Physics is Fun

I titled this post after the text book beloved of physics teachers when I was being taught in the 70's. I still have the book, but haven't looked at it for decades. I still agree that physics is a wonderful subject.

Kamioka Observatory is an inter-university facility with a large experimental physics laboratory located 1,000m underground in Kamioka-mine in Hida-city, Gifu, Japan. Super-Kamiokande is a 50,000 ton water Cherenkov detector and primarily observes the elementary particles known as neutrinos. The Super-K neutrino observatory was simulated in an old lab in Manchester as part of the science festival. 

For a modest fee, I was dressed up in white papery suit, enormous wellies, hard hat and found myself struggling to clamber into a wee boat

The 22m boat journey is guided by a physicist talking about the neutrino mine in Japan and the fact that 50bn of these things are making their way through my thumb at any one time and a whole lot of other information, particularly about dark matter. The boat is pulled to one end of a gold balloon lined tank, then pulled back again with appropriate sonic boom that occurs when these particles move faster than the speed of light.

I clambered out again, stripped off the wellies, hat and suit and went off to listen to a lecture and watch the live feed from Japan showing a spike in a chart when neutrino's were caught.

The lecture covered the usual information about particle physics to a level I am familiar with but completely unable to explain. But the essential point is that neutrinos, previously thought to be massless, have finite masses, thus expanding theories about particle physics and anti-matter, dark matter and black holes.

In another room, the Pressure Company had set up their musical Bunsen pyrophone. This contraption worked by pressing buttons to make the Bunsens flare and create sound. A certain amount of faith is needed to believe this could be an entirely pleasureable musical experience but it was definitely great fun to play with.

 
Anyway, I expect Sig Other to get pedantic about all the physics mistakes in this post, and I'll have to come back and rewrite it so it is more accurate. He seems not to share my view that anarchists don't have to follow the laws of physics.

Light show at the Mound

Taking a stroll along Princes St after a lovely Thai meal at somewhere I now forget the name of, I was alerted by loud music and a small crowd that something interesting was happening at the Mound.

I crossed over and chatted to some young people handing stuff out beside some cars. They were part of an advertising stunt for the launch of some too expensive for me, car.

They had an excellent light show projected against the side of the National Gallery along all the pillars and reflecting onto the windows.

The cannon in this picture was at the beginning of a rapid sequence, but this is the only shot that came out reasonably well from that sequence.

 I liked this sky scraper picture and it seems to work in this shot.

Predictably, I didn't have my camera with me, although I suspect it would not have been adequate for the task of taking really good pictures in the dark. I made do with the camera on my iPhone.  I wish the stunning effects had come out better, but the pictures on this page might provide some idea of the sight.

Somehow, the projection has managed to produce realistic flames in the gallery windows. Not something that will ever actually happen, I hope.

A proper castley castle

Forgot my camera so made do with my phone camera on a recent visit to Bothwell Castle near Uddingston in the west of Scotland.

Of the various castles I've traipsed around over the past few months, this has to be the most stereotypical castle so far. It's a ruin, but with interesting and differently dated bits and pieces. It also has a fascinating history dating back to the 1200's when building began on an ambitious scale and replacing an earlier wooden structure.

All this architectural grandeur was interrupted by that pain in the neck Edward 1 of England. Thus Bothwell Castle featured in the Wars of Independence being seiged, besieged and captured back and forth between sundry Edwards, and the Moray's, companions to Wallace.

The castle is being repaired and some parts of the tower can't be accessed because of the scaffolding.

After peace broke out the Earls of Douglas took over the castle and the colourfully named Archibald the Grim began a programme of rebuilding the castle.

The castle is in a particularly strategic point, which is simply not obvious today, at least to me. But it is next to the river Clyde and guarded a major crossing point over the river that could be used by advancing English invaders during the Wars of Independence. Today, of course, it looks like a very nice ruin built from warm red sandstone sited amidst a peaceful landscape with mature trees and the river running past.

View of the postern gate with the river Clyde at the bottom of the slope.

Nauseatingly cute

On a recent visit to Martin Mere wetland centre, the experience included practising photographing the ultimate in cute, wee furry things.  The day we visited there were lots of folks who'd brought their animals and their crafts to display. Many owners were willing to allow visitors to hold or stroke ferrets, birds and baby coo's and pigs and such like.The meerkats were problematic to photograph as they would not sit still and smile for the camera.

Some beasties were closer up than others, and the just as cute but feathered instead of furry were enclosed in their own ponds but further away from the enthusiastic photographer.

Flamingos in their shed.

No picture records my not quite distant enough encounter with Priscilla the death inducing tarantula. I spied Priscilla across a hut I’d entered following my discovery of how soft chinchillas are.  I was a little off balance from narrowly avoiding verbalising my thoughts that I could now understand why heartless people made them into coats thus upsetting the terribly nice owner and ruining any credibility I have as a vegetarian.

But Priscilla and my near death experience…
All arachnophobes have dramatic tales to tell (as opposed to being drama queens) and seeing what I first thought was an ugly pattern on a chap’s jumper turned out to be blood-chilling to the extent I was capable of emitting only a feeble squeak. Sig Other congratulated me on keeping my cool. I later admitted it was shock not cool I felt.  Actual end of life was averted by staggering over with whatever aplomb I could muster to cuddle a cute python.  Equilibrium mostly restored, I carried on to the next building which held an assortment of birds of prey.

The outlying parts of this waterfowl sanctuary are home at the moment to vast numbers of pink footed geese.

And the final cute pic was taken when the otters were being fed.