Wow

8:26pm. Had a very good afternoon lab session, in which we finished the ballistics experiment. We calculated the speed of the bullet by measuring the displacement on a block. By using some clever trig and by using conservation of momentum, we even worked out the energy efficiency too. I can see you glazing over already, but suffice to say that I like the way that these experiments are designed to teach you ten things along the way to the one thing that is the ultimate goal. Even if something goes wrong, or you don't manage to finish it, you've still learnt all those new things too. Great stuff.

Tomorrow morning, which will be the bonus experiment, as we have already done the two required, we will be looking at X-rays I believe. I confess I don't know a great deal about X-rays.

Went back to my room, changed my top, and went for dinner. As we queued for dinner, at the far end of the counter were two of the Grey bar staff, handing out glasses of red or white wine to those who wanted them. This is a first! I opted for a glass of white, Paul took a red, and we found a table. Perhaps he and I should have mixed them together for old time's sake?

Interestingly for the first time, the tables were labelled 'Reserved for geologists', 'reserved for physicists' etc, so we think that other colleges which are running OU residential schools are also eating here tonight. I wonder why? Perhaps there is a problem at their own college.

Had a lovely chat with Alan, which was really nice, and then we went to the guest lecture. The lecturer was a Durham physicist, working with lasers to trap and cool single atoms at incredibly cold temperatures. They can even move single atoms around and literally sort them using essentially a variation on resonant frequencies. It was an amazing extraordinary lecture, and I am glad I had my voice recorder with me. Paul and I described it as proper physics porn!

Paul, Andy and I are heading over to Van Mildert for a couple of drinks. It's a much nicer bar than Grey's.