Coulomb's Law

Coulomb's log: After several weeks of piddling, I've done enough exercises to move on from this section of a chapter of a college physics textbook (1996) on Coulomb's Law. The main take away is Coulomb's Law:

F=k*q1*q2/r squared

The net force from two electric charges equals a constant (9*10 to the 9th) times the absolute value of q1 times q2 (two charges) divided by the distance between the two charge squared.

Following the process of how Coulomb developed this formula, I've understood more clearly than ever how scientists developed these sorts of formulas. They first figured out proportionalities. Is the force proportionate to the charge? To the product of the charges? Is it proportionate to the distance? Inversely proportionate?

Having then arrived at a set of proportions, namely that the force of two charges is directly proportionate to the product of the two charges and inversely proportionate to the square of the distance between the two charges, they then slap a constant to make the proportions into an equality. Then experimentally they figure out what the constant is.

Quantum Physics 1

When I was about twelve, I used to play a game every once and a while to keep me from getting bored--and I have always been very easily bored. I would pretend as if I suddenly developed complete amnesia and had to figure out where I was. Another question I used to ask myself is how much of human knowledge I could recreate if everyone else on the planet suddenly disappeared or if I were stuck on a deserted island. Not much, I always concluded.

So what if I were the last person alive on earth? I'm sure my first order of business would be figuring out food, crops, etc. I'd want to figure out medical type things and be ready for any kind of sickness. Assuming that nothing electrical worked, maybe I would spend some time trying to fix some things along those lines. Sure, I might travel too. I could live in a different ghost city every week if I wanted to.

But eventually, if I had access to all the books humanity had left behind, I would probably start to study things. Let's say one year or two I decide that I want finally to spend the time to learn quantum physics. I'd always wanted to, but didn't have the time. Of course I'd have to review a bunch of physics I hadn't thought about since high school and college, and that was now decades ago.

Where would I start?

Quantum Physics 2: Planck 1

All the introductions to quantum mechanics very quickly mention Max Planck. What do I remember of Planck from high school, college, somewhere? Didn't he suggest that maybe on the atomic level energy jumps from one intensity to another without going through all the levels in between? And I remember a formula, E=hv, where h is Planck's constant. Well, that doesn't take me very far. Better look in the library.

OK, here's a little book by John Polkinghorne published by Oxford in 2002: Quantum Theory: A Very Short Introduction. He starts a little further back than others. In the 1800's, people are thinking that light is a wave, like the sea. Isaac Newton back in the 1600s had thought light might be particles. He mentions James Clerk Maxwell as setting down the basic equations of electromagnetic theory, puts him in the same category as Newton, considers his equations the greatest discoveries of 1800s physics. They point to light being a wave.

Do I get distracted here? Do I now look for a college physics book to relearn the basics of electromagnetic theory? No one else is alive. I've got a lot of time on my hands. I'm probably going to have to go back to learn it at some point in this quest anyway. May as well.

The educated person knows Shakespeare 1

I was reminded of this great quote from Richard II. Someone in The Dutchess used the phrase "this blessed plot."
_______
This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall,
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.

No Breathing...

Another nice snippet from my son Tom to my wife Angie. He was wanting these new shoes, "air raiders" or something (airators?). He was telling me yesterday that the shoes actually breathe.

So Angie went out and got him some today. He rarely asks for stuff, except for the occasional video game and, since our visit to David Drury's house a few weeks back, a Wii. He prayed to Santa to get him one at Christmas, but that's another story.

So today when he finally had the shoes on, he declared to Angie, "Look, Mom, I'm not breathing." Then apparently he stood there very quiet, like he was frozen.

Yep, that's my son--high on imagination and a little confused about how things actually work in the real world...

Oh Me, Oh Life

Marion is so depressing to me, and it's not just about me.

Sure, part of it is about me. I had hoped to raise my kids in an environment saturated by culture and what I consider enlightenment. But this is not what is on my mind tonight.

I jogged at a nearby park yesterday while my youngest rode bikes. Then they played on some really nice new park equipment while I watched. The place was teeming with kids.

My kids ran into some other kids they knew. I knew them too. They don't have much, live in a trailer. I think the father might be a migrant. I'm not sure if he lives in the trailer with them or in a hotel room. They're not married.

They're people like we're people. I don't deserve to have a better life than they do... maybe I don't and I'm just deceiving myself. Maybe they're quite happy. I told myself that children don't need much to be happy.

But I was sad for them.

... sad like another day when I was at Wal-Mart, the main meeting place of Marion. A boy was crying with great sadness over a toy he wanted, must have been four or five. I couldn't hear exactly the nature of the dialog with his mother, but it didn't seem like he would get the toy. I pictured a mother who would have liked to get him the toy, but simply couldn't afford it.

Today my youngest and I passed some apartment buildings on our way home from somewhere. "Do people live there?" Sophie said.

"Yes," I responded and went on to tell her how blessed we were to have such a big house. There might be two bed rooms and a little living area off a kitchen in those apartments.

The people of Marion are people, like we're all people. What especially makes me sad is my suspicion that they're not too much different from most of the people of the world. Perhaps many of them have some vague notion of God, but it probably isn't real clear to them what that belief has to do with their lives.

The things that I find rich in life are irrelevant to them. Half of them are seriously overweight. Their life is just "bread and circuses," as Juvenal once described the life of the average Roman.

Vanity of vanities. All is vanity. All flesh is but a mist that disappears from the ground.

September 29, 2007

Unlike my wife Angie, I will forget the little fun things my children say if I don't write them down. I hate to think of how much I have forgotten already.

Today my son said something like, "I can't believe we live in North America" and went on to say that everyone in North America speaks American and that he didn't know that President Bush could take over all the states.

But the funniest thing today was when he asked me if I had ever known any gray people. Puzzled, I found out that he meant the people in black and white TV's, the way people used to be in the future. Now mind you, my son is eight and is very good at math and very much like me in some ways :-)

Another one I want to preserve for posterity comes from a conversation we had while he was taking a batha couple weeks ago. I won't go into the details, but the comment of choice was when he exclaimed, "You mean I'm going to have two?"

Children, that is...

Happy Birthday to Me

It's just after midnight, so I'm 41. Not much to say but 1) it's a prime number and 2) I almost feel middle aged. I don't quite feel middle aged or in my 40's. I don't think I act like someone in their 40's. I used to make a journal entry at least on my birthday, maybe even write a poem. Since I can't sleep, here goes.

The hand moved ere so slow,
I watched; no sound came forth
To mark the swing
Of some imagined pendulum
Between the minutes of each
Creep.

The mix of word and thought
And act, by each assigned
A place and sense
In some imagined frame and thread
Is scarcely more than breath,
Dream.

Kudos to Tom

Different parents are no doubt proud of different things. Today I'm proud of my son Tom for something I'll admit I never thought of. He was making hopscotch blocks with some new sidewalk chalk we discovered. He was numbering the blocks.

My surprise was to find that he had put a 0 and a -1 at the beginning. Then he wanted me to take the blocks in the opposite direction to -20. I didn't think he would know anything about negative numbers in the second grade!

Kudos to my son!

excerpt 3 from chapter 5

“Yes,” Agnew replied. “It’s a very important irrational number for your reality. It is actually the true base of your reality, not 10 like you humans all think, just because you have ten fingers and toes. What surprises me is that there’s a button for it. When you filled in the space beneath the parabola, you for all intents and purposes created the possibility of e.”

excerpt 2 from chapter 5

I pressed it again, and the ellipse got taller. The third time I held the button down and the ellipse grew and grew and grew until I could no longer see the top of it. What I could see looked more and more like a parabola.

chapter 5 excerpt 1

The number (√2-1)/4 appeared within it, and similar isosceles triangles appeared in the other quadrants of the circle. Then smaller isosceles triangles appeared in between those and the arc of the circle. Around and around the triangles appeared with ever smaller triangles to fill the gaps and more and more complicated numbers until finally the entire circle was filled with red, and all that remained was a point in the center and the number π above it.

4 again...

A new button now appeared, with a ∑ on it. I had seen it before, but didn’t know what it stood for.

excerpt 2 from chapter 4

“Yeah, like I was saying, the noumenal part, the part that is in the mind. This is the first half. First we create the categories of this reality. Then we actualize it.”

except from chapter 4

"As it approached straight up at 90 degrees I was afraid I would fall off into oblivion. But there was no gravity here, and it continued to draw until we had a half circle at 180 degrees, and I was completely upside down. Soon I passed 270º and then came full around to 360º, where I started."

excerpt from chapter 3

“Yes, something like that. If you take a piece of paper—or whatever, a stream of energy—grab both ends and give it one twist. Then join the ends together, you have a path than joins a little like a circle. You can run your finger along a path in one direction through all its folds and before you know it you are right back where you started. God has made this reality a little like that.”

Quran Day, 3/2/07

This week I read mostly from chapter 23, before Hajira. Some stuff on those who might deny the afterlife... Reminded me of Sanhedrin 10 in the Mishnah that denies a place in the world to come to those who deny that the Pentateuch teaches resurrection.

Also some other traditions if I wondered were biblical in origin. One story sounded a bit like the rich man and Lazarus parable in Luke. Another passage mentioned the Great Throne and I wondered if Merkabah Jewish mysticism was in the air.

I know Muhammed himself is said to have been illiterate. But I also believe he was surrounded by individuals who were able to write his revelations down and who thus may have had some literary knowledge of things Jewish and Christian. I have been gaining the impression that we see in the Quran a number of traditions that have swirled around, some biblical in origin, some from later Judaism and Christianity, and of course I assume there were a lot of local traditions and variations as well (Iblis?).

Chapter 24 is after Hajira. Some material on wives and in particular on accusations of impropriety. They are fair to the wife, indicating that a man who falsely accuses his wife of impropriety is in big trouble: "Those who calumniate chaste, unwary, believing women are cursed in this world and the Hereafter."

Arabic exercises this week are in recognizing words with shadda, or doubling...

Friday is Quran Day

My reading this week continued in chapter 22. It had both mention of Jew and Christian as groups between which Allah would judge on the day. Yet elsewhere it mentioned Allah defending those who worship him in synagogue and church. Also in this section is a curious statement that God has appointed various ways of worship--by implication including non-Islamic types of worship. The statement, "Allah will judge between you and me on the Day of Judgment" might leave open the door that some Jews and Christians might be accepted even though they worship differently. I'm not sure, but superficially it seems very possible to read it this way.

Some wonderful tortures in store for the damned. ;-) Way more stuff about hell in the Quran than in the Bible! I wonder if some of the Fire imagery and interaction has more in common with the Zeitgeist of Christianity in the 500's more than the New Testament. Since most people today read later church flavors into the Bible, I can see where a person might think that the Quran and Bible are a lot alike on these things.

One curious thing was about sacrifices. I didn't think Muslims sacrificed. But the sacrifice of camels is mentioned. It does say that the flesh doesn't reach heaven.

Also some Ancient House is mentioned whose site was shown to Abraham. I wasn't sure if this was referring to Mecca (which I consider most likely) but wondered if some equated this with the Dome of the Rock.

Found an allusion to the OT--a day with the Lord is as a 1000 years. Also found in 2 Peter 3.

Take this comment: "Whenever we send a messenger or a prophet ... Satan puts obstacles in the way." This is a common Christian way of talking as well in many churches, particularly charismatic churches. But it is not a particularly major New Testament way of talking.

Thursday was Physics Day

I was well pleased with myself yesterday. I have a long project going to understand one equation, Schroedinger's equation. It is an equation related to potential. So I went to a chapter on electric potential, which lead me to review in a chapter on work (W=Fs or more specifically F dot s). I ended up reviewing in the first chapter on vector notation.

The thing that made me happy was when I saw that I was looking at something called a dot product, the words "as opposed to a cross product" came to mind. I smiled, turned the page, and there it was, the cross product.

I don't remember learning these two the first time. I wonder if I understand them better this time than I did twenty-five years ago. But I was happy that somewhere in the dark recesses of my mind, I remembered something!

Arabic/Quran Day

I've been pronouncing the a sound wrongly and so my click pick for Arabic is wrong. It's a short a as in man.

I'm in chapter 21 this week. Some legends about Abraham and idols, a glimpse of a cosmogony. Lot, Noah are mentioned, David, Solomon, Job, Zachariah and even non-biblical figures (is Dhul Nun Daniel? Probably not). The Virgin Mary may be alluded to or maybe Hannah?

One allusion to Christians, "those who say the Gracious One has taken to himself a son..."

Destroyed cities cannot be revived. Gog and Magog are mentioned. Hell is mentioned way more than in the Bible. The judgment involves a rolling up of the skies (like Hebrews and Psalms). A Book of David is mentioned... Psalms?

The most interesting thing is the end of the chapter. A person confronts an unbeliever and asks them if they will submit to the fact that there is one God. But the person seems allowed to turn away with a rebuke. There is no killing of them here. (written before Hijra)

I barely began chapter 22. It seems like things are much harsher after Hijra. Human creation here.