[Yum] Multiple Repository Hell

Robert G. Brown rgb at phy.duke.edu
Wed Mar 12 14:44:58 UTC 2003


On Wed, 12 Mar 2003, Troy Dawson wrote:

> *laughs*  Sorry, it's too early in the morning.
> To be honest, we do have a few flux capcitors.  I about fell over when I was 
> an operator and saw that in a training manual.  The only problem is that they 
> don't glow blue ... unless they are about to blow up.

I think Seth's flux capacitors are the ones that give off Cerenkov
radiation while inverting time itself.  We had to ban them from campus
here altogether as students kept going back and retaking their exams.

The more mundane "flux capacitors" are so horrendously plentiful in this
strange device at which I type that they are only sanely denumerable
using scientific notation in current VLSI.  Some of the ones on the
super-duper active twist screen are even glowing blue (my favorite
background color).

> I have to say that the thing I was most excited to see, but had the greatest 
> letdown was the device we use to strip the proton from the neutron.  I worked 
> here for about 4 years before I was able to see it.  It was in all my training 
> manuals, and it an vital part of the accelorator here.  And I finolly got to 
> see it.  But ... I won't let the secret out. nope ... not me.... ;)

"Strip the proton from the neutron"?

As in turn e.g. deuterons into proton+neutron beams and peel the protons
and unstripped deuterons off to the side with a magnetic field, or bang
protons into something else that gives off neutrons?

Give away THAT secret to America's Enemies and I'm certain that you'll
be subjected to a gruelling interrogation under the influence of strange
drugs.

Hmmm, sounds like so much fun that I'll give it a shot instead...;-)

It has been a long time (24 or 25 years) since I messed around at all
with nuclear physics and neutron beams, but isn't that an itty-bitty bit
of foil, sort of like what one might find wrapped around a piece of gum?

   rgb

-- 
Robert G. Brown	                       http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/
Duke University Dept. of Physics, Box 90305
Durham, N.C. 27708-0305
Phone: 1-919-660-2567  Fax: 919-660-2525     email:rgb at phy.duke.edu






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