Blog
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A galaxy eating wormhole or
water swirling into a drain? -
Flower Shop at the End of Forever
Ok, maybe not at the end of forever, but definitely under the train overpass at Sheepshead Bay station.
These new led powered traffic lights are so damn bright (that’s what that red thing in the left corner is).
Oh, and of course, it rained like crazy. -
The Black Hole Of Publishing
Would you like to send a message into a black hole?
Just try writing a science fiction story and submit it to a magazine (not that I ever did, I know how horrible my writing skills are).
But just as Steven Hawking theorized that matter can “evaporate” from black holes, so answers can sometimes come back from sci-fi publishers. -
Shake and Bake
Q: What is measured in shakes?
A: Time. 1 shake = 10 nanoseconds.This unit of time was definitely created by Manhattan Project scientists, but why it was chosen is not 100% clear.
Theory # 1 – Too morbid
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A shake is only 10 nanoseconds in time and arises from the theory of the chain reaction where one free neutron causes a fission that creates 2.5 to 3 new neutrons like a huge pyramid scheme and by the time the last layers of fissions occur they produce enough energy to “shake” the earth severely.
Theory # 2 – Too dry
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I like the term “shake” – 10 nanoseconds. I think it’s roughly the time it
takes the average 1 Mev neutron to cover a distace of one mean free path (13 cm?) in fissile materials at maximum normal densities
Theory # 3 – Oralloy? Pu plasma? Shoo – way over my head.
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a shake being roughly 10 ns – the time it takes neutrons in oralloy or Pu plasma to cover their Mean Free Path
Theory # 4 – Sounds just about right.
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The ‘shake’ is a defined unit of time. Scientists working on the Manhattan project
(to build the first atomic bomb) found that the detonation cycle for the ‘device’
lasted 30 billionths of a second, or 30 nanoseconds. A shake was defined as
10 nanoseconds so the detonation cycle of the atomic bomb could be said to take
‘three shakes of a lamb’s tail.’
