As a grad student in physics, I tend to think of myself as completely opposite of a frat guy. I care about knowing things, studying hard, not getting into fights, not any gay stuff. But there is certainly one experience that I share with frat guys. I want to be part of the scientific community. …
Category Archive: Science
Feb 14 2007
Physics vs Powerpoint
Unfortunately, working in Physics means giving quite a few presentations. This would be bad enough, as it takes significant time away from experiments. But, adding to this, everyone uses PowerPoint. The program is wretched for this application. For instance, say we want to display some kind of atomic structure. Atomic structures, if you don't know, …
Jan 27 2007
Derive the Bohr radius in a pinch
We all know the Bohr radius is about half an angstrom. But what if you want to derive it exactly in terms of fundamental constants, and you're stuck in the mountains without your textbook? Check this out: all we need is the Uncertainty Principle. (This discussion is inspired by the Feynman Lectures.) To begin, we …