The "Jig"

The jig is a term that anyone who has worked in a lab is very familiar with. It is a device which is put together to help meet the goals of the project. Usually duct tape or JB Weld will be involved with the creation of this device. Most of these jigs look like something that one might fight in the reject pile of an avid builder, yet these rough devices prove to be invaluable in the process of attaining information. It bring one to humbling realization that the bulk of our experimental scientific knowledge is the result of luck and jerry-rigging. The mighty scientist is no more than a tinkerer with a hunger for knowledge and a questioning mind.

Perhaps it is best this way. One must approach the world with a child like wonder to ask the correct questions. One must have the determination and creativity of child to devise an interesting solution to obtaining data. Scientists are merely over grown children with more expensive toys and the jigs are simply science fair projects which have changed the thinking of generations.

Entropy of Black Holes

It has been observed that a black hole has spewed forth a huge cloud of gas while it was in the process of "eating." Now since it was noted that this was a gas cloud, it might be assumed that this implies that it consists of ordinary matter. This is an interesting thought about black holes and our concepts of an even horizon. It seems that matter can actually come out of the supposed point of no return. This may have weighter implications than at first glance.

Acoustic Impedence

Acoustic Impedance is an idea about how sound is transmitted from one medium to another. The more closely matched to objects are in their impedences the more sound will be transmitted through. A medium's acoustic impedance is measure by the density and the speed which sound travels through it. The human ear membrane also has an acoustic impedence. I wonder how much this limits our hearing? How many sound waves hit only to bouce away, never to trigger the auditory nerve?

A Known Unknown

As early as primary school we become familiar with the concepts behind the scientific method. Any good experiments starts with a problem that demands a solutions is followed by a hypothesis. (This was one of the first big words I learned.) A hypothesis is an educated guess, based on known concepts, on how to solve the problem. Little did I know in my early years how little is actually known before a hypothesis is actually created. My early experiments were limited to well established facts and ideas, must to my disappointment.

As an adult, I am now delving into the experimental study of dark matter. This is a study of a material of which almost nothing is known. Each study is based on around properties which are hypothesized to be properties of dark matter and each study is different. It is also possible that dark matter only exists in a dimension which we cannot detect, and in that case every experiment may be in vain. The idea of an educated guess is more elusive and subjective than my earliest understandings of a hypothesis. In physics, we stare at mystery and from the illusions draw ideas which are assumed so experiments can be created. Out of this seeming madness comes beautiful answers and proofs.

Big Bang - And So It Begins

Quest

I fill my mind with

questions

How does everything

work?

Curiosity flows through my

being

Driven by a crazy

passion

Is the pursuit of knowledge

insanity?

I can do nothing else

but search...

The best adventures should be started with poetry. Join me on my adventure as I learn about scientific writing.