"As far as I could tell, I didn't mind…"

"As far as I could tell, I didn't mind the way the date turned out, though I started crying the next day in my car on the way to the drive-in bank."

- from "The Professor" by Lydia Davis.

Triangle vs. Circle!

If you're going to drive (or even walk) in Germany, you really should know the difference between these two signs:

Do you know the difference? For the answer, click here.

Is the paint made from crushed pearls, and applied by magic elves wielding brushes of unicorn hair?

Did you know that there's a hybrid car with a $63,000 paint option?

That's not the price of the car; that's the upcharge for the fancy paint.

Really:

Magnetic fields: Threat, or menace? [repost]

I have worked with magnets for over thirty years, yet I admit that I'm not sure if magnetic fields are real.

Now, they tell you that the magnetic field is real, real like the river's undertow that pulls you past the eddies beneath the sharp rocks and beats you down, but it's not. Not really. You feel magnetic forces, to be sure, but the magnetic field is not the fundamental truth. The truth is the magnetic vector potential. And this is not just my opinion; this has been known for over sixty years.

The magnetic field (what you hear about) is written as B; the magnetic vector potential (what you perhaps never heard about before today) is written as A. They are related by:

B = ∇ x A

("The magnetic field is the curl of the magnetic vector potential.")

The truth is revealed by the Aharonov–Bohm effect, in which particle traveling past a long thin solenoid experiences a phase shift, even though the magnetic field is confined to the interior of the solenoid, which the particle never enters! Why does this happen? It happens because the particle sees the magnetic vector potential outside the solenoid. (A cool animation is available.)

So, A (the magnetic vector potential) is what's true and real and actually felt by the particle, while B (the magnetic field) is sort of an emanation, or a mathematical device, that almost always gives you the right answer (except in clever made-up configurations designed to demonstrate the Aharonov–Bohm effect, that is), and is handy. I suppose an attorney might say that while the magnetic field is (usually) a truth, it is not the whole truth.

Perhaps it's like your car's engine, where horsepower is what you read about, but torque is what you feel. The magnetic field is what you read about, but the magnetic vector potential is what you feel.

[Please note: Persons seeking legal advice should consult a member of their state Bar Association; we may in the future discuss an alternative approach to interpreting the Aharonov-Bohm effect, which does not appear to to rob the magnetic field of so much of her charm; post title refers to this.]

[reposted from June, 2010]

Headline of the Week!

The article "Dairy Finds a Way to Let Cows Power Trucks" appears in today's New York Times.

Cars go bang! [NeuroCooking FlashBack]

If you get the chance to attend a county fair demolition derby, we suggest that you go. But bring earplugs.

[Photos: At the 2010 Delaware County (NY) Fair.]

Life imitates art (at highway speed).

Today, on the way home from work, I avoided traffic congestion by driving on the newly-opened InterCounty Connector. However, because the car's navigation system doesn't know about this brand-new (multi-billion dollar!) highway, its screen showed the car traveling overground, not on a road.

Which reminded me of "Survival Car" by Fountains of Wayne:

"Funny how the ground can find my wheels
I'm going where the road ain't there"

"Funny how the ground can find my wheels
I'm going where the road won't dare"

Summer's here and the time is right for a gerund in the street, boy.

Variations on a theme:

"Summer's here and the time is right for dancing in the street."

– Marvin Gaye, 1964.

"Summer's here and the time is right for fighting in the street, boy."

– The Rolling Stones, 1968.

"Summer's here and the time is right for going racing in the street."

– Bruce Springsteen, 1978.

We admit...

Given the choice, we'd rather have an M9 than an M3.

"... in secluded parks and exclusive penthouses and furnished rooms, in cabin cruisers and cabs and cabanas ..."

Just one sentence about Frank Sinatra's recording of "In The Wee Small Hours of The Morning" from the 1966 Esquire magazine article "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold" by Gay Taleese:

"Undoubtedly the words from this song, and others like it, had put millions in the mood, it was music to make love by, and doubtless much love had been made by it all over America at night in cars, while the batteries burned down, in cottages by the lake, on beaches during balmy summer evenings, in secluded parks and exclusive penthouses and furnished rooms, in cabin cruisers and cabs and cabanas -- in all places where Sinatra's songs could be heard were these words that warmed women, wooed and won them, snipped the final thread of inhibition and gratified the male egos of ungrateful lovers; two generations of men had been the beneficiaries of such ballads, for which they were eternally in his debt, for which they may eternally hate him."

Want to pay to ...?

Want to pay to sit around and watch other people drive fast through downtown Baltimore next Labor Day? Tickets for the 2011 Baltimore Grand Prix are now on sale.

Six.

Today we heard Steve Wozniak on "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me!" talk about how he has six smart-phones, and six brackets to hold all of them on his car dashboard, and six different navigation apps running on them, so he gets six different sets of advice on how to get to his destination.

A hot rod that you power yourself.

"Inspired by the original Factory Lightweight muscle cars that came out of Detroit in the 60's", Independent Fabrications, of Somerville, Massachusetts, has produced a sub-14 lb. "Titanium Factory Lightweight" bicycle.

Spare change?

For our NeuroCooking friends looking for rock-and-roll on Sirius satellite radio, we offer this handy mnemonic: Nickel, dime, & quarter!

Because:

• Channel 5 is "50s on 5" ("the roots of rock-and roll").
• Channel 10 is "E Street Radio" ("Bruce Springsteen, 24/7")
• Channel 25 is "Little Steven's Underground Garage" ("the coolest rock 'n' roll records ever made").

"A healthy shove ..."

Time-traveling with Mark Trail does create a sense of responsibility: If we can see the future, aren't we obligated to act upon it? Which is why we say, today, regarding tomorrow: "Look out, Mark!"

[If you get a "permission denied" message, then click on this link, and then on the "Look out..!" link above. Cookies, I guess.]

"To move forward..."

Last night we braved the downpour (sans umbrellas, per Secret Service) to attend a very special evening event at Constitution Hall. The featured musical guest was B.o.B:

And the featured speaker was President Obama:

The President's speech is available on C-SPAN.

"To move forward, you put the car in D – To move backwards, you put the car in R."

[Photos are our own (more here), taken with a Ricoh GX100. Because the invitation said "small cameras okay", we did not want to risk bringing a camera that might not be considered "small".]

All of 'em!

I read recently that the number of automobiles in operation on this planet is estimated to be 825 million.

Of course, each one is driven by someone who thinks of him-or-herself as an above-average driver.

Hooray for the Harbor Tunnel!

Did we mention the major downtown tie-ups caused by road-work in preparation for next year's Baltimore Grand Prix?

One day last week, a colleague said that, coming in, he takes Russell Street to avoid I-395 congestion.

That same day I got an email about a new website with suggestions for dealing with the roadwork. So I checked it out. And the first recommendation I found was to take I-395 to avoid Russell Street congestion.

[Note: NeuroCooking recommends the Harbor Tunnel!]

Baltimore Grand Prix 2011!

With Labor Day 2010 freshly behind us, let us look ahead to Labor Day 2011,

which will feature the inaugural Baltimore Grand Prix,

which will feature cars racing at extreme speeds on the streets of central Baltimore!

Yes, those are the same streets of central Baltimore used daily by many commuters, especially those trying to get from the South to an esteemed hospital complex on the Eastside. And yes, as you might imaging, some renovations are required to get those funky old downtown streets in shape for race cars. So... Guess when the renovations start? A month before the race? Three months before? Six months before?

Actually, the renovations, with plentiful lane closures along major routes, started months ago.

Yup. Tens of thousands of people – make that hundreds of thousands of people – will be inconvenienced for more than year, in order that, during a few hours of racing over two days of the Labor Day 2011 weekend, a few dozen people can drive real fast.

Makes sense to me!

[Note: NeuroCooking recommends the Harbor Tunnel as an alternative!]

Up to 200 MPH, in the middle of downtown!

There are two signs that the IndyCar racing series will include the inaugural Baltimore Grand Prix over Labor Day 2011: The roads of central Baltimore are all torn up, and you can already buy hats: