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@xxxxxxxxxxxx
