question 17: How do air-conditioners work?
Question 18: What about the night sky?
Question 19: What about global warming?
Question 20: Why don't computers get any cheaper?
Question 21: Why does popcorn pop?


First Question Questions & Comments Dr. Staff page SPRIL Homepage Tom
Jones' Homepage