Perspective

Astronomy is a great subject to remind us how what we see and experience is often just a perspective on things rather than an actual perception of what is "out there".

Take for example, the phases of the Moon.  Do you recognize a first quarter vs. 3rd quarter Moon by which half is lit?  Well, 50% of the planet will not agree with you.  You see all those folks below the equator are looking at that same Moon more or less upside down from you:

Look at this cool time-lapse photo taken of the recent lunar eclipse from the Northern and Southern Hemispheres: (note how it goes from upper left to lower right in the North but upper right to lower left in the South)

from https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

I've blogged about it before in terms of the Chinese terms for the quarter moon being more about up and down than left and right, but the truth is that which half appears lit to you depends on the season and the location of the Moon in the sky and your latitude:

https://genuineideas.com/ArticlesIndex/phase.html

https://www.reddit.com/r/Nikon/comments/j7xqb2/moonrise_and_moonset_of_the_10820_waning_gibbous/

Astronomy, Bald Spots, and Witty Students

Today, in Astronomy class while reviewing the seasons and the axial tile of the Earth for a quiz tomorrow, I pulled a classic Rideout non sequitur.  

I spontaneously made the leap from how the sunlight in Antarctica never heats up that continent despite months of continual daylight to how I discovered that I had a bald spot by getting a sunburn on the top of my head while mowing the lawn.  When I ended with something like "... and then I cried in the bathroom until I felt better", the class of seniors were all looking at me a bit strangely (it is, after all, only our 6th time meeting so it was, perhaps, bit much).

To ease the transition back into the material, I looked around the room and said, "You all thought you were taking Astronomy but really this is my therapy session."  Then, without hesitation, a student in the second row (RH) calmly asks "So, this will be on the quiz tomorrow, right?"

Well played sir, well played.

Me and My Two Seniors

 (note that these events are separated by two years)

A retired teacher friend of mine does senior portraits so twice now I have had the pleasure walking around the Wellesley campus while he takes pictures of my soon-to-graduating senior.  Both times he had me jump and pose with them once:

Three Juxtapositions

From the Funny to the Sublime:

Grilling Tofu on the grill for the first time (because you want to lean into vegetarianism) but you quickly add sausage because there won't be enough to eat

Looking for a new home for my French grandmother's engraved flask and matching glasses when I remember my American grandmother's engraved end table 

Noticing this East-meets-West display at a friend's house (WW), I then ask to take a picture because it is as if someone stole an interior image from my own psyche.  Could write a whole blog post on this one, but I'll let the juxtaposition speak for itself for now.

More Adventures in Fermentation

Made kombucha for the first time.  I long have been a fan of fermentation (beer and wine), but this was kind of an odd choice since no one in the immediate family drinks kombucha.  That didn't stop me - ha ha ha!  Part of the appeal was the similarity to beer brewing that I engage in regularly:  a primary fermentation in a vat then a secondary one in the individual bottles for natural carbonation.  Adding flavors of your choosing for the secondary fermentation also sounded fun. I bottled one plain, one with honey, two with orange juice, and two with mango/pineapple. 

This afternoon we had our first degustation and the summation from the fam was "I wouldn't choose to drink it but I wouldn't reject it outright either".  Okay, fair. I was pleasantly surprised that the plain one wasn't as sour as I thought it would be.  (for the record: 2 weeks primary fermentation in the gallon jar pictured below plus 3 days secondary fermentation in bottles (very mild carbonation but I was a bit nervous to let it go longer without checking on it))

Note that I kept the SCOBY so I can make it again in the future!  (Part of the appeal for me in getting the starter kit)  Look out fam, strange and unusual flavors coming up later this summer!

A bit of history:  apparently the idea of drinking fermented black tea and flavoring it goes back centuries in China but the word "kombucha" comes from a poorly transcribed word from Japanese that refers to seaweed tea (an entirely different beast).  

Pi, Light, and Bird Poop

 A common (good) question* I get from students is "Why can't anything go faster than the speed of light?"  A great question but the reason the question occurs is because the name is misleading.

When we first encounter the transcendental number represented by the Greek letter pi (π), it is to find the circumference of a circle (2πr).  Later in our studies we are surprised to find it in so many places: trig function, exponential functions, integrals, and one of the most famous quantum equations, Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle:

But really, it's because pi is always there in nature when we have symmetry (either geometric like we first encounter it or in symmetrical motion like oscillations).  When you reframe the role of pi away from the circumference of a circle into this larger role of symmetry, it is less mysterious when it pops up.

Likewise, the universe has a limit on the speed at which information can spread.  In order to preserve causality, there must be a constraint on this speed (if everything everywhere could happen at once then there would be no cause and, then, effect!).  Light is one example of massless information transfer.  So, once this mental reframing has happened, the original question really isn't the right one is it?

The other day, I was walking to school under the most perfect of spring mornings:  The blue sky was smiling down on me, the green leaves of the trees and the grass was glowing out at me, the birds were chirping, and my steps were light and confident.  I was taking a slightly longer way to work to appreciate nature in all its glory when a bird pooped right onto the back of my hand.

Bemused, I thought to myself (as a wiped it off when one of those bright green leaves I was admiring so) "well now this could really mar the enjoyment of someone's day but I'm going to be thankful it didn't land on my head and that it was apparently from a small bird" followed a little later by "I can even make myself see this as increasing my appreciation for this fine day by being reminded that birds pooping on people is part of it all".  Happy with my reframing, I walked on with long strides.

Vincenzo_Mirabella_20210529_134459.jpg (3964×2972)

* The most common 'bad' question I get is "Will this be on the test?"

You never know...

 ... my Dad took us all to the MFA today and it was a poignant reminder to me how you just never know what's going to strike you.  I predictably enjoyed the Van Gogh focus in the special exhibit and the Picasso's in their permanent collection.  But I was sailing through a room of Winslow Homer (never one who especially stuck me in the past) when I saw the "Gloucester Mackerel Fleet at Sunset".  Suddenly I was unexpectedly transfixed and teleported.  (I thought of how Christopher Reeve fell in love with a woman from another time by looking at her portrait in "Somewhere in Time")

I felt like I was looking at a memory of my own that was somehow made manifest on the wall.  Of course it wasn't, but that's how it felt to me.  I was reliving a false memory in the middle of this room in the middle of this museum.  It was akin to an out-of-body experience but in reverse.  Winslow inserted a memory into my own brain!

We actually build entire buildings to house art for us to look at and appreciate!  I guess humans aren't all bad after all!

Side note:  At one point, My Dad, My Son, and I all took a rest on a bench arranged from Oldest to Youngest.  I leaned over to my Dad and asked him "Do you think other people look over at us and see the three generations arranged in a row here?"  He replied "Nah...."