Physics and Video Analysis

Rhett Allain is an associate professor of physics at Southeastern Louisiana University. He received his Ph.D. from North Carolina State University in 2001. Dr. Allain's research interests are in the field of Physics Education Research (PER) which explores how students understand physics. This typically leads to the development of new curriculum and instructional techniques. Dr. Allain is interested in physics for elementary teachers, computational methods in introductory physics and student understanding of the nature of science.

Outside of academics, Dr. Allain has been interested in applying basic physics concepts to analyze events from popular media such as the physics of video games and superhero movies. He shares his analysis on his blog, Dot Physics which is part of the WIRED science blogs. Allain has also authored two previous books. The first is Angry Birds Furious Forces (National Geographic) that uses the game of Angry Birds to look at some basic scientific ideas. The second book is Geek Physics: Surprising Answers to the Planet's Most Interesting Questions (Turner Publishing).