Revelation

Browsing through the local branch of Waterstones I came upon an intriguing volume called 'Quantum Mechanics The Theoretical Minimum'. Following a reference in that book I discovered a website with a series of lectures on theoretical Physics with various supporting materials.

The object is to explain basic physical ideas as simply as possible, avoiding both the superficiality of the popular books that avoid Mathematics and therefore explain very little, and the obscurity of the texts that use quite abstruse mathematics without making any serious attempt to explain what they are doing. What I have read so far seems to be quite a good attempt. Two things that had been puzzling me are now clear, and I look forward to more enlightenment.

Stray Hairs

I can't abide feeling hair over my ears. Now and again an obstinate strand drifts over an ear and resists my attempts to push it away.  I reach for the nearest pair of scissors and snip it off.

Most women and many men style their hair so that it completely covers their ears. How can they bear it!

Linked Numbers

I've just realised that, to quite a close approximation, the mass of the earth in kilograms is given by

M = pi²*A  where A is Avogadro's Number

Remembering Mini-Skirts

The current discussion of 'up-skirting' has reminded me of the days of mini-skirts.

In the late 1960's I was teaching a class of FE science students, all boys aged 16 or 17. Their 'General Studies' was taught by one of the teachers of English, a young lady who wore very short skirts and, to the delight of the students used to sit on one of the desks while she taught, so after each class the lads would announce the colour of her knickers, though without mobile phones they had no corroborative photographs.

Exhausted by Idleness.

Often I feel sleepy in the afternoons, but only on days when I'm not doing anything in particular. If I do some gardening, tidy the attic, or cook something elaborate, I stay wide awake and don't feel at all tired.

To summarise, nothing can be rather tiring.