Resonant Constellation

Okay, I just had a class in electrodynamics on using special relativistic concepts to unify the electric and magnetic forces as a four dimensional covariant tensor. During this class, I was constantly shaking my head and staring in wonder up at the board: this is probably one of the coolest things I have ever seen. Here, I will humbly attempt to summarize what we went through and likely get it wrong in some way:

We start with the covariant equation of motion:

The is a greek index, meaning it goes from 0 to 3, in this case corresponding to the one temporal coordinate and the three spatial ones. Separating these and expanding the derivative, we get:

and:

Now, superscripts here sometimes don’t mean what you’re used to-some refer to the elements of 4-D matrices or vectors, where 0 is the first index and 3 is the last. In the above equation, this is universally true. Earlier, we’d gone over the EM field tensor, . If we think about this a bit, we realize we can use the force to express the equation of motion:

for example:

represents the X component.

Here the repeated indices, , are indicative of a summation over the values of , so this one equation actually represents more. Now, the tensor is a two dimensional square matrix with sixteen elements. All of the diagonal entries are zero, and the bottom corner is the negative mirror of the bottom corner.

If we now substitute the elements of this matrix in to the equation and choose, say, the X component to look at, the equation looks like this:

Here, refer to the relative velocity of a particle to a frame of reference. also uses instead of normal velocity .

So now we simplify further and remember what we said in the beginning:

Now, math nerds might begin to recognize how to simplify this further, and by using a little definition we worked out before, we can get some interesting results:

and:

This is precisely the covariant Lorentz force in the X direction.

Now I don’t want to go through the extra steps here in order to save space, but you can get:

Where J is the current density tensor (a 4-D vector this time). This equation simplifies down to two of Maxwell’s equations. Here comes the awesome:

This last is the divergence of E, so:

Now, one of my favorite definitions comes into play:

which always makes me squeal in delight!

so, substituting:

Which you physics nerds will recognize as Gauss’ Law! On my notes where this appears, I wrote:
OMFGWTFBBQQEMFD.

I think that says it all.

I’ve been reading a few books by Richard Feynman recently, “What Do You Care What Other People Think?” and “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!” Both of these books paint the portrait of an intensely inquisitive mind and a very fascinating person. What most amazes me is that Feynman naturally thought like a scientist, on a much deeper level than anybody else I have ever encountered. If you want an insight into how physicists think, read one of his books. Even if you don’t want to find out how physicists think, I recommend the books for the entertainment factor. If only thinking so clearly came so naturally to us all!

I was doing my laundry this fine evening when I realized that I was short of quarters by exactly two dryer loads ($2.50). This is not good: all of my clothes are wet and the must become dry, preferably before tomorrow morning. I scoured my room and soon came up with half of the required amount. This is not to say that I don’t have more spare change. On the contrary, I have hoardes of nickels, dimes, half-dollars, a few dollar coins, about cents (this is the actual name of the coin: the cent. The penny is an english coin), and even a few dollars worth of various foreign currencies. Unfortunately, I can’t use any of these other coins in my apartment complex’s washing machines: they only take quarters. I have to ask, is it really that hard to engineer machines to accept different denominations? I make a solemn vow to design such a machine and perhaps implement it into my death ray when I take over the world! Then I shall track down the people who designed the coin-acceptance system and show them the wonder of my omni-coin operated death ray before I vaporize them! HA HA!

No, seriously, I had to borrow $1.25 from my roommate. Ah well.

I consider George Carlin to be the finest comedian who ever lived. Not only was this man unbelievably funny, he was also a philosopher for the modern day, and a first-class intellect. Perhaps the best part of all of his work, though, was his astounding command of the english language-sometimes poetic, sometimes crude, but always well calculated and finely honed to provide precisely the effect he wanted. If you don’t believe me, read some of his routines and you’ll realize what I’m talking about. His work has been a major influence on my worldview.

You’ll understand, then, why I’m happy when I relate this next story. I was surfing the web looking for a poster of George Carlin (such as the “Incomplete List of Impolite Words” at the bottom of this post) and I found a comedy store website that sells not only albums, but also other paraphernalia. I immediately went to their “Legendary Comedians” category and started searching for George.

And I didn’t find him.

Needless to say, I was a little taken aback by this. He may not have been everybody’s favorite comedian, but he was certainly a pioneer in the field. I almost began searching through their entire index, when I saw at the top of the topics list: “Carlin Stuff. He has his own category! Seeing my favorite artists being recognized for their talent is always a good thing.

Oh, and if you know somewhere that I can get a Carlin poster on a student’s budget, please let me know.

The Incomplete List of Impolite Words

Now that school has started up again and we’re all busily back at work, I have to pause to compare this semester with the last. Last semester, I was afflicted by two of the worst teachers I’ve ever had in my physics and astronomy classes. These instructors managed to do something I thought was impossible: they made me dislike physics.

Flash forward to this semester, when I have a completely different set of instructors. Some of them are mediocre, some are still bad, but I do have one teacher who has brought back my sense of wonder in physics. I find myself actually wishing class would not end (our lectures on relativistic Electromagnetism), I am actually intrigued by the homework problems (the recent problem on how light pressure works), and most importantly, it’s actually possible to learn things from lecture.

The best part of it all is that I’ve now relized how much I really missed physics being interesting. I hope my luck continues.

I have discovered that there are many things which heighten the enjoyment of beer, including temperature, environment, and glassware. These quantities are easy to control, but until recently I had very little glassware. I began with the Dogfish Head english pint glass that I won in a contest at a local pizza place and my Star Trek: The Experience mug. This is certainly better than nothing, but I wanted a bit more, so I began my first beer side-quest.

Next, I sought out and purchased a sampler pack of Chimay beer, a Trappist monk brewed masterpiece. The sampler pack includes a Chimay glass, a type of vessel known as a Trappist glass. It is basically a bowl with a stem and stand, and greatly improves the enjoyment of Trappist beers. Every time I pour into this glass, the ratio of head to beer is absolutely perfect, creating a very pleasing visual element to the experience.

I was satisfied with this arrangement for a little while, until I realized that most of the types of beers I was having were not meant to be served in the kinds of glasses I had. I then sought out and purchased (with the very last bit of money from a christmas gift card) what is known as a Larger glass. This is a taller, flared glass with gently curving sides. The effect is rather elegant when combined with a golden-colored beer, such as the Widmer Hefeweizen I am currently sampling:

As it turns out, I’ve now had this beer in three different glasses, and the Larger glass is by far my favorite. While it may not be exactly the right kind of glass for this beer (that would be a Weizen), it is very close, and complements the features of the beer nicely. If you have the opportunity to experiment with beer glasses, I strongly suggest it. Not only is it a fun process, it is also tasty!

There’s a new smallest exoplanet in town, COROT-Exo-7b. Even better, it’s a transiting exoplanet (a type of planet outside of our solar system that moves across the disk of their host star from our point of view to block some light), a special type of object that I actually know quite a bit about (I’ve been on two projects observing these).

This is actually quite a lucky find, it is difficult to impossible to find out much about most extrasolar planets (which don’t transit their host stars). Since the technology to directly image them hasn’t really developed yet (notable exceptions are the recently imaged Fomalhaut B and HR 8799 B, C and D which are special cases), all we know about them comes directly from the changes they can induce in the host star. This includes the wobble back and forth caused by the planet’s mass (this method of finding planets can be called astrometry or radial velocity-they both exploit this motion in different ways), the sudden magnification and brightening of a background star caused by gravitational microlensing, and a few other less frequently used methods. These methods allow you to approximate a mass and orbital solution for the planet but nothing else. Transiting, however, not only helps to narrow down these parameters, but it also allows you to measure the radius of the planet, the eccentricity of the orbit, and in one special circumstance, map the surface of the planet.

COROT-Exo-7 is a K0 type main-sequence dwarf star about 140 parsecs away (that’s about 460 light years). It has an apparent visual magnitude of 11.7 (to put this into perspective for non-astronomers, the absolute dimmest thing a human can see in the best conditions is about magnitude 6.5. Magnitude is a wacky scale invented by the ancient Greeks, so it’s backwards and logarithmic, all of which is to say that you can’t see this star). It’s a relatively young star at an age of 1.1 billion years (+1.1 -0.4).

The planet itself is about 1.7 times the diameter of earth but about 11 times more massive. Since we know both of these quantities, we can figure out the density of the object and the density can tell us something about the composition. It has been suggested that this planet could actually be half rock and half water, which is a very interesting mixture indeed. Unfortunately, this planet has an orbital period of 20 hours and is practically burning up at nearly 2700 degrees Fahrenheit because it is exceptionally close to the host star. So even though it’s the first planet you could actually walk on, you probably wouldn’t want to.

This discovery is just the beginning of a whole new era for extrasolar planetary science. One of my dreams when I began studying astronomy was to discover an earth-like planet and COROT-Exo-7b is a major step on the road to this goal.

I have strange musical tastes, ranging from classical to rock to bluegrass and most recently blues.  But my favorite type of music is Irish/Scottish Traditional.  My interest started when I took a summer class on Irish music in middle school.  It was only later that I realized that I am a quarter Irish.  Since the very early days of my acquaintance with this music, my favorite band has been the Old Blind Dogs, a scottish folk group hailing mostly (or at least they used to) from Aberdeenshire and Northern Scotland (as opposed to another of my favorite bands, Breabach, a newer discovery).  OBD have been an inspiration to me musically, nearly every member of the band contributing significantly to how I play.

When I went to see the Dogs in concert last year, they were as awesome as ever, even though their piper and whistle player Rory Campbell had just left the band and the lead singer Jim Malcolm had left in 2006.  The new piper, Ali Hutton, acquitted himself excellently, and the band played many of my old favorites.  However, there were a few new tunes, and one particularly stood out.  It was a quiet vocal number called “Saints and Sinners.”  I went home humming the tune and playing it over in my mind with the few lyrics I remembered.  Thus began a several-month-long-quest to find a recording of this tune, finally ending in this album by Aaron Jones (Old Blind Dogs guitar and bozuki player and sometimes lead singer), and Claire Mann, an award-winning flute player, fiddler, and singer with an impressive list of accomplishments.  Despite this high level of achievement and the high expectations, they managed to exceed anything I could have hoped for.  I may have bought it for one track, but I keep listening to it for the rest: this is simply a great album.

It begins with a moderately paced set of three reels called McElvogue’s between fiddle, flute, and bozuki.  These tunes show off exactly what I love about Aaron Jones’ accompaniment.  It drives the melody forward, but isn’t overbearing.  The middle reel is wonderfully minor and twisty, switching back to a wholesome major key for the finish.

The next set, The Smiling Bride, is a mixture of jigs in about the same tempo as the first set.  A bit of bodhran changes up the pace nicely, however, and the sudden transition to a minor slip-jig (one that I know but can’t for the life of me place the name of) fits perfectly with the flavor of the album so far.  Back into another 6/8 jig with a vaguely minor B part for that intensely celtic feeling.

The third track, Saints and Sinners, I’ve mentioned before as being the reason I bought the album, and it doesn’t disappoint.  I must say, through all the years of listening to Jim Malcolm’s incredible voice (Scots Trad singer of the year 2004, nominee several other times) with the Dogs, I never realized that Aaron Jones also had a great singing voice.  This song is from the perspective of a man sitting on his steps on Sunday morning and watching people go to church.  It’s wonderfully philosophical in just the way I like:

I remember the lessons of Sunday school

And I can’t help thinking that maybe I’m the fool

And I see no part of a greater plan

Just the joy and the sorrow of my fellow man

See what I mean?  As Ronan Burke would say: Great hurlin’, altogether. (At least that’s what I think he says, he has a really thick accent. Follow the link, and you’ll see…)

The next set is a good return to a moderate pace after the song with two tunes from Brittany (I believe). The first is a tune from Jacky Molard, who I seem to have heard of before (I recognize the style), and the second a great minor tune with the kind of rhythm awesomeness that makes dancers stumble.

The fifth track, Across the Western Ocean, is another standout vocal piece involving Liverpool, a favorite city of Jones. Instrumentally, this tune is rather complicated, building a great undercarriage for the unadorned vocals. The flute and bozuki work better together than I would have thought, as does the guest harmonica provided by Little Al Price (never heard of him). Another great tune.

The sixth set, Tripping, is mostly traditional tunes and all ’session favorites.’ In the second tune, we finally get a burst of speed from Mann’s fiddle playing, displaying excellent use of ornamentation. At the end is a nice little stinger arpeggiated chord, which I haven’t seen used in Irish trad. much, but I must say it works nicely.

Fortune’s Wheel is the seventh track and third vocal selection, and is rather laid-back in its circa minor feeling. Aaron Jones’ voice gets a bit of a workout here with a bit larger dynamic and tonal range as well as much more ornamentation than in the others. Accompanying him here is only light guitar and B flat flute, which has the wonderfully breathy sound of lower winds.

Another tune I know starts off Snappy Guzzlin’. While the liner notes call it Denis Ryan’s, that name just doesn’t click with me. This is the curse of Irish music: every tune has three different names depending on where you are (example: the wedding reel is known as MacLeod’s Farewell, Madonna’s, and even Ms. MacLeod’s Farewell to Chastity in certain parts of Tucson) and there’s six other tunes with the same name. This set does live up to the ’snappy’ title, however, and brings a great happy note the middle of the album.

The last vocal number on the album, Slip Jigs and Reels continues the pattern of outstanding vocal tunes on this album. This is another single song that I would have bought the entire album just to get. Thankfully, I got a whole album of these! The main character of this song leaves his home for New York and has all sorts of adventures, but through it all he finds pleasure in slip jigs and reels. As with most good Irish/Scottish Trad. songs, this ends with the main character dying. It would be a downer if it wasn’t expected in practically every tune (if things end happily, I’m surprised).

The next to last set, Bottle of Whisky, includes YET ANOTHER tune I know by the name of Munster Buttermilk (this name I DO recognize), and two tunes I have to learn. The first if only for the name: “Kitty Got a Clicking Coming to the Fair,” and the second because of the story behind it. Bottle of Whisky refers to a competition between two Uilleann pipers where the prize was…what else but a bottle of Whisky. This last has great major/minor transitions and a compelling melody worthy of a Uilleann competition.

The last tune on the album is a solo air by Claire Mann on the B flat flute called Lament for the Kerry Fisherman. It may not have been my choice as a last tune for this album, but it certainly works, the simplicity of the solo flute giving the listener time to pause and consider the album they have just listened to as an entire work.

I must say that while both of these artists have released albums with other bands, Secret Orders is an incredibly impressive first album. I only hope we can see more from this duo sometime in the near future!

I may not be a huge football fan (my favorite sport is Hurling-UP BANNER!) , but I always watch the superbowl even if I don’t have a team. However, as an Arizona resident I was obligated to root for the Cardinals. I must say, when I first found out that the Cardinals were going to the superbowl I was just a little…blown out of my mind. I’m used to my local sports teams loosing spectacularly and disappointing in the worst possible way. Success is just unheard of.

The best part of this is that the game turned out to be half awesome. The second and fourth quarters were actually great football, while the first and third were total crap. The Cardinals played as if schizophrenic, at points brilliant (the first interception, their last minute drive for a touchdown, the incredible safety which had everybody out of their chairs screaming themselves hoarse), but more often than not bogged down by seeming incompetence (the 100 yard interception return touchdown, the MANY personal fouls, the inability to capitalize on drives, the defense, oh god the defense).

Of course there were several very bad calls by referees, who seemed a bit trigger happy with the flags, but in the end the Steelers simply played a better (read: more consistent) game. My hat grudgingly goes off to them on their 6th superbowl win.
All I can say now is: maybe next year?