Having covered most of what you need to know about classical physics, the traditional next step is to talk about electricity and magnetism, colloquially known as “E&M,” though really, “E and B” would be more appropriate, as the fundamental quantities discussed are the electric field (symbol: E) and the magnetic field (symbol: B), whose effect… Continue reading The Advent Calendar of Physics: E and B
Category: Experiment
Scientific Commuting: The Data
A few months back, I did a post about estimating the time required for the different routes I take to work, looking at the question of whether it’s better to take a shorter route with a small number of slow traffic lights, or a longer route with a bunch of stop signs. This was primarily… Continue reading Scientific Commuting: The Data
Fast Neutrinos: Still Fast
One of the more reasonable criticisms of the OPERA result showing neutrinos apparently moving faster than light was that they were claiming 20-nanosecond resolution on the timing of a neutrino pulse that was 10000 nanoseconds long. They got their timing by doing fits to the shape of the whole pulse, as described in that link,… Continue reading Fast Neutrinos: Still Fast
O Brave New-Media World That Has Such Bloggers In It
I’ve been incredibly busy this term, but not so busy I couldn’t create more work for myself. Specifically, by writing an opinion piece for Physics World about the FTL neutrino business, that just went live on their web site: The result quickly turned into one of the most covered physics stories of the year, with… Continue reading O Brave New-Media World That Has Such Bloggers In It
Strongly Correlated Physics in a Superposition State
It’s been a while since I posted anything science-y, and I’ve got some time between flipping pancakes, so here’s an odd thing from the last few weeks of science news. Last week, there was an article in Nature about the wonders of string theory applied to condensed matter physics. This uses the “AdS/CFT” relationship, by… Continue reading Strongly Correlated Physics in a Superposition State
Experimentalists Aren’t Idiots: The Neutrino Saga Continues
In a lot of ways, the OPERA fast-neutrino business has been less a story about science than a story about the perils of the new media landscape. We went through another stage of this a day or two ago, with all sorts of people Twittering, resharing, and repeating in other ways a story that the… Continue reading Experimentalists Aren’t Idiots: The Neutrino Saga Continues
Shameless (if Belated) Self-Promotion: Me on the Radio
If you want to know how stressed and busy I’ve been lately, you don’t have to look any farther than the fact that I’ve totally fallen down on the shameless self-promotion front: I was on a radio show, and forgot to post about it here. I know, bad blogger, no pageviews… Anyway, I talked about… Continue reading Shameless (if Belated) Self-Promotion: Me on the Radio
Faster Than a Speeding Photon: “Measurement of the neutrino velocity with the OPERA detector in the CNGS beam”
There have been a lot of pixels spilled over this faster-than-light neutrino business, so it might not seem like something I should take time away from pressing work to write up. It is the story of the moment, though, and too much of the commentary I’ve seen has been of the form “I am a… Continue reading Faster Than a Speeding Photon: “Measurement of the neutrino velocity with the OPERA detector in the CNGS beam”
Neutrino Hypotheses Non Fingo
The final sentence of the neutrino paper that everybody is buzzing about: We deliberately do not attempt any theoretical or phenomenological interpretation of the results. From a somewhat older work in physics: Rationem vero harum gravitatis proprietatum ex phænomenis nondum potui deducere, et hypotheses non fingo. Quicquid enim ex phænomenis non deducitur, hypothesis vocanda est;… Continue reading Neutrino Hypotheses Non Fingo
Quantum Computing with Microwaves
It’s been a while since I did any ResearchBlogging, first because I was trying to get some papers of my own written, and then because I was frantically preparing for my classes this term (which start Wednesday). I’ve piled up a number of articles worth writing up in that time, including two papers from an… Continue reading Quantum Computing with Microwaves