AAAAAAAAAALRIGHT!

Okay, so hey look! A new theme! Nice! Well, you may have read by now just right of here that I need an HTML thing that will pick a random line from a given list of lines as you log onto the page. So each time you check my blog, there’d be a different line. So then if you refreshed the page, you’d get another one, or the same one if you’re unlucky. So get to that ^.^

Well, this is life as it goes. Over the last two weeks I’ve attempted revision… didn’t do a thing for Chemistry apart from read ONE definition which I was lucky enough to find out that it came up in the exam. Then we had exams….

EXAMS ARE FUN! Last week started off with Maths as the first exam. This exam, in my opinion, was actually REALLY easy… The only bit I didn’t get was the last question where it turned out we were meant to treat the thing as a length, which I did not get AT ALL in the last 10 minutes of the exam.

Biology was on the Tuesday, this was easier than I expected. In all the end of unit papers I’ve swung between an A and a U (odd how it isn’t AN U…. just doesn’t sound right, like with A Utopia, instead of an Utopia) This basically means that I’m so uncertain of my grade that I don’t care. The last two questions in the paper were 5 each, which was an easy 8 if not 10, being an entire grade, pretty much. This I had about 5 minutes left.

physics theory… the big one. Everyone was nervous with this one. I don’t think there was a single person confident about it. The worst part is, the exam is split into two sections, A and B. There isn’t ANY difference between them really…. well, except A was misleadingly easy to lure the student into a false sense of secruity so they go, “Time to go onto Section B, OH MY FUCKING GAWSH! WTF IS THIS?!” which it seemed a lot of people did… so if I aced section A then I’ve got about 31% with it being 19 marks, that is if the exam was 60 marks. The exam was also only 1 hour long… so a few people didn’t finish. I only finished with about 30 seconds left meaning I had enough time to see if I’d actually filled all the pages and didn’t miss a double page, not that I could do anything about it… I just needed to prepare excuses in advance.

Chemistry, the one that had no revision for… apart from the before mentioned definition. Well, this went REALLY well, however it was the only exam I didn’t answer all the questions in. “WHAT?! You didn’t in a chemistry exam?! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!” I imagine you might think one day…. it is simple, the question (1 mark) was about something which we’d literally mentioned in passing. Not actually made any point to learn (everyone that read the revision guide would’ve known though).

Once exams were over I could FINALLY relax, and my dad would FINALLY stop coming into my room at 1am telling me to sleep (it was 2am for the Friday and Saturday before). This meant I have been happily destroying myself again! Not to mention my mum went on some long work thing (okay, she left Friday and got back sunday) meaning I didn’t eat any dinner Friday and Saturday…. YAY!!

During the last two to three weeks, I have been food poisoned… by my own mother…. hilarious, isn’t it? Yes, yes it is… My mum burned the pasta (no idea how you can burn something submerged in water) and to top it off gave me mouldy cheese…. the rest of the night it felt like someone was stabbing my organs…. and hard….

Because it has been “THE BIG FREEZE!” recently, being the coldest winter in like 30 years or so (yeah, for Scotland…. I’ve been the warmest I’ve ever been in this “big freeze” as far as winters go…) it meant that a fair bit of school was cancelled… it did also mean I could make a snow man…. on Friday the snow actually got to be the correct type. So I started off with just a hand full of snow and ended with THIS:

I have to stress I made this snowman ALL by myself… it’s over 6 feet… whilst making it, I managed to pull muscles in my arms and legs…. and some in my back, so it hurt to move… “how did you manage to get the middle ball that is clearly as tall as your torso and neck onto the large bottom ball?!” I hear you ponder. Simple. I made a ramp…. on the back there was like a 50cm long ramp…. unfortunately, the ramp gradient went from like 2 to about 30 in a second then to an even harder push from there…. that was fun….

Unfortunately it does look shit…. my original plan was to just make a GIANT bottom ball then roll up the world… so I was gonna roll all the snow in my garden then roll it down to the park and do that…. however, by the time I got it to there…. it probably weighed twice my weight…. and was like 1 meter in diameter…. so I struggled. I wanted it to snow so I could try and make another snowman… and make it better, because obviously the second had to be limited because otherwise I’d never get it up…. so the head suffered as well… The worst part is, I woke up and BAM! The head had fallen off…. and the body, seperarly, so his head was crushed by his own body… however the bottom ball only truly went away like yesterday or the day before… which made me happy. And yeah, in that pic I am standing…. fully straight…

What else happened…? OH YEAH! Turns out that **** is Ga- no wait…. I mean I have a bank account! Slowly but surely the things have turned up, now I have it all! YAY! I do now feel much more mature, or just a lot more different now… it currently only has £110 in…. so I still need to put like £400 of the remaining £500 into it that lies about in my room… (for all you crooks out there ~.^) I have also made my first eBay bid… I just need my paypal to be made properly open… which is only not happened because paypal are taking their SWEET ARSE TIME! I really need it soon so I can get ready to pay for my eBay item…. mmm, eBay item!

I’m also thinking of getting a Green Lantern T-shirt then I’ll not buy anything for some time and let it build up a bit and graduate it more.

Also, ever get blood under your finger nail that just WONT GO AWAY?! It sucks….

Not much has really happened… Today is the main thing that I can remember just because it is my 4 frees. I most hung out with Ben today, cause I don’t really do that much anymore. We even talked about going to town together in the future. Period 3 was watching Ben play Modern Warfare 2, and dying… Then I got a go, Not knowing how things would turn out first time I ran about into the gunfire and died… hard… second attempt (that was going to last longer than about 10 seconds) I picked up a gun then set off! I was fucking about on a plane when suddenly a Juggernaut (BITCH!) turned up… I panicked and then lay on the plane in prone and filled it full of lead… I was reloading and James said “What about when it gets up?” I replied with, “It wont be getting up…” I then proceeded to walk around the edge killing things in a skill full way… the most memorable would probably be when I crippled a guy and he started to crawl…. I watched him crawl as he left a trail of blood, I then walked over to him and knifed him…. again and again… I have problems? Yes…

It was all going so well until I got to the next part, I was killing people, then a Juggernaut came the second I dropped down from safety…. I properly panicked and ran to a corner… then died from other guys…. Then Ben and I went to Fram where we talked about stuff… I bought some winegums, some cookies, a drink for Max AND a drink for me. I didn’t get a bag from the guy because he was a penis…. and just watched me struggle out with them. Ben and I made the trip to fram only take 35 minutes… cause we are INSANE!

All through today and yesterday I’ve been going, “Oh let me give you something,” Then reach into my pocket and come back with a finger…. ESPECIALLY today… none stop… I have a problem… not to mention I’m heavily addicted to winegums…. cause I have no more… and no cookies…. actually…. one moments (TOO MANY ELLIPSIS). OMG! I still have some winegums!!! SCOORRRREEEEE! I shouldn’t eat them cause I feel like vomiting…. but I <3 winegums… more than any of you… well, not some of you…

(Side note: “

Chris

and I may stop pocket middle fingering you”
Didn’t come out right….)

physics theory today was also REALLY awesome! We were doing SOMETHING and basically everyone (Max ‘n’ Ben, ‘n’ I) have agreed that Ash Doughty is awesome xP One line that happened today was, Max: (To me) You don’t like him do you? Ash: Well he did shit himself. CLASSIC! (SAD FACE! NO MORE WINEGUMS!)

Recently I’ve been listening to a lot of Electric Six… because their stuff is actually REALLY good. (They did Gay Bar, Danger! High Voltage and Dance Commander), I like Improper Dancing, just cause there is a line that goes, “STOP! … … CONTINUE!” and it’s just hilarious!

Also, one of my new favourite songs is Ok Go (they have a new Album btw) with WTF?

I’ve also been listening to a bit of The Flaming Lips… Really just Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Part 1, Do You Realise? and The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song.

I also found Guy’s Blog…. and it seems Nico really has strong feelings for him, which is funny… cause I remember he going on at me when Guy started following me on twitter…. oh the hilarity…

That’s all from me.

Got It Memorised?

(Universe Today) – Nancy Atkinson:

Observational data from nine pulsars, including the Crab pulsar, suggest these rapidly spinning neutron stars emit the electromagnetic equivalent of a sonic boom, and a model created to understand this phenomenon shows that the source of the emissions could be traveling faster than the speed of light. …

http://www.universetoday.com/2010/01/06/faster-than-light-pulsar-phenomena/

At least the ones created by Science Scouts, or the Order of the Science Scouts of Exemplary Repute and Above Average Physique for long. I absolutely love them and want to immediately pull out my junior girl scout sash and start stitching these on too.

The “I have an actual human skeleton in my office” badge:

The “I’m a scientist but people tell me I look like a celebrity” badge:

And of course, the “I could tell you about my research, but then I’d have to kill you” badge (a.k.a. Patent Badge):

Cool and creative!

Sean Carroll, who blogs over at Cosmic Variance, recently published a book on the physics theory of time, called From Eternity to Here. I’ve been a regular reader of Cosmic Variance for a while, and I especially enjoy Sean’s writing, which is why I was excited to buy the book.

I was even more excited to find out he’d be organizing an online book club through his blog, going through his book at a rate of roughly one chapter per week. The first post on chapter 1 went up today. Having not quite finished chapter 1 yet, I haven’t gotten in on the conversation, but I hope to tonight.

I always enjoy reading books about physics theory, especially when they are accessible to a non-physicist like myself (like Brian Greene’s books). I am especially excited about From Eternity to Here because I am interested in how people and animals perceive time.

Sean comments on his post:

We distinguish between three ideas of time — time is a coordinate, time is what clocks measure, and time is the agent of change. These aren’t really “definitions” in any careful sense, so much as “ways we use the notion of time.” And my readers were right — it’s important to set out these different senses right from the start, as I’ve discovered that even physicists tend to blur them together in their minds.

The first and third ideas of time seem (to me, a non-expert, who has not yet finished reading chapter 1) fairly grounded in the physical world. But it is the second sense of time – as the thing that clocks measure – that is interesting to me.

Figure 1: Persistence of Time, Salvador Dali.

Do we measure time – do we perceive the passage of time in the first place – simply because we live our daily lives in a way that we are constantly reminded of the passage of time? We wear watches, we have meetings at specific times, we wait three minutes for our coffee to brew in the morning (or spend three minutes in line at Coffee Bean).

Do we perceive time simply because it is correlated with other natural phenomena (i.e. the passage of the sun overhead from east to west in a predictable pattern, or the direction and length of shadows on the ground, or the monthlong waxing and waning of the moon – or more broadly, the changing of the seasons, weather patterns, water currents, migration patterns in other animals…) That is to say, does our perception of time emerge from our perception of these other events in our daily or yearly lives?

Figure 2: Time-lapse video of sunrise to sunset for four days. London, England.

Or, is time more fundamental? Do we (and other animals) have some innate sense of the passage of time that is separable from these other phenomena that simply happen to be correlated with the passage of time? (Note: if you’re unfamiliar with the idea of correlation, or want to learn more, here is a good explanation at Good Math, Bad Math) At some point in our ancestors’ evolution, did the conception of time as a cognitive structure become somehow reproductively advantageous, or helpful for survival? Deprived of external cues, do we maintain a relatively accurate sense of the passage of time?

What do you think? Comment below.

Also: buy his book, read his book, and get involved in the online book club. Isn’t Web 2.0 fantastic?

Although these textbooks are quite old, and some of the techniques described therein obsolete, these texts hold much practical value to the modern technician and engineer of instrumentation. “First Principles” of physics theory are timeless, regardless of the technology applied to them. Not only will the modern reader find much practical knowledge within these pages undiminished by the passage of time, but also fascinating insights into the historical applications of measurement and control.

• Engineering Instruments and Meters by Edgar A. Griffiths, published in 1920. A fairly comprehensive book covering mechanical measurements (length, area, screw pitch, force and mass) as well as more common process variable measurements (volume, flow, velocity, temperature). Although the scan quality is excellent, the PDF file size is unfortunately very large.
• Pyrometry — A Practical Treatise on the Measurement of High Temperatures by Charles Robert Darling, published in 1911. This fascinating text describes several different methods of temperature measurement including RTDs, thermocouples, and radiation (infrared) pyrometry. Of particular noteworthiness is the fact that many of the primary sensors described in this text remain essentially unchanged in modern form.
• The Measurement of High Temperatures by George Kimball Burgess and Henri Le Chatelier (third edition), published in 1912. One of the authors of this book (Le Chatelier) was a pioneer in the science of pyrometry.
• The Orifice Meter and Gas Measurement by Willis C. Brown and Malcolm B. Hall (first edition), published in 1921 by the Foxboro company.
• Measurement of Gas and Liquids by Orifice Meter by Henry P. Wescott and John C. Diehl (second edition), published in 1922.
• Flow and Measurement of Air and Gases by Alec B. Eason, published in 1919.
• Production and Measurement of High Vacuum by Saul Dushman, published in 1922 by the General Electric Company.

• Calculus Made Easy by Sylvanus Thompson, published in 1914. Written by a fellow with a keen sense of humor, this delightful book is sure to be an aid to all those striving to grasp the basic principles of differential and integral calculus. This text shows its age by its use of certain obsolete terms (“differential coefficient” instead of the more modern “derivative” for example), but the concepts are timeless, and presented in marvelous simplicity. A modern reproduction of this book, updated by Martin Gardner, is currently published by St. Martin’s Press.

A tale of two qubits: how quantum computers work

Quantum information is the physics theory of knowledge. To be more specific, the field of quantum information studies the implications that quantum mechanics has on the fundamental nature of information. By studying this relationship between quantum theory and information, it is possible to design a new type of computer—a quantum computer. A largescale, working quantum computer—the kind of quantum computer some scientists think we might see in 50 years—would be capable of performing some tasks impossibly quickly.

A very quick startup tour….

In other words – Field + Force = Current

The direction of the current is given by Fleming’s RIGHT hand rule

There are two main ways to generate electricity:

Moving a wire in a magnetic field:

• If the wire is moved faster, a larger current will flow.

• If the wire is stationary, no current will flow.

Moving a magnet into and out of a coil of wire:

• If the magnetic poles are swapped around, the current will flow the other way.

• If the magnet moves faster, a larger current will flow.

• If the magnet is stationary, no current will flow.

Current is generated by spinning a coil of wire in a magnetic field – the generator principle.

To increase the EMF or the current generated:

• Spin the coil faster.

• Wind more turns or loops on the coil.

• Use a stronger magnetic field.

• Use a coil with a larger area

Search this blog under ‘Magnetism’  Find and study the section on ‘Generators’

Lost’s storyline has become pretty convoluted, and it can be difficult to remember what’s going on. Adding time travel to the mix just piles on more confusion — who’s in 2008, who’s in the 1970s, and is anyone going to actually be in 2010? I thought it might be a good idea to cover some of the basics of time travel as it’s been presented in Lost so far.
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