This is adapted from an answer to a question at the Physics Stack Exchange site. The questioner asked: It seems that if the coherence length of a laser is big enough, it is possible to observe a (moving) interference picture by combining them. Is it true? How fast should photo-detectors be for observing of the… Continue reading How Do You See Interference Between Independent Lasers?
Category: Experiment
Relativity on a Human Scale: “Optical Clocks and Relativity”
As mentioned in yesterday’s post on
How Do You Trap an Ion, Anyway?
One of the many physics stories I haven’t had time to blog about recently is the demonstration of relativistic time effects using atomic clocks. I did mention a DAMOP talk about the experiment, but the actual paper was published in Science (and is freely available from the NIST Time and Frequency Division (PDF file), because… Continue reading How Do You Trap an Ion, Anyway?
Best. Lab. EVER.
Today’s a lab day in my main class for the term, with a fairly involved experiment to measure the charge-to-mass ratio of the electron. This is going to be all kinds of fun, because 1) I can’t get into the room to set anything up until an hour before the start of class, and 2)… Continue reading Best. Lab. EVER.
DonorsChoose Payoff: Where Do Ideas Come From?
As promised, an answer to a question from a donor to this year’s DonorsChoose Blogger Challenge. Sarah asks: Chad, can I get a post about how you (or scientists in general) come up with ideas for experiments? You’ve covered some of the gory detail with the lab info posts, but I think it would be… Continue reading DonorsChoose Payoff: Where Do Ideas Come From?
Experiment vs. Theory: The Eternal Debate
Melissa at Confused at a Higher Level offers some thoughts on the relative status of experimental vs. theoretical science, spinning off a comprehensive discussion of the issues at Academic Jungle. I flagged this to comment on over the weekend, but then was too busy with SteelyKid and football to get to it. since I’m late… Continue reading Experiment vs. Theory: The Eternal Debate
Congratulations to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov
The 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics goes to Geim and Novoselov for their work on graphene, a material consisting of one-atom-thick sheets of carbon atoms in a hexagonal array. This is one of those prizes that was basically inevitable, as graphene is one of the hot materials of the last couple of years. Hardly a… Continue reading Congratulations to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov
Why I’m Skeptical About the Changing Fine-Structure Constant
Not long ago, a new preprint on the fine structure constant got a bunch of press, nicely summed up by the Knight Science Journalism Tracker last week. I meant to say something about this last week, but what with it being the first week of classes and all, I didn’t find the time. I still… Continue reading Why I’m Skeptical About the Changing Fine-Structure Constant
How to Read Scientific Papers Without Reading Every Word
Over at Tor.com, Jo Walton is surprised that people skim over boring bits of novels. While she explicitly excludes non-fiction from her discussion, this immediately made me think of Timothy Burke’s How to Read in College, which offers tips to prospective humanities and social science majors on how to most effectively skim through huge reading… Continue reading How to Read Scientific Papers Without Reading Every Word
The ABC’s of AMO Physics
Over at Confused at a Higher Level, Melissa offers an alphabetical list of essential supplies for a condensed matter experimentalist at a small college. This is a fun idea for back-to-school time, so I’ll steal it, and offer the following alphabetical list of essentials for Atomic, Molecular, and Optical physics at a small college, kind… Continue reading The ABC’s of AMO Physics