Susy Higgs
The marriage of Susy and Higgs has lasted for more than 30 years. Susy provides stabilization to Higgs, keeping its mass small enough. Sadly enough, bad tongues and the LEP experiment have left deep scars on this relationship. The problem is that the minimal supersymmetric model ties the Higgs boson mass to the Z boson mass.
Monthly Archives: March 2009
Conserving Energy
Getting around: Fuel Use of various modes of transportation
At the bottom, note that the fuel use of a bicycle is shown as a fraction of the energy of a gallon of gas, or 16 Whopper-equivalents. But that’s only looking at the “caloric conversion,” i.e. the energy content of the fuel. But we don’t mine Whoppers out of the ground — that’s the advantage of fossil fuels: the energy is stored in them, and it’s energetically advantageous to recover them. This analysis doesn’t take into account the energy used to raise the beef, wheat and vegetables and deliver them in finished form. A Whopper costs at least as much as a gallon of gas (currently). Comparing food to gasoline is a tad more complicated than counting calories.
Matchmaker, Matchmaker
Faraday brings light and magnetism together (1845)
Faraday was not alone in envisioning a single theory encompassing all physical phenomena. Indeed, once Ørsted discovered that a magnetic compass needle could be deflected by an electric current, the relationship of electricity and magnetism, as well as other forces, was very much on the minds of physicists. Faraday, however, led the charge in actually demonstrating these relations.
Lessons in Friction
It’s snowing in my nation’s capitol, and around here, people suck at driving in slippery conditions. I would have gladly taken the day off, but the Office of Personnel Management’s web page listed the operating status as “OPEN: All employees are expected to report for work on time” when I checked it. So I schlepped in. Apparently, about eight nanoseconds after I checked it, they changed the status to “OPEN under a DELAYED ARRIVAL/UNSCHEDULED LEAVE policy” Buggerall.
Anyway, the important point for drivers around here is that the coefficient of static friction is generally larger than the coefficient of kinetic friction. Translation: once your wheels start to slip, they will tend to continue to slip. You usually want to slow your wheels down, not speed them up, when that happens.
Verbing the Noun
Tips on lab write-ups at Uncertain Principles
Not only were you able to [verb] the [noun], you did [verb] the [noun]. Say that directly.
My nit: when I was TA-ing it was a battle to disabuse them of the notion that “experimental error” is “the difference between our answer and the one in the book”
Not a Mirror Image
Reflecting on a new generation of mirrors
Hicks, a mathematician at Drexel University, Philadelphia, used computer algorithms to generate the mirror’s bizarre surface, which curves and bends in different directions. The curves direct rays from an object across the mirror’s face before sending them back to the viewer, flipping the conventional mirror image.
Better Than a Spirograph
Because you can’t slip and mess up the pattern when you’re 95% done.
Previously: Not the Same as Gauche
I Want to Work There
Two-story slide lets you get from the third floor to the lobby in a fun and fast manner.
For the less adventurous, the options of using the stairs or a lift remain.
Call Me Gel-Head
I won’t care.
Introducing the gel-filled army helmet that will crush bullets as they penetrate it
[T]he aim is to produce a new liner made from the miracle gel, which will absorb much of the energy of an impact from a bullet – reducing the chances of it penetrating the outer layer and softening the shock to a soldier’s skull and neck
Color on the Brain
When our eyes see colours, they are actually detecting the different wavelengths of the light hitting the retina. Colours are distinguished by their wavelengths, and the brain processes this information and produces a visual display that we experience as colour.
This means that colours only really exist within the brain – light is indeed travelling from objects to our eyes, and each object may well be transmitting/reflecting a different set of wavelengths of light; but what essentially defines a ‘colour’ as opposed to a ‘wavelength’ is created within the brain.
[…]
Magenta is an “extraspectral” color. Sir Isaac Newton noticed that magenta did not exist in the spectrum of colors from white light when he played with prisms. But when he superimposed the red end of the spectrum on to the blue end, he saw the color magenta