Author Archives: John F. Lindner

Our TV is broken, so Aunt Nora invites us to her apartment. (Aunt Nora isn’t really our aunt, but she introduced our parents to each other, so that’s what we call her.) My brother Jim and I lie on the … Continue reading →
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Just as a vector is the sum of its components, a mechanical motion a combination of its normal mode motions, a quantum state a superposition of its eigenstates, any “nice” function is a Fourier sum of real or complex sinusoids [latex]e^{i … Continue reading →
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Today the SI (Système international d’unités) base units are redefined. The following are now exact. Memorize these numbers! Cs-133 transition frequency constant [latex]Δν_{\text{Cs}} = 9\,192\,631\,770~\text{s}^{−1}[/latex] defines the second. Then light speed constant [latex]c = 299\,792\,458~\text{m}\cdot\text{s}^{−1}[/latex] defines the meter. Then Planck’s constant [latex]h = 6.626\,070\,15\times … Continue reading →
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I set the alarm for 8:55 AM. Brutal, but I wanted to watch live the National Science Foundation Event Horizon Telescope news conference. I was expecting the first image of a black hole, and the EHT team did not disappoint. … Continue reading →
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I set the alarm for 8:55 AM. Brutal, but I wanted to watch live the National Science Foundation Event Horizon Telescope news conference. I was expecting the first image of a black hole, and the EHT team did not disappoint. … Continue reading →
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December 22 is the longest day of the year, despite being near the northern hemisphere’s shortest daylight. The sidereal day is the time to rotate 360° with respect to distant stars, about 23 hours and 56 minutes for Earth. The … Continue reading →
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Metallium, Inc. is attempting to manufacture coins made from as many different metals (and elements) as possible, typically 99 to 99.9% pure. My Metallium coin collection currently includes aluminum, titanium, iron, nickel, copper, zinc, silver, tin, and gold coins. Most … Continue reading →
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Despite growing up in three dimensions, as a kid I did not recognize one of 3D’s deep and subtle properties: full rotations tangle, but double rotations untangle! Following physicist Paul Dirac, twist a belt one full turn about its length. … Continue reading →
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Luna orbits Earth and Earth orbits Sol (where Luna is Earth’s moon and Sol is Earth’s star, the sun). As a kid, I thought Luna’s solar orbit formed a loopy spirograph pattern. Instead, Luna’s orbit is convex! Neglecting the eccentricity … Continue reading →
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In quantum electrodynamics, the bare charge of an electron is infinite, but the dressed charge is finite. The bare electron shields itself by polarizing the virtual electron-positron pairs of the nearby quantum vacuum to reduce its coupling at large distances to [latex display=”true”] \infty … Continue reading →
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