May 1, 2007

Who ordered that?


It is no cat-playing-the-piano, but this demonstration of standing Faraday waves, created by vibrating a piston below some cornstarch solution, is pretty neat. I think however, that the weirdness in the last few seconds is why people don't always trust physicists. Seriously science, what the hell was that? Watching that nonsense reminded me of I.I. Rabi famously asking "Who ordered that?" upon the discovery of the muon, while dining on Chinese food that he had ordered.

Little-known fact: it was Gell-Mann who had ordered the muon.

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