Large Hardon Collider

[Chun Liroy]

I'm a professional student. ._. I dunno, I just find green energy... interesting. Probably because of my school. Giant generators that harness the thermoclines in oceans sound awesome, but learning how solar panels work could be interesting. Even though you won't like it, just know that I am jealous

[Mizango]

Q come down here to Texas, or maybe I should post pictures but I have been working on a huge Wind farm expansion project down here. I have endless pictures and you know what, every time I see a turbine put up I am in sheer awe of it. It never gets old.

Luckily I don't have to do anything hard besides show up on site in the AM, sit in an AC office and configure the database and make sure all the turbines can "see one another" in the event of an emergency. Its cool because we calibrate the gauges and change sensitivity so that in the event that wind picks up, all 557 turbines will pitch and shift automatically to either power down or to compensate for a lower wind speed. I absolutely loathe Texas and everything it stands for and is, but damn I love crossing over the ocean and seeing my turbines off over the horizon. QQ

I should get some pics and post them.

[Chun Liroy]

I should see if my friend still has that video project he made in highschool for environmental issues class. It was pretty damn good and my principal actually showed it to some important people, lol I completely forget where he showed it. My highschool was a huge environmental conservation school since that's what we studied lol. Me you and eli should make a team. I'll propose ideas, you make them go and Eli builds them. Sounds great? Meet me in NJ.

[Eliseos]

Oh, and Eli, didn't you have a job interview lined up? How did that go?

Phone interview with Boeing is next Wednesday, so if that goes well they'll probably want me to go to St Louis for an actual interview.

I've been interviewing with this other local place that would deal with programming controllers for hardware in hydraulic equipment, like snow plows, highway things, etc. Fucking three interviews with them so far, the last being last night. They invited me to dinner at this fancy hotel place, then never offered me any food Bastards.

I should get some pics and post them.

Do it, I'd be pretty interested in seeing how something like that develops. Gotta be a hueg project.

[Woozie]

Here's a tip to anyone doing math or physics: Learn LaTex asap, because Bill Gates apparently really hates physicists/mathematicians. (yes, before anyone asks, I am trying to type up a math paper using word. Yes, I know it's stupid. No, I don't have any other options because I'm still super slow with LaTex. Yes, I do hate my life. And I hate you too for laughing at me).

Edit:

HOW THE HELL DO I MAKE A PARTIAL DERIVATIVE

Edit 2: Found out. And it only took half as long as freaking hbar.

[Eliseos]

Yeah, Word/OpenOffice are fucking terrible for equations. The commands never make any sense

[Ferion]

Here's a tip to anyone doing math or physics: Learn LaTex asap, because Bill Gates apparently really hates physicists/mathematicians. (yes, before anyone asks, I am trying to type up a math paper using word. Yes, I know it's stupid. No, I don't have any other options because I'm still super slow with LaTex. Yes, I do hate my life. And I hate you too for laughing at me).

I've been meaning to learn LaTex forever and completely regretted avoiding it this past month when I had to write up my research paper. Since it was mostly empirical though I eventually just gave up on most of the equations and explained the models I was using since they're pretty common.

[Woozie]

Mine is for a pure math class, so there's no way to avoid most of the equations. I'm kind of cheating though and writing about a physics topic (this was supposed to be a project that required lots of research but I conveniently choose a topic I'm already familiar with). It's actually good that I chose this because if I had chosen one of the topics he suggested I'd be trying to write matrices in Word, which is probably much harder than using this retarded equation editor.

People reading this post may have noticed that I don't know the difference between chose and choose.

[Eliseos]

Fuck. That place I mentioned earlier that interviewed me three times just gave me an offer of 55k/year. Problem is I only have until Monday to decide. Interview with Boeing isn't until Wednesday. No clue at all what I'm going to do.

[zoobernut]

Fuck. That place I mentioned earlier that interviewed me three times just gave me an offer of 55k/year. Problem is I only have until Monday to decide. Interview with Boeing isn't until Wednesday. No clue at all what I'm going to do.

Congratulations on the job offer!

That is not a bad place to start at all, is this going to be your first major job out of college? Sorry I don't remember everyones work history in this thread lol. Also where do you live or rather where would you live for that job? That also makes a big difference because $55k is an amazing starting salary in certain portions of the country where cost of living is cheap and it would be a really shitty starting salary if you had to live in NYC or SF etc.

What is the job at Boeing that you are interviewing for?

Is the company that offered you the job small or large? Sometimes working for a smaller company is nice there is less corporate politics to muck up the workplace. Boeing I bet even working as an engineer or something you will have to deal with the office politics which can be difficult at times.

[Kaylia]

I just found out that I'm going to be study solar cells this summer. Not sure if want, to be honest, but it's better than nothing.

Just look at the bright side, chicks dig green energy.

But seriously, the average joe doesnt give a flying shit about sciences unless they think you're trying to save the world. Trying to explain people that you're working on theoretical sciences is just impossible

Here's a tip to anyone doing math or physics: Learn LaTex asap, because Bill Gates apparently really hates physicists/mathematicians. (yes, before anyone asks, I am trying to type up a math paper using word. Yes, I know it's stupid. No, I don't have any other options because I'm still super slow with LaTex. Yes, I do hate my life. And I hate you too for laughing at me).

^
This

And fuck, I need to learn Latex too. Been trying for 3 years now and I always give up.

[Kaylia]

Yeah, Word/OpenOffice are fucking terrible for equations. The commands never make any sense

It's not too bad with mathtype, or microsoft equation editor (insert --> object --> microsoft equation editor). then you copy paste that thing everywhere, but still is a pain.

[Eliseos]

Congratulations on the job offer!

Thanks! Its still kind of weird having offers like that since I've only been used to intern offers.

That is not a bad place to start at all, is this going to be your first major job out of college? Sorry I don't remember everyones work history in this thread lol. Also where do you live or rather where would you live for that job? That also makes a big difference because $55k is an amazing starting salary in certain portions of the country where cost of living is cheap and it would be a really shitty starting salary if you had to live in NYC or SF etc.

Yeah, first major job out of college. I live and the job is located in the Milwaukee area so its a pretty good salary. I actually wasn't expecting an offer right away. Also 55 is the number I gave them in an earlier interview, so there wasn't any negotiation at all.

What is the job at Boeing that you are interviewing for?

There were a couple areas listed in the job description. Missile launcher controls, AWACS development, and flight training software were all listed. I should preface this by saying working in any of those areas for a company like that is pretty much my dream job, so its going to be pretty hard to accept the other position without even having my interview with Boeing. Also, there are only four others up for the Boeing position besides me, so it isn't like I'm one out of 100 they are phone interviewing.

Is the company that offered you the job small or large? Sometimes working for a smaller company is nice there is less corporate politics to muck up the workplace. Boeing I bet even working as an engineer or something you will have to deal with the office politics which can be difficult at times.

Its a medium sized company I'd say. The office I'd be working at has about 50 employees, but they have divisions across the US. And yeah, I've had to deal with office politics with my current internship at FIS. The company is probably as large as Boeing, so I'd already be used to the bureaucracy. The company that offered me the position kind of blindsided me with the short deadline. They knew I had an interview this coming Wednesday (not with who), and they also knew I wanted till at least the first week of may to make a decision.

Sorry if the formatting is all fucked, trying to do this on my phone lol.

[zoobernut]

Man that is a tough decision.

In your gut which job sounds more fun to you? If you were offered both which one would you take? (Assuming both paid exactly the same.)

I faced a similar situation though not exactly the same, when I interviewed for my current job the same company also interviewed me for a different position, they ended up offering me both positions at the exact same starting salary and I had to decide which one I wanted to take. That situation was a little bit easier than yours but it did take some thought. Ironically later on they merged both jobs together so now I perform the duties of both.

I am inclined to say go for the sure thing but it is kinda weird they are making you decide so fast. I have to assume it is because you told them you have another interview coming up and they want to pressure you into accepting before you run off to a different job.

It would also suck to accept the offer then do the Boeing interview and get an offer for that job that is better. Sorry I don't have a concrete answer for what you should do but I would sit down with a loved one/family/parent/mentor and get some guidance or an opinion from someone that you really trust.

[Woozie]

Just look at the bright side, chicks dig green energy.

But seriously, the average joe doesnt give a flying shit about sciences unless they think you're trying to save the world. Trying to explain people that you're working on theoretical sciences is just impossible

I actually thought of this when I found out what I'd be doing. Last year I had so much trouble justifying my research because apparently you can't tell just tell the media, government, and people giving you grants that you're doing your research "just for the hell of it. Now gimme more money", etc (which is actually what my partner and I tried to say. The professor even agreed with us but told us we need to b.s. some reason about future applications even if we don't care the slightest about any future applications of our work. There were actually media people asking us questions there, though non of it was actually going to be read by anyone who mattered. They were just trying to get us used to "communicating science to the media", which I understand is important but as of right now I just don't care).

[Lochnessmonster]

Quick question. I'm currently calculating the energy given off from the PPI fusion reaction for my Astrophysics class. It appears fairly easy but my Professor went on to include a warning for calculating the energy given off during the initial sequence of the reaction. I'm led to believe that this warning involves the neutrino shooting off carrying some kinetic energy but I can't find any value for this in my notes. I'd appreciate if someone explained to me how to get this number or whatever else I may be overlooking.

[Kaylia]

Quick question. I'm currently calculating the energy given off from the PPI fusion reaction for my Astrophysics class. It appears fairly easy but my Professor went on to include a warning for calculating the energy given off during the initial sequence of the reaction. I'm led to believe that this warning involves the neutrino shooting off carrying some kinetic energy but I can't find any value for this in my notes. I'd appreciate if someone explained to me how to get this number or whatever else I may be overlooking.

I wouldn't put my life on it, but I'm almost certain the kinetic energy in nuclear fusion can be ignored. Sure, the neutrino is going to be accelerated to some nasty speed, but its mass is so small that the total kinetic energy is still very low.

What I would do is calculate the mass on the left side of the equation, calculate the mass on the right side, substract, and convert everything to a photon with e=mc²


[edit]
I haven't done nuclear physics, and don't have any book around me, so I might be wrong.

[Chun Liroy]

So I'm bored, any good videos on neutron stars that I can watch? :<

[Lochnessmonster]

I wouldn't put my life on it, but I'm almost certain the kinetic energy in nuclear fusion can be ignored. Sure, the neutrino is going to be accelerated to some nasty speed, but its mass is so small that the total kinetic energy is still very low.

What I would do is calculate the mass on the left side of the equation, calculate the mass on the right side, substract, and convert everything to a photon with e=mc²


[edit]
I haven't done nuclear physics, and don't have any book around me, so I might be wrong.

Yeah, that's how I've approached it so far and I get a ballpark answer. In the actual questioning of the problem, he references an equation detailing the nuclear energy generation rate. But I'm given no information to solve for it and cannot see how it can be applied. Here, might as well just include the entire question if it does help;

a) Calculate the Q value for each step of the PP-I reaction chain (Eq. 10.46), expressing your answers Q1, Q2, and Q3 in MeV. Be careful with Q1.
b) Correct Q1 with the additional energy from positron-electron annihilation (e + e+ → 2γ); assume the kinetic energies of the electron-positron are negligible, then E(e )= E(e+ ) = mec2.
c) Calculate the total Q (Qtot) for the PP I chain, noting that that first two steps happen twice (!). Compare your answer with: (4m(1H) – 1m(4He))c2 in MeV, using the atomic mass values of each. Briefly mention why this shortcut works.


Not exactly sure if I'm to proceed after part a knowing I have an incorrect answer to only correct it in part b. Hope that helps explains things.

[Kaylia]

How can you tell your answer is wrong? Do you know what answer you're suposed to get? Also, are you sure the equation you're using are properly balanced, it's a common mistake.

And lastly, what is Q exactly? The total energy released for a single reaction? I'm slightly confused since you mentioned rate in your post above, but I don't see any time dependant equation in it.