Via Michael Nielsen, a page documenting what I really hope is the dorkiest family vacation ever: Project GREAT: General Relativity Einstein/Essen Anniversary Test Clocks, Kids, and General Relativity on Mt Rainier:
In September 2005 (for the 50th anniversary of the atomic clock and 100th anniversary of the theory of relativity) we took several cesium clocks on a road trip to Mt Rainier; a family science experiment unlike anything you've seen before.
By keeping the clocks at altitude for a weekend we were able to detect and measure the effects of relativistic time dilation compared to atomic clocks we left at home. The amazing thing is that the experiment worked! The predicted and measured effect was just over 20 nanoseconds.
I know that, fifteen years from now, it will be all but impossible to convince SteelyKid that I am not the biggest dork ever to walk the earth. I'm keeping this link, though, so at least I will know that there's somebody out there far nerdier than I'll ever be.
It's certainly dorky, but the whole family was not forced to wear matching neon colored t-shirts and hats during the vacation. That seems to be a trend here among tourists in DC. You could at least pretend not to know the dork with the computer filled van. It's hard to pretend you don't know the people wearing the same identical neon t-shirt you are wearing.
What's worse -- the dork who does the experiment, or the dork who envies the man who does the experiment?
I think that's an awesome idea.
matching neon colored t-shirts and hats
I'm hardly a fashionista, but I have my limits. You are within your rights to summon the fashion police on any parents dorky enough to do this to a child over the age of about 8. It's somewhat more understandable when they are dealing with preschoolers.
I don't know, is it that he's nerdier than you'll ever be, or just that he has access to multiple portable atomic clocks and you don't?
Hey... it was a Swatch atomic clock and it had a minimum cesium footprint.
He comes to timing conferences, has visited my lab at work and I've visited his house when there was a conference in Seattle. He has a collection of atomic clocks that rival the national labs of some European countries.