Tag: learning

Youngest Son came to visit this week (the reason why there was no Pique the Geek last Sunday, getting ready for his visit).  He is 20 and is in culinary school.  I am actually sort of pleased, as cooking good food is as important as being a scientist, and actually involves a lot of science to do it well.

We had a great time!  After the 10+ hour drive, he was pretty tired, but hungry.  I made Frog Sandwiches for both of us late Monday night (recipe available on request), talked, joked, went meet my dear neighbors across the street, and threw some darts.  Neither of us were very good at darts Monday.

The first installment of this series may be found here, and it gives the basics as to how nuclear energy works.  The way that the stars generate their energy is interesting, and we shall consider it in greater detail this time.

Young stars almost always fuse hydrogen into helium.  There are several reasons for this, amongst them 1) hydrogen (protium, see the previous installment) is the most common nucleide in the cosmos, 2) more energy is released by fusing protium into helium nuclei than any other known process, and 3) there are multiple processes to accomplish it.

Hello, all.  I did not have research time to finish up the next installment about nuclear fusion in stars, so we will have to do with this.  I began planting my garden last week, so the subject of canning food came to mind.

Most people do not realize that canned foods are relatively recent developments, not counting wine and beer, which are at least technically, canned in many cases.

Nuclear fusion is often proffered as the final solution to our energy needs.  That well may be, but hardly anyone understands what it means, and almost no one, outside of physicists, knows how it relates to nuclear fission (the power source that we use now).

It all has to do with Dr. Einstein’s simple, but seminal equation, E = mc².  This means that mass can be converted to energy in a huge fashion.  Let us take a kilogram of mass, any mass, and convert it to energy.  Using the formula, and it has been proved over and over to be correct, one kilogram of mass (think of a big sirloin steak, for example) becomes a LOT of energy.

According to the equation, that kilogram of mass becomes thus:

E = (1 kg)(2.9979 x 10⁸ m/s)²  = 8.99 x 10¹⁶ Joules

This is almost 90,000 billions of Joules.  We are talking big energy.  But it does happen quite like this.  Only in matter-antimatter annihilation does all mass become energy.

Nuclear fusion is often proffered as the final solution to our energy needs.  That well may be, but hardly anyone understands what it means, and almost no one, outside of physicists, knows how it relates to nuclear fission (the power source that we use now).

It all has to do with Dr. Einstein’s simple, but seminal equation, E = mc2.  This means that mass can be converted to energy in a huge fashion.  Let us take a kilogram of mass, any mass, and convert it to energy.  Using the formula, and it has been proved over and over to be correct, one kilogram of mass (think of a big sirloin steak, for example) becomes a LOT of energy.

According to the equation, that kilogram of mass becomes thus:

E = (1 kg)(2.9979 x 108 m/s)2  = 8.99 x 1016 Joules

This is almost 90,000 billions of Joules.  We are talking big energy.  But it does happen quite like this.  Only in matter-antimatter annihilation does all mass become energy.

Nuclear fusion is often proffered as the final solution to our energy needs.  That well may be, but hardly anyone understands what it means, and almost no one, outside of physicists, knows how it relates to nuclear fission (the power source that we use now).

It all has to do with Dr. Einstein’s simple, but seminal equation, E = mc2.  This means that mass can be converted to energy in a huge fashion.  Let us take a kilogram of mass, any mass, and convert it to energy.  Using the formula, and it has been proved over and over to be correct, one kilogram of mass (think of a big sirloin steak, for example) becomes a LOT of energy.

According to the equation, that kilogram of mass becomes thus:

E = (1 kg)(2.9979 x 108 m/s)2  = 8.99 x 1016 Joules

This is almost 90,000 billions of Joules.  We are talking big energy.  But it does happen quite like this.  Only in matter-antimatter annihilation does all mass become energy.

I have never been a stranger to admitting when I have been wrong.  My philosophy is that is better to be wrong than to have no opinion.  Since I write many of my thoughts here and at Kos, I am never short for feedback to show me how I am wrong, and I actually appreciate it.  I always strive for accuracy, and welcome any corrections.

I have been very wrong about Limbaugh.  I started listen to him around 1993 (please do not ask why, because the answer is extremely convoluted and very personal, [thanks, Cruz]) so we will not go there.  Please follow my thoughts.

There seem to be more adverts on the TeeVee than content.  I guess that is why it only costs from $20 to $50 a month for “free” TeeVee.

Some adverts are amusing, some are less than amusing, and some are just insulting.  Please keep with me as I look at a few that I find in each category.

Well, I am back now.  I had planned to provide an installment last week, but I had a bad cold and just did not feel much like setting at the keyboard.

Personally, I do not mind the coughing nor the sneezing, or even the sore throat.  The one thing that bothers me the worst is to lose my ability to thermocompensate, such that I feel either cold or hot when I should be in my comfort zone of temperature.  Aspirin assists me to regulate a bit better, but being well is the better feeling.

I guess that I am one of those “elite eggheads” that Rush Limbaugh (college flunkout and several times divorced, in addition to being a self proclaimed drug addict), Sean Hannity (college dropout), Glenn Beck (college dropout and divorced, and a self proclaimed alcoholic), Bill O’Reilly (who has a BA and and MA and a settled case of sexual harassment), Greta van Susteren (with a law degree from Gerogetown, and returned to teach law there), and the mighty eye candy Gretchen Carlson, the Miss America whose nanny was not any other than the bizarre Michele Bachmann, now in Congress from the diverse state of Minnesota. By the way, Carlson has a degree in the liberal (socialist) field of Sociology.

So the radical right goes from the ignorant to the well educated.  I guess that I do not fit in well.