Well, this series keeps getting longer and longer. I initially intended it to be just one part, then I decided it really needed an introductory article to set things up; that introductory article soon became two parts, and then the … Continue reading A Primer on Particle Physics, Part 4: The Building Blocks of Matter
You may have seen physicists draw things like this (before I knew what these were, they always struck me as looking like some kind of esoteric, occult hieroglyphs – the sort of thing you might find a wizened old mage … Continue reading A Primer on Particle Physics, Part 3: Feynman Diagrams
Link to part 1 in case you missed it: https://the-avocado.org/2020/07/07/a-primer-on-particle-physics-part-1-what-is-a-particle-the-answer-may-surprise-you/ Last time, I talked in a very abstract way about fields (and particularly quantum fields), and I claimed that particles are fundamentally excitations of these fields. This time, we’ll get … Continue reading A Primer on Particle Physics, Part 2: Fun with Quantum Field Theory
So, I started this with the intention of writing a sort of “guide to particles” that would take the reader on a tour of electrons, quarks, photons, and so on, all the way into hypothesized beasts like the pentaquarks, gravitons, … Continue reading A Primer on Particle Physics, Part 1: What Is a Particle? The Answer May Surprise You!
Let’s all make fun of listen to each other’s accents. To participate, just go to https://vocaroo.com, record yourself reading the following fable, and post it here: There was once a poor shepherd boy who used to watch his flocks in … Continue reading Another Accent Thread
Hey, I thought this might be a fun way to kill time on a Wednesday: list your favorite movie you’ve seen that came out each year, starting from whatever year you like. Check IMDB or Letterboxd or Wikipedia for lists … Continue reading Your Favorite Movie of Each Year
The hit fictional sitcom Dad’s Casa was a cultural juggernaut when it first aired, but with so many seasons, not to mention all the spinoffs and tie-ins, it can be intimidating for a new viewer to get into. Here, then, … Continue reading Five Episodes of Dad’s Casa Everyone Should See
Can the first person here each day create a Results thread so it’s always first when sorted by Oldest? That will make it much easier to track results. Quiz type: Forced Order / Wrong Answers Quiz note: Decide whether you … Continue reading Triviacados: Sunday, September 8, 2019
Well, here it is, the last part in what you probably thought was an interminably long series on the interpretations of Quantum Mechanics. In this part, I want to do three things – first, mention a few other interpretations that … Continue reading A Primer on the Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics, Part 5
I was going to wrap things up with this article, but I decided that the Everett-tradition deserves its own post, so I’ll wait until next week for a final post taking a broader view of these issues and tackling what … Continue reading A Primer on the Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics, Part 4
If you missed them, parts 1 and 2 are here: https://the-avocado.org/2019/07/02/a-primer-on-the-interpretations-of-quantum-mechanics-part-1/ https://the-avocado.org/2019/07/16/a-primer-on-the-interpretations-of-quantum-mechanics-part-2/ Hidden Variables Last time, I talked about interpretations involving wave function collapse, which collectively form one of the three main traditions in the foundations of Quantum Mechanics. … Continue reading A Primer on the Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics, Part 3
If you missed it, part 1 of this article is here: https://the-avocado.org/2019/07/02/a-primer-on-the-interpretations-of-quantum-mechanics-part-1/ I’m not going to lie; there are some challenging concepts in here. But give it a go. At worst, you’ll have learned a few phrases you can throw … Continue reading A Primer on the Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics, Part 2
The term “Quantum Mechanics” conjures not just all manner of science fictional strangeness, but also philosophical questions about the nature of reality. Indeed, while the theory itself is well-worked out and rigorous[footnote]With the possible exception of the measurement problem, which … Continue reading A Primer on the Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics, Part 1
Can the first person here each day create a Results thread so it’s always first when sorted by Oldest? That will make it much easier to track results. Quiz note: The answers are not necessarily ‘real’ things; they may be … Continue reading Triviacados: Sunday, June 9th, 2019
Can the first person here each day create a Results thread so it’s always first when sorted by Oldest? That will make it much easier to track results. Quiz Note: If you’re bewildered by the strange letters: Þ/þ and ð … Continue reading Triviacados: Sunday, May 12, 2019
In part 1 of this article, I talked about the evidence for the existence of “dark matter” – that is, some kind of matter that we can’t see, and that likely is not made of the familiar protons, neutrons, and … Continue reading A Primer on Dark Matter Physics, Part 2
Every day, there are scientists who travel miles underground to tend to their dark matter detectors[footnote]And neutrino detectors, but come on, boring, right? (I kid; I used to study neutrinos, and neutrinos are awesome too, but are not the subject … Continue reading A Primer on Dark Matter Physics, Part 1
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