New Year's Eve

In 13 minutes, 2007 is going to be a history of my memory. What have I been up to 2007? If I give a grade to me, I would get a B. It sounds ok to me. I did take care of my body well and tried to do my best for any problems. In 2008, I start to reduce my sleeping time. This means I am going to follow a regular schedule every single day. Making a new plan in 2008 is going to help my last college semester and future life. I woke up around at noon today because I went to sleep around 5 in the morning. As a result, I got up late and missed to go to the gym. While I wrote this daily blog, I saw a New Year's Day celebration on the television with Rebecca. She told me that I become big 30. Whatever she said it, I am living in the U.S. and am still 28 year-old. Everything is going to be awesome to me!! I should be more concerned about my religion. I have been forgotten his words for awhile. Let's make an awesome schedule tomorrow. Good bye 2007.

Two days before New Year's Day

2007 is almost over. This means I am going to get one year-old in a Korean age counting. As usually, I went to HYPER for a workout. Today, I focused on a chest and back which were a superset of workout. Before I left a lift room, I saw a sweet cute girl. I don't know her age and name. I don't think she is under 21. At least, I should have asked her seven magic numbers. God damn it. Why didn't I talk her? If I asked her phone number, would I look a stocker? If I see her again, I will ask her name and phone numbers. When I came back home, I called my mom and dad for New Year's Eve in Korea. Dad and mom said they are going to a church for New Year' Day. This is my family traditional custom. I used to go there with them. In fact, they want to the church with me. Several days ago, I called my dad and he said he couldn't get any Christmas gifts from my sister. What the heck! She becomes a part of her husband's family, Chio. Even though her last name is Hong, her rest of life is going to be with Chio families. Next year, I am going to prepare a bunch of gift for my parents. I know what I have to do. One of Jamiroqui songs, Canned Heat, remains in my head. It is that dont' worry about your future and everything is going to be fine. Before I am going to sleep, I will study FCP, Apple's editing program.

What the heck...

Two stupid bitches live my next door. One of bitches is so fucking annoying because I can hear what she is taking, kicking, and singing. Right after final exams, they left home. However, they are back which means "Disaster." This is my last semester, and I hope those bitches shouldn't be annoying me. I went to the main library that several Korean people are in there as usually. I found Rebecca, my roommate, and seated next to her. Around six, Masa called me and he needed to borrow some money from me. I can definitely lend him some money because I need to practice of my driving test. One of Rebecca's friends who paid 50 dollars per hour for driving has a rich family. Anyway, Masa, Rebecca and I had dinner in The Great Wall, a Chinese restaurant. Then, we came back to my place for a watching movie, the Japanese version of Ring. Japanese calls Ringu instead of Ring. While we were watching the movie, Rebecca and I found several non-sense stories. For example, two main protagonists found the well, the main antagonist's house, but we don't know how the two main protagonists have had got information of the well's location. Also, the movie graphics are not attracted to me. Some of sound are creepy to me. After the watching movie, we played a Texas Hold'em poker game. During the games, Masa had got good hands. Rebecca was won several times but was broke early. Masa and I played several games, and Rebecca was a dealer of us. As time went on, I won and had got all of chips from two people. Then Masa left and Rebecca went to bed. I am going to watch The Kingdom, a Hollywood movie, and am going to sleep. Tomorrow, I should wake up around 9 for a dairy workout. Also, I have to study to English. 

New Dertermiation

I heard a formal Pakistani P.M, Benazir Bhtto, was killed by a suicide bomber in Rawlpindi, Pakistan. She wants Pakistan to be a democracy country. I checked her biographic on Wikipedia that she had gotten a degree from Oxford University in England, and attended Harvard University in the U.S. She became a P.M, Pakistan, twice in 1988 and 1993. Bhutto died after gunfire and suicide bomb attack targeted her at a campaign rally in Rawlpindi on Thursday, December 27, 2007. I am sorry for her and Pakistanis who wanted her to be a leader of Pakistan. Most American News channels display breaking news of Bhtto. Ironically, most American people don't know who Benazir Bhtto is. I guess many American people don't care about foreign countries' issues. People who have a son, serving military in dangerous countries, are more concerned about foreign issues. Anyway, I must to improve speaking, writing and listening skills. My ears might not pick up some of English sounds, so I usually ask a question again and again to a questioner. Although I always try to improve listening skills, I usually give up to improve English. This time is different that I must defeat these problems. I am going to listen anything and am going to writing down it on the paper every single day. In addition, I am going to improve memory skills. I easily forget that what I have done. Why do I forget something easily? Last one is I should be more confidence to myself. One of stereotypes is Asian people are not supposed to speak English. I want to speak very well but my brain is dominated by this stereotype. However, I am going to get rid of this stupid idea, and I will be more pride of myself. Because of living in the U.S. for four years, I have been adapted to new cultures. Everyone doesn't have these opportunities, living in a new county for several years. I always thank you my parents who raised me and support me. These are my new determination and I always keep thinking about them.

The Lost Numbers

What is the meaning of the Lost, one of ABC television shows, numbers? I checked several websites and might find an answer of this question. It is from the Shaw-Basho Polynomial.

I plugged 0 into the polyomial to get 4, and then I plugged in 1 to get 12, etc. I got the following infinite sequence of numbers:

4 12 35 89 213 511 1194 2622 5346 10150 18093 ... (goes on forever)

Not too interesting, eh? Then I wrote out the differences of succeeding numbers in the sequence. For example, 12 - 4 = 8, 35 - 12 = 23, 89 - 35 = 54, etc.

8 23 54 124 298 683 1428 2624 4804 7943 ... (goes on forever)

I kept doing this process. The third sequence began 23 - 8 = 15, 54 - 23 = 31, etc. When you keep going, something completely unexpected happens! Here - I've done the work for you:

SEQUENCE 1: 4 12 35 89 213 511 1194 2622 5346 10150 18093 ... (goes on forever)
SEQUENCE 2: 8 23 54 124 298 683 1428 2624 4804 7943 12458... (goes on forever)
SEQUENCE 3: 15 31 70 174 385 745 1296 2080 3139 4515 6250... (goes on forever)
SEQUENCE 4: 16 39 104 211 360 551 784 1059 1376 1735 ... (goes on forever)
SEQUENCE 5: 23 65 107 149 191 233 275 317 359 ... (goes on forever)
SEQUENCE 6: 42 42 42 42 42 42 42 42 42 42... (goes on forever)
SEQUENCE 7: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (goes on forever)
SEQUENCE 8: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (goes on forever)
SEQUENCE 9: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (goes on forever)
SEQUENCE 10: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (goes on forever)
And it stays at zero forever. The sequence destroys itself.

These six numbers are interesting to me. This is not a integer sequence.There is one a prime number, 23. Also, they are not perfect numbers, is the same as the sum of its divisors except itself such as 6=1+2+3. They are not decimals of Pi, an irrational number which means that its decimal expansion never ends or repeats.

What is the Shaw-Basho polynomial?

It is a well chosen polynomial that together with a well chosen set of operations generates the Lost Numbers. It is not canonical Lost-content. It is not of mathematical significance. It is not endorsed by the author of this page. It is just a hoax.

• Use a search engine to look for Shaw-Basho polynomial. The hits will be the hoax page and some forum comments.
• Shaw and Basho are not famous mathematicians. Just the perpetrator and his cat.
  
• Infinitely many Integer Sequences can be generated using the same technique and a well chosen polynomial.

2007 Christmas

My stomach is still upset.  I ate too much food, Bulgogi, curry, tofu Kimch and so on. Rebecca and I invited Masa and Dohee to my apartment. I went to a Korean grocery store and bought several Korean foods for the today party. They came to my place around 2 pm. Then we chatted a little bit and ate food. Rebecca ate several Korean food. She seemed to be unhappy to eat Korean food. I thought she was going to puke while we were eating food. After eating, we played a Texas hold'em poker game. I had got a good hand. That's why I collected a lot of chips. After several games, Dohee left my house because she had to write her resume today. Um... Let me think about her story... Today is the biggest holiday in U.S. Nobody opens stores, school buildings and even convenience stores. I don't know maybe she didn't want to be low level people. Are upper-clusters playing poker games? Are scholars playing poker games? Definitely, they play it. Anyway, she left my place. Then Masa, Rebecca and I changed a game from a poker game to a board game, Monopoly. Begging of the game I save many money and was pretty good playing. However, I started to loose my money and lost concentration. Eventually, I was broken. I was pissed off because Rebecca had uncool attidue. Masa won the game. Right after the game, Masa and I had dinner. Aa usually, Rebecca was not interested in Korean food. Then Masa brought movie dvds, Ring series. One of dvd cases was empty. Sucks. Plus, these dvds didn't match a region code to the U.S. Fuck that shit. So, Masa and I watched Ring 2 on my labtop computer. I am so tired. I need to sleep and have to do a lot of things for tomorrow. 

2007 is almost over

I checked several blogs of my friends who are living in Korea. Some of them are going to marry and some of them have girlfriends and boyfriends. I am not interested in getting marry right now. My parents want me to find a good future wife and produce my child or children. I totally agree with them. But it is not right now. In 12 days, 2007 is going to become a history. Plus, I am getting old. If I stay in Korea, I will be 30 years old. Jesus!! It sounds old to me. I would be fine.
During th winter break, I am going to work on my resume and improve English. I have to figure out that I must find a job before I graduate this school. I really want to be a staff of LOST, the ABC TV show. Tomorrow, I am going to work on the OPT programs. By the way, Korean people elected a new president, Lee Myong Park, yesterday. According to Mr. Lee, he is going to make Korea that becomes a economically strong country. I hope my country should become one of the strongest countries in the world. I want to talk my parents but they are usually in a church. For that reason, they don't usually answer the phone. Enjoy my life :)

Lost season 3 finale

I can't wait Lost season 4. It is going to be on TV in January, 2008. I want to know what happen to Jack who are eventually out of the island with Kate. The season 4 finale still have unsolved problems. Jack uses a satellite phone and contacts someone who is supposed to rescue survivors on the island. However, Ben, the others' leader, says that if Jack turns the satellite phone up, every single person, who is on the island, is going to be killed. Jack doesn't believe what Ben says. Then Jack turns it on. Someone answers the phone. Jack says he is on the island with 40 survivors from the Oceana airplane crash. Then someone says the rescue team is going to be on the island. After this scene, Jack's flashfoward is shown that Jack and Kate meet around an airport at night. Jack says he was not supposed to leave the island. They were not supposed to leave the island. What the heck? At least, Jack and Kate are rescued. But why does Jack want to go back to the island? What happen to Jin and Sun? Does Sawyer live with Kate? What is about the cursing numbers? I want Jack and Juliet to become together. Lost season 3 still have a lot of unsolved problems. I have to wait one more month for watching Lost. I hope season 4 has some answers from unsolved problems.  

Winter break

Since last Thursday, I have watched a bunch of movies. Plus, Rebecca rent Lost season 3 from Neflex. This TV show is extreme interesting. I can't predict what happen next. Anyway, I am going to make my job resume and apply to OPT this winter break. I must find out a live stage camera operator. The rest of time I am going to chill out in my apartment. I don't have enough money to travel to other states. My back is pretty bad. I know it is going to be fine but I worry about my lowback. As time goes on, this lowback problem might be getting worse. I should be more concerned about my lowback. 

Stree

I saw a grade which is one of my major classes. I thought I got an ok grade but it was not. Last time I checked its grade on Oncourse and it was ok. But that class teacher, a bitch, added all of my scores and it became aweful. Since the begginig of November, I didn't go to that class. That's why I didn't get a full grade from my trailer group. Becasue of my trailer gruop, I didn't go our meeting which was out of the class meeting. Fucking assholes. Tonight I am gonna watch a moive, I am legend, starring by Will Smith. Before we are going to watch the moive, we are going to eat dinner a resturant, probably Chinese buffe. Then, I am going to Nick's place for being drunk. haha. It may help me to release my streess. Plus, I've not drank since Octocber. I would be drunk quickly as usually. I only have one more semester which will be fucking tough. Be a man!!

My last final day

Wow wow wow... I am still awaking right now. It is about 5:07am, December 13, 2007. I am going to take an astronomy exam in five hours. I am still studying it. If I go back to my teenager-hood, I would be awesome grades. On the other hand, I would be concerned about Korean teachers. I guess many Korean students were abused by teacher's aggressive behavior. In was a fact that they smashed students bodies. That's why I hate my old school memories. I should go back to study.

Quantum Physics

I have an astronomy exam tomorrow. While I studied astronomy, I found a useful lecture note about quantum physics.

Thomson Atom:

The next great step forward in the understanding of atoms was accomplished by John Thomson. Using a cathode ray scope, Thomson determined that all matter, whatever its source, contains particles of the same kind that are much less massive than the atoms of which they form a part. They are now called electrons, although he originally called them corpuscles.

His discovery was the result of an attempt to solve a long-standing controversy regarding the nature of cathode rays, which occur when an electric current is driven through a vessel from which most of the air or other gas has been pumped out.

By applying an improved vacuum technique, Thomson was able to put forward a convincing argument that these rays were composed of particles. Furthermore, these rays seemed to be composed of the same particles, or corpuscles, regardless of what kind of gas carried the electric discharge or what kinds of metals were used as conductors.

Thomson's conclusion that the corpuscles were present in all kinds of matter was strengthened during the next three years, when he found that corpuscles with the same properties could be produced in other ways; e.g., from hot metals. Thomson may be described as "the man who split the atom" for the first time, although "chipped" might be a better word, in view of the size and number of electrons.

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Rutherford Atom:

Ernest Rutherford is considered the father of nuclear physics. Indeed, it could be said that Rutherford invented the very language to describe the theoretical concepts of the atom and the phenomenon of radioactivity. Particles named and characterized by him include the alpha particle, beta particle and proton. Rutherford overturned Thomson's atom model in 1911 with his well-known gold foil experiment in which he demonstrated that the atom has a tiny, massive nucleus.

By the turn of the 20th century, physicists knew that certain elements emitted fast moving particles of two flavors, alpha particles and beta particles. These elements were typically very heavy (i.e. their atom nuclei were massive) such as uranium and radium. Today we know that heavy nuclei are unstable and `decay', meaning that they spontaneously split into smaller nuclei and emit stray particles. This is called radioactivity.

The alpha particle was heavy and positively charged, we now know that it is the helium nuclei (2 protons and 2 neutrons). The beta particle was light and negatively charged, the electron. Rutherford designed an experiment to use the alpha particles emitted by a radioactive element as probes to the unseen world of atomic structure. His experiment looked like the following:

The Rutherford beamed alpha particles through gold foil and detected them as flashes of light or scintillations on a screen. The gold foil was only 0.00004 centimeter thick, meaning on a few hundreds of atoms thick.

If the Thomson model of atoms was correct, then the alpha particles should pass through with relatively little deflection.

The expectation is that they will strike the fluorescent screen directly behind the foil.

In fact, what was observed was the following:

Most alpha particles were observed to pass straight through the gold foil. A few, however, were scattered at large angles, and some even bounced back toward the source. Only a positively charged and relatively heavy target particle, such as the proposed nucleus, could account for such strong repulsion.

These results can best explained by a model for the atom as a tiny, dense, positively charged core called a nucleus, in which nearly all the mass is concentrated, around which the light, negative constituents, called electrons, circulate at some distance, much like planets revolving around the Sun.

The Rutherford atomic model has been alternatively called the nuclear atom, or the planetary model of the atom.

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Planck's curve:

Parallel to efforts to understand the inner workings of the atom was research in the late-1800's to understand how matter emits energy. The energy an object emits as a function of the wavelength of light is called its continuous spectrum. The field of science that studies spectrum is called spectroscopy. One of the primary results from the field of spectroscopy was the discovery that the spectrum of an object changes with temperature.

In particular, was the formulation of the two laws of radiation:

Stefan-Boltzmann law: the amount of energy emitted from a body increases with higher temperature

Wien's law: the peak of emission moves to bluer light as temperature increases

Both these relationships were synthesized by physicist Max Planck into what is called Planck's curve. All objects emit energy in the shape of Planck's curve, where the amount and the peak energy vary only as the temperature of the body.

The problem with Planck's curve is that it does not agree with Rutherford's model of the atom. Atoms absorb and emit light through a process called scattering. Photons fly near the atoms and are deflected. Sometimes their motion pushes the atom (where push means electromagnetic forces), and the photon loses energy (i.e. becomes redder). Sometimes the atom pushes the photon, and the photon gains energy (i.e. becomes bluer). However, even the nature of atoms, the photons should receive more energy than the atoms, so there should be more and more blue photons, but clearly the Planck curve drops off at short wavelengths. This is called the UV catastrophe, which was resolved by quantum physics.

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Stellar Spectroscopy:

The fact that the temperature and energy generation of an object can be determined by its Planck curve made the study of spectrum the key component to stellar astronomy. The amount of energy emitted from stars is determined by measuring their brightness or the amount of light they emit. This is called photometry. However, two major developments expanded our understanding of the chemical make-up of stars. They were:

The invention of the spectroscope, a device that separates white light into component colors called a spectrum.

And the discovery that elements emit a unique spectrum, i.e. produce a unique chemical fingerprint in the spectrum.

The two discoveries combined to produce a new field called spectroscopy, and allowed astronomers to measure the chemical composition of stars for the first time.

The discovery of spectra lines was made by Fraunhofer who, in the early 1800's, magnified the Sun's spectrum and discovered dark lines which could be identified with particular elements (based on spectra in the laboratories).

English astronomer Lockyer, in the late-1800's, discovered an unknown element in the Sun, i.e. a set of spectral lines which did not correspond to elements in the lab. He named this element helium (Latin for Sun element).

click me to see spectra of all the elements

By the 20th century, spectral lines for all the elements in the periodic table have been classified and astronomers could examine the chemical composition of stars and planets. What was missing was an explanation for why these lines should exist. Why did particular atoms absorb photons at particular wavelengths?

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Kirchhoff's Laws:

The first clue to the origin of spectral lines was found by Kirchhoff who, in the mid-1800's, developed the three laws of spectroscopic analysis. Kirchhoff showed that there are three types of spectra emitted by objects:

1) Continuous spectrum - a solid or liquid body radiates an uninterrupted, smooth spectrum (called a Planck curve)

2) Absorption spectrum - a continuous spectrum that passes through a cool gas has specific spectral lines removed (inverse of an emission spectrum)

3) Emission spectrum - a radiating gas produces a spectrum of discrete spectral lines

There remains a problem with the spectra and the Rutherford model of the atom. Rutherford atoms can absorb or emit photons at any wavelength because the orbit of the electron can take on any distance from the nucleus. However, the spectral lines indicate that there are preferred orbits for the electrons, that they have certain discrete distances from the nuclei. This `quantization' of electron orbits leads to the next great breakthrough in modern physics, quantum mechanics.

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Planck's constant:

The UV catastrophe and the dilemma of spectral lines were already serious problems for attempts to understand how light and matter interact. Planck also noticed another fatal flaw in our physics by demonstrating that the electron in orbit around the nucleus accelerates. Acceleration means a changing electric field (the electron has charge), when means photons should be emitted. But, then the electron would lose energy and fall into the nucleus. Therefore, atoms shouldn't exist!

To resolve this problem, Planck made a wild assumption that energy, at the sub-atomic level, can only be transfered in small units, called quanta. Due to his insight, we call this unit Planck's constant (h). The word quantum derives from quantity and refers to a small packet of action or process, the smallest unit of either that can be associated with a single event in the microscopic world.

Changes of energy, such as the transition of an electron from one orbit to another around the nucleus of an atom, is done in discrete quanta. Quanta are not divisible. The term quantum leap refers to the abrupt movement from one discrete energy level to another, with no smooth transition. There is no ``inbetween''.

The quantization, or ``jumpiness'' of action as depicted in quantum physics differs sharply from classical physics which represented motion as smooth, continuous change. Quantization limits the energy to be transfered to photons and resolves the UV catastrophe problem.

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Bohr Atom:

Perhaps the foremost scientists of the 20th century was Niels Bohr, the first to apply Planck's quantum idea to problems in atomic physics. In the early 1900's, Bohr proposed a quantum mechanical description of the atom to replace the early model of Rutherford.

The Bohr model basically assigned discrete orbits for the electron, multiples of Planck's constant, rather than allowing a continuum of energies as allowed by classical physics.

The power in the Bohr model was its ability to predict the spectra of light emitted by atoms. In particular, its ability to explain the spectral lines of atoms as the absorption and emission of photons by the electrons in quantized orbits.

Our current understanding of atomic structure was formalized by Heisenberg and Schroedinger in the mid-1920's where the discreteness of the allowed energy states emerges from more general aspects, rather than imposed as in Bohr's model. The Heisenberg/Schroedinger quantum mechanics have consistent fundamental principles, such as the wave character of matter and the incorporation of the uncertainty principle.

In principle, all of atomic and molecular physics, including the structure of atoms and their dynamics, the periodic table of elements and their chemical behavior, as well as the spectroscopic, electrical, and other physical properties of atoms and molecules, can be accounted for by quantum mechanics => fundamental science.

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Wave-Particle Dualism:

The wave-like nature of light explains most of its properties:

• reflection/refraction
  
• diffraction/interference
  
• Doppler effect

But, the results from spectroscopy (emission and absorption spectra) can only be explained if light has a particle nature as shown by Bohr's atom and the photon description of light.

This dualism to the nature of light is best demonstrated by the photoelectric effect, where a weak UV light produces a current flow (releases electrons) but a strong red light does not release electrons no matter how intense the red light.

Einstein explained that light exists in a particle-like state as packets of energy (quanta) called photons. The photoelectric effect occurs because the packets of energy carried by each individual red photons are too weak to knock the electrons off the atoms no matter how many red photons you beamed onto the cathode. But the individual UV photons were each strong enough to release the electron and cause a current flow.

It is one of the strange, but fundamental, concepts in modern physics that light has both a wave and particle state (but not at the same time), called wave-particle dualism.

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de Broglie Matter Waves:

Perhaps one of the key questions when Bohr offered his quantized orbits as an explanation to the UV catastrophe and spectral lines is, why does an electron follow quantized orbits? The response to this question arrived from the Ph.D. thesis of Louis de Broglie in 1923. de Broglie argued that since light can display wave and particle properties, then perhaps matter can also be a particle and a wave too.

One way of thinking of a matter wave (or a photon) is to think of a wave packet. Normal waves look with this:

having no beginning and no end. A composition of several waves of different wavelength can produce a wave packet that looks like this:

So a photon, or a free moving electron, can be thought of as a wave packet, having both wave-like properties and also the single position and size we associate with a particle. There are some slight problems, such as the wave packet doesn't really stop at a finite distance from its peak, it also goes on for every and every. Does this mean an electron exists at all places in its trajectory?

de Broglie also produced a simple formula that the wavelength of a matter particle is related to the momentum of the particle. So energy is also connected to the wave property of matter.

Lastly, the wave nature of the electron makes for an elegant explanation to quantized orbits around the atom. Consider what a wave looks like around an orbit, as shown below.

The electron matter wave is both finite and unbounded (remember the 1st lecture on math). But only certain wavelengths will `fit' into an orbit. If the wavelength is longer or shorter, then the ends do not connect. Thus, de Broglie explains the Bohr atom in that on certain orbits can exist to match the natural wavelength of the electron. If an electron is in some sense a wave, then in order to fit into an orbit around a nucleus, the size of the orbit must correspond to a whole number of wavelengths.

Notice also that this means the electron does not exist at one single spot in its orbit, it has a wave nature and exists at all places in the allowed orbit. Thus, a physicist speaks of allowed orbits and allowed transitions to produce particular photons (that make up the fingerprint pattern of spectral lines). And the Bohr atom really looks like the following diagram:

While de Broglie waves were difficult to accept after centuries of thinking of particles are solid things with definite size and positions, electron waves were confirmed in the laboratory by running electron beams through slits and demonstrating that interference patterns formed.

How does the de Broglie idea fit into the macroscopic world? The length of the wave diminishes in proportion to the momentum of the object. So the greater the mass of the object involved, the shorter the waves. The wavelength of a person, for example, is only one millionth of a centimeter, much to short to be measured. This is why people don't `tunnel' through chairs when they sit down.

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Elementary Particles :

Modern physics speaks of fundamental building blocks of Nature, where fundamental takes on a reductionist meaning of simple and structureless. Many of the particles we have discussed so far appear simple in their properties. All electrons have the exact same characteristics (mass, charge, etc.), so is an electron fundamental because they are all non-unique.

The search for the origin of matter means the understanding of elementary particles. The understanding of elementary particles requires an understanding of not only their characteristics, but how they interact and relate to other particles and forces of Nature, the field of physics called particle physics.

The study of particles begins with the search for the primary constituent. More than 200 subatomic particles have been discovered so far, however most are not fundamental, most are composed of other, simpler particles. For example, Rutherford showed that the atom was composed of a nucleus and orbiting electrons. Later physicists showed that the nucleus was composed of neutrons and protons. More recent work has shown that protons and neutrons are composed of quarks.

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Quarks and Leptons:

The two most fundamental types of particles are quarks and leptons, where each class is divided into 6 flavors corresponding to three generations of matter. Quarks (and antiquarks) have electric charges in units of 1/3 or 2/3's. Leptons have charges in units of 1 or 0.

Normal matter, everyday matter, is of the first generation, so we only concern ourselves with up and down quarks, the electron neutrino (often just called the neutrino), electrons, plus the four force carriers, the photon, the gluon, the W particle and the Z particle which we collectly call bosons. Force carriers are responsible for the four fundamental forces of Nature.

Note that for every quark or lepton there is an anti-particle, what is called anti-matter. For example, there is an up anti-quark, an anti-electron (called a positron) and an anti-neutrino. When matter and anti-matter make contact, then instantly annihilate each other to produce energy. Bosons do not have antiparticles since they are force carriers.

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Baryons and Mesons :

Quarks combine to form other types of matter, baryons and mesons. Baryons are made of three quarks and are found everywhere, they are the protons and neutrons of atomic nuclei (and also anti-protons and anti-neutrons). Mesons, made of quark pairs, are usually found in cosmic rays. Notice that a rule for quark combinations is that the sum of the charges must be an integer; -1, 0, or +1. We do not see fractional charges in Nature, thus there are no free quarks, they are only found in pairs or triplets.

Thus, our current understanding of the structure of the atom is such that the atom contains a nucleus surrounded by a cloud of negatively charged electrons bound to the nucleus by electromagnetic forces. The nucleus is composed of neutral neutrons and positively charged protons bound together by the strong nuclear force. The protons and neutrons are composed of up and down quarks whose fractional charges (2/3 and -1/3) which combine to produce the 0 or +1 charge of the proton and neutron.

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Two more days

I took two exams today. One of classes is my favorite class, a history of the marriage. I think I am going to bed early, maybe 1 am. I MUST get up early tomorrow and have to study astronomy, final exam is Thursday.  After Thursday, I must go out!! Yeah~~

One more week

This week is finals. I already took a philosophy exam. And I have four finals, two telecommunication classes, a history class and astronomy class. I have two exams tomorrow. I think I am ready to take those exams. It is five to midnight. I am on the second floor in the IMU. I may go home around 3 or 4 am. I am just thinking of my old memory, a high school memory. If I were doing this when I was high school kid, I would be an awesome student. But, I really hated the Korean school system. That's why I am studying right now.

A history of the wive in 1940s

In World War II, the service wives, whose husbands aboard ships, volunteered to take night duty at headquarters so the  civilian wives could be home with their families. The million of wives were from every walk of life contributed to the wartime rise in married women's employment from 15 percent in 1940 to more than 24 percent in 1945. Also, World War II, merely accelerated a trend that was already in progress, since the overall female workforce had been steadily increasing since the turn of the century. Many patriotic citizens, organizations, and media urged wives, as well as single women, to take up the jobs left vacant by servicemen and to fill the new jobs required by the war industry. It was a propaganda power. Every women over 18, who is physically fit and has no children under 14, should be prepared to take a war job, including factory job, shipbuilding job and so on. However, everyone understood that as soon as the war was over, they would return to their primary job as wives, mothers and homemakers. Wartime pay was awesome, better than ever before in American history, and that pay was now being offered to women for jobs that would previously have been reserved for men. It is true that war has provided new opportunities for women, were influenced by several factors; the absence of men, the spirit of patriotism, adventure, the creation of new organizations and so on. 

I want to talk about marriage rates in U.S during World War II. At least two million new brides in 1943, or about 14/1ooo population. During World War I, marriage rates were about 11/1000 population. In other words, World War II's husbands more had fun with their wives

The limits of computation, a non-Turing machine, the Halting problem and quantum mechanics

Question 1) the limits of computation, i.e., what problems can or can’t be computed?

Any decidable problems are solved by a Turing machine will always require only a finite amount of memory. Also, every function that can be physically computed can be computed by a Turing machine. Classical computability theory originated with Godel, Church, and Turing in the 1930’s, and included a wide spectrum topics. What problems cannot be computed? The answer is the halting problem. Before Kurt Godel’s Incompleteness Theorems were published, David Hilbert believed that all of mathematics follows from a correctly chosen finite system of axioms and that some such axiom system is provably consistent through some means such as the epsilon calculus. However, his idea was wrong. According to Godel’s Incompleteness Theorems, there is statement sin antithetic that cannot be proven or disproved just as there is no Turing Machine that will determine whether a program with input data will ever halt. Alan Turing proved that a general algorithm to solve the Halting problem for all possible program input pairs cannot exist. Therefore, it cannot be computed.

Question 2) it is impossible to build a physical machine that will solve non-Turing computable problem, or will solve an interactable problem in polynomial time

For example, a non-Turing computable problem is the Halting problem. The Halting problem is undecidable that there is no computable function that correctly determines which programs halt and which ones do not. Even if there is no algorithm that solves the problem in a finite amount of time, the problem is undecidable. According to Kurt Godel, he devise a system that’s satisfactorily powerful and well-behaved to encompass mathematical reasoning that system will necessarily contain a statement that we could never prove is true, even though it is true. In addition, Alan Turing showed that there must exist undeciable problems, questions for which there is no definable solution.

Question 3) what are the major differences between the Halting Problem and problems that are believe to be intractable? Why do people think quantum mechanics may help us solve the letter but not the former?

a) First of all, the Halting problem is undeciable. The Halting problem is that given a program and inputs for it, decide whether it will run forever or will eventually stop. Also, it is a decision problem. The 3SAT, non-determistic polynomial complete problem, is also a decision problem. Also, NP-complete problems are computable. If NP-complete problem may spend amount of time to compute, it will get an output either Yes or No. However, the Halting problem will immediately enter an infinitely loop; otherwise, halt will return immediately. In other word, we don’t know its final output either Yes or No.

b) Quantum mechanics may help us to require a small amount of time to compute for NP-complete problem, such a hacking problem. However, the Halting problem is undeciable. Even if the spacetime is reduced, it doesn’t help to solve the Halting problem.

Final exams

One more week. I am going to wrap it up this semester.