AI Will Pick Nobel Prize Winners in Physics

Please read the article carefully before you freak out. Hint: look at the date.

Zz.

Physics Can Be So Distracting!

I've been the internet for a very, very long time, longer than a lot of people have been alive. In all those years, I've had battle scars from my battle with weirdos and cranks of all kinds, especially during the early wild, wild west days of unmoderated Usenet. Even now, I have to deal with them frequently, both online at various forums, and of course, the occasional stuff that tried to appear on this blog.

So you'll understand when I say that dealing with physics cranks is such a major distraction that, often, I see something and the first thing that comes to mind is just that!

I was at a wonderful Turkish restaurant last week, and I knew about this dish called Testi Kebab. I've seen it being served the last time I was at the same restaurant. I inquired about it, and our waiter described it and told us that if we wish to order that, they require a reservation a day in advance. This is because they bake the dish in this clay pot that is sealed. When they serve it, they literally break the pot and pour the content out. The broken clay pot is then tossed away, so they make a brand new clay pot each time this dish is ordered.

I immediately wanted to order that dish, and sure enough, we made a reservation for a group of people, and I ordered two of the dish, one large and one small, since there were 3 of us who wanted it. It was wonderful. The meat was lamb, and it came with vegetables stewed slowly in the sealed clay pot. After they broke the pots at our table, I asked if I could keep the broken pots, and they said yes.

I took them home, washed them, and they are now on display somewhere in my living room. But I have to tell you that as soon as I saw them when I got them home, the first thing that came across my mind was that I now have a couple of cracked pots in my house!

 

 

Oh well, I guess I just have to live with them! 😁

Zz.

You Might Get $50 Had You Read This Professor's Syllabus

The amusing story going around right now is the report on CNN about a professor hiding an information about how a student could get $50 if he/she read his course's syllabus and found the instruction on where to find the money. At the end of the semester, when the professor went back to the money's location, the $50 was still there!

The hint read: "Thus (free to the first who claims; locker one hundred forty-seven; combination fifteen, twenty-five, thirty-five), students may be ineligible to make up classes and ..."

 

This would have led students to a locker that contained a $50 bill, free to the first student to claim it.

 

But at the end of the semester, when he went to check the locker, the bill was still there.

 

Frankly, I'm not surprised (is anyone surprised by this?). I've always assumed that students do not read the syllabus given to them at the beginning of the semester. This is why (i) I go over the syllabus on the first day of class where I point out the important parts of it, and (ii) my first quiz of the semester requires that they find the answer from the syllabus itself (i.e. "What date is Exam 2?").

I put out a very detailed syllabus. Major parts of it are dictated and required by the school. But other  parts include important requirement on what they students must do. I also include a detailed calendar of when topics or chapters of the text will be covered, what are due each week, and when the exams are scheduled. Basically the entire semester has been laid out at the beginning. I find this to be extremely useful after we went remote, because it became very clear on what tasks and assignments the students have to complete each week and when they are due. They did not have to contact me for most of the questions they had about the course.

However, it isn't unusual for me to still get, in the middle of the semester, students asking when the next exam will be held, what is the weight given to homework, etc.. etc., all information that the students can find in the syllabus. I often tell them that these are all information that they could find in the syllabus, and only then do I give them the answers.

Now, to be fair to the students, because of all the stuff we have to include in the syllabus, it has gotten rather long. With the course scheduled and the course learning outcome and student learning outcome all included, my syllabus for this Fall 2021 is 13 pages long. I can certainly understand if a student just does not have the patience to read every minute detail of the document, which is why I spend that first class of the semester going over the important highlights that they must know or be aware of. I can certainly see why this professor got his $50 back if the information is buried somewhere in the many pages of information. But then again, he could also have buried it in between some very pertinent piece of information.

If you are a student, the moral of the story here is that, no matter how tedious and unimportant it seems, just spend some time readying the syllabus. It gives you an important overview of the course, and maybe even what the instructor expects out of you. Who knows, you might be lucky enough to find some lunch money!

Zz.

Making Physics Funny

Although Tom Gauld's cartoons do not actually focus on physics, he has included topics related to physics before. This NY Times article gives a brief interview and background on him, someone you would know if you read New Scientist frequently.

I decided to mention it here because the article included one of his cartoons that made me chuckle. I decided to include it here and make sure everyone is aware that this is credited to him. If he or his publisher object to this, I'll remove it.

It's pretty funny, though, because if you are involved in any kind of science forum or discussion online, this happens more often than you think.

And considering that our current President of the US thinks he's an expert in many different fields as well, I feel that I'm living in that Science Hell right now.

Zz.

More Geeky T-Shirts

Before all this mess with the coronavirus came up, I got the chance to wear these two t-shirts to my class when I was teaching resistance/circuits, and when I was teaching magnetic fields. These two are in addition to the other geeky t-shirt that I mentioned last time.

I'm thinking of buying more for a couple of different topics that I will be covering, but who knows when I'll get to wear them again in a class setting. I suppose I can wear them when I run my Zoom class session, but who gets to see the full effect of it when all you want to show is your face.

Zz.

Thirteen tips for engaging with physicists, as told by a biologist

This is a rather fun reading, and it has a bit of truth if we (physicists) do a bit of self-reflecting on how we operate.

I think I'm going to post the link to the LMS for the general physics course I'll be teaching this Spring for Life Science/Pre-Med majors. 😄

And then there's a reverse flow, where you get 12 tips for engaging with biologist, as told by a physicist. Even a lot more self-reflection there!

In the end, biologists and physicists gain a lot from talking to each other.

And oh, Happy New Decade, btw!

Zz.

The Geekiest T-Shirt That I've Ever Bought

I just had to get this one. I found this last week during the members night at Chicago's Adler Planetarium.

The people that I were with of course knew that this is referring to "force", but they didn't get the connection. So I had to explain to them that Newton's 2nd law, i.e. F=ma can be expressed in a more general form, i.e. F = dp/dt, where p is momentum mv. Thus

F = d/dt (mv)

Of course, I'm not surprised that most people, and probably most of Adler's visitors, would not get this unless they know a bit of calculus and have done general physics with calculus. Maybe that was why this t-shirt was on sale! :)

Maybe I'll wear this when I teach kinematics this Fall!

Zz.

Record 1200 Tesla, and then, BANG!

Hey, would you sacrifice your equipment just so you can break the record on the strongest magnetic field created in a lab? These people would.

Speaking with IEEE Spectrum, lead researcher Shojiro Takeyama explained that his team was hoping to achieve a magnetic field that reached 700 Tesla (the unit of measurement for gauging the strength of a magnetic field). At that level, the generator would likely self destruct, but when pushed to its limits the machine actually achieved a strength of 1,200 Tesla.

To put that in perspective, an MRI machine — which is the most intense indoor magnetic field most people would ever encounter — comes in at just three Tesla. Needless to say, the researchers’ machine didn’t survive the test, but it did land them in the record books.



Honestly, I don't think I can get away with doing that!

Zz.

Are Math Jokes Funny?

Let's dissect!



Zz.

APS's Don't Drink And Derive T-Shirt

I was cleaning my closet (I do that now and then) and came across this old shirt from way back when. This was bought during the 1999 APS March Meeting in Atlanta, GA, which celebrated the 100th anniversary of the APS.

When I first saw it, I said to the person at the counter that all the formulae are wrong. And then, duh, it suddenly hit me why and I got it. So of course, I had to buy it.

I haven't worn it in ages, because of a small tear on the front. But I'll probably start wearing it around the house, especially if I'm working on the yard.

This t-shirt is the opposite of the one I bought while I was at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, FL. That t-shirt had all the correct formulae and shows my nerdy self whenever I wear it.

😁

Zz.

Looking for Psychics To Teach Physics

I know, I know, this is trivial, but it is so hysterically funny!

Someone pointed this out to me and I couldn't stop giggling. So of course I have to share it with all of you! This is a jobs ad from Kennedy-King College, one of the City Colleges of Chicago. They are looking for someone to be an adjunct physics faculty member to, presumably, teach physics.

I'm doing a screen capture here, because I expect someone there will see this and make corrections to it soon... or maybe not!

I am guessing that two different people did this, because the category for the job is correct (circled in green), and the required qualification is also spelled correctly, but then it goes hysterically wrong in the job description. It says:

ADJUNCT FACULTY PSYCHICS/ PART-TIME

CITY COLLEGES OF CHICAGO, KENNEDY-KING COLLEGE

Kennedy-King College is currently seeking a part-time Faculty to teach Psychics during the Fall  2018 semester. 

Well of course they're looking for Psychics. This is because they want a part-time Faculty to teach it during this upcoming Fall semester!

Dear Kennedy-King College, you may want to have someone proof-read your ad. The spell-check would not have flagged you for this hilarious error. And for an academic institution, this is an embarrassing boo-boo. Having psychics to teach physics is like having heretics coming in to teach Sunday School.

Zz.

94 Aluminum Pie Pans On A Van de Graaf

What happens when you put 94 aluminum pie pans on a Van de Graaf? Sometime you do things just because it is darn fun!



Now let's see if you can offer your own explanation for this silly thing! :) Happy 10th Anniversary on YouTube, Frostbite Theater!

Zz.

Employee Used A "Faraday Cage" To Hide His Whereabout

This is one way to be "invisible".

An employee in Perth, Australia, used the metallic package from a snack to shield his device that has a GPS and locate his whereabouts. He then went golfing... many times, during his work hours.

The tribunal found that the packet was deliberately used to operate  as an elaborate “Faraday cage” - an enclosure which can block electromagnetic fields - and prevented his employer knowing his location. The cage set-up was named after English scientist Michael Faraday, who in 1836 observed that a continuous covering of conductive material could be used to block electromagnetic fields.

Now, if it works for his device, it should work to shield our credit cards as an RFID shield, don't you think? There's no reason to buy those expensive wallet or credit-card envelopes. Next time you have a Cheetos or potato chips, save those bags and wrap your wallet with them! :)

Zz.

Can A Simple Physics Error Cast Doubt On A da Vinci Painting?

It seems that the recent auction of a Leonardo da Vinci painting (for $450 million no less) has what everyone seems to call a physics flaw. It involves the crystal orb that is being held in the painting.

A major flaw in the painting — which is the only one of da Vinci's that remains in private hands — makes some historians think it's a fake. The crystal orb in the image doesn't distort light in the way that natural physics does, which would be an unusual error for da Vinci.

My reaction when I first read this is that, it is not as if da Vinci was painting this live with the actual Jesus Christ holding the orb. So either he made a mistake, or he knew what he was doing and didn't think it would matter. I don't think this observation is enough to call the painting a fake.

Still, it may make a good class example in Intro Physics optics.

Zz.

Dad Sat In On Student's Physics Class

A dad finally had it with his son's disruptive behavior in a high school physics class, and finally made his threat came true. He sat next to his son during his physics class.

His dad explained that his son 'likes to be the life of the party, which gets him in trouble from time to time.'

'For some reason I said, "hey, if we get another call I'm going to show up in school and sit beside you in class,"' he said. 

Unfortunately for the 17-year-old, that call did come. 

The thing that these news reports didn't clarify is if this student does this in all of his classes. If so, why is the physics teacher the one one reporting? If not, why does this student only does this in his physics class?

Sometime, a lot of information is missing from a news report.

Zz.

The Emperor Has No Clothes

The impact of the Trump's executive order on the admission of citizens from the 7 countries continues to be felt and the topic of conversation in many college campuses, science labs, and conferences. But something triggered in my head when I read this Washington Post news article on how this ban would not have prevented the attacks in the US since Sept. 11. When I read this, I immediately remembered a similar scenario, and this is where I connect it to the theme of this blog.

Back in, oh, I forget exactly when, probably mid-2000s, there was a laser accident at a lab (I'm not gonna name names). I'm going to rely on my memory based on what I read as the official report on the accident, and from what I heard from a friend who happened to know the person involved.

To set up the scenario, most, if not the majority, of laser accident occurred when the laser is running and the safety mode is bypassed. The most frequent reason for doing this is that the laser is either being worked on, being repaired, being serviced, or the most common occurrence, it is being aligned. People who are authorized to do this are usually trained, and had to undergo safety classes to ensure that they know what they are doing.

What happened in this accident, from what I remember, is that this person, along with at least one other person, was doing a typical laser alignment. He was wearing a pair of safety glasses as required, which protected his eyes in case there were stray beam hitting his face. Unfortunately, while in the middle of doing this work (which was part of the standard operating procedure of the facility), he had an itch around his eyes. In a moment where instinct took over, before he had time to think about it, he reached inside his safety glasses with his hand to rub his eyes, causing the safety glasses to be lifted off his face. Unfortunately, without realizing it, a beam of the laserwas, at that time, pointing straight at him. It only happened probably less than a second, but it was enough that the laser hit his eyes and sufficient to cause damage.

I'm not going to go into detail of what happened immediately afterwards, because it isn't relevant to this story. So of course, after this incident is reported, the lab issued a lab-wide stand-down, and all operations of Class 2b laser and higher had to stop. We were told to evaluate our laser operations and safety procedure, and we had to get reauthorized before we can continue work. At the same time, all personnel that are involved in any laser work had to attend a safety seminar.

So I sat through this safety seminar where they described the accident, emphasize the need for us to work safely, re-enforce the requirements for safety procedure... etc...etc. But at the same time, in response to the accident, they produced a whole new set of policy and procedures for all laser facilities. We had to have yearly inspection, yearly authorization, and new documentation of our procedure and safety analysis. In other words, new set of administrative controls were introduced.

Of course, as you can guess, there were groans in the audience, because it meant that there would be more bureaucratic paperwork and administrative hoops that we had to go through. During the Q&A session, several people asked questions, and one could tell that a lot of people in the audience weren't too pleased by this. Finally, and this is where I came, in, I raised my hand, and asked something like this:

"So how would any of the new procedures that were introduced prevented this accident?"

Now, looking back on it afterwards, I would describe the audience reaction to my question as what I imagined would happen when someone finally yelled that the Emperor had no clothes. In this case, the Emperor truly had no clothes. It was an unfortunate accident, but no amount of training, regulation, safety briefing, paperwork, review, etc. would have prevented it, because that was something instinctual. The new administrative policy that was put in place didn't make any of us who work with these lasers any safer. I certainly didn't feel any safer than before. Yet, this was imposed upon us. It wasn't to make us any safer or to prevent any accident. It is simply to placate the higher-ups, the stakeholders, the policy makers, the regulators, the administrators, and finally and ultimately, the politicians (if they decided to look into this). They can say that they implemented this and that after the accident to make them look good. The rest of us who are actually doing the work get saddled with more paperwork and more hoops to jump through.

I'm certain that this isn't new, and that many people have gone through such similar situations where what is being done in the name of something really isn't effective and may miss the mark. Often times, we simply go along just to make the administration happy so that we can move on and continue with our work. But it still means that the Emperor has no clothes, and sometime, someone really needs to stand up and points out this ridiculousness.

Zz.

Drilling In The Importance Of Units, Via A Banana Bread

For some odd reasons, intro physics students somehow can't get it into their heads the importance of having units in their answers whenever they are called for. And they also don't tend to see why carrying their units during a calculation can help them check if they are doing things correctly.

I've had constant issues with students not including units in their solutions. Even after I emphasize its importance, and even after I explain why it is important, I still constantly get answers, even in exams, of just a number without any units for length, speed, etc...

So one day, at the beginning of a new session, I decided to try something that I hope would be memorable to the students. I normally have between 10 to 20 students in a class. So on the first day of class, I baked a loaf of banana bread (I am actually a decent baker) and brought it to class. I cut the up into enough pieces for all the students, warning them that it has nuts and not gluten free, in case there are students with such allergies.

I let them enjoy the banana bread and then, I told them I baked it. They were impressed. Then I said that I'll give them the recipe if they want to bake this on their own. This is what I gave them:

• ¹⁄₂ butter
• 1 sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 4 bananas, finely crushed
• 1 ¹⁄₂ flour
• 1 baking soda
• ¹⁄₂ salt
• ¹⁄₂ vanilla

I then included the rest of the instruction, but that is not relevant here.

Of course, within a minute, I had students telling me that this recipe is not complete and vague. "What is half butter and one sugar?" someone asked.

"Oh, you mean that you need the UNITS of measure for these ingredients to make the banana bread?" I innocently asked. "Does that mean that without knowing if these are 1/2 cup, or 1 teaspoon, or 1 tablespoon, these number really a vague and meaningless?" I continued.

That was when the students realized that they just had a lesson. The lesson here being that the need to know the units of measure is (i) necessary and that (ii) it isn't exclusive only to physics, and that we all have been using these units of measure everyday without realizing it. Without such units, a lot of things won't make sense.

I can't claim that this exercise was effective, but I did notice that I saw a significantly lower occurrences of missing units in the students homework and exams. The few times that this did occur, the only comment that I wrote next to the number with the missing units was "Banana bread!"


:)

Zz.

"... in America today, the only thing more terrifying than foreigners is…math...."

OK, I'm going to get a bit political here, but with some math! So if this is not something you care to read, skip this.

I've been accused many times of being an "elitist", as if giving someone a label like that is a sufficient argument against what I had presented (it isn't!). But you see, it is hard not to be an "elitist" when you read something like this.

Prominent Guido Menzio, who is Italian, was pulled out of a plane because his seatmate thought he was writing something suspicious while they waited for their plane to take off. She couldn't understand the letters and probably it was "Arabic" or something (what if it is?), and since Menzio looks suspiciously "foreign", she reported him to the crew.

That Something she’d seen had been her seatmate’s cryptic notes, scrawled in a script she didn’t recognize. Maybe it was code, or some foreign lettering, possibly the details of a plot to destroy the dozens of innocent lives aboard American Airlines Flight 3950. She may have felt it her duty to alert the authorities just to be safe. The curly-haired man was, the agent informed him politely, suspected of terrorism.

The curly-haired man laughed.

He laughed because those scribbles weren’t Arabic, or some other terrorist code. They were math.

Yes, math. A differential equation, to be exact.

You can't make this up! But what hits home is what Menzio said later in the news article, and what the article writer ended with.

Rising xenophobia stoked by the presidential campaign, he suggested, may soon make things worse for people who happen to look a little other-ish.

“What might prevent an epidemic of paranoia? It is hard not to recognize in this incident, the ethos of [Donald] Trump’s voting base,” he wrote.

In this true parable of 2016 I see another worrisome lesson, albeit one also possibly relevant to Trump’s appeal: That in America today, the only thing more terrifying than foreigners is…math.

During this summer months, many of us travel to conferences all over the place. So, if you look remotely exotic, have a slightly darker skin, don't risk it by doing math on an airplane. That ignorant passenger sitting next to you just might rat on you! If by being an "elitist" means that I can recognize the difference between "math" and "arabic", then I'd rather be an elitist than someone who is proud of his/her aggressive ignorance.

How's that? Are you still with me?

Zz.

LHC Knocked Out By A Weasel?

You can't make these things up!

CERN's Large Hadron Collider, the world's biggest particle accelerator located near Geneva, Switzerland, lost power Friday. Engineers who were investigating the outage made a grisly discovery -- the charred remains of a weasel, CERN spokesman Arnaud Marsollier told CNN.
If you are a weasel kind, be forewarned! Don't mess around at CERN!

Zz.

"Fart Detector" Wins Chinese Physics Prize

OK, there are many aspects this story.

When I first read the title, I honestly read it as "Fast detector", which is reasonable, because fast detectors are useful. But when I read it again, I did a double take. So of course, I had to open the link to the story and figure out what this is.

Turns out that that wasn't the original intent of this detector. Rather, it is trying to sniff any odor in a moving air and to locate the source. Of course, the media, even in China, took it to its most obvious "application" such as sniffing (pun intended) the source of a fart. Question is, what do you do when you find the culprit? Is it unlawful in China for someone to fart in public? Do you shame this individual for such an act?

Finally, it turns out that the prize given is the "Pineapple" prize because "...the fruit which in China is said to be so ugly that only the brave and curious would explore its delicious interior..."

Whaaaaaat????!!!!

I guess this is another example of beauty in the eye of the beholder. I had never, even a second, consider the pineapple to be an "ugly" fruit. In fact, if you've been in to Hawaii or the tropics (especially in South East Asia where the fruit is abundant), it is considered to be beautiful enough to be used as decorations!

In any case, I don't think this research work is "useless" to even qualify for an Ig Nobel prize.

Zz.