Three Jets are Better than Two!

For those of you who couldn't manage my sequence (see previous post on 1,1,1,2,3,3,4,5,5,6,6,6,8,8....etc), here is some more thought-provoking science stuff.

As intimated in my "Angels and Demons" post, there are certain things far more fascinating than electromagnetism.

There is that which holds the atomic nucleus together. It is called the "strong" or "color" force and overcomes the electrostatic repulsion of the protons by a factor of something like 1,000,000,000,000. It is called "color" force because unlike electromagnetism with two kinds of charge, this one has three. For want of a better name, we named it "color" charge, and called the charges "red", "blue" and "green", as 'opposed" to "positive" and "negative" for electromagnetism.

However, this "color force" is only for a very short range.

This means that as the nucleus approaches the size of a Uranium nucleus, physically, the electromagnetism takes over and the nucleus splits, due to the proton-proton repulsion, a process we call "fission", the essence of the atom bomb.

Carriers of this "color force" are called "gluons", analogous to the photons we all know and love.

However, there is a difference. Whereas photons are chargeless (electrically neutral), the gluons are not.

Gluons carry the "color" force as well, which the quarks inside the protons also have.

Thus: whereas two electrons interact with each other by exchanging a photon (they move away from each other because of electrostatic repulsion), quarks do a whole lot more gymnastics by exchanging gluons, which themselves exchange more gluons, etc etc.

Hurray for Feynman diagrams!

The whole thing is bound up in a theory we call "Quantum ChromoDynamics", or QCD. This is partial homage to the most successful theory that was ever thunked, "Quantum ElectroDynamics", or QED.

But even though QCD is insuperably more difficult mathematically, it does share stuff with QED.

QED explains that an electron accelerated in an electromagnetic field will "give off" radiation, in the form of electromagnetic waves. (This is the one thing that we scientists had trouble with envisioning the atom - how can an electron encircle the nucleus, thus having a circular acceleration, be stable? Surely it would radiate and spiral into the nucleus! - the problem was solved with "quanta" of radiation and thus was born quantum mechanics). This radiation was given the name "Bremstrahlung".

We derived much of QCD from the tenets of QED.

When enough energy was available at CERN (yes, it does exist, readers of Dan Brown!), we were in a position to identify the plethora of particles that exited the collisions as being directed as "sprays" of particles in two general directions. There were always two to begin with, corresponding with the sprays of particles "created" by two quarks - a quark and an anti-quark. These we called "two-jet events".

The reason why quarks were created in the first place was dealt with in my earlier post "Angels and Demons - Reality Check!".

Now comes the crux.

As our beam energy grew larger, we occasionally got not two "jets', but three.

These are the "three-jet events" I hinted at in my earlier post.

It turns out that "three-jet events" can be explained not by QED bremstrahlung, but QCD bremstrahlung. The third jet is no more nor less than the product of a gluon itself.

The energy available in the "crash" is too much to create just a quark-antiquark pair, so physics "decides" somehow to create something else. Not enough energy to create another pair, but one of the quarks accelerates through so much "color" field, that it "radiates" a gluon just like the electron radiated a photon when accelerated through an electromagnetic field.

THIS is what a "three-jet event" is.

Funnily enough, it is this same reasoning that has prompted a stepping-up of the search for gravity waves, being a product of an accelerated mass in a gravitational field.

Oh Frabjous Day!

As Cassini wends its way in and around the Saturnian system, scientists around the world have gazed in awe at the images sent back.

This is Dione, one of the more well-known satellites of Saturn. The probe's closest approach was 500km, at 1820 GMT on October 11th. This was taken from about a million km away. We have an artist working on a better painting, but we don't hold out much hope.

Our previous photographs of this distant moon were blurry at best, but the quality of these is as if we are actually there.

It takes over four hours for these images to reach Earth.

Although I am a nuclear scientist, my research leads me to digressions in other fields, one of them astronomy.

As we usher in the year 2006, one has to wonder what prospects science will offer us, given that we have come this far.

RippleTeaser, as opposed to RumpleTeaser

As the number of Arabs in Physics 1 inceases, so the number of people being stymied by eloquent thought-processes decreases.

There seems to be a reciprocal relationship.

It is supposed to be a physics room, and as such, lately, I have tried to address this. (Blimey, Akiko, you DO sound pompous at times!)

I am sorry if I do, but last night I had fun asking a question which is very simple to formulate, but a little harder to fathom.

It was:

"What is it that takes the world 24 hours to do, yet takes the Earth a little over 7 minutes to do?"

Chatters in the physics room have asked me how do I define "world", etc, but the crux of the problem lies in realising exactly what those words mean.

Oh, and by the way, to clarify, I mean a specific "event", not sunrise or sunset, etc.

Various theories have been put forward to explain the riddle, including eloquent ones from prominent people, and even one from an actual planetary scientist, but none have provided the answer I was looking for, the simplest one.

The answer that everybody was looking for, and I must admit, several chatters came really close, is this:

New Year.

It takes a total time of 24 hours (one complete day) for the whole of the people in the "world" (people on the planet) to celebrate this, owing to the time zone differences, and yet it only takes just over 7 minutes for actual BODY of the "earth" (the planet itself) to cross the same point in its orbit that it did one year ago (a diameters' worth).

It has been pointed out that I should have been more specific in my definition of the riddle ie, I should have worded it
"What specific event takes the world 24 hours to do, yet takes the Earth a little over 7 minutes to do?", but that would have made the riddle too easy.

Thus the "world" (the people) does it (New Year) in 24 hours, but the "earth" (the planet) does it in 7 minutes or so.

I happened upon this riddle simply because I travel a lot, and started wondering just what the "value" of New Year is, given that everyone celebrates it at a different time.

This "wandering" "piqued" at the "turning" of the Millennium.

The Great Weather Switch

I do believe it has happened again.

The weather has turned from uncomfortably hot to unfashionably cool. In one Swell Floop (watch out, Douglas, and I don't mean of the Babel Fish variety) the ambience has turned from one of balmness to one of barminess.

I am sure there is some sort of Celestial Switch up there. Or at least a climatalogical one (Gates, be it David or Bill, watch out!).

The weather somehow, at this time of year, suddenly changes from high summer to mid-autumn. I mean, here I was, last night, sleeping (yes, I do sleep from time-to-time, as C3PO would say) in my more or less nether garments, and, come this morning (please do!), I had to wear several layers just to wake up "not cold"!

What is it with Korea? I mean, in England, the difference in these types of changes was a matter of months. Here. it seems to be overnight.

It is like someone has just turned the power off with like, erm, a "switch".

For those of you who don't know me, there were eleven allusions in this post. For those who do, twelve.

About my average, I would say!

Setting the Jets

I intimated in my "Angels and Demons" post that I would go further in explaining what a 3-jet event was.

I have been so preoccupied lately I have not had a chance until now.

A "3-Jet event" happens only at CERN and it occurs when particles of matter (protons, the basic building block of matter) collide head-on with anti-protons (their complete opposite).

Both are produced at CERN and when you put them together anyway, a lot of energy is released (according quite correctly to E=mc2). All mass is converted to energy in the form of electromagnetic radiation (light to you and me).

However, CERN make these particles come together at near light-speed, so there is a lot more energy available to do things with.

The most important is that the energy is so great, that it is easier to create new matter (via E=mc2) than to continue being just "radiation". In the same way it is easier for a rubber band to "snap" then to keep being stretched.

What happens? New particles are created, and they run away from the creation point at 180 degrees from each other. Why? The reason is to conserve momentum, as the initial momentum is zero, so must the final momentum be.

That is a 2-Jet event, sprays of particles run away from each other at diametrically opposed angles.

But SOMETIMES there are THREE.

Conservation of momentum aside, how in ATLAS could there be three?

Three-jet events occur because there is something else happening. Something which PROVES that quarks do exist, and harbour the true nature of the strong force.

Am I going to explain just exactly what it is that is happening in a 3-Jet event?

Not just yet....

You need to know a little more about basic electromagnetism first.....

...and THAT, I will leave to the next post on this so interesting a subject.

Hasta la Vista, Babee.

Physics Room Gold Medal Award Winner!

...and in another of my infrequent forays into the physics rooms, I have come across a rather interesting individual called Jeffrey Stapleton.

Not only does this geyser (Hey Diamond and Marianne (you work it out!)) proclaim himself a genius, but he also catagorically refuses to admit he is wrong in anything!

He is at www.jeffreystapleton.com and when confronted with my "hole-in-sphere" problem, claimed to have solved it with the answer 94! Check his site out, he is unique!

The problem is this: "A cylindrical hole 6 inches long of maximal radius is drilled straight through the center of a solid sphere. What is the volume remaining in the sphere?"

The answer I will leave to all you real geniuses.

It can be solved three different ways. Algebra (arduous), Calculus (beautiful), or Logic (ingenious).

Sad thing is, the Stapleton (spin -0, look at his site to see my comment) gave the right answer (but didn't know it was correct), and continued to try and explain why his "better" answer was 94. Strange, since the problem has a unique answer, and not 94 (logic gates, sorry Bill, look out!).

All in the physics chatroom!

These guys are so FUN to be with (Sirius (Yes, I still think Mr Black is Alive) Cybernetics Corporation).

Oh well, come the revolution....... all particles of spin -0 will be up against the wall....!

Yippee!

Infrequent forays....

There is a lot in life to laugh about. Some are funny (the 3 Stooges), some are unfunny (Mr Bean), but , to me, the most things that make me laugh are the real life ones. For example, my "Classify this" post.

I was in the physics chatroom the other day (and what a laugh that is at face value, as Phil Collins would say), when someone who claimed to have time-travelled back to the death of his wife in 1997 said to me: "America rules the World".

Harrumph! Between my giggles, I managed to type out "Yeah, and America just got its Southern Ass kicked by a girl!", before I set the geyser on "ignore".

The point I am making here is that for the all-powerful nation America seems to be, right now to any outside country it appears that the US are more interested in watching over other countries, than watching over their own people.

That may be an unfair comment, and I admit that it may be so, but I am just an observer, and this is in no way my opinion. I am just saying it may be the opinion of many.

Is this a case of "What goes around, comes around"?

"Angels and Demons" - Reality Check!

Yes, you have guessed it, I am reading the second first book by Mr Boring Author Name Award 2005 - Dan Brown.

"Angels and Demons" is the precursor to "The Da Vinci Code" (See my post).

It is a story that starts where I have just given up a job - CERN (Centre European pour la Recherche Nucleaire), and central to the plot is an understanding of what antimatter is. Everything he says about CERN is correct, but he needs to brush up on his Physics a little!

Of course I know what poetic license is, but all the same, allow me to enlighten you a little as to the difference between Dan Brown and physics.

Anti-Matter? Physics. Recent production? No, CERN have been doing it for 20 years.

LHC? Yes, it exists, I have been there. Diameter 8 km? Yes.

Making a miniature Big Bang in the LHC? No. Making matter from nothing? No. Mr Brown conveniently forgets about all the energy needed to send the particles around the ring.

Matter-antimatter energy conversion 100% efficient? Oh yes!

Here's the rub - Bottles of antimatter? ABSOLUTELY NOT!

Many reasons:

1) Antiprotons need a true vacuum to be stable. Even intergalactic space is not even a true vacuum (see my space Sickness Pills post), and certainly a true vacuum on earth is impossible, and certainly if one is created, minute leaks will soon cause annihilation.

2) Stable magnetic bottle? Well, we are still working on that one, and it is not quite perfected yet.

3) The Bottle in the story has a quarter gram of antiprotons. Antiprotons have a negative charge. All of them. To overcome the negative electrostatic repulsion, one would have to have GI-normous magnetic fields involving magnets the size of rooms.

The REAL stuff that CERN does with antiprotons is exactly as Mr Brown explains - we throw protons round the LHC and using the same magnets, hurl antiprotons the other way. It works because they have the same mass.

At certain points in the ring we collide them, and collect the debris using huge detectors the size of office buildings.

What happens when a proton (travelling at 99% the speed of light) collides with an antiproton (travelling with the same speed in the opposite direction)? Annihilation, of course! But in this case, not only is the energy from the particles' mass available (939 MeV x 2 via e=mc2), but also the relativistic kinetic energy x 2.

Result; Two gamma rays, travelling in opposite directions (2 because both energy AND momentum need to be conserved). These gamma rays have so much energy that the reverse now happens.

Using E=mc2 many other particles are simply created (yes, created out of thin air, one particle, one antiparticle)

Why does this happen? It is exactly like a spark of electricity or lightning. In either, there is so much charge, that despite being an insulator, the air breaks down and carries a current.

Same with these two gamma rays, and they both become two "jets" of particles. These are called two-jet events, and were used to discover the intermediate vector boson, predicted in 1974, the carrier of the weak force, the Z-0. This was detected in the early eighties.

Sometimes, though, but not very often, we see a "3-jet event". That is, the two gamma rays become three jets instead of two. This is a purely gluon event........

For more, just watch this space.....

Classify this One, then!

The "Darwin Awards" usually go to that individual who kills him/herself in such a stupid way, that Charles Darwin would have been happy that that said individual had been removed from the Global Gene Pool.

For example, a few years back, I forget the exact details, but a Chinese fighter pilot decided to "escort" a formation of US fighters through Chinese air space, so that they could safely land in China, I think, about a grounded US Hercules (correct me if I wrong). Anyway, his wing touched a US fighter's wing, and he went out of control, and crashed, killing him. He made it to the Darwin Awards Website.

How about this one: In Hilusig, where I was a guest again for the last 2 weeks or so, this happened only yesterday:

Two guys had been drinking. Heavily.

These two decided it would be a good idea to go for a ride, in the dark, on a motorcycle, after the said alcohol-consuming activity.
(and of course, in the Philippines, motorcycle helmets do NOT exist)

There is only one road in Hilusig, and it is unlit at night - you only have headlights to guide you. There are no city lights, only the Stars and pitch blackness to see by.

Not surprising, then, that they apparently crashed at speed.

The lead rider was killed. Also not surprising since Hilusig sits on the side of a mountain.

The pillion rider lived.

The question begs itself: Who deserves the Darwin Award most, even though you have to be dead to get it?!?!?!

Obviously, the guy who was killed got the award, but what about the passenger? Did he not deserve it more for agreeing to be ridden into the night by another drunk guy?

Maybe the second guy is a victim of the "Final Destination" scenario...?

..or is that...."will be.....?"

"Exciting is Hardly the Word I would Choose"

As said by R2D2 (George's abbreviation for "Roll 2 Dialogue 2" in the original Episode IV screenplay), but translated to us by C3PO.

The quote illustrates to me how travel is ~ exciting ~ but, to pessimist C3PO, quite the opposite.

I refer to the recent loss of my passport. I droppped it, somewhere in the departure lounge at Manila Domestic airport. As usual, this one lounge was packed with people (maybe up to 1000). However, panic I did not. I just retraced my steps, inch by inch, until I reached the point where Ilast knew I had it, near to the newsstand. So I approached the clerk, and he said to ne there was a guy who had found it, and was currently looking for me using my photo. Soon after, I found him, and expressed my profound gratitude with a kiss on the cheek.

Travel can be dangerous at times, and I had simply left it on the floor whilst i checked my baggage, assuming I had already pocketed it into my jeans back pocket.

I thank the Maker that I have a cool head.

"I have a really bad feeling about this"

It has been reported that the Space Shuttle Discovery is missing some tiles from the heat shield.

This is the worst possible news the astronauts up there can receive. Bearing in mind that I have intermittent Internet access, and I only learned this from CNN on tv, I may be mistaken into thinking they are in grave danger.

But in the last post but one I expressed my fear that they may be in real trouble.

Seems I was right.

I wonder what NASA will do now? Effect repairs? Order them to stay at the Space Station until further notice?

These last series of postings after "Hold That Thought" were written over a period of about 10 days, but will all have similar posting dates, as I have had to write and then save to FD.

I Have a Bad Feeling About This....

February 1st, 2003....Columbia Space Shuttle destroyed upon re-entry (Yes, Q, we know you said that!) due to debris from an SRB removing a heat-shield tile from the wing.

July 27th, 2005... Discovery Space Shuttle filmed having the same problem of debris falling off the SRB.

July 28th, 2005... All Space Shuttle flights grounded indefinitely, whilst the crew of Discovery are still in orbit attached to the International Space Station.

NASA say that is all ok as all aspects of the Shuttle in question have been "digitally photographed" and have been found to be "acceptable".

They have been given the go-ahead to try re-entry (Q-squared).

NASA have played it down, but I think these guys (Captained by a GIRL!) are in real trouble.

Just my opinion.

The Sixth Sith Sitch Itch - Part Two

(Whoops! As I write this on the 7th Floor of one of Tacloban's better hotels, we get a mild earthquake. At least, that is what the floor thought, along with the celebrating curtains, who danced merrily! (1930 on 28th July))

Finally viewed "Star Wars - Episode III". Got a VCD from the streets of Tacloban for a dollar. Stereo, too. This guy must have had a Dolby surround sound system and a stereo video camera. He recorded it straight from the TV, unlike the usual crap we get here, viz, someone with a mono cam sneaking into a cinema.

And did I enjoy it! Did I? DID I! Stooges beware!

At last, the reason Anakin fell from Grace is clear. He was under fire from the Dark Side.

The Emperor had TWO minds, not just a new one.

Still in Science-Fiction mode, I also today caught Star Trek - Nemesis, the 10th ST movie. Two quotes:

Picard: "That is what it is to be human. To make yourself more than you are"

And, this one:

"Fire at Will!"

I fail to see what Riker could possibly have done to merit this dishonor (sorry, Worf!)

Decisions, Decisions....!

The main question I have to face is: Do I love Physics enough to give up my well-paid job to go back to the fundamental research?

An idea occurred to me is that I may be able to delegate the main responsibilities of my job, whilst getting paid for it, AND to return to my PhD.

I am currently discussing this with my parents here in Hilusig and Tacloban. (Sounds a bit like the conference in Iceland in "You Only Live Twice" - the parties go to a neutral territory to discuss a highly emotive issue)

High Numbers.....Who?

What is the highest number?

Stupid question, really, as there is no "highest" number.

Alright then, let us qualify it a bit.

What is the highest number that has ever been used, and can easily be understood? (I put in that last caveat "easily be understood", as Graham's number is much, much larger, but requires far more algebra to understand)

To answer that, a little background is necessary. (For you guys out there who know I am at least modestly adept in algebra, you can skip this, but I know you will read it anyway. Hey! I have said this before!)

The background needed is about the prime numbers. Prime numbers are numbers that cannot be divided by anything exactly, other than themselves and 1. For example, 12 is not a prime number because it is divisible by 1,2,3,4,6 and 12. However, 13 is a prime number, because it can only be divided by 1 and 13.

So far so good.

Many math guys have tried to find formulas (formulae, atch) to generate prime numbers, the two simplest being "4n+1" and "4n-1" where "n" is an integer (whole number). These two yield prime numbers sometimes, but not always, and the race is ON! Which will bring in the most prime numbers?

Well, up to n = 125,000, there is a clear winner, but after that, the winner oscillates back and forth, much like a rather close horse race.

Background over. Serious stuff now. It has been proved that the "lead" will always oscillate until a certain number has been reached, then one will dominate and probably win. This is the number I am talking about.

The answer to the question:

What is the highest number that has ever been used, and can easily be understood?

It is up to now, this number. Let's call it "F". It is not less than 10 to the power 10 to the power 10 to the power 34.

Fairly big number.

Allow me to illustrate how big it actually is.

To conceptualise high numbers (who?) there needs to be some sort of measuring stick. The measuring stick I choose is the
"average number of distinct prime factors". Now, what is a prime factor?

A prime factor is a prime number which exactly divides the number in question. For instance, 6 has factors which divide it exactly to be 1, 2, 3 and 6. Since 2 is by definition a prime number, and we don't count 1, the number of prime factors of 6 is two (6 is not a prime number). How about 28? Well, the numbers that divide 28 exactly are 28, 14, 7, 2, and 1. Only 2 and 7 are prime numbers. That makes two prime factors.

How about 37, a prime number?

Only 1 and 37 exactly divide this prime number, so the number of distinct prime factors is one only (37).

So, in the run up from 1 to 100, what is the "average" number of distinct prime factors for this range? Turns out, it is only about 1.9.

How about the range 1 - 1000? The "average" number of distinct prime factors, (lets call it AP(n)) jumps to about 1.95. The occurrence of the prime numbers brings this average down.

How about 1 - 1,000,000? AP(n) climbs to about 2.3.

Let's get really bold = 1 - googol (a googol is 1 followed by 100 zeroes). Yes, a significant jump.....to AP(n) = 19.

Now here is the measure that I was talking about. What if we average out the number of distinct prime factors for the numbers between 1 and F (10 to the 10 to the 10 to the 34, the number earlier outlined).

What is AP(n) for n = F? It is truly a measure of the magnificence of F when we discover that AP(F) is a number in excess of 10 to the 24! 1 followed by 24 zeroes! That is, there are , on average, 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 distinct prime factors in the numbers preceding F.

Remember, this is only the "average"!

Isn't math wonderful, especially with The High Numbers (Who?)?

Taking a Break

I have left the climes of CERN and the whole Nuclear Physics shebang for a while, to go visit my old (yet still young) roommate Raquel here in the Philippines. The reason is two-fold:

a) to see old friends again, and

b) to discuss with my parents where I should go from here.

Suffice it to say, I want to continue with my PhD, no matter how hard it is.

Ideas? Of Course! Delegation!

It is very rainy here right now, Tacloban City must be getting a storm a day at precisely 3 o'clock. Doc Brown would be so proud.

My thoughts go out to a certain passenger whom I met on my flight here, with his lovely girlfriend. Both seemed a little uneasy at coming here, but they soon wised up. I have even read on a certain blog that they thought travel in Manila was without rules! Shah! This was the one thing I neglected to advise them about as they disembarked into the oven that is called "the air" here!

Hold That Thought!

This is true - I haven't blogged in while (12 days).

I am making a painful transition (ouch!)

I am currently in the Philippines where Internet access is limited, so I have to write my posts on my pc, copy to FD and then paste and format into the posts here. But hey! In a few days you may well read about High Numbers (who?) and the fascination they have for me.

In short, I have, as of now, three posts to do. But my FD is 100km away, my pc is in an hotel, and I am in an Internet Cafe with DIAL-UP access! Bleurghgh! At least these ip adresses are in the Philippines! Hey, we had a small earth tremor last night! The curtains in my 7th floor hotel room were dancing!

Watch this space.

The London Bombings VV DPRK

As an ex-Londoner, I find these bombing atrocities mindless.

However, look what the bombers achieved:

"ONE CITY ONE WORLD"

"LONDON UNITED"

All over the UK, and in particular in London, the people are united even more so, as I said on a previous post.

One of my elusive friends is particularly agitated about being bombed from North Korea with unclear bombs (SORRY NUclear bombs). I think his catchphrase is not " I have a bad feeling about this", but Bill Paxton's quote from Aliens when the rescue ship crashes.

My advice to said compadre is: "Talk to Londoners".

They are NOT afraid of Al Queda, Hitler, DPRK, Taliban, Pol Pot, Osama, Trance Music, Bigots or Faggots, etc.

Party on , London! I love you!

Fanatical but just Plain Stupid

The purpose of this post is entirely to make me feel better.

My beloved adopted United Kingdom was attacked yesterday in an unprecendented coordinated terrorist attack on its capital, London, a place I lived for 8 years.

Four explosions, three on the subway, one on a bus, at places I know very well.

London, and its people, will survive. They do well under pressure. They survived Hitler's bombardment with cheerful resilience. They will survive this with much more aplomb.

However, the main thing is that the terrorists made a stupid, stupid mistake. I mean, to attack a country where the most influential World Leaders are meeting for peace talks? How stupid is that?

The only result of this will be the oppposite of what their aims are, and that is, all the World Leaders who are there right now in England, will band together in total resolve to rid the World of this blight. They don't need to call a special meeting to discuss it. They are all already there!

It is like the terrorists said to themselves...."Hmmm.....what is the worst possible place and time we can instigate a terrorist attack - ah yes, the very place where it is most likely to cause complete hatred for our cause and ultimately be the death of us all ~ London, of course, on July 7th! "

The terrorist who thought THIS one up is probably going to be blessed in Heaven with 77 naked "Darwin Award" virgins.

The terrorist on the bus at Tavistock Place however, will get 777 naked "Darwin Award" virgins for having missed his subway train.

The Dalyrympalics return to Britain!

Well, there was both Bob Beamon AND Dick Fosbury doing their respective flops in '68, Dorando being "helped" over the finish line in 1908, Al Oerter in Helsinki '56 doing his discus thing, Jesse Owens and Carl Lewis doing their things in '36 and '84.

Princess Anne of the British Royal Family doing the Doublet in Montreal '76, with Nadia Comaneci doing the perfect 10 the same year. Emil Zatopec, Ken Matthews, Fanny Blankers-Kohn, Cassius Clay, Mary Rand, Mark Spitz (7 gold), Greg Louganis hitting his head on the diving board, Jim Peters falling down, Dawn Fraser, Olga Korbut, Boris Onishenko, the cheat at Pentathlon, Stephen Redgrave, 5-times Gold Medal winner in 5 Olympics for Great Britain.....

...the latter being a record which will probably rarely be equalled, let alone bettered.

Yes, it has been Olympics Venue Selection time again, and this time, after hosting the 1908 and 1948 Olympiades, London, my adoptive city, is hosting again.

Large thanks will no doubt go out to Lord Coe.

The Marathon, being 26 miles, was officially changed in 1908 in London to 26 miles, 385 yards, because Queen Alexandra wanted the runners to finish in front of the Royal Box. The distance has stayed the same ever since.

In 2012, the Official Olympic Site for the Tennis Tournament will be the All-England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, but to you and me, it will be at Wimbledon.

But first, we have to get Bejiing out of the way!

Party on, Britain!

Is Time Travel possible? ~ an Honest Answer

Time travel has always fascinated people from all walks of life, writers, businessmen, scientists, philosphers, all have wondered. Well, here I am, about to put the record straight:

Is time travel possible?

Yes.

I may go on to tease and say, "Yes, Sir, but not in the way the movies or the books have led you to believe".

The "normal" way to time travel is to maybe build a "time travel machine" using which you can hop from decade to decade as if "time" were some sort of "tape measure" and we could position ourselves at any point along it. Wrong. Fascinating, especially when Robert Zemeckis did it, but wrong.

Time travel is a reality, but to figure out how, the Hollywood version of it has to be forgotten.

Completely.

Allow me to explain forthwith. Special Relativity has equations that tell that the faster a particle travels, the more time slows down for it. This is a real effect and has been demonstrated. In fact, I deal with it a lot since the calculations needed to deflect our nuclear particles would be useless without Einstein's equations, because we accelerate our particles to very near to the speed of light.

Particles that should decay into others often do not decay until after a million times the expected lifetime. From a certain point of view, this means they have time-travelled into their own future.........

...a more concrete example is needed here.

In my last post, about space travel, I said that if we had a spacecraft that could travel near to the speed of light, it would still take 4.2 years to get to the nearest star.

Suppose its speed was 99.9999% the speed of light. It would take nearly 4.2 years to get there, and the same to return. Travel time, 8.4 years.

Yet if you plug in this information into the Einstein equations, nearly 51 years have passed on earth, which means when the astronauts return, they will now be living (51-8.4 = 42.6) years into their future. They have time-travelled!

If you plug in even more exotic values, like 99.99999999% the speed of light, the astronauts will return to a completely new Earth that is now 40,000 years older than when they left.

These two examples show us the power of travelling at near light speed, and are given merely to illustrate what happens nearly every day in particle accelerators around the world. That is, that our particles do indeed exhibit time-travel properties, but as I said, not in the sense as portayed in the movies.

As for travelling backward in time, the physics tell us it forbidden, although some recent developments in the equations of General Relativity seem to suggest that this may be possible in principle, too.

And you don't even need a flux capacitor, much less a DeLorean.

Got your Space-Sickness pills?

Eposode IV : A Distant Hope .

(please note that all the scientific stuff in this post is factual, surrounded by my verbosity)

Space travel huh? Yeah, well, ok, we have allegedly done it between here and the moon. Takes three days and nights to go each way.

Pretty slow by most standards, but it is the fastest we can attain at present.

The science writers would like to believe that one day we will travel along with light at more or less the same speed. (nothing can accelerate to beyond the speed of light, but you can come as close to it as physics will allow).

If we were to do this, they say, interstellar space travel would be a reality.

Most scientists agree that this may well come about. Just a matter of engineering. It would still take the craft 4.2 years to get to the nearest star, but hey, that's physics!

But there is a more burning problem, not even realised by most people. Interstellar space is not empty. In fact it is populated by at least one proton per liter. Buzzing through this "density" at near light speed would mean that even a single proton would go straight through a normal hull, not to mention any passengers.

And travelling so fast would mean you would get a lot of them since you travel so far in a short space of time.

Simply put, if the ship did not fall apart from hull breaches, the passengers would be dead from radiation poisoning long before they had gone a light month!

Given that attaining super velocities is an incredible hurdle to overcome, the problems don't end there. Some way has to be found to deflect these "protons" from our desired trajectory before they fry us. It has been suggested that an enormous dipole magnetic field facing forward would be of help.

Theoretically, yes, as Brent Spiner would say.

But there is still a problem. The dust. Cosmic specks of matter that are uncharged and hence cannot be deflected by a magnet. it is known to exist in vast quantities from the pictures taken of distant galaxies. Even one of these, at such extreme velocities, would destroy the ship.

It has been conjectured that an ion gun, forward facing, could put a charge on these specks, and our dipole magnet could deflect them.

Problem solved? No way. The ship is travelling at near light-speed, and the effects of having a forward-pointing ion cannon, whose ions travel at near the same speed, will have to involve relatavistic dynamics, and the equations for these calculations are formidable to say the least. And then there are the equations for the deflecting magnetic field, which also travels forward at the speed of light....

My point is, that the road to "Stardom" is not just beset by the "speed" problem.

This is why I love my physics. I get to understand, for free, a lot more than I actually set out to do.

Grunts or Groans?

Serena Williams, the loudest tennis "grunter" since Monica Seles was knifed during a match for it, exited Wimbledon yesterday.

Tournament referee at Wimbledon, Alan Mills, dumped Serena Williams' match from Centre Court to Court number 2, the infamous "Graveyard of the Champions", because of Andy Murray's extended 5-setter. Court 2 is so called because so many, many former Champions have "died" there in early rounds.

The British public wanted to watch the 18-year-old Scot, against a former finalist, Nalbandian.

So Alan Mills, a face well-known around the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club made a decision.

Serena's match was to be played on Court 2.

Dumped onto Court 2. How ignominious!

And dumped she was. Serenely. She was promptly beaten in straight sets. Despite the grunting. Or maybe because of it.........

.....Isn't it funny how earlier on in the week, Alan Mills himself said he would prefer measures taken against grunters (tennis players who utter loud noises when hitting the ball), so as to make the game fairer?

Well, either he was expedient in his choice of court, or he is just superstitious

Maybe he knows more about the Wimbledon grounds than we will ever know.

Either way, Wimbledon will be quieter during the second week by 101 decibels.

Groupie or just a Phase?

Time and again, it seems I am fascinated by quantum mechanics.

Here's the bit the relativists don't understand:

For a wave packet of a material particle, the phase velocity exceeds that of light.

Before anyone throws up their hands in disbelief and renders "Oh my! She has gone mad!", a little explanation may be in order.

In quantum mechanics, all stuff is represented by a "wavefunction". That may seem a little abstruse, but all it means is that whatever happens can be described by equations that look a lot like wave equations (yes, wave equations were already worked out years before).

If you know a little about waves, when you put two together, they can interfere, crest plus crest equals bigger crest, trough plus trough equals deeper trough, and trough plus crest equals zero if the amplitude is right.

Given that, if you superimpose two waves of slightly different wavelength, you will get no waves at all except for a small bump, called a "wave packet".

Quantum Mechanicists often call this a "particle", be it a neutrino, a proton or a car.

If you could watch the "waves" in this "wave packet", you would quickly see that although the "bump" is moving slowly, the waves that generate it inside are moving faster than light.

The velocity of the "bump" is called "group velocity" (the speed we actually see), and the velocity of the waves inside that generate it, is called the phase velocity.

For actual particles (ie ones with actual mass), it is a requirement of quantum mechanics that this "phase velocity" always exceeds that of light.

Oh, you can't detect it,THAT would violate relativity, but it is there.

For those of you who would say "Then how can you know?", the simple answer is "It is in the mathematics, so try and disprove it"!

I wonder what Kurt Godel would say?

Henmania is Finished!

...well, at least until next year.

He surprisingl lost yesterday in the second round.

'Nuff said.

Water or just "Gas"?

I have a limited amount of chemistry knowledge.

Water is ~ ~ H2O...a liquid at room temperature.

Hydrogen Sulphide is ~ ~ H2S ... a gas at room temperature.

Both Oxygen and Sulphur are in the same group (VI) in the periodic table, yet these substances are so different. Yet they have the same number of outer electrons.

Why is water (H2O), a colorless liquid, essential for life, and yet hydrogen sulphide (H2S) a foul smelling yellow gas?

The latter is lethal, if you cannot smell it.

The former is lethal, if you cannot drink it.

Such a disparity.

Yet so close are these elements in the periodic table.

How can this be so?

Don't be negative on this post!

Feel free to bond any answer you have to the questions posed ( or posted)!

Henmania is back!

Congratulations to Brit Tim Henman who struggled rather manfully yesterday to overcome his first-round match opponent, Jarkko Nieminen, 3-6, 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 7-5, 6-2, in the
Perennial Tennis Tournament of the World, Wimbledon.

Henman, reknown for giving the British public a veritable rollercoaster ride of excitement on even his less important matches, came out in style in the fifth set to win seemingly comfortably, after losing the first two sets rather ignominiously.

But all was Fine and Dandy on Henman Hill that day, as he showed true Brit Spirit by finishing with an unshakeable Stiff Upper Lip. (For Those Not In The Know, "Henman Hill" is that portion of the inside of the All England Club that overlooks the huge screen attached to Center Court).

Tally Ho! Jolly Hockey Sticks, etc.

When all said and done, I actually do miss the nonstop coverage of Wimbledon by the BBC (12 noon till 8 pm continuous live TV with no commercials).

Perhaps I can wangle a trip there to SW19 in the guise of having a look at King's College's lab......they are based in London....Hmmmm.....or maybe the other way around......

Look out for me in the standing room only on Center Court on July 3rd!

Church Road here I come!

What is Electricity? - Part Two

So I intimated I was going to reveal why the bulb is illuminated almost instantaneously when you flip the switch, despite the fact that electrons move very slowly in the wire.....

In fact, the speed of the signal along the wire is the same as the speed of light.

"How can this happen?" I hear you ask.

Well, liken the wire to a small tube, packed with wet sand. Yes, wet sand. The sand cannot be compressed any more.

Shove your hand in one end. If you are strong enough, the sand at the other end will move, almost immediately after.

But the sand grains within the tube will not have moved even a centimeter.

This is the principle of Electricity. The electrons are so numerous and are all along the wire, so that if one electron is "pushed" at one end, the others respond by pushing "along the line" so to speak.

Like a slinky.

A "wave" of "pushness" goes along the wire, and, because this is electrostatics, it moves at the speed of light.

Hence the "almost" immediate response at the bulb.

Something like a "Mexican Wave" in the crowd at a soccer match. No two people ever move very far, but the wave goes through the crowd very fast compared to the movement of the people.

Which brings me to the point about phase velocity versus group velocity, a recent argument I had with a Doctor of Physics in the physics room, but THAT is another topic!

Michael "Jacks" On

What is Justice anyway?

Brutus, OJ Simpson, Ted Bundy, Charles Manson (Marilyn, watch your back!), Mickey Jackson?

All are now notorious (Hitch, watch out!)

So Mr Michael Jackson was acquitted on "criminal" grounds.

This post is entirely an opinion, but what the hell , who cares about opinion anyway?

My point being, who in their right mind would have said that Mr Jackson would have been found guilty? Who in their right mind would allow their child to sleep with an unknown adult?

Not one.

He has money.

He has powerful lawyers

Since the "courtroom" verdict, he has already said that he will be "careful about who he invites to bed in future, to avoid this sort of thing again" (paraphrase).

If this is not an admission of guilt, then what is?

Parents, beware! Do not let your kids sleep over in a powerful man's house! He may pay you an enormous amount of money to deny it!

You may dance fine, but only on stage, Michael!

Not the plonker anymore

My congratulations go to the now "SIr" David Jason, recently honored in the Queen (of England)'s birthday honors list.

Star of "A touch of Frost", and "The Darling Buds of May" (Catherine Zeta-Jones and Pam Ferris co-starred. The former went on to star in "The Mask Of Zorro", the latter as supporting role in "The Prisoner of Azbakhan" (Harry Potter))

But Sir David will always be remembered for his 22 years as dodgy wheeler-dealer "Del-Boy" Trotter in the BBC's "Only Fools and Horses".

Britain's favorite comedy series.

Living in a Hi-Rise in Peckham, London, Del-Boy, his younger brother Rodney, and Grandad, eked out a living as "Trotter's Independent Trading Company" in "New York Paris Peckham", trading in anything and everything they could get their hands on.

The most popular catch-phrase of them all was "You plonker, Rodney!"

Others included "Lovely Jubbly!" and "Cushtie!"

The meanings are respectively, "You idiot, Rodney!", "Lots of money" and "I am happy".

Sir David's first TV appearance was called "A sharp intake of breath".

I am sure he had one or two upon hearing that he is not the plonker anymore.

"Hello! HELLO! Here we go!"

Liverpool FC have been allowed back into the Champions League this season to defend the title they won so dramatically ten days ago.

UEFA changed its rules to accommodate the quadzillions of fans who campaigned.

Emmy, I told you to watch the press! (see "Crazy Horses" post)

As Clive Tyldesley said in the ITV commentary after Liverpool's first comeback goal to go 1-3, scored by captain Steve Gerrard:

"Hello! HELLO! Here we go!"

Just keep watching, Europe!

What is Electricity?

I have a healthy respect for Electricity. After all, it is both deadly and wondrous at the same time.

One of the benefits of studying science at this level is that you get to learn about how ordinary, everyday things work at the most basic level.

So what is Electricity? We all use it, but how does it work? All you scientists out there can maybe skip this post, as you already know all this, but knowing you guys, you will read it anyway out of curiosity to see if you disagree!

To start with, Electricity only happens in stuff with free electrons. An electron is part of an atom, the part that encircles the nucleus. In some stuff, electrons are rather free, as opposed to being bound in atoms. The latter, we call Insulators, the former, Conductors and Semi-conductors.

Electricity is basically the movement of these electrons from one end of a piece of stuff (usually called a "wire")to the other.

But what makes them move?

Scientists like to call it "electro-motive force"! Fancy name for a simple concept! Actually, the concept boils down to holding another piece of stuff to one end of our "wire". This other piece of stuff has lots and lots of extra electrons on it, and since electrons are repelled by each other (as they are all ugly), the free ones in our wire try to get away by moving along the wire. This movement is called "current".

Sounds simple. Well, it is.

However, on thing puzzled my young mind.

I discovered that the drift velocity of the electrons in the wire was only about 0.5 cm per second. Huh? But when I flick the light switch, the light comes on IMMEDIATELY! What is that all about?!?!?!?

I had to figure this out for myself.

And I reckon I should give my readers (I know I have them!) a chance to try and figure out the answer for themselves too, given my information above. Oh, and you will need one other snippet of information ~ the density of electrons in conductors is at least 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 to the cubic centimeter.

Good luck and watch out for future posts.

Memorial Day Blues

One of my colleagues here, Mr Rice, a venerable mountain of information, had a "discussion" today with a certain Miss Ethel Olsen, the same protagonists of my post a few posts ago.

It got ugly but needless to say, it ended fairly peacefully.

But at the time, it was not very pleasant to hear, especially for those younger colleagues, and I regarded both as not being very professional, even though Mr Rice said I supported him.

I remained neutral, as both are my friends.

Let me put the record straight by saying truthfully that I fully support you, Ethel. I regard Mr Rice as being out of line. Sometimes he lets his outspokenness get the better of him.

Please do not let this ruin the good cameraderie we have, anyone!

Da Vinci, Fibonacci, Assisi

I just finished reading Dan Brown's thriller, "The da Vinci Code". Nice book. Well crafted. Great thriller.

Essential to the plot are the "Da Vinci" numbers.......sorry, wrong historical Figure, I meant the "Fibonacci" numbers.

Those that go 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21....etc, each being the sum of the previous two. Remarkable? Not really.........unless you look closely at the world around you. These Fibonacci numbers are an integral part of the world we live in, as the book hinted at. Look at the spirals of the seeds in simple sunflowers, the way a tree branches, and you will find in the natural world, this number sequence is ubiquitous. If you take the ratio of successive terms, eg, 8/5, or 13/8, you get closer and closer to a "limiting number". This number is approximately 1.618. It is, of course, irrational.

Moreover, it is related to an entirely different branch of math.

Take a line and divide it into two parts "a" and "b" such that the ratio a/b is the same as b/(a+b). Simple algebra, upon substituting 1 for "a" will yield a simple quadratic equation. The roots to this equation are b = (1 +/- SQRT(5))/2, which gives us 1.618033988 and -0.618033988.

1.618. This is the exact same number from the Fibonacci sequence above. This did not go unnoticed by the Greeks, who called this number "The Golden Ratio", and gave it a letter like Pi. They called it Phi, another Greek letter. If you make a rectangle that is most pleasing to the eye, chances are, it will be close to a 3 by 5 rectangle, or an 8 by 13 rectangle. In other words, the "most pleasing" rectangle will be 1 by 1.618....

There's more.......

Phi is the only number in the cosmiverse to become its own reciprocal (that is, 1/phi) if 1 is subtracted.

(Phi - 1) equals (1/phi).

Before leaving sequences, check this one out -

1, 1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6, 8, 8, 8, 10, 9, 10, 11, etc

It is a simply defined sequence, yet looks really erratic, especially when one gets to about 30 terms. I will reveal how it is generated in a future post. Meanwhile try and figure how it is generated. Hint - it is a relation to the Fibonacci sequence.


In closing, using cooking parlance, one might refer to both "Phi" and "Pi" as being as versatile as an egg.

Assisi.

For Those of You In The Know....

Well, it seems my last post provoked a few responses. Some not realising what this blog is about.

I thank you all for even taking notice of little me.

I have thanks for other people too. Mr "Rice", Miss "ETHEL OLSEN", and sundry others.

Sayonara

Wanted, Dead or Alive - SHRODINGER'S CAT!

Being a nuclear structure physicist has its advantages. One of them being a familiarity with something that is totally baffling to most people.

I am talking about quantum mechanics, that realm of physics spurned by Einstein and shunned by everyone but those in the know. I am honored to say I am in the final category.

So what is this cat thing anyway? Well, it is only a "gedanken" experiment, that is, a "thought" experiment, possible in principle only.

A cat is in a closed box. With it, is a device that releases a poison gas only when a certain atom of radium decays. The fate of the cat is entirely dependent upon the random nature of the quantum decay of the atom. The atom could decay at any time.

No-one knows when.

The question is this: "Is the cat dead or alive?".

The answer can only be found if the box is opened.

But if you do not open it, can you say if the cat is dead or alive?

Funnily enough, the question is actually meaningless.

Quantum mechanics tells us that the cat is actually in a superposition of both states of being "dead" AND "alive" until you look at it. By disturbing the equilibrium, you force the quantum state into one the or the other by merely looking.

This is what is strange about quantum mechanics. The cat is merely an everyday representation of many of the effects we actually see on the subatomic level.

One of these recently solved a long-standing problem. The way the sun shines. Honest.

The tiniest particles detectable are called neutrinos. They were "invented" by Enrico Fermi to explain the anomalous electron momentum spectrum in Beta decay. Years later, they were actually detected. So small are they, that their mean free path in lead is about a parsec.

Mr Ray Davis, in 1967 went digging in Dakota. In fact he went deep down underground to create one of the most unusual telescopes ever. A huge swimming pool of cleaning fluid. Cleaning fluid (Carbon tetrachloride) sucks up neutrinos rather more than most stuff.

So, Mr Davis decided to detect them. From the sun. Trouble was, he only detected about 1/3 of the SNU's predicted (SNU = Solar Neutrino Units, pronounced "snoos"). Either there was a problem with our understanding of the way neutrinos interacted, or there was a problem with our understanding with the way the sun shone. Neither was acceptable.

Until recently.

Until recently, we thought neutrinos were massless, but sensitive experiments indicated that they DO have mass. The implication of this is that in their journey from the sun they can "oscillate" between different quantum states, which means we detect less of the expected ones on earth.

The same sort of effect the poor cat demonstrated.

A similar, but far more fascinating effect happens to K-0 mesons (strange particles they are!) when they decay. It is called "regeneration", and is something that happens that is quite beyond any common sense at all.

If THAT ain't strange enough, try doing a search on "alpha particle tunnelling", where particles pass through inpenetrable barriers.

Quantum mechanics challenges most people's common sense.

God not only plays dice, but he plays with a sense of humor bordering on cynicism.

Crazy Horses!

No, I am not a fan of the Osmonds, but the title of this post has more than a double meaning, as usual.

Congratulations to my adoptive Soccer team, Liverpool F. C.

They pulled off a remarkable feat on Wednesday to win the European Champions' League Title for England.

Winners of four , yes FOUR other European Cup titles in the 1970's and 1980's. ( It was known then as the "European Cup". Sorry, young dudes, that is how it was then).

Well, they came home with blessings from the Prime Minister, the King of Istanbul, and even the "Leader of the Oppostion" to a rousing Finale at St George's Hall, Liverpool, with the cry from Captain Steve (!) Gerrard "How can I leave Liverpool after this?" (sic).

Liverpool won. Liverpool won coming from behind. Liverpool won coming from behind in style.

Commentators have a saying about Liverpool, and Sir David Coleman coined it. "Liverpool are at their most dangerous when they are behind". Never more true than on Wednesday night in Istanbul.

It has been said in the press that all in the uk became "honorory" "Liverpudlians" When Dudek made the final save. So be it.

The late great "Emmy" (Emlyn Hughes) who died earlier this year, whose nickname throughout Merseyside was "Crazy Horse", a name they gave him for his reaction to scoring his limited number of goals), is perchance delighted at this , wherever he is.

But what is really Crazy is that Liverpool get to keep the trophy (for having won five times), yet the governing body, UEFA, have deemed it that Liverpool, as defending Champions, cannot BE the defending champions, as they finished FIFTH in the English league. The top four being automatic qualifiers for NEXT years' competition

Crazy? Yes. The Fourth qualifier was Everton, one place above Liverpool in the league, Everton live a few hundred meters from Liverpool in the same city, Liverpool.


UEFA say they cannot make an exception for the team that gets to keep the trophy.

Crazy?

Emmy, Just wait!

Trust the press!

There's good, damn good, and then there's....

....Starlight Express. Amongst my plethora of hobbies and interests, Starlight Express stands out like, well, a star! And I totally miss it.

You don't just go and SEE it, you experience it.

Totally different from anything you have ever seen before, for all the actors are on roller skates. The actors are trains, or the carriages of trains, and they have races around the whole theatre, even on the balcony!

I saw it 22 times before we left London, but that still wasn't enough.

Although closed now (since Jan 2001) the musical remains an everlasting memory. Hey! I have seen a lot of Lord Lloyd-Webber's musicals, and a lot more others, but this one stands out as UNIQUE. I can only describe it as a disco with speed (and I don't mean the amphetamine variety).

Just to have up to thirty roller-skating mad-persons passing by your seat so close as to give you a breeze and a whiff of the carbon dioxide is intoxicating enough, but there is actually a plot in there as well as the award-winning lighting, the action, the singing, innuendoes and the dancing! The staff are very helpful, too, because if you are old and cannot whip your head around to watch the trains as they go all around the theater, giant video screens unfold so you can watch the dirty dealings of the current champion in real time, as he (Greaseball, the Diesel) gets Zapped by the New Pretender, Electra (the Electric Train), all to a heart-thumping musical soundtrack (live music!), plus a commentator, who relates all the action for those who are too dumb to watch anything.

But it all is down to Rusty, the clapped-out steam train, to win the day. Rusty, Poppa (his Dad), and Dustin (the aggregate hopper) finally prove that it is not only abilities that make you a great train (or even person), but it is the belief in YOURSELF that contributes the greater part of it. Halfway through, Rusty calls on the "Starlight Express" to help him after being beaten up by the Greaseball Gang, only to realise that the Starlight Express is ~! ~! YOU, and ONLY YOU.

Cue for the song "I am the STARLIGHT", the turning point of the whole show.

Rusty realises that it is self-belief that powers a person, not some mystical "force" called "Starlight Express", and with that, and the gravel-carriage, Dustin, goes ahead to challenge both Greasball and Electra in the final race. Rusty is above both engines' tendency to bend the rules, and evades both to become the new champion, thus getting the girl (Pearl, the Observation Car, his heart-throb since Day One), and
"winning the day".

I owe this post to a new person I met recently, whose name is actually "Dustin". Just so you'd know, Dustin! You'll find me pretty quick -- -- Downhill !!

John Lennon would have loved this

I like numbers and algebra, even though they are not the same. One is the substitution of the other, after all.

Square roots fascinate me. What number, when multiplied by itself, produces the answer you require? (strikes me that what would they have called a number which when "added" to itself, produces said number - the "additive root"? What is the "additive root" of 12? Why 6 of course! What is the "additive root" of 13? Of 42? Of Pi?)

But I digress. Square roots produce irrational numbers like the plague. Then in my French class one early midsummer morning, I got to wondering this way ~

If +1 x +1 equals +1, and -1 x -1 equals +1, then the square root of +1 must be +1 or -1.

What is the square root of -1, then? There is no basis for it. No answer.

What number, when multiplied by itself, equals -1?

NONE!

But of course this did not stop the math guys, oh no. They invented a new number called "i" (for "imaginary") and called it "the square root of -1".

Fancy. "Imaginary" numbers indeed.

Bit of poetic licence there ~ but no! They had to go their own way, inventing stuff that wasn't there. Natural progression. "Imaginary" numbers my ass!

BUT, thereafter, this idea spawned two beautiful things.

One, it enabled scientists to solve a really complex problem in a really easy and efficient way, the solution of L-C-R circuits in electronics (L- inductor, C - capacitor, R - resistor, the basis of the radio circuit)

Two, it gave us the most beautiful formula in all of math ~

e**(i*pi) = -1

e being 2.718281828.., and pi being 3.1415926..., numbers trancendental both, "i" of course being the square root of "-1".

All stepped back in astonishment. Was De Moivre right?

"e" raised to the power of ("i" times Pi) is numerically equal to "-1"????

Fascinating, as Spock would say. The "imaginary" number somehow unites the two most "irrational" numbers to produce an integer.

What a coup for mathematics.

"Imaginary" numbers are no longer that. In fact, not only did it spawn "complex numbers", but stuff called "Quaternions" as well.

My limited expertise does not extend to the Quaternions, but the concept of "i" has helped me through many a depressing LCR circuit!

Those were the days!

Peace John!

Murphy's Law

Congratulations go to Shaun Murphy!

He has just earned the vertiable "155" of snooker by winning the World Snooker crown at Sheffield, England this year.

First Qualifier to win since Terry Griffiths in 1979.

More power to his elbow! ( or in his case, the stance!)

"I'm in the final now, you know!"

This sentence is false......?

I admit it, most of mathematics is meaningless to the outside world. Who of the average person knows or even understands things like "real solutions to inhomogeneous partial differential equations", "the Cauchy imaginary integral pole theorem", or "tensor algebra in 10 dimensions"?

It all seemed fine to those who knew of these things until in 1931, a man named Kurt Godel blew the entire mathematics world apart.

He published a paper, I won't bother you with the title (it was in German anyway), but basically what it said was "You cannot prove everything".

Many people believed this already anyway, but Mr Godel went out and PROVED it.

Take the title of this post. Do you believe it? "This sentence is false" is a statement made about a sentence: ""This" sentence". Is it true or false?

The answer is that if you believe it, it is true, and if you don't, it is false, and then true again. Try it! The statement is neither true nor false.

Mr Godel (bless 'im), constructed the same thing in a mathematical formula, which essentially said that "There are mathematical formulae that cannot be proved or disproved".

Many math guys were shocked at this, for they had always believed that a true statement in math was always provable. Mr Godel shoved that belief into the place where the sun don't shine.

Nowadays, stuff like the 'Goldbach Conjecture" ("Every even number is the sum of two odd primes") has been considered to be in this category. That is, no-one has ever found a proof for its validity, despite the overwhelming numerical evidence that it may be true. It has simply fallen into the "Godel-like" iggy-bin, which is to say that the men in Ivory Towers believe it now to be unprovable.

Mathematics is not perfect, after all.

Incidentally, the construction that Mr Godel used was along the lines of ....

"Yields falsehood when preceded by its quotation" yields falsehood when preceded by its quotation.

YOU work it out!!

A New Meaning to Gymnastics

Being a scientist, I know a lot of good crap. For instance, why the sky is blue, and why liquid helium pours itself out of its own container, no assistance needed.

But all these are mere trivia compared to all the really weird nonsense we can find out there in the cosmos, courtesy of the by-products of pursuing a science degree anyway.

One of them concerns black holes.

Now we all know what they are. For those of you who don't, I will will just say that they are gravitational collapses of stars when the nuclear fuel is all used up.

One of the first things one learns about black holes is that if you fall into one of them, you die in a really interesting way (As Hugo Drax would put it). Apparently, according to the very accurate Newtonian equations, as refined by Einstein, the gravity force on your feet becomes much more than the gravity force on your head (if you fall in feet first). Thus, you get "stretched" to death. This is an extreme tidal effect.

However, according to recent delving into the equations (as provided by the latest computers), there is a time-dependence to this. To wit, an even more interesting death. As you get nearer to the black hole, the forces on you oscillate in time, enabling (lovely use of the word) you to die whilst being "pummelled" by the nature of spacetime.

In effect, you are "pummelled" to death.

A New Meaning to the "pummell horse" in gymnastics.

Sixth Sith Sitch Itch

I have a bad feeling about this....NOT. I refer of course the imminent fall of The Republic and to the inevitable (or otherwise) demise of Annie (go get yer gun) Kin Skywaker.

Yes, the final (third, or is it the sixth?) episode of Star Wars is all but upon us, after decades of wondering why.

It all began in 1977, and is now about to end in 2005. Star Wars fans aside, Mr Lucas has certainly taken his time to set this one straight. I mean, we all knew that Lord Vader from the planet Vulcan (soundtrack provided by "Van Halen") jumped at the chance to go to the Dark (breathes in asthmatically) Side (breathes out pneumoniacally), but nobody knew how, why, or where. NOW we all have the chance to finally see for ourselves, the How, Why, and Where of it all. And wherewithall is what we will will need to pay to get to see it, given Movie Theater seat prices.

My entry to this planet was about the same time that "Jedi" was airing, so I will never go to THAT planet again, but, needles to say ( and I did say "Needles", Michael J. Fox and Van Halen keep watching), I will be watching this denouement with bated Vader's breath.

After all, Mr. Lucas, the new digitised cameras can't "free you up" THAT much so as to compromise the entire expectation (values) of an entire Generation (s) such that they get in the way of the actual storyline.....but this is BeFore GigaQuads were invented, so maybe I am wrong.

Maybe we should ALL try the Sixth Sith Sixth Sense Sitch, and realise that all it is about is money, after all, or maybe some allusion to the World's Worst Tongue-Twister.

(for those not with the Force, "sitch" is Teen English slang for "Situation")

Expectation Values

Here I am then, in Groningen. Hotel is fairly not-so-fabulous, but hey! who am I (good song in Les Miserables - 24601 ahoy!) to judge?

Tomorrow I will gauge their team's invariance to the "3-slit" technology that I have somehow provided for them.

Here is flatland to a fault (not that they get any here, but hey, this is Akiko with her triple entendres). This place is so FLAT that ignoring any kind of resistance (French or otherwise), given a small push on a bicycle, you would travel for "miles and miles" (The author of that song would mayhap trash his guitar at my allusion) without any help at all. A "bit" like superconductivity, only on a macroscopic scale, and without the "cool" temperatures.

Suffice it to say, Groningen is a little different from Manchester. It is in the middle of nowhere, with just a few black-and-whites for company (Al Powell perhaps).

My reading on this place is that they are not expecting anyone to make much valued improvement, hence the title of the post.

Quantum Mechanics is wonderful, ain't it?

Damn the Hamster

Once upon a time there was a river. It was called the "Amster". It hailed from a country called "The Netherlands" (connotations ahoy! - twice! ~ NAY ~ thrice. Those of you into journalism may make the connection(s)).

Anyway, I am here in the real flatland, and home to M. C. Escher. Now there was an artist. True , his career spanned woodcuts and engravings and even paintings, but there was an aura about him that caught the eye. The Impossible Triangle first caught mine. (It certainly got the attention of Boon's finger in Clive Barker's "Nightbreed". (what a disturbing movie!))

Now, there is an impossible cube. (this statement has at least three meanings, depending upon who you are!)

To each his own.

Back to the future, then. I am here in Holland checking out the laboratory in Friesland. Where the black and white cows come from. The lab is at Groningen, North west of the said area. They have an average sort of setup. I will go there tomorrow and gauge their invariance.

East Sea Of Japan

In my life as a person hailing from Japan and studying in Korea, I have come across various forms of what other people might call racism. Far be it for a lowly Japanese subject to say but, hey! We are not all political you know!

The group of islands called "Dokdo" in the East Sea of Japan is a point I would like to make. Are they Korean or are they Japanese? As a Japanese citizen who spent time in Korea I have to say that I have neutral views. I HAVE to have neutral views.

Why don't our nations both embrace the spirit of Japan/Korea friendship year, along with the World Cup Spirit of 2002, and share them? Or am I being too naive?

Maybe not.........

Several Koreans I have met do not even give Japan a capital letter when writing the name of my country.

Although I hate this, I just keep quiet. After all, I do not want to sink as low as these people.

In a world that is somewhat enlightened now, I was of the opinion that this sort of puerile behaviour was outdated.

Sadly, it seems I was wrong. There are always unelightened people out there, however much a different accent they have, Pakistani or otherwise.

What is special about 6174?

That got me thinking. The rational numbers, I mean.

Then Kaprekar came into mind. Indian guy who loved to play with the integers.

Try this: pick any 4-digit number (digit - a single numeral), make the largest and the smallest number you can from the four digits available ( make sure the digits are mainly different). For example - choose 3298, the largest new number you can get by juggling is of course, 9832. The smallest is 2389. NOW, subtract the smaller from the larger and you get a new one - namely, 7443. Use this number to continue forthwith; Namely, 7443 - 3447 = 3996 etc.

It always stops at 6174.

You tell me.

For three digits it is always 495. After four digits, the process cycles, but for three and four digits, it ALWAYS ends in 495 and 6174, respectively.

One has to ponder what other significance these two otherwise unimpressive integers have, if any. And how many others there are out there, if only we ask the right questions.

For those of you who are more of the inquiring nature, try a similar exercise called the "Goldbach Conjecture" ~ to be elaborated on in a future post.

If I ever buy a house in a long street, I want the house number to be either 495 or 6174. I regard these numbers as the opposite to "13" (for the English among you), or "4", (for the Koreans among you), or "42" (For the pessimists among you, Koreans or otherwise).

Mathematics was not one of Douglas Addams' strong points.

Rational or Irrational?

No, I am not talking about people this time. It is numbers. They are strange.

For those of you who have only a rudimentary knowlwdge of numbers, this paragraph is for you. For the rest of you, skip to paragraph three. Numbers come in all kinds. There are the rational numbers, that is, numbers that can descirbed as p/q, where p and q are whole numbers (integers). Then there are the irrational numbers, those that cannot be expressed as such. Rationals have a decimal sequence which either ends or repeats in a cycle. Irrationals have non-repeating and non-ending decimal sequences. Both sets of numbers can be found as solutions to general algebraic equations. A third class of numbers, the "transcendentals", are irrational, but they are "above" the others. That is, transcendental numbers are those numbers that can never be found as solutions to algebraic equations.

One of the more common irrational numbers is the square root of 2, or approximately 1.4142... In fact,the square root of any odd number will almost certainly give an irrational number as the answer.

Perhaps the most well-known irrational number is pi, the constant number that is the result of dividing any circle's circumference by its diameter. Its value is approximately 3.1415926... This number is so famous that the computer programmers have calculated it up to 300 or 400 million decimal places, with a billion well in sight. Less well-known, but maybe more important in higher mathematics, is the number e. "e" stands simply for "exponential", and is approximately 2.718281828... Not surprisingly, both numbers have been proved, many years ago, to be transcendental as well.

Mathematicians have combined the two in various ways. (pi + e) is irrational. (pi - e) is irrational. (pi * e) is also irrational. All are easily proved.

Here's the rub:~ e raised to the power pi has been proved to be irrational, and is suspected to be transcendental, but not proven (yet).

Astonishing? Maybe.

Try this one then :~ pi raised to the power e. A number approximately equal to 8.74248131559. Nobody has any idea whether this is even rational or irrational.

I find this absolutely fascinating.

Clan Royal

And the winner is.....Hedgehunter?

We are talking about the winner of the Grand National here, not some Award Ceremony.

Contratulations to the rider Ruby. Ruby? At first I thought they had waxed eloquent, but Ruby? as in a MAN's name?

Well, anyway, my horse, Clan Royal, fell at Becher's Brook the second time around. The horse could not jump because two other riderless horses ran right across its path. Make of that what you will. I already have. Clan Royal.

Seriously, though, Royal Weddings don't come a dime a dozen, but interestingly enough, CNN did not label its LIVE broadcast as "The Royal Wedding", but simply "a Royal Wedding".

Small "a".

Pity they missed out the "......" and even the "?"

Akiko Inspired Moment #1

Because I am a scientist (self-proclaimed or otherwise) , every so often, I will go into the mode I call AIM. Here's the first:

Everyone uses electricity, and everyone has some knowledge of electrical resistance. But what is it? Here is my explanation.

Imagine a soccer match in a big stadium. The home team's greatest fan, Pierre, is always early, and runs straightaway down the empty terraces to the barrier, unopposed by any other fans. This is the equivalent of zero resistance, and is found in superconducting ceramics. at extremely cold temperatures. But what if Pierre is on time? Well, he has to jostle with the other early people and barge his way to the front. This is resistance is normal as at room temperature. The current (Pierre) finds it ok to pass through, but has a bit of trouble. However, one Saturday, he arrives late, but just as the away team scores. The crowd is silenced, and he finds it easier to get to the front., because the fans are not moving, just standing still in shock. This is resistance is low, and it happens at cool temperatures. However, Pierre is unlucky because the home team scores just when he wants to go to the bathroom. He finds it hard to move because the other fans are jumping around, hailing their team. This is resistance is high, and happens at high temperatures.

One Saturday, however, he is extremely late arriving at the game, because he was introducing his sister , Ann, to the delights of Star Trek and their collective enemy , the Borg.

He rushes down the terraces only to find nobody there. No players, no crowd, nothing. Only a battle scarred pitch and a large display screen with three words.....Resistance is futile.

Popes, Camillas and Horses (but not necessarily in that order or preference)

Well, here I am in Jolly old England. Charlie-boy has had his irreverent (irrelevant?) wedding postponed more than once, and now, it had been rescheduled again due to some other dead person(Sorry John-Paul, respects later). And now I find that the Grand National has been moved to 1605 rather than the traditional 1520 because of this.

Well, I made my Great Trip to Manchester, and I now get to Liverpool for the National. Local traditions, purrlease! Grand National starts at 1520. Period!

Please say that it was postponed for the Pontiff, not the Pretender.

I am neither Catholic nor Muslim, Buddhist nor Hindu, but there is at least enough good faith in me to realise that this bloke J-P2 deserves a sainthood.

Cynicism aside, The guy travelled the equivalent of the distance to the moon and back three times in aid of World Peace, and who else can simply say "I fathered the birth of a New World". To that, John-Paul, II, you have my deepest respect, and I trust that you and your maker are having a good old rumbustuous time together right now, toasting to the successful job you both put together.

Bill Paxton said it right

Well, I have only seen a shake of M. Paxton's films, but he has a coupla memorable quotes, to wit,

"Well, what the Flaviana Alfar are we supposed to do now?"

to call into mind a rather successful sequel.

He seems to have that sort of face that says "Well, stroke me now because you ain't never gonna get another chance at it" (grins childishly)

For those of you who know me, then welcome to my blog. For those of you don't , hey, then welcome to my blog. This is my way of "Bustin' out all over", etc.

To business: The three-slit adaptation method of gathering data that I have had implemented in more than several labs across Europe has been, if put mildly, wildly successful. This is an idea I became inspired with in Korea and has been the pseudo-bane of my existence ever since. I invented it, submitted it, was subsumed by it, accused of it, praised for it, cursed for it, blessed for it, thrown-into-a-job-because-of-it, and finally, am overseeing it, but all-in-all, it has been a pleasant 4-D rollercoaster ride.

My idea? O-Ho not so fast, bucko! I will write about it here once you know the basics of the tiny field of atom-smashing that I am in. Interested? You WILL be, but of that later. Meanwhile......More on the swearwords....

"Gordon tonight holder person" was one I learnt with aplomb during my early years as a nubile teen in London.

Next post will elaborate and be more elaborate.

Jehangir Khan - another cool swearword

Being a polite and humble subject of the human race, I find it hard to swear in the normal way. So I use interesting and verbose words to substitute. You have already "Flaviana Alfar", here is another "Jahangir Khan". He was a World Class Pakistani Squash player. Kinda has a ring to it, just like Flaviana Alfar.

Anyway. Here's me.

Name of Akiko. Nuclear physics student, who has studied at frumious bandersnatch type of places, but always comes galumphing back.

"This gubblick contains many non-sklarkish English fluzpahs, but the overall pluggandisp can be glorked from the context"

See? How a scientist gets side-tracked.

However, more on this blog presently. Sometime in an undated future I will get into those things that REALLY bug me - the blown gaskets on the scattering chamber vacuum pumps.

After that, I can launch into good stuff after I deal with those gaskets in Manchester.

Bloggin hell!

"This document contains no data"! A bloggin scientist's nite mare!

What the Flaviana Alfar is THAT all about?

Now don't get me wrong, Flaviana Alfar was probably a very nice mother, and perhaps an even nicer mother-in-law, but purrlease! don't judge me on the use of a perfectly good Filipina's name as a swearword occasionally. A lot nicer than saying "What the F*** is that all about", and certainly a lot longer to remember.

What I am rabbiting on about is my administrations' persuasion to become suddenly all beaurocratic. I got this new job in Europe (a great job created for me) and here I am in London, but they didn't have the forethought to think I would like to visit my family in Tokyo on the way from South Korea, for crying out loud!

Talk about - well anyway you get the idea.

Savoy in London. Well, it was nice whilst it lasted. Afternoon tea at $7. Good job I am not paying. Here's to Manchester in the North (Ay up, pal) next week. Then it is off to goodness knows where for gordon knows how long.

Such is life.