Copasetic Flow

Unschooling has become a bit of a breeze for us in the last few weeks.  We put in our work: we have socialization opportunities setup for the kids, we have places for them to go, things for them to do, adventures for them to have, and learning resources for them to work with if they’d like.   It’s taken me probably two weeks to realize that we’re in this state.  The hardest thing for me at the moment is to learn to just sit back and relax now. So, along those lines, let me tell you about an awesome unschooling ‘learning’ that’s been taking place for about the last month.  Six year-old No. Two and I got to spend three days camping in Hawaii last month.  While we were there, Two watched people head out on kayaks to the nearby island, Chinaman’s Hat, as well as just to toodle around with no destination, or perhaps to go fishing.  He desperately wanted to go on a kayak, but there was a problem, he didn’t know how to swim.  I explained to him there w...

And now, in the ongoing series inspired by the Fischbach article on the seasonal variation of radioactive decay rates, a few more notes on beta decays.  Today, will be about beta decay and parity, (aka mirror image symmetry), violation.  In 1957[5], C.N. Yang and T.D. Lee performed a survey of the existing experiments involving beta decay and found that there was no experimental evidence showing that beta decays maintained mirror symmetry, (parity), something that had been simply assumed until then because there was experimental evidence that electromagnetic and strong interactions did maintain mirror symmetry.  A short time after Yang and Lee's report, Wu[6] completed an experiment that showed that in fact, electrons emitted from a polarized Cobalt 60 source violated mirror image symmetry.  The article following Dr. Wu's by Garwin et al[7]. showed that muon decay, (another weak force interaction), also violated mirror image symmetry. Vectors and Axial Vectors an...

We interrupt your normal coverage of magnetic monopole searches today to bring you something much more cool from well.. the same location!  I was jazzed to find out yesterday that the next monopole project I was going to write about was done at a stunningly pretty location Gran Sasso, Italy. (picture 1) Then, thanks to +Oliver Thewalt  I found out about a very interesting study done regarding a possible time dependence of the decay rates of radioactive isotopes.  So much for the pretty location I thought, but the science is incredibly interesting.  Then, while reading up on the research this morning I found out that one of the studies[2] was performed at none other than the very same lab in Gran Sasso.  And we're back to where we started and I get to include a pretty picture with the post!  OK, OK enough with the cool coincidences and the small world of science for today. So, here's what's going on in a nutshell.  Radioactive elements decay in a...