The Dressed State Picture

I've never been one for costumes, but if you lean that way, and still don't know what you're going as tomorrow, Jennifer Ouellette offers some physics-themed Halloween costumes: Schrödinger's Cat, Maxwell's Demon, and BEC:

If you're looking for something a bit less mainstream, how about dressing up as a Bose-Einstein condensate this Halloween? That's what happens when a cloud of atoms in a gas get so cold -- practically down to Absolute Zero -- that they behave like one giant superatom. I'm not entirely sure how this would work; a bit of creativity is required. But it'd be a great idea for a costume once we've worked the problem. Any ideas?

Unfortunately, this one is a group costume-- to go dressed as a Bose-Einstein Condensate, you really need to get five or six people together. All of you should dress identically, and move around in a tight pack, doing everything in unison. Unless, of course, one of you undergoes a spin flip, at which point you can wander around singly doing whatever you like, provided you're walking on your hands.

Hope this helps. Good luck with the trick-or-treating...

More like this

On the new (just-barely-watchable) nerd sitcom "Big Bang Theory" last night, one of the guys dressed as "The Doppler Effect". I thought he looked more like a 2-slit interference pattern.

Dr. Dave:

Obviously you don't read Jennifer's blog (or even the linked post) as that was the inspiration for the entire post.

I suggest you DO read Jennifer's blog; it's really good.

If you're going to do the Bose Einstein condensate realisitically, you should be sure to do it in the momentum domain instead of the position domain. Maybe you could put on roller skates and glide around having all your atoms with the same velocity.

By Carl Brannen (not verified) on 30 Oct 2007 #permalink