The only truth in the universe
Well, it’s been a month since part 6 of this series, and I can only apologize for the delay. But at last it’s back, and today we’re going to talk about my favorite part of the Standard Model (if only … Continue reading A Primer on Particle Physics, Part 7: Leptons and Neutrino Oscillations
I must apologize for the unplanned hiatus in this series the last few weeks. As the series has expanded, it ended up running into the start of the semester and some constraints on my time. Hopefully, we’ll move along through … Continue reading A Primer on Particle Physics, Part 6: Quark Mixing
I have to apologize for how long it’s taken to finish this part of the series. You can find the previous articles here: https://the-avocado.org/?s=particle+physics Last time we kicked off our tour of the particle zoo by looking at the electron, … Continue reading A Primer on Particle Physics, Part 5: Bursting with Flavor
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!
You may not have noticed, what with all the other news flying around these days, but the Defense Department officially released some videos of UFOs. They’ve been out there on the internet for a while, but these are the official … Continue reading Let’s Talk UFOs
Hi, everybody, and welcome to the first in what I hope is a regular series on electronics theory, experimentation, demonstration, repair and project construction from a hobbyist’s perspective. I hope to occasionally explore topics in physics, chemistry, and computer science … Continue reading My Hideous Workbench: Smart Garage Door Opener Part 1
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, the interpretation of that theory has been one … Continue reading A Primer on the Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics, Part 1
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
A while back I had a conversation with a friend about epitaphs and we reached the conclusion than rather than a phrase we would prefer a GIF. That got me thinking on how can you create a portable GIF … Continue reading How to Make a Portable Reaction GIF
Every day, there are scientists who travel miles underground to tend to their dark matter detectors. This may be old news to you; you may even, like me, be one of those scientists – nevertheless, I invite you to pause … Continue reading A Primer on Dark Matter Physics, Part 1
Cats! Does the internet talk about cats enough? Are you sure? Were that a headline, Betteridge’s Law dictates that the answer to that question would be “no,” so I’m going to fix that deficit by discussing a certain cat issue … Continue reading Cats: Toxoplasmosis And You!
If you take a two-lane blacktop three hours northwest of Albuquerque New Mexico, you’ll find a sign for the Chaco Culture National Historical Park, which also reads ROUGH ROAD May Be Impassible Travel At Your Own Risk They’re not lying. … Continue reading Chaco Canyon Ruins
The Halloween season is upon us, and although its seasonal hordes of monsters are legion – ghosts, goblins, mummies, Frankenstein’s monsters, people putting razor blades in apples, etc. – only the vampire has any sort of real world presence, plus … Continue reading REAL Vampires!
It is officially the scariest time of the year and what could be scarier than the media misusing a bit of science a ghost story to scare people with? That’s right, today I’m going to talk about Asteroid 2015 TB145, … Continue reading Halloween In SPAAAAACE!
