I just came across this video via a friend of mine. It is, quite simply, a work of genius.
Jim Carrey: I was just reading this incredible paper on the stochastic phase-shifting of the parametrically-driven electron in a Penning trap; and apparently, a bistability arises dynamically in the specific parametrically-driven systems, because the phase
of the electron’s steady-state oscillation can either have the two values separated by
.
(…)
Conan O’Brien: You know, it’s funny, what shocks me about an electron in a Penning trap is that most amplitude collapses are accompanied by a phase flip. Given that the rate of escape from the trap depends exponentially on an activation energy
as the diffusion constant
approaches
and
approaches
.
JC: Absolutely. No question there.
Max Weinberg: I don’t know about that, Conan. Have you considered that the parametric driving force excites a nearly-resonant electron oscillation at the drive frequency,
? It’s a classic example of the period-doubling that occurs when a linear oscillator is strongly driven.
JC: Max. Did you just say that
MW: Yeah.
CB: (Laughs). It’s actually
! Wow, Max. Max, you know nothing about quantum physics!
MW: You’re right.
As far as I can tell, they’re alluding to this 1999 Gabrielse paper. Speaking of neat things that can be done with electrons and Penning traps, I recently came across these two other recent Gabrielse papers reporting very precise measurements of the electron magnetic moment and fine structure constant, which is pretty neat.
Anyway, back to work for me. Spring break is just a day away…
7 responses so far ↓
mis 3 quarks » otros 3 quarks: 01/03/07 // March 1, 2007 at 10:24 pm |
[...] Jim Carrey habla de mecánica cuántica (en inglés y con video incluido)Sí, el actor de Hollywood. Y vaya que sabe de lo que habla. Fantástico. [...]
Jim Carry talks Quantum Physics « Tales from the learning curve // March 2, 2007 at 9:15 am |
[...] to Chad for the link and metadatta for posting not only the video but the transcript as [...]
mollishka // March 9, 2007 at 11:01 pm |
Wow. Just, wow. They both just earned major points.
dorigo // March 15, 2007 at 4:10 pm |
It is quite simply one of the funniest pieces ever written by just using excerpts from a physics paper. Simply Genius.
T.
duc-minh // March 20, 2007 at 12:31 am |
oh my goodness, that’s hilarious.
Jim Carrey » Jim Carrey April 5, 2007 7:14 pm // April 5, 2007 at 6:38 pm |
[...] stand to be without one another. Joel Barish is stunned when he learns that his true love …Conan O?Brien/Jim Carrey Talk Quantum Physics Jim Carrey: I was just reading this incredible paper on the stochastic phase-shifting of the [...]
carbogno.net » Ever… // November 30, 2007 at 5:41 am |
[...] A partial transcript of the vid can be found at metadatta. He’s also the one who figured out which paper they’re actually talking [...]