Electron perfectly round after all?

Don't you wish they'd write "0.000000000000000000000000001 cm" somewhat differently? 10^-29 m is *so* much easier to read.

The guy must have *really* thin hair too, to think the comparison between the size of the solar system and the thickness of his hair is anywhere near meaningful in this context. And he can't spell 'fluoride' right either.

A pretty silly article , in all.

Jeroen Belleman

On a sunny day (Fri, 27 May 2011 12:07:35 +0200) it happened Jeroen Belleman wrote in :

Yea, journalists?

I believe that trying to understand the Universe by smashing atoms is somewhat akin to trying to apprehend the subtle beauty of Mona Lisa's enigmatic half-smile by analyzing paint molecules.

Personally, I think she looks like she just got some. >:->

Cheers! Rich

I believe that trying to understand the Universe by smashing atoms is somewhat akin to trying to apprehend the subtle beauty of Mona Lisa's enigmatic half-smile by analyzing paint molecules.

Personally, I think she looks like she just got some. >:->

By the way, I'm Copyrighting this post here and now. If you quote this post, you must include attribution to me, Rich Grise, "Copyright© 2011 Rich Grise" for my comment above. Usage of the stuff the other guys say is up to them.

Cheers! Rich

Well, duh, if they weren't round, they'd make rattling noises when they flow through wires.

John

Ob Electronics: This is more true than you might think... James Rautio (of Sonnet Software fame) has a PDF somewhere talking about how regular old (isotropic) PCB materials that are ground up and mashed together to form a PCB can cause the overall PCB behavior to be anisotropic if the ground up bits are highly non-spherical (e.g., quite oblong) based on the relative density of one material vs. another as you "look" in different directions due to, e.g., a bunch of oblong bits all lining up side-by-side along their long axes.

I don't think this matters much for time-domain stuff, but he has examples demonstrating that for many-GHz filters you get noticeably-different-from-simulation results if your simulator naively assumes an isotropic PCB. It's an interesting read, in any case!

---Joel

You can see the fiberglass weave in a zoomed-up TDR of a microstrip trace on an FR4 pc board. It's not big enough to matter much, in most situations.

Anybody played with Sonnet Lite? A couple of us have tried it and couldn't immediately figure out how to drive it worth a hoot.

John

On a sunny day (Fri, 27 May 2011 14:09:23 -0700) it happened John Larkin wrote in :

LOL

Doesn't this simply mean that the inverse square law is the same in all directions?

John Larkin a écrit :

Sure they were, but now that they have done it for some time they have been polished and are perfectly spherical and all is going smooth.

Yup. Positive or negative direction, the outcome is positive in both case.

Shot noise?

On a sunny day (Sat, 28 May 2011 19:31:55 +0200) it happened Fred Bartoli wrote in :

It may be fun to joke about it. but if this is confirmed, then it leads to a need for deeper thought about what 'electron' and charge really is. The CERN people have then be putting out garbage ideas, that cost society billions, and did lead astray real research. My personal opinion for a long time is that CERN and that whole tunnel complex is only good for bomb shelters.

So, what could it mean: A perfectly round electron? It could be that it is a bit like a black hole, pushed together by some force, maybe radiation in one way (so 2 repel), and sucking in the other way (protons attract, positron, etc). New sort of gravity on a smaller scale, or the same stuff? A Le Sage model? Nice stuff to think about. Even nicer is that those guys did it with simple equipment in the lab. We are really in a post science (if we not always were) time. Look at how people react to a nuclear mishap. Nobody got killed so far, but many died in Japan in gas fires because of that quake, falling buildings, many die each year in coal mining, and guess what, some nutcase in Germany starts setting fire to some railway station to protest against the dangers of nuclear, they shut down 7 nuclear plants that were working perfectly OK, lemmings, pigs, sheep, ducks, one starts running they all do, no brains. So, now all we need is some moron calling 'witchcraft' when the new cellphone models come out and see the masses and politicians jump - react. OK, some thoughts for the evening.

Caused by cracked & pitted electrons that are near the end of their useful life. :)

I don't understand why this means anything more than the inverse square law being the same in all directions. Are they sensing the electron by anything other than its charge?

Newton proved that gravitational force is equal to what it would be if the mass of a planet was compressed to its center of mass. Therefore the charge of an electron should be the same as if it was all at one point.

Worn-out electrons go to the Old Electrons Home in Arizona.

I don't know where they send used holes. Probably New Jersey.

John

The original story was "dumbed down" for public consumption. What they did was establish a new lower bound on the size of the electron's electric dipole moment.

Well, if true, it proves that your PIC driven electron rounding machine works. At least, I think that's what your schematic showed ... :-)

Ed

I've seen plenty of old ho's in both NYC and SF (and DC). I'm sure NJ has their share too.