Bakki shower thread continuation

[mulberryjen]

Valarc - is "squishy physics" about colloids? Sorry if a stupid question, do 4th grade "ooblek" thing for science class. Just wondering.

[aquitori]

You know men are lazy in general...That's a given!!! So when we say we don't care it's because we don't want to take time to do something...Back to the thread.... Money is a big issue in research, yesterday I was standing by a Cisco router that Cisco Systems put $12 million into it for research and to scrap it to start on something better and faster...You right, in that we should care on how it works...On the comedy side of things...I think Mr. Maeda is asking himself the same thing(in japanese), "Why does this SH@T work!!" then he'll say "Who cares, it works"...That's men for you...

Quote: Originally Posted by Valarc Mike, Saying you personally don't care is something I find to be a little disheartening, but then again this is something I deal with on a daily basis during those times I'm functioning as an educator. The main thing I take objection to, though, is those who constantly ask why WE care. It's one thing to not care about the science yourself... its a whole different game when you act like others shouldn't care either. I run into this constantly in my own research. I'm a physicist, and my specialty is in soft condensed matter. Tewa and george will blast me for the simplified term... but we like to call it "squishy physics". It's the study of materials that aren't quite solid, not quite liquid, which exhibit unusual behaviors. Almost every time I talk about my research in a setting outside of academia, people agressively question why I would "waste my time" on something so "useless" as "squishy physics". Heck, george has repeatedly insulted me for this choice... even insinuating that I must be too stupid to do the "real research" and that's why I'm being dumped off in "hickville Atlanta studying squishy poop". I constantly find myself defending my choice in research, because it's something that doesn't interest others and therefore they feel it isn't worthwhile. I see that same mentality coming from those who keep saying "get rid of this thread - it's useless". To them, it might be, but to many of us it's an important process to explore the science. I find mentalities like this to be incredibly dangerous, and sadly this concept seems to be gaining more ground. Funding of research for the sake of research is steadily declining in America. People don't seem to think knowledge for the sake of knowledge is worthwhile anymore. I'd like to leave you with this thought... if Planck, Heisenberg, Einstein, Shrodinger, and others simply accepted the photoelectric effect, and didn't try to delve into the depths of HOW it works, we might have never figured out quantum mechanics. Without QM, we would have no desktop computers, no solid-state lasers, no genetic engineering, no MRIs... the list goes on and on. At the time, no one had any idea what technlogies would develop from their studies, but they explored them anyway, for the sake of exploration. You don't have to have the scientific mind yourself, but that "stupid experiment" that you don't care about today might just lead to something that changes the course of human history. P.S. Unfortunately, I can't end on that dramatic effect because I can predict the silly responses people are going to type. No, I'm not suggesting the study of BHM is going to change the world, but trying to explain WHY we should see scientific exploration as a vital part of the human experience, no matter how trivial it appears today.

[Valarc]

Jen - YES YES AND YES!!! It's funny you should mention the oobleck thing, because I was just talking about that today. I had to present a short seminar on my research to some graduate students outside the physics field, and one of the people in the audience brought up oobleck.

In my opinion, even better than oobleck, to really get people thinking, is an experiment with cornstarch. I encourage you to all go try this at home because it's easy and really cool (at least to me). Start with a container of water, and keep mixing in cornstarch until it's a thick, gooey mess. You want it to be thick enough that it kind of oozes, but still sort of flows around in a liquidy fashion. Now, take a bit of the mixture and start rolling it around between your hands, like you're making a ball out of it. As long as you keep rolling it, keep it moving, keep applying shear forces, the material will act very much like a solid, holding its ball shape. The second you stop moving, it will collapse again into a liquid form and start to ooze through your fingers.

It turns out that, theoretically, we don't have a really firm grasp on exactly why these sorts of behaviors occur. On an intuitive level we can think of interactions that could cause this to occur, but there's no really good mathematical model for why. By studying colliods, gels, foams, emulsions, granular materials, and so forth, we hope to further our understanding of these really fascinating materials.

[tewa]

Quote: Originally Posted by JR Tewa, I'm done with you and your child-like responses. Please ignore my posts and I'll let you know when I want to talk with you again. Until then, I suggest you go play in traffic, at least until I'm done before you try discrediting my efforts. You really don't have a clue do you? (That is called a rhetorical question, meaning it requires no response) JR

JR had you really wanted to just talk with mike you would have emailed him as he did to you. Your post only shows that i have hit the nerve on several obvious points. I will ignore your post from now on but this thread was going nice until you and valr came in, please act a bit more professional like Luke who has started his own thread for his discussions, you really should have posted on that thread and those who were interested your opinion would have read it. I feel that you and Valr specifically posted on this thread to turn others that just want to find out more off this thread with your obnoxious posts. There will alwys be two camps and thus it was all going well with two threads one representing each camp but neither people involved had to direct posts and reply to the oppposition thereby saving both threads from turning ugly.

[aquitori]

Quote: Originally Posted by tewa JR had you really wanted to just talk with mike you would have emailed him as he did to you. Your post only shows that i have hit the nerve on several obvious points. I will ignore your post from now on but this thread was going nice until you and valr came in, please act a bit more professional like Luke who has started his own thread for his discussions, you really should have posted on that thread and those who were interested your opinion would have read it. I feel that you and Valr specifically posted on this thread to turn others that just want to find out more off this thread with your obnoxious posts. There will alwys be two camps and thus it was all going well with two threads one representing each camp but neither people involved had to direct posts and reply to the oppposition thereby saving both threads from turning ugly.

Man it's cool, let this die...Let's talk about something else like...Kiwa or Maki(Joe ) on Kohak...Like I told Valarc "Who cares?", it's dead...Mr. Maeda is still scratching his head wondering why things are the way they are....

[tewa]

Quote: Originally Posted by aquitori Man it's cool, let this die...Let's talk about something else like...Kiwa or Maki(Joe ) on Kohak...Like I told Valarc "Who cares?", it's dead...Mr. Maeda is still scratching his head wondering why things are the way they are....

will do mate

tewa

[mulberryjen]

Quote: Originally Posted by Valarc Jen - YES YES AND YES!!! It's funny you should mention the oobleck thing, because I was just talking about that today. I had to present a short seminar on my research to some graduate students outside the physics field, and one of the people in the audience brought up oobleck. In my opinion, even better than oobleck, to really get people thinking, is an experiment with cornstarch. I encourage you to all go try this at home because it's easy and really cool (at least to me). Start with a container of water, and keep mixing in cornstarch until it's a thick, gooey mess. You want it to be thick enough that it kind of oozes, but still sort of flows around in a liquidy fashion. Now, take a bit of the mixture and start rolling it around between your hands, like you're making a ball out of it. As long as you keep rolling it, keep it moving, keep applying shear forces, the material will act very much like a solid, holding its ball shape. The second you stop moving, it will collapse again into a liquid form and start to ooze through your fingers. It turns out that, theoretically, we don't have a really firm grasp on exactly why these sorts of behaviors occur. On an intuitive level we can think of interactions that could cause this to occur, but there's no really good mathematical model for why. By studying colliods, gels, foams, emulsions, granular materials, and so forth, we hope to further our understanding of these really fascinating materials.

Yep - we did the cornstarch & water thing at grad school for inquiry science methods. I figured it had something to do with heat from friction affecting "excitement" level of molecules, but had always been taught that heating materials caused it to move "up" in the hierarchy of states of matter: from solid to liquid to gas, so that seemed kind of backwards. It really is an interesting thing to mess with if you've never tried it.

I'm someone who generally likes to understand how things work, up to a point. I have to admit that some of the loooooooonnnnnnggggggg theoretical posts on this thread make one's eyes glaze over just a bit. Sorry. I used to be a plumber's helper before becoming a teacher, and I guess on subject of poop, I'm pretty happy just knowing it flows downhill.

[tewa]

DTBH

i do believe you will have higher chances of anaerobic bacteria in submerge BH that is why to help prevent this you would use a lot of air to bubble like a jacuzzi to prevent any settlement of debri and reduce growth of anaerobic bacteria on the debri and in the biofilm.

tewa

[aquitori]

Quote: Originally Posted by tewa will do mate tewa

Cool, Tewa will give suggestions to those who have questions on their purchase or home made BH. For those of you who want an explanation why it works here is the place to go: http://www.momotaro-koi.org/english/

You can probably get an answer, but like I said in the previous posts your guess is as good as theirs..HAHAHAHAHAHA

[Mike T]

Mr. V...

Your quote: "Saying you personally don't care is something I find to be a little disheartening,"
You shouldn't let this bother you... It's not as if I don't care about anything, just not the science part... I think it's a personality thing... The fact that you care about the subject is fine with me, as I always say "different strokes for different folks... That's probably why you're an academic and I was a salesman, among many other things... Unfortunately I found school to be too slow for me so went out into the world to "Do It" almost like Luke's little old lady, except I was good at what I did and was able to retire at age 55 in Hawaii of all places...

I agree, without individuals like yourself, JR, and those other guys you mentioned, the world would be a far poorer place indeed... But then you have to understand that the world also needs a few Neanderthals to keep the balance... Actually while you and JR are doing your science "thing" I'm spending my time studying Japanese and Korean History... That's what I find veddy interesting...

Aloha! Mike