We finished the varying the current part, and found that it is a direct proportionality relationship, and we had enough time to plot a pretty convincing graph. This afternoon, we'll go on to vary the number of turns in the coil, and later the radius of the coil.
One of the ultimate conclusions with this one is that we will be able to directly calculate the charge and mass of an electron, which is pretty exciting. Having yesterday computed the Planck constant, which must be one of the smallest usable numbers in physics, we are again measuring tiny things with surprisingly basic equipment. It's all good.
On the walk back up to Grey, Paul, Andy and I found ourselves in conversation about the ever shrinking size of data storage devices, and I was wondering what the physical limit will be. This evolved into a more philosophical debate about storage aesthetics; I posited that if you walk into a library and you can see thousands of books, you make a qualitative judgment about that library, and say that it must be a good library, because it has so many books. However, if you are handed a micro SD card, say, which has all of those books on it, that's okay but because you can't see them and you have no real way of enjoying the browsing experience in the same way, you value the electronic collection less.
We got to the dining hall, and had lunch. I opted for a very small lunch, certainly compared to Paul's, which was a lunch for two if ever I saw one. I had finished by about ten past one, so I dashed back to my room. Feeling very muggy after it being so warm in the lab, I just wanted to have a soak in the shower. I braved the artificially intelligent heat control, had as hot a shower as I could stand, and now I'm cooling down very nicely next to my open window in a pair of pants. There's an image for you.
Half an hour to go and I'll be back in the lab again. Having a good week so far, and unbelievable that tonight is the last night.
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