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Just found the mass of an electron...
    #8035689 -

I spent all day pouring over data, doing regression fits, and emailing fellow students.  Finally, after a few alarming results that turned out to be wrong, I got the mass of an electron to be 6.09*10^-31 kg.  The real value is 9*10^-31 kg.  Within an order of magnitude, so Im happy.  Just poured my self a glass of expensive anejo and am now relaxing.

The experiment we did was compton scattering.  Not a big deal really, but probably the coolest experiment I have done so far.  Its nice to get away from the theory on paper, and the computer simulations and actually shoot some gamma rays at shit.

So whats the coolest science experiments my fellow shroomers have done?

:einstein:

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Re: Just found the mass of an electron... [Re: DieCommie]
    #8035815 -

All of my experiments have been computer simulations or really simple circuit designs.  I wish I could shoot gamma rays at stuff. :ooo:


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:yesnod::thumbup:

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Re: Just found the mass of an electron... [Re: skydog]
    #8035851 -

Im a tall guy, 6'3".  Now they have the lead bricks that protect your junk (which is extra sensitive to radiation) at about waist height.  But they only go up to my thigh!  So when I was near the hot source, I would crouch down behind the lead bricks.  :lol:

I dont think the source was too intense.  Tomorrow I have to analyze how much radiation exposure I got.  I bet its not much more than a dental x-ray or something.

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Re: Just found the mass of an electron... [Re: skydog]
    #8035867 -

probably vacuum distillation down around a mmHg

pretty cool, I thought

Making heroin, I mean asprin, was fun tooo.... i dunno all I've really done are synthesises, but I've fucked around w/ chemicals and stuff...

bromine and aluminum is fun when you use lotts of both

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Re: Just found the mass of an electron... [Re: DieCommie]
    #8036551 -

> So whats the coolest science experiments my fellow shroomers have done?

Measuring seebeck coefficient's in ceramics over large temperature ranges (from 1200k down to 4k). Various things learned the hard way...

1) ground loops suck - a lot
2) gigaohms aren't that much (in a voltmeter) when measuring near-superconductors
3) cryostats made from aluminum melt at around 1000k
4) platinum wire is expensive
5) liquid helium is more expensive and evaporates
6) liquid oxygen condenses on liquid nitrogen lines and looks like water
7) liquid oxygen is magnetic and can be pulled/pushed with a magnet
8) liquid oxygen is a lot of fun to play with while waiting for a very hot cryostat to cool
9) always check the nitrogen vent to make certain it is connected, especially if getting light headed

I also worked in an explosives research lab for a while, but there isn't much that I can talk about. I learned how to machine titanium...spin it slow, lots of lubrication, and very sharp tools. Oh, and nitroglycerin causes massively nasty headaches, can be absorbed through the skin, and tastes absolutely awful (an odd bitter/sweet taste that is overpowering). I also learned that water does compress if you put enough force behind it.


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Just another spore in the wind.

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Re: Just found the mass of an electron... [Re: DieCommie]
    #8037208 -

Well, mine isn't as cool as weighing an electron but I did the Briggs-Rauscher reaction a few years ago.

It's very unique in chemistry in that instead of steadily moving towards a single equilibrium state, it oscillates back and forth between two states until it eventually runs out of energy.

If you do the reaction in a beaker, the whole beaker regularly changes color over and over. In this case, it's said that the reaction is oscillating in time. It can also be done in a thin layer of fluid trapped between two glass plates (oscillating in time and space). In that case, a beautiful pattern of concentric or spiral waves of color change emerges as the reaction passes through the film trapped between the glass. It looks almost like it's alive.

The first well-characterized oscillating reaction of this type was the Belousov-Zhabotinsky Reaction first performed in the 1950s. Before it was demonstrated, oscillating reactions were thought to be impossible. Fortunately, science is a self-correcting system.

Check out these vids of the reaction in both regimes:

In a beaker. It looks cooler slightly sped up, but I can't find a good video.


In a film. Kinda slow, but still beautiful to a geek.


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Republican Values:

1) You can't get married to your spouse who is the same sex as you.
2) You can't have an abortion no matter how much you don't want a child.
3) You can't have a certain plant in your possession or you'll get locked up with a rapist and a murderer.

4) We need a smaller, less-intrusive government.

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Re: Just found the mass of an electron... [Re: Diploid]
    #8037256 -

Wow, a chemistry friend was just telling me about that reaction last week. I have never seen it, very cool.

Seuss- How the hell did you compress water? And how much did it compress?

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Re: Just found the mass of an electron... [Re: DieCommie]
    #8037838 -

Quote:
Well, mine isn't as cool as weighing an electron but I did the Briggs-Rauscher reaction a few years ago.


wow, I've never heard of these reactions, my education has failed me :-(

how'd you come to be doing this?

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Re: Just found the mass of an electron... [Re: johnm214]
    #8039973 -

dood i love experiments and then finding out the answer n shit
formulas FTW


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Re: Just found the mass of an electron... [Re: DieCommie]
    #8041678 -

I think I've got you all beat. I made a baking soda and vinegar volcano in 2nd grade.

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Re: Just found the mass of an electron... [Re: Stein]
    #8041787 -

> I made a baking soda and vinegar volcano in 2nd grade.

You should move up to corn starch and a tiny bit of water.


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Just another spore in the wind.

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Re: Just found the mass of an electron... [Re: Seuss]
    #8045238 -

Seuss said:
> I made a baking soda and vinegar volcano in 2nd grade.

You should move up to corn starch and a tiny bit of water.


:rofl2:


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∞
I am incapable of conceiving infinity, and yet I do not accept finity.
- Simone de Beauvoir -

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Re: Just found the mass of an electron... [Re: DieCommie]
    #8046153 -

As a teen.. My first rocket that flew :heart:


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personal empowerment for the world

:nyan: LGBT - Love God Before Tradition :nyan:

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Re: Just found the mass of an electron... [Re: DieCommie]
    #8046979 -

Wow! That's some cool experiments in this thread!

I did a less fundamental experiment in a wind tunnel today. We, students, gathered data to determine the stability of an aircraft(Fokker F27). Starting with only wings and fuselage and then adding the tailplane, nacelles and working rotors.

We did the experiment in a low speed wind tunnel at 120m/s, the model was 1:20 and to correctly scale everything, the rotors had to rotate at 20,000 rpm (=4kW engines). The power of the tunnel is 600kW. It was fun to play with a wind tunnel, but there isn't much to see without smoke.

Here is a pic of the aircraft model in the tunnel:



I will do a real flight experiment next monday. We will fly in the tweaked Cessna Citation 550 of my university and gather data. We will try to determine the reaction of the aircraft to, for example, a initial elevator deflection (to say something about the stability of the aircraft). We already made some (computer)models and are going to compare it to the real data.

All data is gathered on the onboard computer, but we also have to do it by hand to justify the tax dollars that pay for this :laugh:

When weather and military allows, we will also make 3 parabolic flights, this time I will try to bring my camera and capture some zero-g.

I would love to do some more fundamental experiments, but I picked the wrong study for that. I can do it myself of course :smile:

Edited by Annom (02/20/08 12:11 PM)

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Re: Just found the mass of an electron... [Re: Annom]
    #8047085 -

I remember measuring the quantum Hall effect during the physics bachelor. To see it you need a 2DEG (a 2 dimensional electron gas) at very low temperature to which you apply a strong magnetic field. So to do it you take a sandwich of semiconductors, with different Fermi energy such that you virtually confine electrons in 2 dimensions at the interface, attach some electrodes to the sample and submerge it in superfluid helium 4 (fun to play with AND expensive :wink:)

Then you can measure plateaus in the conductivity of the sample (roughly the matrix inverse of resistivity since resistivity and conductivity are quantities described by tensors) as you vary the magnetic field. This is a direct observation of quantization in a quantum system due to gauge invariance, in this particular case it's the fact that the phase of the wave function of your 2DEG must be quantized in integer multiple of 2*pi as you circle around magnetic field lines. These plateaus are so well defined and universal that they're now used as a standard for electric resistance and calibration using what's called the von Klitzing constant R_K which is about 25812 Ohms, or h/e^2.

This guy Klaus von Klitzing won the 1985 Nobel prize in physics for his unexpected measurement of the quantum Hall effect in MOSFETs, which is a type of transistor in which there's a 2DEG.

Edited by deimya (02/20/08 12:32 PM)

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Re: Just found the mass of an electron... [Re: deimya]
    #8047195 -

^^^
This is why I don't study physics

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Re: Just found the mass of an electron... [Re: DieCommie]
    #8047253 -

DieCommie said:
I spent all day pouring over data, doing regression fits, and emailing fellow students.  Finally, after a few alarming results that turned out to be wrong, I got the mass of an electron



Haha sucker, it took me 10 secs & wikipedia:lol:

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Re: Just found the mass of an electron... [Re: skydog]
    #8051590 -

skydog said:
All of my experiments have been computer simulations or really simple circuit designs.  I wish I could shoot gamma rays at stuff. :ooo:


I've been doing that for the last couple of weeks; I'm doing a report on gamma ray absorption.

The aim is to prove the exponential relationship between distance and absorption.

Collecting the data was boring as shit, I literally just set up a gamma source (radium-226) and measured the distance and put different thicknesses of lead and other heavy metals in front of it.. Now I'm number crunching :shrug:


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"I only ever hope to reach equilibrium, in Nature's matrix, in line with the meridian" ~ Jehst

:sun: "...and I know that I have to keep breathing, as tomorrow the sun will rise, who knows what the tide will bring?" :sun:

Free Spore Ring Europe
Send any spare spore prints you might have and help the distribution :grin:

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Addicting is not a word.

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Re: Just found the mass of an electron... [Re: Cepheus]
    #8051604 -

You make it sound alot less exciting :tongue:


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:yesnod::thumbup:

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