Daddy's Little Physicist

I've got a ton of stuff to do this morning that will keep me from more substantive blogging, so here's a cute toddler picture:

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This is SteelyKid playing with the giant magnet in the MRI exhibit at the Schenectady Museum, trying to see how big a tower she could make out of steel washers and hex nuts (answer: 11 hex nuts before it fell over). She also greatly enjoyed tossing washers at the magnet and seeing them snap to it (I was more interested in tossing them so they got deflected but missed the magnet body, and shot off into the wider room. I doubt the other patrons would've guessed correctly if asked which of us was responsible for the washers all over the floor.).

Sadly, she didn't have her "Future Physicist" shirt on, which would've made for the perfect picture. But she's clearly got the playing-with-magnets bug, so it's only a matter of time until she starts studying the Aharonov-Bohm Effect...

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This is not a "fix-it" blog. However, I think the Internet should be a useful friendly place. Think about the times you have had a problem. The Internet has been there for you - right?
Better technology sometimes causes problems. In this case, technology has made video cameras really small. Small? That's a problem?
Last night, tooling down to the Drinking Liberally, someone came up to my window while I was parked at a traffic light. My New York reflexes made me think I had to fend of a windshield washer or a panhandler, but it was the driver of the car behind me.
Although it's not Dr. Forbin's Colossus (one of the first AI systems to attempt to destroy the world on film --note the "on film" please), it is quite irritating, and the result might eventually be the same: We recently replaced our oven - why?

I'd rather see her get interested in the Zeeman Effect, which may also cause her to look into the Stark Effect. Then, again, these may push her in the direction of the Lamb Effect, and/or studying the fine or hyperfine structure of the atom. :-)

Dave

Is the Stark effect the correlation between how many models you have on stage and the level of innovation of the displayed technological marvel?