Ode to a Rubber Dinosaur

Rubber dino, you’re the one, You make bathtime lots of fun Rubber dino, I’m awfully fond of you Doo-doo doo-de-doo Rubber dino, fearsome roar, Good thing you’re a herbivore Rubber dino, I’m awfully fond of you doo-doo doo-de-doo Every day when I, get undressed next to the sink, I find a Little fella who’s, cute… Continue reading Ode to a Rubber Dinosaur

Backyard Fluid Dynamics Revisited

Back in July, I did a post looking at how the fountain in our ornamental backyard pond shoots higher when the level of the pond drops. I set up a simple model of the process, which worked surprisingly well, but I said at the time that I really needed more data to say whether that… Continue reading Backyard Fluid Dynamics Revisited

Camera Lens Questions

I am planning to buy a telephoto lens for my camera. From time to time, I want to take pictures of the various critters Emmy chases in the back yard, and that would be a whole lot easier if I didn’t need to get so close to them. And, of course, I strongly suspect there… Continue reading Camera Lens Questions

Thursday Toddler Blogging 081910

Many of SteelyKid’s first words have been transportation-related (“Truck! Vroom Vroom!”), which makes the four-level wooden parking garage she got from her Aunt Erin even more awesome. And it’s pretty awesome: As you can see, she grasped the idea almost immediately. That’s from last night, after we got it put together. Below the fold, you… Continue reading Thursday Toddler Blogging 081910

Thursday Toddler Blogging 081210

Now that she’s officially two years old, SteelyKid gets to sit in the big chairs: She also insisted on the forced-perspective thing to make her look even bigger compared to Appa. And the string cheese. She’s all about the string cheese.

What Do You Need to Make Cold Atoms? Part 2: Lasers and Optics

Following on yesterday’s discussion of the vacuum hardware needed for cooling atoms, let’s talk about the other main component of the apparatus: the optical system. The primary technique used for making cold atoms is laser cooling, and I’m sure it will come as no surprise that this requires lasers, and where there are lasers, there… Continue reading What Do You Need to Make Cold Atoms? Part 2: Lasers and Optics

What Do You Need to Make Cold Atoms? Part 1: Vacuum Hardware

Over in the reader request thread, Richard asks for experimental details: I’d be interested in (probably a series) of posts on how people practically actually do cold atoms experiments because I don’t really know. I needed to take some new publicity photos of the lab anyway, so this is a good excuse to bust out… Continue reading What Do You Need to Make Cold Atoms? Part 1: Vacuum Hardware