swansont

If Gore had won the election...rather, if Gore had been recognized as winning the election, my number would be 2 to get to the president. He toured our lab a couple of times (though when I wasn't around) so several of my colleagues met him. While I never actually met him, we've been within 20 feet or so on a number of occasions as he jogged by.

Have you seen it outdoors without an artificial source of light?

I know a secret service agent who has driven for Cheney. It's quite possible the agent knows Bush. I've also met a few higher-ups associated with the Secretary of the Navy, and it's possible they know the president without intermediate steps.

Here is one page. The mention of ferromagnetism is near the bottom. Here is another, which lists the Curie point as 16 C. This stretches the claims that it's ferromagnetic "above room temperature." That's a chilly room. But better than Dysprosium, whose Curie point is -188 C.

Several of the rare earths are ferromagnetic but AFAIK gadolinium is the only one at room temperature. Aluminum, copper and titanium are nonmagnetic. And they'd better be, as I'm using all three as such. Our "nonmagnetic" stainless steel turned out to be magnetic.

LOL. What "everybody" knows can be really dangerous. I agree with Josh Billings - "It's not what you don't know that's the problem. It's what you know that just ain't so." (paraphrased)

No, I meant ferromagnetic, which means you could magnetize them. There are also paramagnetic materials, which are attracted to magnetic materials, and diamagnetism, which is a repulsion by magnetic fields. There are only four ferromagnetic materials at toom temperature. Cobalt and gadolinium are the other two.

Iron and nickel are ferromagnetic materials.

A centrifuge with the appropriate specs. v2/r = 1.5g

The waves add, as I already said. As far as creating a "new" wave, it depends on what you mean by that. That goes for gamma and radio - but you're adding waves that are perhaps ten orders of magnitude different in frequency, and it's not going to look like much is happening.

Deep space is zero-g. Near earth orbit is microgravity only because you are in orbit - there is still significant gravity present. You just feel weightless because you are in perpetual freefall. If you weren't in orbit, but in space near a planet, you'd feel gravity's pull.

No, the waves add. You get interference, though. Beat notes. If the waves are of exactly the amplitude, the new amplitude will double at that point and the light will be twice as bright, but not at a new frequency (which is what would be required to get a new color)

Remember that electrons exhibit wave properties as well. But when you try to measure their size, a particle property, it's consistent with them being the point particle that Dirac theory predicts. It's not like they have to hit "head on" in order to annihilate.

What's it like at night, far from civilization, with no moon?

It's true that the sum of the frequencies would be only a very small change, but you need more than just having two waves of similar frequencies. You have to combine the photons in some nonlinear material. You can then generate photons with the sum and difference frequencies. One common use of this is frequency doubling - take two photons at frequency w and combine them to generate a photon at 2w.

No, one can explain a lot of physics without writing down an equation. It's just that math is a fast way to do it, and to do it quantitatively. Math is the language. But the math doesn't compel the physics; E=mc and E=mc3 are both valid equations and would satisfy any mathematician, and yet they do not represent reality. To draw an anlogy, the English alphabet and language didn't compel the works of Shakespeare.