13/07/20

college is all about screaming in to your pillow about how you DONT WANNA I DONT WANNA DO IT I DONT WANT TO and then you do it

23.08.2020 | 84/100 Days of Productivity | finished my hobbit-inspired spread for this week + essentials for a quiet day | thanks to my cd player i'm getting through quarantine relatively sane...

And God said, "Behold! I have created the fourth primordial force: the weak interaction!"

And the angels all clapped and nodded politely, and there was a long silence; and finally Verchiel, the Angel of Grace, spoke up and asked, "Er, what exactly does it do, O Fashioner?"

And God said, "What do you mean, 'what does it do?' It's the fourth fundamental force of the universe."

And Verchiel said, "You mentioned that. Um. But it's just that the other three sort of have a brand, you know? Gravity helps build large-scale structures, acts over vast cosmic distances, shapes time and space. The strong force is secret, hidden, binding together quarks and all that. Electromagnetism, very cool stuff, somewhere in between. We're all big fans of the whole magnetic monopole double bluff, very clever. But, er. What does this 'weak interaction' do?"

And God said, "It mediates radioactive decay. Sort of."

And Verchiel said, "Radioactive decay? All radioactive decay?"

And God said, "No. Just some kinds."

And Zephaniel, the Chief of the Ishim spoke, and he said, "A whole independent force just to mediate some kinds of radioactive decay?"

And God said, "Well. Not totally independent. Technically it's related to electromagnetism."

And Zephaniel said, "Wait, it's not even a real force?"

And God said, "It's totally a real force. It's just that it's one aspect of a combined electromagnetic and weak force. An electro-weak force, if you will."

And Metatron, the Celestial Scribe, scratched his head at this, but said nothing.

And Cambiel, the Angel of Transformation, said, "Maybe you can walk us through it from the top."

And God Sighed an immense Sigh, and said, "All right, fine.

"So the way it works is that all of space and time is permeated by a field that has imaginary mass."

And Cambiel said, "Imaginary mass, O Generous Provider?"

And God said, "Yes, imaginary mass. It's tachyonic, d'you see?"

And Sarathiel, the Angel of Discipline, said, "Wait a minute, I thought we agreed nothing was going to travel faster than light? All that 'c' business and the whole Lorentz transformation thing. What's happening with that?"

And God said, "Let me finish. The field is tachyonic. The particles in the field all move slower than light."

And Sarathiel had to think about this for a second.

And God said, "The point is, a field with imaginary mass has a non-zero vacuum expectation value."

And this really gave Sarathiel trouble, since he had never been very good at math.

And God, seeing this, went back to explain. "Most fields, like the electromagnetic field, have no effect when they are at their lowest energy state. It's like they're not there at all. If you give a field imaginary mass, then it vanishes only when it's at a very high energy state, and at a low energy state, it has a nonzero value everywhere."

And Sarathiel nodded, but he was confused, because he didn't understand why God would create such a thing.

But Verchiel thought he saw where God was going with this, and he was amazed.

"Truly, you are cunning beyond measure, O Only One Certainly Sound and Genuine in Truth! Only now do I understand your design! For in order to make the universe homogenous and isotropic, it is necessary that all large-scale fluctuations in temperature and mass must be evened out early in the history of the cosmos; and therefore, you have designed a field which will rapidly expand space after the Big Bang, many orders of magnitude in brief moments, and then swiftly and spontaneously decay as it gives up the energy it began with, giving rise to radiation and particles of all kinds as it does, which will condense into the material universe! It is a wonder to behold."

And God said, "What? No. I mean I did, but this isn't the inflaton field I'm talking about. This is something else."

And Verchiel said, "Wait, it's not?"

And God said, "No, I'm going to use a different field to drive cosmic inflation. The properties of this field are totally different."

And now Verchiel was also confused, and lapsed into silence.

And God said, "Like I was saying, this field is a scalar field with imaginary mass, and it does spontaneously decay to a ground state with a non-zero value. But it's not the inflaton field. Instead it combines with the W1, W2, W3, and B bosons."

And Metatron began to flip back through the pages of the Heavenly Record trying to figure out where he'd lost the thread.

And Zephaniel said, "The what bosons?"

And God said, "The W1, W2, W3, and B bosons. I'm sure I mentioned them. You know, the massless bosons?"

And Zephaniel said, "I'm pretty sure we only talked about the W+, W-, and Z0 bosons. All of which you said were going to have mass, O Owner of All Sovereignty."

And God said, "Yes, but this is how they get them, you see. Once this field acquires a nonzero value everywhere, the massless bosons interact with it and get mass. Well, some of them do. They turn into the W+, W-, and Z0 boson. And the photon."

And Zephaniel said, "…and the photon, O Accepter of Invocation?"

And God said, "Well, I did say I was going to unify the electromagnetic force and the weak interaction, didn't I? This is how. Above the critical temperature--right now I'm thinking 10^15 K, but I'm open to feedback on that one--electromagnetism and the weak force act as a single unifying force. Below that temperature, the field gets a nonzero value, you get three massive bosons to mediate the weak interaction, and the photon pops out seperately."

And Zephaniel said, "That seems… a bit overly complicated, doesn't it, O Reinstater Who Brings Back All?"

And God said, "No, it's exactly what we need. Look, that way the W and Z bosons have something to do, but the weak interaction still only travels short distances. Gravity is still the star of the show on cosmic scales, as it were. But now quarks and leptons can swap their flavor!"

And Zephaniel said, rather weakly, "Their… flavor, O Source of Good?"

And God said, "It's this new quantum number I'm trying out, to give the three generations of matter more unique identities."

And Cambiel said, "Three generations of matter? Now I'm really confused."

And God said, "I'm sure I mentioned this. You've got the lightest quarks and leptons, and then two heavier versions of each that can decay into the lighter versions."

And Cambiel said, "What do they do? New kinds of chemistry, is it?"

And God said, "Well, no. Mostly they just decay in a couple microseconds. Or even faster."

And Zephaniel began to rub his temples, and Cambiel sniffed.

And Cambiel said, "This all seems a bit ad hoc to me. Not really the stuff of an elegant and obviously ordered Creation. Why not have four generations of matter? Why not a trillion?"

And God began to grow irritable, and said, "Well, that's not really up to you, now is it? We're going to have three generations of matter, and the electroweak force, and that's that!"

And Zephaniel said, "As long as we are unifying fundamental forces, perhaps we could somehow also unify the electroweak interaction with the strong interaction, or even gravity."

And God hesitated saying, "Well, I haven't decided about that yet. I'm not sure I want gravity to be quantized, you know? Seems to take some of the geometric elegance out of general relativity."

And now it was Zephaniel's turn to sigh, and he bowed his head. "As you wish, O Possessor of Authority of Decisions and Judgement."

yeah

18 march 2020

day one working from home. scottish schools officially shut on friday but following guidelines i was having to self isolate for a fortnight bc of family members anyway. stay safe!

Notes taken during Physics lessons! Exams end in 5 days and I can’t wait!!!!!!

baymax is a regional species of autism creature i think

Please reblog if you're a British studyblr! :D

I'm trying to find more people to follow.

Hi everyone! I’ve so enjoyed doing my 2020 quarantine challenge and getting to know so many of you (and discovering your amazing blogs) that i’ve decided to create this new SUMMER STUDYING CHALLENGE! i did consider continuing my other challenge but my school year has now ended and the way i study in the summer and my priorities is very different compared to during school time - which i’m sure is the same for may of you! I’ve created this challenge to try and keep myself motivated during the summer (because i am ridiculously busy XD) but i also want to use this time to get to know many more of you and stay motivated together  💕 

(also i know that many people struggle for ideas of what to post during the summer so hopefully these will give you some ideas. 

✨ Info ✨

This challenge will run from Monday 13th July 2020 to Sunday 6th September 2020, which is two months.  However, please feel free to join in and start any time if you come across this challenge after the 13th July because i want this challenge to be accessible for everyone! 

I have daily prompts for each of this entire time. You don’t have to post every day (you could, for example, cover all the prompts in one post at the end of the week) and you also don’t have to post for the entirety of the challenge (for example if your summer break ends before the 6th September). But i will be posting every day for the whole time and want to interact with as many of you as possible!!!

I want to see what you are posting so please use the tag #summer studying challenge and I’ll track this tag and reblog as much as possible!

On this note, I will reblog basically everything even if you don’t think it is ‘aesthetic’ cause I love seeing how everyone does their notes and stuff so please get involved 💕

✨ Prompts ✨

13th July -  What are your plans for this summer?

14th July - Have your plans changed at all because of the pandemic?

15th July - Do you have a specific goal for this summer?

16th July - Do you have a lot of work to do for school or university or your job this summer?

17th July - What is the most important task that you need to complete this summer?

18th July - What do you usually do during the summer?

19th July - What did you do during the summer when you were a young child?

20th July - Do you usually go on vacation during the summer?

21st July - What is the best vacation you have ever been on? (note: does not have to have been during summer)

22nd July -  What is your dream vacation?

23rd July - What is the worst vacation you have ever been on?

24th July - What is your favourite vacation memory?

25th July - What was is your favourite event or day in the summer?   Are you a ‘summer person’ or do you prefer it when it is colder?

26th July - What is your typical daily routine in the summer?

27th July -  Do you stay indoors or outdoors more in the summer?

28th July - How do you stay motivated to study during the summer? 

29th July - Have you done or are you planning to do any activities (such as work experience, summer schools or watching lectures) other than normal work during the summer? 

30th July - Beach or Swimming pool?

31st July - What do you like most about the beach?

1st August - What is your least favourite thing about the beach?

2nd August - What is your song of the summer this year?

3rd August - What is your ultimate summertime song?

4th August - What is your favourite summertime movie?

5th August - Do you read a lot in the summer?

6th August - What book are you currently reading?

7th August - What is your favourite summer ‘beach read’ book? 

8th August - What TV show are you currently watching?

9th August - What was the last movie you watched?

10th August - What is your favourite summertime snack?

11th August - What is your favourite meal to have on the beach?

12th August - What is an unpopular opinion that you have about summer?

13th August - What is your favourite ice cream flavour?

14th August - What is your favourite summer clothing?

15th August - What’s your favourite summer drink?

16th August - Daytime or night time – what’s your favourite time during summer?

17th August - What is your favourite seasonal fruit to eat during the summer?

18th August - Would you prefer your summer to be shorter or longer?

19th August - How does summer feel in your region?

20th August -  If you could make up a new ice cream flavour, what ingredients would you use? What would you call it?

21st August - If there was a tropical island made just for you, what would you find on it?

22nd August -  Imagine that you could fill a swimming pool with anything except water and swim in it. What would your pool be filled with?

23rd August - Do you miss school/university/work during the summer?

24th August - Do you like wearing sunglasses?

25th August - Do you wear sunscreen?

26th August - Have you ever been really badly sunburnt? 

27th August - Do your sleeping habits change during summer?

28th August - Do your eating habits change during summer?

29th August - What is the thing that annoys you the most during summer?

30th August - What colour do you associate with summer?

31st August - When you hear the word ‘summer’, what is the first thing that you think of?

1st September  - Have you managed to complete you main task and goal for the summer?

2nd September - Are you looking forward to returning to school/university?

3rd September - How have you prepared to return to school/university?

4th September - When you remember this summer, what three adjectives will you think of that define your summer?

5th September - What did you learn over the summer? (note: this doesn’t have to be academic-related)

6th September - What was your favourite memory from this summer?

✨ So this is the challenge! I hope that you will join it and enjoy doing it during the summer! please message me or send me asks if you have any questions about it or just want to have a chat <3 ✨

[i am tagging mutuals and others who took part in the 2020 quarantine challenge beneath the cut]

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