Large Hardon Collider

[Mizango]

Yeah lol. That is why so many people love him, he has a simple way of simplifying the complicated. I cant wait for my trip to the Hayden Planetarium to meet him in person next summer.

[Eliseos]

I think you better take pictures and get autographs for all of us. Or at least shake his hand as many times as we have people who know of him here.

[Kaylia]

In Cosmology we usually refer to things by size. "Super", "Super Massive", "Large", "Giant" etc....

I lucked out and got an awesome professor.

compensating...etc.

It makes it easier for us to remember, but it makes it harder to explain to others. Have you ever tried to explain to someone that electrons have spin but can't spin? If it wasn't called spin it wouldn't be so confusing to explain.

My favorite are charm and strange. It makes even less sense to classify something as that.

[Jakson]

I don't know what would be cooler (or scarier), it being night time during the big rip and seeing all the stars blink off one by one until eventually the moon blinks off, or it being daytime and suddenly seeing the sun just vanish.

Well, see there's these monks with a computer...

[Apol]

Big Rip stuff

Incredible. I'd heard of the big rip before but I never read anything into it, which I now regret~

Isn't it amazing how every possible end to the universe are completely horrifying, but at the same time incredibly cool~

Other than heat death, there's also a possibility that our universe's current state isn't actually stable. If you want to learn more about that, go up near the top of this page and click on "search this thread". Type in "metastable" and you'll see what we talked about earlier. This scenario is the only one that's not way into the future. We could all be suddenly destroyed at any moment if this is correct.

I read all of this while it was being posted and was a very interesting read.

Very good site for physics lectures. It's all at a level where any person could understand.

Thanks for that. 'm sure it'll make a great bed time read~
(Though probably not. I've long since learnt not to read about these things before bed because I only end up laying in bed thinking about it all for the next hour)

Love this thread~ I've no experiance in any of these fields (systems administrator by trade) but it interests me and captivates me like no other subject.

[Woozie]

The lectures are not a good "read". They're video lectures.

[Seraph]

So applicable to the previous conversation (and a fun read too):

The Last Question -- Isaac Asimov

[Max™]

Naturally I understand that it will take more than randomly turning off various parts of my cells, but I know that cells turn off after a set number of divisions, and it need not be that way.

If you went in with nanoscale machines and replaced every neuron in your brain bit by bit, it is hard to say you would notice the change, but at some point you would definitely have a mechanical brain, no?


That was a much more in depth explanation of entropy, and yeah, it is naturally limited to a finite amount, as there is only a finite amount of material in the Universe to begin with.

Hmmm...

While looking for a plate trick demonstration I found this, and he's doing it wrong:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_R51-i3_O-R...KU0/s400/8.jpg

DERP... lemme know if you see what's wrong there.


Spin is a measure of the symmetries of an object.

Dirac and Feynman had the best descriptions.

Hold a plate on your open palm with your fingers pointing forwards.

The plate is round, and should be featureless, so simply spinning it won't allow you to distinguish between prior and later states.

Now raise your hand and rotate your palm outwards (clockwise if looking down at your palm) to keep the plate on it, in order to continue the rotation you will have to bring the plate back down, but end up with your arm twisted weirdly and your elbow pointing upwards.

That is one full 360 degree rotation, but the state is not the same.

After repeating another 360 degree rotation you arrive at the original state, it took 2 spins to do this, so your plate has 1/2 spin.

An object with Spin 1 arrives at the original state after a single rotation, and an object with Spin 2 arrives at the original state after half a rotation (180 degrees).

A propagating wave such as a photon has Spin 1, and a directional axis, such as a spatial dimension, has Spin 2.

Spoiler: show

Incidentally, the problem with that diagram is no matter which axis you choose for time, if left > right is chosen, the electrons and positrons are propagating the same way, and if up > down is chosen then the electrons and positrons reverse direction in time! Hell of a mistake to have tattooed on your arm.

[Kaylia]

Anyone know where I can find a fucking table that list experimental values of the energy for different orbital (I need it for the neon). I can't find one and it's driving me crazy.

Wavelength also works.

[Max™]

Atomic Orbital Energies

[Kaylia]

I need them for the 3p of Neon, sorry. Your list only mention stable orbit.

[Max™]

Ahhh, hmmm, interesting question then.

You could probably nerdsnipe someone with that (flash the question to a nerd while he crosses a street, freezing him in place while he considers it, then he gets hit by a truck) if you tried.


Wouldn't it depend implicitly on the energy level of the interaction that raised an electron into the higher orbital?

[Quicklet]

Haha the Feynman diagram tattoo is great. I wonder if the tattoo guy messed it up or if the guy who got it just didn't bother to make sure it was correct.

Incidentally, is anyone here planning on going to the APS meeting in March?

[Woozie]

Haha the Feynman diagram tattoo is great. I wonder if the tattoo guy messed it up or if the guy who got it just didn't bother to make sure it was correct.

Incidentally, is anyone here planning on going to the APS meeting in March?

Where is it? I went to the march meeting this year because it happen to be pretty close to Ohio (and happen to be during spring break. Screw Cancun, this is how scientist get down). If the next one isn't close, whether or not I go depends on whether or not the McNair scholars program is going to sponsor me.

Edit: Here was my abstract:

http://absimage.aps.org/image/MWS_MAR09-2008-006722.pdf

(I'm Lawrenzo Moses. Alper Buldum is my professor).

Edit 4: Ninja edited out my last two edits

[Deftscythe]

Is that your real name? If so, have you considered leaving science to become an ass-kicking private eye?

[Mizango]

Woozies been hearing that for years and yes that is his real name

[Mizango]

Sort of like the Omar Epps thing.

[Deftscythe]

In a white man's world, it takes a black man to lay down the law...

The law... of physics!

*awesome 70s guitar funk*

[Woozie]

lol

I don't get why everyone thinks my name is so cool. People seem to like my nickname even more (my rl nickname is actually Woozie).

Edit: Now that I think about it, Kuya once called me "Lawlrenzo" in spam, so I guess not everyone likes the name.

[Kuya]

I don't know why you would ever think that, woozie.