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Comety goodness!
Nov. 7th, 2007 09:37 pmTonight I saw Comet Holmes through a telescope. The last time I've seen any comet through a telescope was Haley's Comet way back in the 80's, in my childhood. I missed both Hale-Bopp and Hyukatuke (sp?) in the mid 90's somehow.
Check out the Wikipedia page on Comet Holmes. Scroll down a couple screens to "Location in 2007" and you'll see a nice finding chart - it's in Perseus, currently North of the left "arm" of the π shape that I see in it. It's clearly visible to the naked eye - I was in a brightly lit city, on campus near some lights, and I still was able to point it out to people who are NOT experienced observers. First find the stars of Perseus, and then you'll realize that one of the North-most stars is actually a bit fuzzy, and that's it.
Through a telescope it resolves into a HUGE fuzzy blob - bigger than planets, bigger than the Ring Nebula, bigger than Andromeda, maybe as big as the space between H and Χ Perseus. (Use the biggest diameter telescope you can, lowest power.) With some careful studying and averted vision you'll be able to see that the brightest center section is elongated (left/right in my tele's field of view, I think East/West actually), it's surrounded by a glowing cloud, and one edge of the cloud is crisp/sharp and slightly brighter (right in my field of view, I think the East edge) while the opposite edge fades away, presumably into the tail. There are no bright stars in the same field of view; focus while looking at a dim star, and keep your eyes on it to view the comet most easily.
It's just amazing. Go look at it, naked eye, binoculars, tele, whatever. The thing is exploding, this's probably its last pass around the Sun. (If it somehow survives, it'll be back in a scant 7 years.)
Check out the Wikipedia page on Comet Holmes. Scroll down a couple screens to "Location in 2007" and you'll see a nice finding chart - it's in Perseus, currently North of the left "arm" of the π shape that I see in it. It's clearly visible to the naked eye - I was in a brightly lit city, on campus near some lights, and I still was able to point it out to people who are NOT experienced observers. First find the stars of Perseus, and then you'll realize that one of the North-most stars is actually a bit fuzzy, and that's it.
Through a telescope it resolves into a HUGE fuzzy blob - bigger than planets, bigger than the Ring Nebula, bigger than Andromeda, maybe as big as the space between H and Χ Perseus. (Use the biggest diameter telescope you can, lowest power.) With some careful studying and averted vision you'll be able to see that the brightest center section is elongated (left/right in my tele's field of view, I think East/West actually), it's surrounded by a glowing cloud, and one edge of the cloud is crisp/sharp and slightly brighter (right in my field of view, I think the East edge) while the opposite edge fades away, presumably into the tail. There are no bright stars in the same field of view; focus while looking at a dim star, and keep your eyes on it to view the comet most easily.
It's just amazing. Go look at it, naked eye, binoculars, tele, whatever. The thing is exploding, this's probably its last pass around the Sun. (If it somehow survives, it'll be back in a scant 7 years.)
Optimizing my commute IV
Oct. 13th, 2007 11:50 amWith some help from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jethereal the other day, and his awesome TI-89, I have solved my commute. The optimal speed for me to drive based upon gas mileage and time spent is 95mph. Since I also want to take into account safety and tickets, this means drive as fast as I feel is safe and won't get me ticketed, so my current trend of going 75ish seems good to me, and I should *not* try to slow down.
( Solution )
The trivial solution is that I can minimize the cost of my trip in terms of both dollars and time if (x=0) I live in my office, or I work from home. A little further exploration showed that v=95 is a local minimum (good) and v=180 is a local maximum (bad). Despite the fact that the faster I drive, the worse my gas mileage, the time savings dominates until I reach 95pmh. At that point the gas mileage is bad enough that it makes the cost worse and worse until I hit 180mph - if I drive faster than that I should start saving money again.
So I think I determined the real reason that some people drive 95 mph on the highway: they're mathematicians!
x-posted to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
mathsex
jethereal the other day, and his awesome TI-89, I have solved my commute. The optimal speed for me to drive based upon gas mileage and time spent is 95mph. Since I also want to take into account safety and tickets, this means drive as fast as I feel is safe and won't get me ticketed, so my current trend of going 75ish seems good to me, and I should *not* try to slow down. ( Solution )
The trivial solution is that I can minimize the cost of my trip in terms of both dollars and time if (x=0) I live in my office, or I work from home. A little further exploration showed that v=95 is a local minimum (good) and v=180 is a local maximum (bad). Despite the fact that the faster I drive, the worse my gas mileage, the time savings dominates until I reach 95pmh. At that point the gas mileage is bad enough that it makes the cost worse and worse until I hit 180mph - if I drive faster than that I should start saving money again.
So I think I determined the real reason that some people drive 95 mph on the highway: they're mathematicians!
x-posted to
mathsexI just realized I've been a dork forever. Someone on _scientsts_ asked for Science Halloween costumes, I realized that in 9th grade or so I dressed up as Pascal's Triangle.
_scientsts_ asked for Science Halloween costumes, I realized that in 9th grade or so I dressed up as Pascal's Triangle.Optimizing my commute III
Oct. 5th, 2007 08:15 amI was reminded by mathsex people that (1) if I assume gas mileage and speed are equally important, that I could just average the optimal speed for both and I get around 65mph for the ideal driving speed, or (2) a potential way of giving a more realistic value to my time as compared to the gas mileage is to put a dollar value on my time - according to my salary that's around $20/hr. More math to come...
mathsex people that (1) if I assume gas mileage and speed are equally important, that I could just average the optimal speed for both and I get around 65mph for the ideal driving speed, or (2) a potential way of giving a more realistic value to my time as compared to the gas mileage is to put a dollar value on my time - according to my salary that's around $20/hr. More math to come...Optimizing my commute
Oct. 4th, 2007 09:39 pmB/c the LJ goat didn't transcribe my recent voice post despite it being public, I did. And I finally got around to posting it on mathsex so if you care you can follow it there.
mathsex so if you care you can follow it there.How to Destroy the Earth
Sep. 24th, 2007 08:06 pmBecause someone in physics was asking about the angular momentum if the moon slammed into the Earth, go check out How to Destroy the Earth.
physics was asking about the angular momentum if the moon slammed into the Earth, go check out How to Destroy the Earth.For the_xtina
Sep. 18th, 2007 01:49 pmwho's collecting bingo cards on her other blog, here's Creationist Bingo.
Earthquakes
Sep. 13th, 2007 08:07 amIn case you haven't heard, a spate of earthquakes have hit the Sumatra region of Indonesia in the last 24 hours - more than 60 of them according to CNN. For the scientifically/geographically minded, here's a map of the region from the USGS in which color indicates how recent the quake was (red is most recent), and size of the box indicates magnitude. It's a little nuts how many of the >7 boxes there are.
FWIW, the biggest nuclear bomb ever exploded had as much energy as a 7th magnitude quake, and ever additional magnitude is more than 30 times more energy.
No significant tsunami as of yet thankfully - a 0.6m (2ft) one was confirmed yesterday, and there's rumors of a 1-3m (3-9ft) one but unconfirmed.
FWIW, the biggest nuclear bomb ever exploded had as much energy as a 7th magnitude quake, and ever additional magnitude is more than 30 times more energy.
No significant tsunami as of yet thankfully - a 0.6m (2ft) one was confirmed yesterday, and there's rumors of a 1-3m (3-9ft) one but unconfirmed.
Lunar Eclipse
Aug. 26th, 2007 10:14 amTuesday night / Wednesday morning will be a total lunar eclipse - it starts a little before 5am (Eastern Daylight Savings Time), totality is around 6:30am, and it ends (theoretically) around 8:30am (more precise times and other time zones here). It is visible in the America,s Australia, and Asia, but not in Europe or Africa; in the Eastern US unfortunately the moon will be setting during the eclipse, so you will not get to see all of it.
If you wish to watch it, I recommend dressing warmer than you think and using bug spray, and start out by going out around a half hour before it's supposed to start (so around 4:30am on the East Coast), watch till you get bored, and repeat every half hour. Binoculars or a low power telescope will enhance the experience, but is not required. If you wish to use a camera, set it on a tripod, open the shutter all the way, and bracket from 1/60s to 5s - use a soft release button or a timer to make sure you don't shake the camera when you trigger it. This APOD photo is an example of what you can do; in it, the Moon moved from bottom to top. Since the Moon will be setting for us and is usually towards the South, it will appear to move downwards, or to the right.
FYI if you want to read more posts like this, you should follow my other blog, Modern Science, also syndicated on LJ as![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-syndicated.gif)
modern_science.
If you wish to watch it, I recommend dressing warmer than you think and using bug spray, and start out by going out around a half hour before it's supposed to start (so around 4:30am on the East Coast), watch till you get bored, and repeat every half hour. Binoculars or a low power telescope will enhance the experience, but is not required. If you wish to use a camera, set it on a tripod, open the shutter all the way, and bracket from 1/60s to 5s - use a soft release button or a timer to make sure you don't shake the camera when you trigger it. This APOD photo is an example of what you can do; in it, the Moon moved from bottom to top. Since the Moon will be setting for us and is usually towards the South, it will appear to move downwards, or to the right.
FYI if you want to read more posts like this, you should follow my other blog, Modern Science, also syndicated on LJ as
modern_science.Vector Physics - Japanese TV style
Jun. 8th, 2007 12:19 amFor your entertainment, on the page I found it, it said "Vector physics in real life. From 'Trivia no Izumi' (Fountain of Trivia), the same Japanese show that figured out how heavy a fish Dora cat can carry."
For your edification, what's happening is the truck is driving forward (left) at 100km/hr, while the ball is being shot backwards (right) at (-)100km/hr relative to the truck. Note in particular the strobe effect photos of the ball shot from a stationary truck at 1:40, and the ball shot from the moving truck at 3:50. Also note that while the ball falls it drifts forward slightly, this could be due either to a mismatch in velocities or due to drafting (wind following the motion of the truck), and after it impacts the ground it bounces forward significantly, probably due to spin ("English") on the ball or possibly due to drafting (since the video is sped back up we can't tell how fast it's moving forward compared to while it was falling).
Link c/o
hitchhiker.LA Fires threaten Griffith Observatory
May. 9th, 2007 07:26 amDangit, they just finisher renovating that thing, and now a wildfire is raging through the park in which the observatory is located.
*crosses fingers*
The park is in the Hollywood Hills, about 10 miles north of downtown Los Angeles. It includes golf courses, tennis courts, the city's zoo and botanical gardens and the copper-domed Griffith Park Observatory.
The bright orange glow of the fire provided a striking backdrop for the white facade of the observatory into the evening hours.
*crosses fingers*
Connection?
Apr. 24th, 2007 07:47 amThere's a possibility that Daylight Savings Girl is a lawyer. However as I mentioned to meig, it's possible that instead of being a stupid lawyer, that it's two different people (due to the locations being a heck of a commute), or it could be someone shaming her, or it could be true that she's the lawyer and she really is satirizing the situation.
Googling her full name "Connie M. Meskimen" turns up only blog posts about the letter, and lawyer-y things, so the lawyer is the only real individual with an internet presence. I'm mildly leaning towards it being satirical now. The coincidence seems too high for it to be two separate people, that's one heck of a way to take out a grudge on someone, and I don't want to think that there's any lawyers out there, even bankruptcy lawyers, with that little grasp of science.
meig, it's possible that instead of being a stupid lawyer, that it's two different people (due to the locations being a heck of a commute), or it could be someone shaming her, or it could be true that she's the lawyer and she really is satirizing the situation. Googling her full name "Connie M. Meskimen" turns up only blog posts about the letter, and lawyer-y things, so the lawyer is the only real individual with an internet presence. I'm mildly leaning towards it being satirical now. The coincidence seems too high for it to be two separate people, that's one heck of a way to take out a grudge on someone, and I don't want to think that there's any lawyers out there, even bankruptcy lawyers, with that little grasp of science.
Letter to the Editor, Arkansas Democrat Gazette
Yoinked fromsomeone on my friendslist, but now I can't figure out who! meig.
Daylight exacerbates warning
You may have noticed that March of this year was particularly hot. As a matter of fact, I understand that it was the hottest March since the beginning of the last century. All of the trees were fully leafed out and legions of bugs and snakes were crawling around during a time in Arkansas when, on a normal year, we might see a snowflake or two. This should come as no surprise to any reasonable person. As you know, Daylight Saving Time started almost a month early this year. You would think that members of Congress would have considered the warming effect that an extra hour of daylight would have on our climate. Or did they ? Perhaps this is another plot by a liberal Congress to make us believe that global warming is a real threat. Perhaps next time there should be serious studies performed before Congress passes laws with such far-reaching effects.
CONNIE M. MESKIMEN / Hot Springs
Yoinked from
meig.Happy Earth Day!
Apr. 22nd, 2007 09:21 amIt's our Earth.
Please take care of it.
It's the only one we've got.
We live on a thin skin of livable air and water. When we destroy that, it's gone.
And take care of each other. We're what makes this lifeless rock livable.
Please take care of it.
It's the only one we've got.
We live on a thin skin of livable air and water. When we destroy that, it's gone.
And take care of each other. We're what makes this lifeless rock livable.
Latest theories
Apr. 7th, 2007 12:37 pmhttp://www.cnn.com/video/player/player.html?url=/video/us/2007/04/07/vo.nm.train.through.wildfire.krqe
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/06/pet.deaths/index.html
http://www.banfield.net/about/article.asp?id=10
There's a possibility that melanine was added to the wheat gluten intentionally and fraudulently to try and get a higher price. The reasoning goes as follows. When there's a high protein content in the wheat gluten, it fetches a higher price. Protein has lots of nitrogen. Melanine has lots of nitrogen. Prior to this fiasco there was no indication that melanine could cause kidney failure in either cats or dogs, so why not add it?
Two other bits of info also. They're still not sure melanine really DOES cause kidney failure in cats and dogs. It could be that there's another chemical, as yet undetected, that is causing the kidney failure, and the melanine is either coincidentally there as well, or is somehow linked to the source of the other chemical. They will have to do more tests and probably deliberately kill a few (lab) cats and dogs with melanine to know for sure.
And lastly, the closest they have to a national database of information from vets is the Banfield pet hospital chain/group. They've reported a 30% increase in kidney problem diagnoses over the past few months, but they have also reported a recent decrease in the number of diagnoses, indicating that the worst may be over.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/06/pet.deaths/index.html
http://www.banfield.net/about/article.asp?id=10
There's a possibility that melanine was added to the wheat gluten intentionally and fraudulently to try and get a higher price. The reasoning goes as follows. When there's a high protein content in the wheat gluten, it fetches a higher price. Protein has lots of nitrogen. Melanine has lots of nitrogen. Prior to this fiasco there was no indication that melanine could cause kidney failure in either cats or dogs, so why not add it?
Two other bits of info also. They're still not sure melanine really DOES cause kidney failure in cats and dogs. It could be that there's another chemical, as yet undetected, that is causing the kidney failure, and the melanine is either coincidentally there as well, or is somehow linked to the source of the other chemical. They will have to do more tests and probably deliberately kill a few (lab) cats and dogs with melanine to know for sure.
And lastly, the closest they have to a national database of information from vets is the Banfield pet hospital chain/group. They've reported a 30% increase in kidney problem diagnoses over the past few months, but they have also reported a recent decrease in the number of diagnoses, indicating that the worst may be over.
