Mr. Kerwin's tumblr

Official tumblr blog of Mr. Kerwin's Phun Physics & Outstanding Oceanography classes!

[skerwin]

#CrockPotKitty

@NBCThisisUs fans! I know you want to get rid of your #CrockPot, but please don't! There are so many lonely cats out there longing for their very own Crock-Pot to cozy up in. So, save your Crock-Pot, and save a cat! @CrockPotCares

[skerwin]

Battle Bots!!!

WOOT WOOT!!! I can't wait for the return of @BattleBots! http://www.battlebots.com/ @BattleBotsABC

[skerwin]

Fish Prefer Eating Dangerous Plastic Pollution

When European perch were exposed to polystyrene microplastics, their survival rate dropped, a new study shows.

Very depressing.

[skerwin]

A real ninth planet? Sweet! Sorry, Pluto! I still love you :)

[davidasigel]

Day 10

Working together to celebrate their experience.

Congratulations Art rEvolution! What an amazing two weeks.

[hilarykhutchison]

Bravo!

[skerwin]

Nice job, everyone!

[skerwin]

Quantum mechanics, at its heart, is simply the recognition that there are no particles and no waves, only something that has properties of both. Sometimes this is called a wave function, but that term typically applies to the wave aspects, not to the particle ones. For this post, let me refer to them as wavicles (combination of wave and particle). When we see a classical wave, what we are seeing is a large number of wavicles acting together, in such a way that the "wave" aspects of the wavicles dominates our measurements. When we detect a wavicle with a position detector, the energy is absorbed abruptly, the wavicle might even disappear; we then get the impression that we are observing the "particle" nature. A large bunch of wavicles, all tied together by their mutual attraction, can be totally dominated by its particle aspect; that is, for example, what a baseball is. There is no paradox, unless you somehow think that particles and waves really do exist separately. Then you wonder about this "duality" -- it is really a particle or a wave? But it is really neither. Once you have this concept (and it was created by Einstein and deBroglie) then you can ask the question: how does this wavicle move? How is it affected by forces? Those were the questions answered by Schrodinger, Heisenberg, Dirac and others, with their quantum mechanical equations. Then what about fields, such as the electric, magnetic, and strong force fields?  Those were also recognized as being (what I, for lack of a better term in this answer) call wavicles. Yukawa explained the nuclear force as the exchange of a virtual pi meson. Schwinger and Feynman explained the electromagnetic force as the exchange of a virtual photon. Once you have accepted that the only things that really exist are wavicles, and that they change abruptly when measured, once you accept that the momentum is given by the wavelength and the energy by the frequency, then the Heisenberg uncertainty principle is a mathematical consequence.

Richard Muller, Professor of Physics, U. Calif. Berkeley, coFounder of Berkeley Earth, in response to the question “What is quantum mechanics?”

[skerwin]

So — what is the meaning of life? I think people ask that question on the assumption that ‘meaning’ is something you can look for and go, ‘Here it is, I found it. Here’s the meaning. I’ve been looking for.’ That scenario, however, doesn’t consider the possibility that ‘meaning’ is something you create. You manufacture it for yourself and for others. So when I think of ‘meaning’ in life, I ask, ‘Did I learn something today that I didn’t know yesterday, bringing me a little closer to knowing all that can be known in the universe?’ If I live a day and I don’t know a little more than I did the day before, I think I wasted that day. So the people who, at the end of the school year, say ‘The summer! I don’t have to think anymore!’ — I just don’t know. To think brings you closer to nature. To learn how things work gives you power to influence events. Gives you power to help people who may need it — to help yourself and your trajectory. So when I think of the meaning of life, that’s not an eternal and unanswerable question — to me, that’s in arm’s reach of me everyday. So to you, at age six-and-three-quarters, may I suggest that you explore nature as much as you possibly can. And occasionally that means getting your clothes dirty because you might want to jump into puddles and your parents don’t want you to do that. You tell them that I gave you permission.

Neil deGrasse Tyson

[skerwin]

Consider the subtleness of the sea; how its most dreaded creatures glide under water, unapparent for the most part, and treacherously hidden beneath the loveliest tints of azure. Consider also the devilish brilliance and beauty of many of its most remorseless tribes, as the dainty embellished shape of many species of sharks. Consider, once more, the universal cannibalism of the sea; all whose creatures prey upon each other, carrying on eternal war since the world began.

Herman Melville

[skerwin]

Newton the Betta Fish 4/2/2014 - 8/20/2015 Rest in Peace, Buddy!

[skerwin]

Ode to My Fishie

You were a gift: Literally, you were a gift from a co-worker during my first year at EA. It’s an interesting story... (ask me about it in person sometime!)

You were beautiful: Your flowing “crown” fins and iridescent colors were so wondrous! Even in death, you were a good-looking betta!

You will be missed: You brightened up my day every time I walked by your bowl. I know you’re having fun, swimming around in that big fish bowl in the sky!

[skerwin]

Raw footage shows great white shark jumping to catch seal

[skerwin]

Raw footage captures rare sighting of white humpback whale

[skerwin]

The Search for Another Earth

[skerwin]

(via How We Showed the Oceans Could Clean Themselves - Boyan Slat on The Ocean Cleanup - YouTube)

[micdotcom]

Watch: This 20-year-old’s genius invention may clean up the world’s oceans 

[skerwin]

(via David Brin - Could Our Universe Be a Fake? - YouTube)

Absolutely crazy, yet incredibly thought-provoking!

[skerwin]

Broadly speaking, although there are some differences, I think Buddhist philosophy and Quantum Mechanics can shake hands on their view of the world. We can see in these great examples the fruits of human thinking. Regardless of the admiration we feel for these great thinkers, we should not lose sight of the fact that they were human beings just as we are.

Dalai Lama