Have you ever pondered...?

[X-Rated]

Why "micro" seconds are so small, and "micro" Farads are so magnanimous?

[kc7jty]

You scored some damn good weed didn't you?

[NQ6U]

You scored some damn good weed didn't you?

http://www.gardenscure.com/420/attachments/potw-submission-threads/224984d1200618967-marijuana-picture-week-submissions-2.jpg

Makes your eyes red just lookin' at it, don't it?

[rot]

So does a micro Farad = a mega Nearad?

[X-Rated]

So does a micro Farad = a mega Nearad?

Could be, but I heard that one micro Farad is a billion times the size of a feminine toe Farad.

[n2ize]

Why "micro" seconds are so small, and "micro" Farads are so magnanimous?

No, but in times of high fever and associated delirium I have pondered how small is small and what if small behaved as large. For example a tiny speck of sand between your fingers suddenly growing into a huge and heavy ball. Or, dropping a tiny speck of sand to the floor yet when it hits it strikes with the force of a huge boulder, possibly shattering the floor itself. Or an infinitesimally small line segment appearing infinite from within. Or, falling into a circle who's radius is rapidly approaching zero. It was the stuff of nightmares are made of and became very disturbing.

[X-Rated]

No, but in times of high fever and associated delirium I have pondered how small is small and what if small behaved as large. For example a tiny speck of sand between your fingers suddenly growing into a huge and heavy ball. Or, dropping a tiny speck of sand to the floor yet when it hits it strikes with the force of a huge boulder, possibly shattering the floor itself. It used to become nightmarish and become very disturbing.

Whoa.

[n2ize]

Whoa.

It even became more bizarre when I rose from the bed and tried to explain it or show it to someone. it was not just the conceptualization that was strangely disturbing but the tactile element of it all.

[rot]

IZE took doubles. Penalty.

[X-Rated]

It even became more bizarre when I rose from the bed and tried to explain it or show it to someone. it was not just the conceptualization that was strangely disturbing but the tactile element of it all.

Kinda like trying to explain to someone all about quantum mechanical particles as described by a wavefunction spread over a finite region when you don't even understand it?

[W5GA]

Kinda like trying to explain to someone all about quantum mechanical particles as described by a wavefunction spread over a finite region when you don't even understand it?
Now you're rubbing elbows with the illuminati...Stephen Hawking doesn't understand it either.

[W1GUH]

Back when I was a hardware jock I'd measure signals down to the nanosecond routinely all day long. Some evenings as I'd go over the day I tried to grasp what I was seeing on the 'scope. Even in the "millions of events each second" category, that just wouldn't compute...so I stopped thinking about it.

Now, the thought of a computer running at a gig or above is completely unfathomable. Hell, I remember back in the day trying to get an audio oscillator to oscillate stably!

[NQ6U]

Kinda like trying to explain to someone all about quantum mechanical particles as described by a wavefunction spread over a finite region when you don't even understand it?

Or the wave/particle duality. That one really makes my head hurt.

[n2ize]

Or the wave/particle duality. That one really makes my head hurt.

Because it's hard for people to envision an entity being two seemingly different things at once. There are so few apparent and observable examples of such phenomenon in real life. Much like the concept of infinity is hard to conceptualize because we have so few examples of it in everyday life. It is not apparent in a world where everything seems to have a beginning and an end. Also, the idea of something being infinite...never ending can be frightening. Imagine being forced to have to listen to Sarah Palin for all eternity.

In my undergrad school there was a rather bright girl who couldn't seem to accept the idea of a vertical and a horizontal component to motion. I am referring to the classic example where a bullet is fired at a given height above level ground and at the same time a bullet is dropped from the same height. neglecting air resistance (in a vacuum) both bullets will strike the ground at the same time. While she accepted the fact and the proofs that it will she still insisted that the idea "blows her mind". It is because it's not apparent in real life. When we watch a baseball game we watch the overall effect of the trajectory of the ball, we don;t think in terms of the component forces acting upon it.

[W1GUH]

Presidential debate in '04:

Senator Kerry, is light a wave or a particle?

Senator Kerry: Sometimes light behaves like a wave, sometime like a particle.

Chorus form the audience:
Waffle! Waffle! Waffle!

President Bush, if you let go of a rock, what happens?

President Bush: If falls down.

Yea!!!!!! You win the debate!

[KG4CGC]

Why is the solar system a perfect example of the relationship that electrons have with their nucleus?

[kc7jty]

President Bush: It falls down.
W had his faults but he wasn't stupid.

[n2ize]

Why is the solar system a perfect example of the relationship that electrons have with their nucleus?

because the motion of a particle subjected to a central force (such as gravity or electrical) will always lie in a plane (this can be proved via vectors) and be such that a given area will be swept out per unit of time, i.e. Keplers 2nd Law.

[KG4CGC]

And an atom is so small that we need a microscope to see it and the solar system and ect is so large that you need yet another scope to see just a part of it.

[KG4CGC]

Our Universe is a mere spec implanted in a yet larger spec of fungus wedged beneath a giant's toe nail.

[NQ6U]

Why is the solar system a perfect example of the relationship that electrons have with their nucleus?

Actually, quantum mechanics says it isn't. In an atom, the electrons all inhabit a "shell" at a specific distance from the nucleus, that distance depending on the energy level of the atom. However, the electrons don't orbit the nucleus the way the planets orbit the sun; instead, they're everywhere within that shell at any given moment. I know that doesn't make any sense but when you get down to the subatomic level, sense goes by the wayside as Newtonian physics break down and it becomes headache time.

Try reading up on the dual slit experiment some time. That's downright spooky.

[W3MIV]

Try reading up on the dual slit experiment some time. That's downright spooky.

heh heh heh


he said slit.

[NQ6U]

heh heh heh


he said slit.

I knew somebody was gonna say that, I just didn't think it would be you, Albi. I'm so disillusioned... :lol:

[rot]

Requested and met with a rep for one of these.
http://microcal.com/products/itc/auto-itc200.asp
The dude was laying some heavy shits on me...lost me quite a few times.
Mostly interested in the kinetic stuff. Incredible noise floors of 2 nanowatts.
Maybe next year....
Just writing a report on a "picomolar" scale would be the big stiffy.
rot

[n2ize]

Actually, quantum mechanics says it isn't. In an atom, the electrons all inhabit a "shell" at a specific distance from the nucleus, that distance depending on the energy level of the atom. However, the electrons don't orbit the nucleus the way the planets orbit the sun; instead, they're everywhere within that shell at any given moment. I know that doesn't make any sense but when you get down to the subatomic level, sense goes by the wayside as Newtonian physics break down and it becomes headache time.

Try reading up on the dual slit experiment some time. That's downright spooky.

It's not so much that Newtonian physics break down as it is that your explanations need to become more refined. In classic mechanics you study certain principles and you write equations to describe what is happening. To do the same on the quantum level and to avoid specific mathematical terms your equations have to become more "refined"... of a higher order, or, sort of the mathematical equivalent of "using a higher resolution" to explain things. There is a good mathematical analogy I could give but I don;t feel like writing three paragraphs at the moment. Besides I think we all get the idea so we can spare the details.

[rot]

Britney has a fine tute.
http://britneyspears.ac/lasers.htm

[ki4itv]

That's hilarious Rot.

[W1GUH]

Why is the solar system a perfect example of the relationship that electrons have with their nucleus?

I believe that the model of an atom as having distinct particles, the electrons, orbiting the nucleus has changed. All you physicists out there, help me out here if I need it, but the last I heard, the model is more of a cloud surrounding the nucleus. Add to that quantum mechanics and the whole analogy falls apart.

On a fascinating note, I've heard that if an atom was enlarged to the size of the solar system, it would have more "space" in it than the solar system. The ratio of the sizes of the particles to the distances to each other and to the nucleus is much much smaller than the solar system. In other words, solid matter has more "space" in it than the universe.

OK...now that I've really botched that description, someone please do a better job!

[W1GUH]

Actually, quantum mechanics says it isn't. In an atom, the electrons all inhabit a "shell" at a specific distance from the nucleus, that distance depending on the energy level of the atom. However, the electrons don't orbit the nucleus the way the planets orbit the sun; instead, they're everywhere within that shell at any given moment. I know that doesn't make any sense but when you get down to the subatomic level, sense goes by the wayside as Newtonian physics break down and it becomes headache time.

Try reading up on the dual slit experiment some time. That's downright spooky.

Oh, you already said that...cool.

That dual slit experiment -- are you talking about the one where what happens in one path instantly affects what happens in the other? Don't remember the details, but the one I'm thinking about is genuinely mind-boggling.

Forget the author....who said,

"The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it's stranger than we CAN imagine."

So, when are Physicists going to solve our economic and social problems?

[rot]

So, when are Physicists going to solve our economic and social problems?
The true genius with those who truely seek to understand the physical world is the ability to not only create theory and vision, but also create experiments to actually measure stuff and collect data using controlled systems in support. Not sure if the actual contolled system are used for economic theory esp at the macro level. I dunno fer sure since beyond our own little family budget,which ain't systematically viewed..believe me, not much there can be applied.
The development of particle (fermions and their descriptive statistics of occuring ) vs. force carrier (bosons and their descriptive statistics of occuring) is an elegant example of a rigor from which social and economic study does not seem to be able to do. I may be wrong, fer sure..just a ponder to stay on topic. Those of us who were interested(in my day) were taught the effin elegance and rigors of the organization in the Periodic Chart first as a template to carry on...not sure what the S & E peeps do since I don't hang there.
rot

[W3MIV]

... instead, they're everywhere within that shell at any given moment.

And you cannot know where in that "everywhere" a particular electron is. As soon as you try to hear it meow, you introduce change that negates your results.

[rot]

And you cannot know where in that "everywhere" a particular electron is. As soon as you try to hear it meow, you introduce change that negates your results.
Well the best pointer to date was Enrico's game and the bosonic issues were seen/explained by Albert (the other one).:-D
rot

[N2NH]

We now continue with the 75 Meter NORML Net. Pass the bong.

[X-Rated]

IZE took doubles. Penalty.

Is that a penalty on IZE for taking doubles, or one to CGC for serving them?

[rot]

Is that a penalty on IZE for taking doubles, or one to CGC for serving them?

No IZE has to sit out one cylce, for everyone to sync, then he has to load for 3 cycles.
If not for the guidelines some get too high some not high enough and so on.
Blowing grits is a 3 cycle penality and is usually a late period event.
Those showing up late do not get to catch up, but are forced to change the album and then enter the circle.
It is a lovely system, but does vary a bit region to region so YMMV.

[W3WN]

No, but in times of high fever and associated delirium I have pondered how small is small and what if small behaved as large. For example a tiny speck of sand between your fingers suddenly growing into a huge and heavy ball. Or, dropping a tiny speck of sand to the floor yet when it hits it strikes with the force of a huge boulder, possibly shattering the floor itself. Or an infinitesimally small line segment appearing infinite from within. Or, falling into a circle who's radius is rapidly approaching zero. It was the stuff of nightmares are made of and became very disturbing.Heavy, man.

[X-Rated]

No IZE has to sit out one cylce, for everyone to sync, then he has to load for 3 cycles.
If not for the guidelines some get too high some not high enough and so on.
Blowing grits is a 3 cycle penality and is usually a late period event.
Those showing up late do not get to catch up, but are forced to change the album and then enter the circle.
It is a lovely system, but does vary a bit region to region so YMMV.

You forgot...

Rulzofthegame, NC
ROT

[NQ6U]

And you cannot know where in that "everywhere" a particular electron is. As soon as you try to hear it meow, you introduce change that negates your results.

And the cat dies. Or not.