Atomsmashing, what a job, Accelerator demigod, Unseen mesons fly apart, Serpentine plasmas at the heart. Underground, a mountain park, Neutrinos strike to make a spark, A single photon in the dark, Bouncing off a stranger quark. Entanglement and DNA, While our waking hours away, Looking for a better way, The guesses we suggest today. Ultra
THE CURIOUS ENCOUNTER WITH MADAME De Broglie declared that all motion Of particles must be associated With the propagation of a wave. Einstein then wrote that De Broglie “Had lifted the corner of the great veil.” Einstein later had an opportunity To lift another veil—that of Marie Curie, When they vacationed together, Quite reactively, in the Swiss alps. Did they or didn’t they exchange energy? Einstein was a ladies’ man, though married, Busy having an affair with his cousin, Elsa, And Marie was a married man’s lady (Paul’s). Einstein wrote his wife that Marie was a grouch, But, was this just a misdirection meant to allay? They inhaled the alpine air, talking science, Strolling far and trying to name the peaks.
Accelerator demigod… in the LHC, the Cathedral of Science… DOOM? “Behold this droplet of anti-world, My anti-matter that LHC created, Enough material to see.” “My God, a visible amount!” “See, here it is, suspended In a vacuum in this tube, For even the air would ignite it.” “Quick, send it away, Get rid of it.” “No, for I have discovered Creation.”
The Transit of Venus Across the Face of the Sun And the Unluckiest Man on the Face of the Earth Edmund Halley had suggested that if you measured The passage of Venus over the sun from selected Places on Earth, you could work out the distance to the sun By using triangulation and then go on to use that calibration To find the distances to all the other bodies of the solar system. These transits come in pairs eight years apart And then there are none at all for a century dark. There were none in Halley’s lifetime, but in 1761, Twenty years after Halley’s death, the world was one. Scientists set off for points all over the Earthly globe, Hundreds of them, but most remained in problem mode. Many were waylaid by war, shipwreck or sickness. Then, too, there was much damage to the instruments. Jean Chappe spent many months traveling to Siberia By horse, sleigh, boat and coach, nursing his criteria Over every bump. At last he was near, but swollen rivers Blocked the way; locals blamed it on him looking at the heavens. Guillaume Le Gentil set off from France a year ahead of time, But got delayed and was yet stuck at sea in brine, Impossibly trying to take measurements from a pitching ship. He continued on to India, now having eight years to prepare For the transit of 1769. He erected a viewing station there, Having everything ready on the fine day of June 4th; But just as Venus began its pass, a cloud slid forth Right in front of the sun and stayed there and spent Its time exactly for the the duration of the transit: Three hours, fourteen minutes, and seven seconds. Enroute to a port to head for home, he contracted dysentery And was laid up for a year, but then finally left the territory On a ship that was later hit by a hurricane off Of the African coast and nearly wrecked and lost, But he did make it home 12 years after setting off, Only to find that his relatives had long since sealed his fate By declaring him dead and then plundering his estate. The few measurements from 1761 were of no benefit, But, luckily, in 1769, James Cook had watched the transit From a sunny hilltop in Tahiti, giving enough weight Of information now for Joseph Lalande to calculate The mean distance to the sun at about 150 million kilometers.
Finding the Edge of the Universe! At Princeton University, Robert Dicke and his team Had really been building up much scientific steam From pursuing George Gamow’s good suggestion Of a deep space Cosmic Background Radiation. Gamow wrote another paper suggesting some ways To use the Bell antenna, but no one read it in those days. Unknowing of this paper and unbeknownst to Dicke, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, but 30 miles not far, Were diligently trying to get rid of this very CBR! At Bell Lab, their large communications antenna deployed Was plagued by some persistent background noise, A steady steamy hiss, unfocused and unrelenting, They ever attempting to squash it away so painstakingly. For a year they’d tried to eliminate this nuisance noise, Through testing, rebuilding, and wiggling-dusting ploys, Even placing duct tape over each and every seam and rivet. They even wiped away a ton of bird shit from the dish, Scrub brushing it and sweeping it clean. But, no fish. Little did they know they’d found the edge of the visible universe: The very first photons were at hand—the most ancient light, Although time and distance had changed it into microwaves. It was this interfering radiation they wished to swish away. If the Empire State Building was the universe we know, They had reached within an inch of the sidewalk below. In desperation, they called Princeton about the noise; “We’ve been scooped!” Dicke sadly told all of his boys. Penzias and Wilson received the 1978 Nobel Prize, Even though they’d not been looking, CBR-wise, And didn’t even know what it was when they found it, Nor had they ever described it in any scientific paper, Not even knowing the significance but from the newspaper. (Sadly, all that Dicke’s team got was a bit of sympathy.) note: they didn’t really call it “bird shit”, but a “white dielectric material”. See The Birth of the Universe At Home You, too, can detect the ancient CBR; Just tune your TV to a blank channel; About 1% of the dancing static is the CBR. When there’s nothing on, it’s really everything!
Measuring the Size of the Earth An English mathematician, Robert Norwood, among many, Wished to know the circumference of the Earth, as any, With his back against the Tower of London, he worked Two devoted years marching 208 miles north to York, Repeatedly stretching and measuring a piece of chain As he went forth through all the heat, cold and rain, He all this while made many meticulous adjustments tolled For the rise and fall of the land and the meandering road. Then, in York, a year since he began in London, He measured the precise angle of the sun. Thus, using trigonometry to size a degree of the mark, He came up with 110.72 kilometers per degree of arc. Not thinking that these measurements could be true, Since the slightest errors could throw them into the blue, Jean Picard spent two years trundling and triangulating; Using quadrants and pendulum clocks, he got 110.46. But, was the Earth fatter at the north and south poles? Now new measurement were need to replace the old. A hydrologist, Pierre Bouguer and and soldier, Charles Marie de La Condamine, with many bolder, Traveled to Peru to triangulate distance through the Andes, To measure the meridian’s length from Cuenca to Yoarouqui. They needed but to go 200 hundred miles for one degree, But everything began to go wrong, sometimes spectactularly. In Quito, they provoked the locals, getting stoned away, Then their doctor was murdered and the botanist went crazy. Fevers and falls claimed even more, and the most senior member, Pierre Godin, ran off with a pretty thirteen year old girl. Then they had to halt their work for eight long months, Having to sort out a problem in Lima with their permits. La Condamine and Bouguer stopped to each other speaking, And all the while officials had many suspicions, unbelieving That French scientists would travel halfway the world around To measure the world right here in their very own towns. Why didn’t they make the measurements in France? Well, Edmund Halley, an exceptional figure, by chance Got from Newton that our planet was slightly oblate; But, Jacques Cassini had come up with the reverse fate. Jacques was wrong, but the Academy sent the team in mind To South America, to mountains with good sight lines; However, the mountains of Peru were often lost in the clouds, So they’d wait weeks to observe for an hour, complaining loud. Plus, the terrain was near impossible, even defeating the mules, But the men plodded on, fording wild rivers, hacking jungles And crossing uncharted stony deserts far from supplies, Tackling the task for nine long sun-blistered years of lies. They then found out that another French team, cold, Had taken measurements in Scandinavia that showed That indeed a degree was longer near to the poles, The Earth Forty-three kilometers wider equatorially (Than from top to bottom around the poles.) Still not talking, Bouguer and La Condamine just moaned, Returning to the coast and even taking separate ships home.
More than 2000 years earlier and more cleverly done with more accurate results was: "Greek scholar and philosopher, Eratosthenes (276 BC– 195 BC), is said to have made more explicit measurements. He had heard that on the longest day of the summer solstice, the midday sun shone to the bottom of a well in the town of Syene (Aswan). At the same time, he observed the sun was not directly overhead at Alexandria; instead, it cast a shadow with the vertical equal to 1/50th of a circle (7° 12'). To these observations, Eratosthenes applied certain "known" facts (1) that on the day of the summer solstice, the midday sun was directly over the Tropic of Cancer; (2) Syene was on this tropic; (3) Alexandria and Syene lay on a direct north-south line. Legend has it that he had someone walk from Alexandria to Syene to measure the distance: that came out to be equal to 5000 stadia or (at the usual Hellenic 185 meters per stadion) about 925 kilometres. Eratosthenes' method for determining the size of the Earth From these observations, measurements, and/or "known" facts, Eratosthenes concluded that, since the angular deviation of the sun from the vertical direction at Alexandria was also the angle of the subtended arc (see illustration), the linear distance between Alexandria and Syene was 1/50 of the circumference of the Earth which thus must be 50×5000 = 250,000 stadia or probably 25,000 geographical miles. The circumference of the Earth is 24,902 miles ..." Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!See:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_geodesy & world's 1st physics genus at:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eratosthenes He had no sextant so used tall vertical pole with tip a know length distance from level sand. Then starting before solar noon stuck pins in the sand. The closest to pole base and pole length give him the “high noon” angle ratio.
The Last Dodo Worked in a Museum The famously flightless bird, the good old dodo, Had a dimwitted but ever trusting natural motto. During millions of years of isolation from us, It had evolved on the island of Mauritius. It was not at all ready for human behavior low, Even waddling over to note the fall of its fellow. In 1755, seventy years after the last dodo’ s word, A museum director at the Ashmolean in Oxford, Nothing that its dodo specimen had become “tired”, Being unpleasantly musty, so he threw it into a bonfire. We are now not even sure what a living dodo was like, But for some oil paintings. We will not again see their likes.
Mastodons and Extinctions In the late 1700’s, Cuvier could take heaps of bones And whip them into shapely forms not in the stones. After describing and naming the fossil elephant the mastodon, He put forward for the first time a theory on extinction. He said that from time to time there were global catastrophes In which some groups of creatures “became history”. This raised many uncomfortable implications at the time, For why would God create and destroy without reason or rhyme? This suggested an unaccountable casualness by someone unseeing And greatly troubled the belief in The Great Chain of Being, Which held that the world was carefully ordered for us— And that every living thing thus had a place and purpose. Meanwhile, William Smith noted a correlation in fossils In rocks to find the relative rock ages that were possible. At every change in rock strata, certain fossils vanished, While in others they carried on into subsequent levels. Now it was seen that God had wiped out creatures extinct Not only occasionally but repeatedly—which made us think Him not only careless but as having an outright hostile distinction. Clearly, there had been more than the Biblical Noachian deluge extinction.
That is good , I really like it. My dyslexia makes me a little slow , but I can get there in the end and my conclusion is this is really good
What is 3 to be one and 2 boo hoo o.k. so they say 2 and 3 is 5 with a big sigh To every thing buy and buy tell we get a fin where you been Front me a finny well how bout a 10 give Me five on the high side no go 10 on the low
Two high fives to you, Me-Ki-Gal. Take 3 apples from 5 and what do you have. No, not 2, but 3, for you took them. So, 3, really? No, for you just ate 1.
life hides cow skins and raccoon hats Harold's club in the winter beer taps flow girls with a glow smell of sex oh no a fight lasted a small part of the night the first band was to start the second was our part Did we need a cage to keep away the rage no low and be hold by our time the crowd thinned musicians only stayed Mouths hanging open fingers pointing eyes winking The show was a success with no big crowd but only the best
While you were inside, Me-Ki-Gal, this was happening outside… MOONLIGHT SONATA The music of the spring was in the breeze, A prelude borne by airy musicians Of the trees—the mating calls of the birds, That opened for the cosmic symphony. The Music of the Spheres played in the park At night—flung down by our Father, the Sky, Through the soft night to our Mother, the Earth, Then to us, their audience and progeny. The planets joined in a concert to the Merrie Monthe of Maie, arrayed as follows: There was Venusia, the Bringer of Peace, Singing side by side with warring Marsius. Flitting about was the wingéd Mercuria, The speedy messenger who conducted The orchestra, melting all of us who Were touched by her wand of burning desire. And mighty Zeus, was there, full to the brim With the jollity of the fat man's belly. By Jove, came Saturnus, so very gray With age—lumbering into the party. Thence sat Urania, the magician, and The old sea captain, King Nep, the mystic, But not Pluto; he was downsized, no more One of the harmonics—an underworld! Jupiter’s music was round and robust, While Saturn’s boomed with the sounds of grandeur And the old venerable melodies; But, Mercury soon picked up the pace. Next flowed the serene love songs of Venus, Followed inexorably by Martial marches. Now was the time for Urania's magic— She played musical jokes and surprises. At last, their music came to mesh as one, And our wanderers of the night floated Away on the haunting mystical strains Of King Nep's tune, into the May Flower moon. Now we’re touched, so touched by the starlight, Afraid that we'll ne’er be the same again. Can you sense the euphony of the spheres? Can you fathom the theory of everything?
I got it in my pocket I learned it so I could not stop it Messaging space , putting on it lace Dividing the time all in a rhyme clicking of heals unwrapping the seal It is based in laws of 8 ain't that great Danny Cooper said it best Naysayers put him to rest His work is supportive of the bigger jest The web of time that turns on a dime Layers of filtration skipping sublime Why is 35 like an 8 the same reason 143 is Can you count to 9 for it is key Unison indeed But counting to 6 you will see the fix Is it base 7 our is it base 6 neither for it is base 10, counting by 6 , repeating on 7 making 12 part of hell but not until 18 is it really seen . 6,6,6 moving the bricks was it foretold in times of old walking the walls dropping the plumb line to the edge of the roof don't fall off you can loose a lot of friends that way as Van Haylen would say
Number Reduction All numbers are great, and I love them all; I wouldn’t want to live Without any one of them at all; But, due to the low economy, The “8” digit is being dropped, As only a few still employ it. ‘0’ through ‘5’ make the pyramid known— Its 4 supports and its top. ‘1’ is lone, ‘2’ is a couple, and ‘3’ is a crowd, And ‘4’ is more, and ‘5’ a nickel; And ‘6’ makes Saturn’s hexagon; ‘7’ is very lucky And ‘9’s must ever end the price; So, ‘8’ has been downsized and laid off. (Needs more work, but “a penny for your thoughts” and Mi-Ki-Gal put his 2 cents in, so I kept the change.) (And, also, due to the budget cuts, 3rd grade is being eliminated, for nothing ever happens there.)
