Ah, we need Richard Feynman alive again! A brilliant physicist who was never too proud to go and find the person who new the answer that he lacked. For instance, he began his foray into the Challenger disaster investigation by speaking to the range safety officer at the Cape. His writings indicate that he loved the idea that physical theories ( eg. quantum electrodynamics ) could be used to give hard predictions that could be rigorously tested by experiment. His lecture series is replete with examples very relevant to materials science, derivations ( with assumptions ) from basic quantum mechanics.
Cheers, Mike.
I've read of Feynman's qualities in the beautiful book by F.J.Dyson "Disturbing the Universe". One would have been lucky to study physics with such a master. My teachers were not that great and Abdus Salam did not teach while in Trieste. He never learned Italian, contrarily to James Joyce, who learned the "dialetto" of Trieste (a rougher Venetian) from Ettore Schmitz, alias Italo Svevo, the great Italian novelist.
Tullio
I've read of Feynman's qualities in the beautiful book by F.J.Dyson "Disturbing the Universe". One would have been lucky to study physics with such a master. My teachers were not that great and Abdus Salam did not teach while in Trieste. He never learned Italian, contrarily to James Joyce, who learned the "dialetto" of Trieste (a rougher Venetian) from Ettore Schmitz, alias Italo Svevo, the great Italian novelist.Tullio
I have hardcopy of the three volumes of The Feynman Lectures In Physics produced from his time in the early sixties at Caltech. Bound in the original large red 'pads'. It is said that the lecture theatre gradually became filled ever more with colleagues and visiting notables as the series ( over several years ) progressed. To my delight Audible.com had rounded up the actual recordings upon which the series is based. I have listened to them all, a powerful speaker that he is, and the amusing feedback he gets from the audience. You hear the coughs, chuckles, chalk on board, and the shuffling of chairs etc too. There are many terrific discussions like the symmetry breaking of natural laws as illustrated by the possible hazards of shaking hands with aliens! ( They might be made of anti-matter if their chirality/handedness is not as ours ). Supreme is his elucidation of the basic anti-intuitive quandaries of quantum mechanics as demonstrated by a Young's double slit type experiment involving electrons - it absolutely/brutally forces one's thinking away from classical lines. Similiarly with space quantisation in the Stern-Gerlach apparatus. It is the inevitable conclusion of probability that will be irksome. He is quite frank in identifying the exact deficiencies of theories and does not hold back what-so-ever in explanations. He does not 'dumb down' the content and is very committed to trying to reach out and impart his love and knowledge of physics.
One may also look at a four part video lecture series ( Vega Science Trust ) which is a very approachable/understandable but still serious look at quantum electrodynamics ( don't be put off by the title ) and his particular Nobel Prize winning contributions. He did that in the late seventies in New Zealand before illness overtook his health too much.
Cheers, Mike.
( edit ) I really love his : 'Nothing is certain. We lead a charmed life'.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
Cannot connect to vega.org.uk. But see in cam.qubit.org the lectures on quantum computing by David Deutsch. They are really lectures on quantum mechanics. Cheers.
Tullio
I've had an exchange of informations in the LHC@home forum and the consensus is that failure was almost inevitable. Magnets long 3 m shrink about 20 cm when supercooled by liquid helium. The tube that carries the helium has an S-joint to adjust to the varied length, which is made by steel-reinforced rubber. Unfortunately rubber becomes brittle at low temperatures and breaks. Also different metal parts in the magnet have different shrinkage coefficients, leading to mechanical stresses, Luckily nobody was hurt but the future of LHC is bleak, to say the least. Maybe they gambled a little too much.
Tullio
20+ years after Challenger and we're talking brittle rubber and differential expansions?
Plus the massive magnetic fields generated by these superconducted currents wanting to expand the magnets ( & possibly abruptly ). So you now have a highly complex interaction of current, field and temperature - all of which is quite sensitive to geometry! I wonder if they've talked with the tokamak people .......
...
Cheers, Mike.
That was my first thought. :(
Very disappointing I must say...and I can't help wondering how much more money is going to have to be poured in to find a solution.
I've read of Feynman's qualities in the beautiful book by F.J.Dyson "Disturbing the Universe". One would have been lucky to study physics with such a master. My teachers were not that great and Abdus Salam did not teach while in Trieste. He never learned Italian, contrarily to James Joyce, who learned the "dialetto" of Trieste (a rougher Venetian) from Ettore Schmitz, alias Italo Svevo, the great Italian novelist.Tullio
I have hardcopy of the three volumes of The Feynman Lectures In Physics produced from his time in the early sixties at Caltech. Bound in the original large red 'pads'. It is said that the lecture theatre gradually became filled ever more with colleagues and visiting notables as the series ( over several years ) progressed. To my delight Audible.com had rounded up the actual recordings upon which the series is based. I have listened to them all, a powerful speaker that he is, and the amusing feedback he gets from the audience. You hear the coughs, chuckles, chalk on board, and the shuffling of chairs etc too. There are many terrific discussions like the symmetry breaking of natural laws as illustrated by the possible hazards of shaking hands with aliens! ( They might be made of anti-matter if their chirality/handedness is not as ours ). Supreme is his elucidation of the basic anti-intuitive quandaries of quantum mechanics as demonstrated by a Young's double slit type experiment involving electrons - it absolutely/brutally forces one's thinking away from classical lines. Similiarly with space quantisation in the Stern-Gerlach apparatus. It is the inevitable conclusion of probability that will be irksome. He is quite frank in identifying the exact deficiencies of theories and does not hold back what-so-ever in explanations. He does not 'dumb down' the content and is very committed to trying to reach out and impart his love and knowledge of physics.
One may also look at a four part video lecture series ( Vega Science Trust ) which is a very approachable/understandable but still serious look at quantum electrodynamics ( don't be put off by the title ) and his particular Nobel Prize winning contributions. He did that in the late seventies in New Zealand before illness overtook his health too much.
Cheers, Mike.
( edit ) I really love his : 'Nothing is certain. We lead a charmed life'.
We used to have copies of the Feynman lectures but my ex took custody of all the physics books when we broke up. I was left with a few maths and QM theory books that I had hidden under the bed (and the kids of course).
I've also heard some of his lectures..he really had a great way of making things easy to understand.
A real start up is postponed to the spring of 2009. Meanwhile we shall have an inauguration on October 21 with heads of state attending. I am wondering what Lord Rutherford would say of such a way of doing physics.
Tullio
(Two months to change a part) reminds me of my auto dealer..:-)
I guess this is the curse of cryogenic experiments. Exchanging the part itself will take a few hours but cooling down the stuff again to near abs-zero is nothing you can do in a few days. I think this also was a great impediment for the research with cryogenic resonant masses gravitational wave detectors and helped to convince many that interferometry is the way to go in GW detection (so you get better sensitivity AND better duty cycle).
It's a sad setback for LHC, both scientifically and financially. But let's not forget that compared to the failed SSC, the LHC comes at a bargain price :-)
CU
Bikeman
(Two months to change a part) reminds me of my auto dealer..:-)
I guess this is the curse of cryogenic experiments. Exchanging the part itself will take a few hours but cooling down the stuff again to near abs-zero is nothing you can do in a few days. I think this also was a great impediment for the research with cryogenic resonant masses gravitational wave detectors and helped to convince many that interferometry is the way to go in GW detection (so you get better sensitivity AND better duty cycle).
It's a sad setback for LHC, both scientifically and financially. But let's not forget that compared to the failed SSC, the LHC comes at a bargain price :-)
CU
Bikeman
6 billion dollars?
Tullio
CERN says total cost is 6.03 billion Swiss Francs
(Two months to change a part) reminds me of my auto dealer..:-)
I guess this is the curse of cryogenic experiments. Exchanging the part itself will take a few hours but cooling down the stuff again to near abs-zero is nothing you can do in a few days. I think this also was a great impediment for the research with cryogenic resonant masses gravitational wave detectors and helped to convince many that interferometry is the way to go in GW detection (so you get better sensitivity AND better duty cycle).
It's a sad setback for LHC, both scientifically and financially. But let's not forget that compared to the failed SSC, the LHC comes at a bargain price :-)
CU
Bikeman
6 billion dollars?
Tullio
CERN says total cost is 6.03 billion Swiss Francs
Yup! At the time SSC was killed, the projected cost was $12 billion (!!).
The problem with such Big Science projects, like the ITER fusion reactor which was to cost 5 billion euros and now has a 30% increase, is that they drain money from other projects. The ALMA radiotelescope array in Chile, financed by the USA National Science Foundation and by other countries, is forcing the shutdown of Arecibo, which provides data to SETI@home but also keeps watch on dangerous Near Earth Objects. Bigger is not always better.
Tullio
RE: Ah, we need Richard
)
I've read of Feynman's qualities in the beautiful book by F.J.Dyson "Disturbing the Universe". One would have been lucky to study physics with such a master. My teachers were not that great and Abdus Salam did not teach while in Trieste. He never learned Italian, contrarily to James Joyce, who learned the "dialetto" of Trieste (a rougher Venetian) from Ettore Schmitz, alias Italo Svevo, the great Italian novelist.
Tullio
RE: I've read of Feynman's
)
I have hardcopy of the three volumes of The Feynman Lectures In Physics produced from his time in the early sixties at Caltech. Bound in the original large red 'pads'. It is said that the lecture theatre gradually became filled ever more with colleagues and visiting notables as the series ( over several years ) progressed. To my delight Audible.com had rounded up the actual recordings upon which the series is based. I have listened to them all, a powerful speaker that he is, and the amusing feedback he gets from the audience. You hear the coughs, chuckles, chalk on board, and the shuffling of chairs etc too. There are many terrific discussions like the symmetry breaking of natural laws as illustrated by the possible hazards of shaking hands with aliens! ( They might be made of anti-matter if their chirality/handedness is not as ours ). Supreme is his elucidation of the basic anti-intuitive quandaries of quantum mechanics as demonstrated by a Young's double slit type experiment involving electrons - it absolutely/brutally forces one's thinking away from classical lines. Similiarly with space quantisation in the Stern-Gerlach apparatus. It is the inevitable conclusion of probability that will be irksome. He is quite frank in identifying the exact deficiencies of theories and does not hold back what-so-ever in explanations. He does not 'dumb down' the content and is very committed to trying to reach out and impart his love and knowledge of physics.
One may also look at a four part video lecture series ( Vega Science Trust ) which is a very approachable/understandable but still serious look at quantum electrodynamics ( don't be put off by the title ) and his particular Nobel Prize winning contributions. He did that in the late seventies in New Zealand before illness overtook his health too much.
Cheers, Mike.
( edit ) I really love his : 'Nothing is certain. We lead a charmed life'.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
Cannot connect to
)
Cannot connect to vega.org.uk. But see in cam.qubit.org the lectures on quantum computing by David Deutsch. They are really lectures on quantum mechanics. Cheers.
Tullio
RE: RE: I've had an
)
That was my first thought. :(
Very disappointing I must say...and I can't help wondering how much more money is going to have to be poured in to find a solution.
Physics is for gurls!
RE: RE: I've read of
)
We used to have copies of the Feynman lectures but my ex took custody of all the physics books when we broke up. I was left with a few maths and QM theory books that I had hidden under the bed (and the kids of course).
I've also heard some of his lectures..he really had a great way of making things easy to understand.
Physics is for gurls!
A real start up is postponed
)
A real start up is postponed to the spring of 2009. Meanwhile we shall have an inauguration on October 21 with heads of state attending. I am wondering what Lord Rutherford would say of such a way of doing physics.
Tullio
RE: (Two months to change a
)
I guess this is the curse of cryogenic experiments. Exchanging the part itself will take a few hours but cooling down the stuff again to near abs-zero is nothing you can do in a few days. I think this also was a great impediment for the research with cryogenic resonant masses gravitational wave detectors and helped to convince many that interferometry is the way to go in GW detection (so you get better sensitivity AND better duty cycle).
It's a sad setback for LHC, both scientifically and financially. But let's not forget that compared to the failed SSC, the LHC comes at a bargain price :-)
CU
Bikeman
RE: RE: (Two months to
)
6 billion dollars?
Tullio
CERN says total cost is 6.03 billion Swiss Francs
RE: RE: RE: (Two months
)
Yup! At the time SSC was killed, the projected cost was $12 billion (!!).
Bikeman
The problem with such Big
)
The problem with such Big Science projects, like the ITER fusion reactor which was to cost 5 billion euros and now has a 30% increase, is that they drain money from other projects. The ALMA radiotelescope array in Chile, financed by the USA National Science Foundation and by other countries, is forcing the shutdown of Arecibo, which provides data to SETI@home but also keeps watch on dangerous Near Earth Objects. Bigger is not always better.
Tullio