Weak interaction Updated 2025-07-16
Explains beta decay. TODO why/how.
Maybe a good view of why this force was needed given beta decay experiments is: in beta decay, a neutron is getting split up into an electron and a proton. Therefore, those charges must be contained inside the neutron somehow to start with. But then what could possibly make a positive and a negative particle separate?
www.thestargarden.co.uk/Weak-nuclear-force.html gives a quick and dirty:
Beta decay could not be explained by the strong nuclear force, the force that's responsible for holding the atomic nucleus together, because this force doesn't affect electrons. It couldn't be explained by the electromagnetic force, because this does not affect neutrons, and the force of gravity is far too weak to be responsible. Since this new atomic force was not as strong as the strong nuclear force, it was dubbed the weak nuclear force.
Also interesting:
While the photon 'carries' charge, and therefore mediates the electromagnetic force, the Z and W bosons are said to carry a property known as 'weak isospin'. W bosons mediate the weak force when particles with charge are involved, and Z bosons mediate the weak force when neutral particles are involved.
Video 1.
Weak Nuclear Force and Standard Model of particle physics by Physics Videos by Eugene Khutoryansky (2018)
Source. Some decent visualizations of the field lines.
Fock space Updated 2025-07-16
Yup, this one Focks you up.
Video 1.
What's a Fock space? by Physics Duck (2023)
Source.
John Archibald Wheeler Updated 2025-07-16
Richard Feynman's mentor at Princeton University, and notable contributor to his development of quantum electrodynamics.
Worked with Niels Bohr at one point.
Web of Stories interview (1996): www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVV0r6CmEsFzVlqiUh95Q881umWUPjQbB. He's a bit slow, you wonder if he's going to continute or not! One wonders if it is because of age, or he's always been like that.
John von Neumann Updated 2025-07-16
This is the one Ciro Santilli envies the most, because he has such a great overlap with Ciro's interests, e.g.:
Video 1.
John von Neuman - a documentary by the Mathematical Association of America (1966)
Source. Some good testimonies. Some boring.
Decimal day Updated 2025-07-16
Video 1.
Predecimal Currency: The Nightmare in Your Pocket by BritMonkey (2021)
Source.
Video 2.
Saltburn's Halfpenny Toll Bridge by BBC (1971)
Source. What they mean is one penny return, good clickbait though. Also the presenter is hot, that Nouvelle Vague feel.
Superfluid helium-3 Updated 2025-07-16
Surprisingly, it can also become a superfluid even though each atom is a fermion! This is because of Cooper pair formation, just like in superconductors, but the transition happens at lower temperatures than superfluid helium-4, which is a boson.
aps.org/publications/apsnews/202110/history.cfm: October 1972: Publication of Discovery of Superfluid Helium-3 contains comments on the seminal paper and a graph which we must steal.
Good points:
This is what happens when you apply a step voltage to a series RC circuit: TODO graph.
In this chapter Richard Feynman talks about his experiences in Brazil.
"O Americano, Outra Vez!" means "The American, once again!" in Portuguese, which is what one of the samba school boss exclaimed when Feynman was not playing well his instrument, the frigideira, during a rehearsal.
Feynman really enjoyed Brazil's (and notably Rio's) stereotypical "take it easy and enjoy life" attitude.
SVG background color Updated 2025-07-16
This is a pain point as of SVG 1.1...
Examples at svg/background.html which answers from stackoverflow.com/questions/11293026/default-background-color-of-svg-root-element/11293812:
This pain reflects directly on Inkscape: set SVG background color in Inkscape.
Sycamore processor Updated 2025-07-16
This is a good read: quantumai.google/hardware/datasheet/weber.pdf May 14, 2021. Their topology is so weird, not just a rectangle, one wonders why! You get different error rates in different qubits, it's mad.
Figure 1.
Google Sycamore Weber quantum computer connectivity graph
. Weber is a specific processor of the Sycamore family. From this we see it clearly that qubits are connected to at most 4 other qubits, and that the full topology is not just a simple rectangle.
Theodicy Updated 2025-07-16
Diablo II Updated 2025-07-16

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