your corneas can freeze...

...just in case you didn't have enough to worry about ;)

I neglected to bring home any mechanical pencils. Why am i always capable of envisioning an entire summer without graphite? It has yet to be done without regrets. As a result I've reverted to pencils that require sharpening. and you know what? there is something delightfully quaint and fun in using them. Makes me feel a little like an accountant. By the way does anyone know why detectives in old movies always lick their pencils while flipping open their notepads to jot down the facts of the case?

Back to Science! I do room service at the fanciest (oldest, and most haunted) hotel at the oceanfront. While carrying a tray from the oceanfront Cavalier to the Original Cavalier on the Hill. I realized I was a walking Physics 101 problem.
Q: If Xenia carries a 34 pound tray, resting one of the long edges along her waist , with her arms holding the handles on each side 26 cm from her waist the full width of the tray being 52 cm, what is the tension in her arms? Xenia is 5 feet 4 ( on a good day) and the distance from her waist to her shoulders is 17.5 inches. She is moving at a constant rate of 2.5 feet per second up a slope of 27 degrees. It's 87 degrees and everyone that walks by thanks her for bringing them breakfast (as though that's an original comment, come on people I do still optimistically believe in your ability to be creative and refreshing, prove me right!).

The Original Cavalier (Don't call it the old one, that's frowned upon)




The Oceanfront Cavalier







A view with both halves:

There's more than one of everything

I got confused while writing this... I originally wrote a note to myself "do blog on Matter Mirror and De Broglie waves and the connection" But ...
A) I can't find anything on a Matter Mirror and apparently (the coincidence would be too great to think it was an accident) Mirror Matter exists and is pretty cool all by itself
B) however Mirror Matter is not really connected to D-Brizzle's wave?


So anyways, De Broglie waves! Lets say you shine light down a corridor which has a corner where another corridor meets it. The light will bend when it meets the corridor, thereby lighting up the mysterious person that a minute ago was cloaked in the shadows. At this juncture Velma will shout Zoinks! and some fun techno music will begin playing. Additionally the flashlight used to light up the hallway will probably get dropped during the action, allowing us to continue watching this interesting property of light. This bending is a result of the Wave Nature of light (which as i previously discussed in another blog is only half the story). Now a man known as De Broglie asked himself if light can act as a wave and as a particle than why can't things with mass also act as both? The result was the De Broglie Wavelength!

De Broglie Wavelength=Planck's Constant/Momentum

This equation was proven by Lester Germer and Clinton Davisson when they shot electrons at a target of crystalline nickel and the experimental diffraction pattern matched the theoretical one.
Basically this theory means that things with mass have a wave property, and therefore also diffract when they encounter other things. some of you are probably scoffing at this idea since you have mass but don't undergo any of this silly so-called diffraction every time you encounter a doorway. This is because Planck's Constant is to the negative 34 power while your mass is in the tens of kilograms. (mass matters because momentum equals mass times velocity) divide a really tiny number to a proportionally much bigger one and you get an even smaller number. With such a tiny wavelength the diffraction is undetectable but theoretically you do get shifted over a colossally small fraction of a meter each time you pass through something.
So...You have a wavelength! Impress your friends by calculating your own! Post it on your facebook and watch the friend requests roll in!
This wavelength is also referred to as a matter wave which leads us to the interesting part of this post...
Mirror Matter! Shadow Matter! Alice Matter!
(three names for the same redonkulous concept)
Mirror Matter...
"is a hypothetical counterpart to ordinary matter." -Wiki
"is perfect to explain dark matter. It's dark and can only be detected through its gravity."-Dr. Foot
"doubles the amount of matter in the universe" -ABC news

Q: Where did this idea come from?
A: Normal elementary particles follow the rules of rotation and translation symmetry but not that of mirror symmetry (aka Parity).

Q: How do you explain this phenomenon?
A: By inventing a new type of particle!

Isn't physics fun?

Why is this neccessary? Can't we just accept that nature didn't mean particles to follow parity?
Of Course Not! That would mean nature is uneven on some levels. And what kind of a world is that?
So the idea of mirror matter was formed, the theory being that every particle has a matching mirror particle. When a normal particle interacts with another in a left handed interaction (whatever that means) the mirror particle would interact in a right handed one.
This would "restore [parity] as a fundamental symmetry of nature." -Wikipedia

Do i honestly understand this? No, but i find it fascinating every time physicists make something up because they want nature to behave a certain way but their tests prove that it doesn't. and ninety percent of the time the new thing can't be observed.

Find my post lackluster? go reengage your mind with one of these:
Physics Games


Today's Cosmic Brownie Points go as always to anyone who knows where the title of the post comes from. Additionally Mario gets (insert your favorite number here, Mario) Points for being an incredible reader. Tes commentaires ont toujours vraiment apprécié.

p.s. thank goodness for automatic saving on blogspot.