My illustrious career in the Physics Department at Bedford College for Women, London, is a matter of documentation:
@system7
Afraid that the partial quote raises more questions than it answers.
I have been known to tell the occasional Tall Story for your amusement, but have, in fact, found a picture of the Bedford College London Physics Department in 1968, long before my time there which was 1972 to 1977, with a year in the lucrative post of Deputy President in Charge of Finance, still commemorated in Gold letters on the wooden panelling of (now) Regent's College:
Here the students are investigating something or other, but GOOD HEAVENS! There is Doctor RICE-PUDDING, and Doctor Robin Thomas!
My memory now floods back that it was Doctor Thomas who suffered THE TERRIBLE ACCIDENT. If he had known what was in store for him in 1972 he would have run a mile from the Inner Circle in Regent's Park.
I have fond memories of Doctor Rice-Pudding. After I had inadvertently destroyed TWO THOUSAND POUNDS worth of electromagnet by nipping off for a coffee for two hours and letting it overheat, thus incurring the wrath of unhumorous Doctor Mansfield, he consoled me. "Don't feel so bad about it, Stephen, a GOOD PHYSICS EXPERIMENT costs MILLIONS!"
Anyway, if we wish to change the topic slightly, I have a notion that seems interesting for discussion:
From Feynman's Book:
I initially thought Feynman was talking utter ROT. Photons and Fields also obey Inverse Square.
But then realised he was talking about Dipole Antennas and such which obey Inverse Distance.
A Principle I have applied to MTM loudspeakers.
In fact, in Gravitational Lensing the interaction of photons between distant Galaxies is immediate and direct and adjacent.
Well, what do you think?
Here the students are investigating something or other, but GOOD HEAVENS! There is Doctor RICE-PUDDING, and Doctor Robin Thomas!
My memory now floods back that it was Doctor Thomas who suffered THE TERRIBLE ACCIDENT. If he had known what was in store for him in 1972 he would have run a mile from the Inner Circle in Regent's Park.
I have fond memories of Doctor Rice-Pudding. After I had inadvertently destroyed TWO THOUSAND POUNDS worth of electromagnet by nipping off for a coffee for two hours and letting it overheat, thus incurring the wrath of unhumorous Doctor Mansfield, he consoled me. "Don't feel so bad about it, Stephen, a GOOD PHYSICS EXPERIMENT costs MILLIONS!"
Anyway, if we wish to change the topic slightly, I have a notion that seems interesting for discussion:
From Feynman's Book:
I initially thought Feynman was talking utter ROT. Photons and Fields also obey Inverse Square.
But then realised he was talking about Dipole Antennas and such which obey Inverse Distance.
A Principle I have applied to MTM loudspeakers.
In fact, in Gravitational Lensing the interaction of photons between distant Galaxies is immediate and direct and adjacent.
Well, what do you think?
However, I have been googling to find out more about lightning bolts working as natural particle accelerators and found this article:
https://www.livescience.com/61013-lightning-radioactive-particle-accelerator.html#:~:text=Teruaki Enoto, a physicist at Kyoto University in,speculation dating back to 1925 about this phenomenon.
Here's my condensed explanation, aided by reference to the actual research paper linked to in the article.
Lightning not only emits light rays, but also emits high energy x-rays and even higher energy gamma-rays.
When a gamma-ray collides with the nucleus of a nitrogen atom in the air it forms an unstable radioactive isotope of said element.
When the nitrogen isotope decays it fires off a positron which is the antimatter equivalent of an electron.
The positron goes on to annihilate an electron in the atmosphere, producing a gamma-ray flash of a specific frequency characteristic of the annihilation.
It is gamma-ray flashes of this specific frequency that have now been detected by ground-based observations, and that are said to provide proof that lightning produces antimatter.
https://www.livescience.com/61013-lightning-radioactive-particle-accelerator.html#:~:text=Teruaki Enoto, a physicist at Kyoto University in,speculation dating back to 1925 about this phenomenon.
Here's my condensed explanation, aided by reference to the actual research paper linked to in the article.
Lightning not only emits light rays, but also emits high energy x-rays and even higher energy gamma-rays.
When a gamma-ray collides with the nucleus of a nitrogen atom in the air it forms an unstable radioactive isotope of said element.
When the nitrogen isotope decays it fires off a positron which is the antimatter equivalent of an electron.
The positron goes on to annihilate an electron in the atmosphere, producing a gamma-ray flash of a specific frequency characteristic of the annihilation.
It is gamma-ray flashes of this specific frequency that have now been detected by ground-based observations, and that are said to provide proof that lightning produces antimatter.
Indeed! I checked, and you have made a total of 23 posts referring to Bedford College.
My favourite was the one in which you claimed to have assembled an interocitor there!
An assembly kit sent from the inhabitants of Metaluna as a test of humankind's ability to build it - no problem to our Steve! 👍
You seem to be in Top Form, @Galu. Very interesting post above the humorous one.
Yes, it's quite surprising that many things you would think require a Large Hadron Collider to unravel, have in fact proven to be all around us in Cosmic Rays and Lightning!
I am thinking Dirac's Positron, and the Neutral Kaon posing the mystery of CP Violation. A definite handedness that Matter (but opposite in antimatter) possesses.
The Scientific method is the key advance in thinking, IMO. No more superstition and fear.
But it is still little embraced by many people.
And what does it all mean in the end.? Certainly that we can find better ways to do things. Perhaps be kinder to our fragile little planetary home.
As a slight throwback, I shared some PM's with @Ro808, Roland, who is also a scientific person, if not so articulate at expressing himself sometimes.
He admires @Susan_Parker's amplifier designs:
https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/zero-feedback-impedance-amplifiers.42259/page-99
I have met Susan, and she is a remarkable woman, with astonishing build skills, aside from a silly spat we had about the number of Tides in a Day.
These sort of things are self-evident with a mere experimental trip to the beach, and I don't know why we spent 3 days on it:
Chris Rea is a wise sort of fellow too. I think he is talking about refreshing the tired spirit.
He was my go-to guy when testing my amplifier. Er, don't quite know where I am going on this one, but there seemed to be something there to say. 🙂
Yes, it's quite surprising that many things you would think require a Large Hadron Collider to unravel, have in fact proven to be all around us in Cosmic Rays and Lightning!
I am thinking Dirac's Positron, and the Neutral Kaon posing the mystery of CP Violation. A definite handedness that Matter (but opposite in antimatter) possesses.
The Scientific method is the key advance in thinking, IMO. No more superstition and fear.
But it is still little embraced by many people.
And what does it all mean in the end.? Certainly that we can find better ways to do things. Perhaps be kinder to our fragile little planetary home.
As a slight throwback, I shared some PM's with @Ro808, Roland, who is also a scientific person, if not so articulate at expressing himself sometimes.
He admires @Susan_Parker's amplifier designs:
https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/zero-feedback-impedance-amplifiers.42259/page-99
I have met Susan, and she is a remarkable woman, with astonishing build skills, aside from a silly spat we had about the number of Tides in a Day.
These sort of things are self-evident with a mere experimental trip to the beach, and I don't know why we spent 3 days on it:
Chris Rea is a wise sort of fellow too. I think he is talking about refreshing the tired spirit.
He was my go-to guy when testing my amplifier. Er, don't quite know where I am going on this one, but there seemed to be something there to say. 🙂
... and that didn't do a squat difference. The lightning is so powerful and dont bother about your carbon rod. If you have seem what it can do and where and the immediate surrounding, you realise that what you think it would do - it don't.
//
Steve, your memory must be failing. You mentioned Susan and the tides just recently on page 261!
My mother used to keep her washing powder on the top shelf.
Yes, it was high Tide!
You see, I can do repeats too!
My mother used to keep her washing powder on the top shelf.
Yes, it was high Tide!
You see, I can do repeats too!
Chris Rea, King of the Beach:
I know a little about Lightning Conductors, which are a grounded strip of metal leading up to a sharp spike on the top of building roofs. Spikes concentrate electric field density even where the potential is constant.
They are not designed to attract Lightning, rather to dissipate the charge over the top of the roof or church spire, preventing the destructive bolt.
Whether carrying a spiked metal umbrella on a golf course in my hand, I am not so confident in the theory. In fact I think I would become a current conductor.
I know not to shelter under a tree, and would definitely get in the clubhouse as quickly as possible, because there is no field in a hollow charged conductor, as teacher (who happened to be our Physics teacher too) advised us when the sky went a strange brown and you could smell what I now know to be Ozone, and our hair stood on end on the very flat cricket pitch by the river at Bathampton. 🙂
I know a little about Lightning Conductors, which are a grounded strip of metal leading up to a sharp spike on the top of building roofs. Spikes concentrate electric field density even where the potential is constant.
They are not designed to attract Lightning, rather to dissipate the charge over the top of the roof or church spire, preventing the destructive bolt.
Whether carrying a spiked metal umbrella on a golf course in my hand, I am not so confident in the theory. In fact I think I would become a current conductor.
I know not to shelter under a tree, and would definitely get in the clubhouse as quickly as possible, because there is no field in a hollow charged conductor, as teacher (who happened to be our Physics teacher too) advised us when the sky went a strange brown and you could smell what I now know to be Ozone, and our hair stood on end on the very flat cricket pitch by the river at Bathampton. 🙂
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This dissipative action involves the electrostatic induction I mentioned earlier.
The charged thundercloud - let's assume it to be negative - induces a positive charge in the lightning conductor, setting up an intense electric field at its sharp point, as shown in the diagram below.
The intense electric field at the sharp point ionises the surrounding air molecules. Positive ions are repelled away from the sharp point and into the thundercloud, acting to neutralise its negative charge - and thus reducing the possibility of a lightning strike occurring in the first place.
The safest place to be in a thunderstorm is in your car, whose metal body acts like a Faraday cage - maintaining a zero electric field inside the car even if it is struck by lightning.
And that's all from out of mine own head, Steve!
P.S. That reminds me that you can stop a Van de Graaff generator dome from producing sparks by pointing a test screwdriver with neon bulb at the dome. The neon bulb illuminates indicating that charge is flowing harmlessly through you into the ground, just as it will down a lightning conductor.
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You have more faith in those little neon screwdrivers than I do:
They also have a current limiting resistor around 300k IIRC, designed for 100-250V. I can't take mine apart to measure the resistor, because it is sensibly designed as Do Not Tamper.
But considered highly unreliable to indicate mains. If the bulb or resistor blows, you won't pick up anything. If you stand on a rubber mat, they won't indicate anything.
I didn't put my little fingers near the Van Der Graaf, but established that the 4 inch spark would punch holes in a sheet of foolscap distantly held between the cathode and anode.
There was a trick at School where the learned teacher would connect a volunteer to some spark machine while standing on a rubber mat, and make his hair stand on end. I didn't volunteer!
I have always respected that Electricity can be a bit SUDDEN! 🤣
Anyway, Livesey on 5 Live is telling us the Asteroid impact has been raised again to 3.1% by NASA.
https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news210.html
The Good News ATM is it isn't going to hit the UK:
But I anticipate everyone with the capability will try and nudge it away from THEM! 🙁
They also have a current limiting resistor around 300k IIRC, designed for 100-250V. I can't take mine apart to measure the resistor, because it is sensibly designed as Do Not Tamper.
But considered highly unreliable to indicate mains. If the bulb or resistor blows, you won't pick up anything. If you stand on a rubber mat, they won't indicate anything.
I didn't put my little fingers near the Van Der Graaf, but established that the 4 inch spark would punch holes in a sheet of foolscap distantly held between the cathode and anode.
There was a trick at School where the learned teacher would connect a volunteer to some spark machine while standing on a rubber mat, and make his hair stand on end. I didn't volunteer!
I have always respected that Electricity can be a bit SUDDEN! 🤣
Anyway, Livesey on 5 Live is telling us the Asteroid impact has been raised again to 3.1% by NASA.
https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news210.html
The Good News ATM is it isn't going to hit the UK:
But I anticipate everyone with the capability will try and nudge it away from THEM! 🙁
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I am up to Chapter 4 of the Feynman "Six Easy Pieces" Book, and it is getting much harder. "Conservation of Energy".
The great Conservation Law. It's why Electricity is not free.
Calculate the weighs on a 3,4,5 INCLINED PLANE Triangular Block for balance of the Forces... 😢
I didn't have a clue really. 3? 4? 5? But in what order? Obviously, I was missing something. Some INSIGHT.
And here is the brilliant Simon Stevin (Stevinus) solution discovered around 1600:
See the necklace isn't going to spin around on its own is it? That would be a Perpetual Motion Machine! Easy when you know how. 😎
The great Conservation Law. It's why Electricity is not free.
Calculate the weighs on a 3,4,5 INCLINED PLANE Triangular Block for balance of the Forces... 😢
I didn't have a clue really. 3? 4? 5? But in what order? Obviously, I was missing something. Some INSIGHT.
And here is the brilliant Simon Stevin (Stevinus) solution discovered around 1600:
See the necklace isn't going to spin around on its own is it? That would be a Perpetual Motion Machine! Easy when you know how. 😎
When an object is placed on an inclined plane, its weight, W, can be resolved into a force perpendicular to the plane (the normal force) and a force parallel to the plane.
It is the parallel force, Wsinβ, which pulls the object down the inclined plane.
Is that of any help?
Looking at the energy considerations, an inclined plane is a simple machine which changes the direction and size of a force.
By conservation of energy, the input of energy must equal the output of energy (neglecting friction).
Therefore: force along plane x distance along plane = weight raised x height of plane.
Thus: the mechanical advantage (the ratio of output force to input force) of an inclined plane is its length divided by its height.
Is that of any help?
By conservation of energy, the input of energy must equal the output of energy (neglecting friction).
Therefore: force along plane x distance along plane = weight raised x height of plane.
Thus: the mechanical advantage (the ratio of output force to input force) of an inclined plane is its length divided by its height.
Is that of any help?
I suspect this is one of those "Visual Proofs", Galu. Designed to stick in the mind.
I, of course, have been known to employ the odd Tangent, Cosine and Sine in the Cabibbo–Kobayashi–Maskawa matrix (Answer: 13.02 degrees) when calculating Quark masses on the back of a beermat.
Let's see now... how does it go?
TCS
OAO
AHH
"The Cat Sat On An Orange And Hurt Himself"
Always worked for me. And I have a c (Champion) grade at AS Level mathematics from the University of Portsmouth.
I have solved a MYSTERY, as I seek out a little Footie entertainment tonight away from depressing World News:
I had no idea what he was talking about. But tonight at the Bernabeu, home of Real Madrid for the second leg, see that same mystery logo:
So @Ro808, Roland and I will be cheering on different teams tonight. I am looking for a bit of "Pep" tonight. As in Pep Guardiola. 🤣
I, of course, have been known to employ the odd Tangent, Cosine and Sine in the Cabibbo–Kobayashi–Maskawa matrix (Answer: 13.02 degrees) when calculating Quark masses on the back of a beermat.
Let's see now... how does it go?
TCS
OAO
AHH
"The Cat Sat On An Orange And Hurt Himself"
Always worked for me. And I have a c (Champion) grade at AS Level mathematics from the University of Portsmouth.
I have solved a MYSTERY, as I seek out a little Footie entertainment tonight away from depressing World News:
I had no idea what he was talking about. But tonight at the Bernabeu, home of Real Madrid for the second leg, see that same mystery logo:
So @Ro808, Roland and I will be cheering on different teams tonight. I am looking for a bit of "Pep" tonight. As in Pep Guardiola. 🤣
Oh well. By half-time it was all over. I switched to the Brian Cox Science program. I have always been unstinting in my praise of this man.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00282q3
This is something I am interested in. What is the Earth made of? Will it explode at any minute? Certainly might according to other news items:
I was hardly reassured by reports of the Deccan Traps killing off any Dinosaurs which survived the Asteroid known as the CHICXULUB IMPACTOR
We are all going to die. It's not a question of WHETHER, it's a question of WHEN!
Incidentally, and I am sure Galu will do this, Google CHICXULUB IMPACTOR and you will discover a rather fine Easter Egg included. 😎
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00282q3
This is something I am interested in. What is the Earth made of? Will it explode at any minute? Certainly might according to other news items:
I was hardly reassured by reports of the Deccan Traps killing off any Dinosaurs which survived the Asteroid known as the CHICXULUB IMPACTOR
We are all going to die. It's not a question of WHETHER, it's a question of WHEN!
Incidentally, and I am sure Galu will do this, Google CHICXULUB IMPACTOR and you will discover a rather fine Easter Egg included. 😎
Is that the same Brian Cox you said was, quote, "officially on my Physics numpty list"?
I've not stumbled across the Easter Egg yet, but I have discovered that the Zhamanshin crater in Kazakhstan is the largest confirmed impact crater within the last million years. This meteorite impact could have produced a nuclear winter, but was not large enough to cause a mass extinction.
Zhamanshin crater
Dated 15 Feb 2025, this article examines the origin of the Chicxulub impactor: https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2021/02/new-theory-behind-asteroid-that-killed-the-dinosaurs/
The researchers estimate that impactors like the one that made the Zhamanshin crater could strike Earth once every 250,000 to 730,000 years.
EDIT: I've found the Easter Egg! If you search Chicxulub crater right now, an asteroid will appear and travel to the bottom of the screen, when the screen will shake slightly - but it only appears on Google whereas I use Bing!
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Dear TNT, I detect you are a man of FEW words. Whereas I am a man of MANY! Why is that?
Could it be that I once worked at Anchor Terrace in Southwark Bridge Road, home of Doctor Johnson the Lexicographer, and built on the original site of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre?
A gift for words has clearly rubbed off.
The place was positively infested with GHOSTS. Shakespeare, Hester Thrale, Banquo's Ghost for all I know.
At the back, in the old Brewery cellar, was a vast Plague Pit where half of the City of London's corpses had been dumped, as if we didn't have enough troubles.
I was unlocking it one morning, in darkness because I liked to have an edge in surprising burglars.
I opened a door and there was a female apparition looming out of the darkness. I screamed. She screamed.
I then realised it was Hetty the cleaner in early. She had a nervous disposition about opening office doors since she had found the Brewing Director slumped dead across his desk one evening.
I myself once entered an annex building in nearby Thrale Street to check for flood and fire and any other unnatural events that might concern my employer, the property manager.
The lift door opened at 4 in the morning at the very top floor, and there stood in front of me was Hester Thrale.
Then I blinked and she was gone. I tell you, they didn't pay me enough to work in that place. 🙁
Could it be that I once worked at Anchor Terrace in Southwark Bridge Road, home of Doctor Johnson the Lexicographer, and built on the original site of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre?
A gift for words has clearly rubbed off.
The place was positively infested with GHOSTS. Shakespeare, Hester Thrale, Banquo's Ghost for all I know.
At the back, in the old Brewery cellar, was a vast Plague Pit where half of the City of London's corpses had been dumped, as if we didn't have enough troubles.
I was unlocking it one morning, in darkness because I liked to have an edge in surprising burglars.
I opened a door and there was a female apparition looming out of the darkness. I screamed. She screamed.
I then realised it was Hetty the cleaner in early. She had a nervous disposition about opening office doors since she had found the Brewing Director slumped dead across his desk one evening.
I myself once entered an annex building in nearby Thrale Street to check for flood and fire and any other unnatural events that might concern my employer, the property manager.
The lift door opened at 4 in the morning at the very top floor, and there stood in front of me was Hester Thrale.
Then I blinked and she was gone. I tell you, they didn't pay me enough to work in that place. 🙁
Because you have so much relevant things to say and I feel like a mere padwan here... 🙂
I think I suffer from the "lack-of-math" syndrome...
//