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Particle physics day! Do your brain stretching exercises before doing any hard thinking! ;-D

If you've never taken physics courses (or stayed at a Holiday Inn) you may find this stuff confusing.

That's okay; a lot of physics principles, especially quantum physics, seem counterintuitive.

Questions should be directed to the pros; I have only a rudimentary knowledge of physics.

Here's the info for the above image:

This figure shows two-dimensional false color images of lithium atom clouds. Lithium has two stable isotopes, one of which is a boson (lithium-7), the other of which is a fermion (lithium-6). Bosons and fermions are the two fundamental types of quantum particles found in nature, and are distinguished by their contrasting behavior when in the quantum regime. The atom clouds are shown at three different temperatures: 810, 510 and 240 nano-Kelvin. One nano-Kelvin is a billionth of a degree above absolute zero, which is -460 degrees Fahrenheit. As the temperature gets colder, one can see that the boson gas, shown on the left, coalesces into a compact cloud, while the size of the fermion gas stabilizes at a specific size. This illustrates the principle of Fermi degeneracy, in which the fermions cannot condense further, due to a law of quantum mechanics--the Pauli exclusion principle--that keeps identical fermions from occupying the same space at the same time. The same effect stabilizes white dwarf stars against collapse under their own gravitational attraction.

1 posted on 02/18/2003 9:46:21 PM PST by petuniasevan
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To: MozartLover; Joan912; NovemberCharlie; snowfox; Dawgsquat; viligantcitizen; theDentist; ...

2 posted on 02/18/2003 9:47:22 PM PST by petuniasevan (® ex-€älîƒørñìåñ ™)
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To: petuniasevan
bump and bookmark ... interesting post.

thanks for all you do :-)
3 posted on 02/19/2003 4:57:36 AM PST by fnord (If my thought-dreams could be seen, they'd probably put my head in a guillotine)
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To: petuniasevan
The Pauli Exclusion Principle

"Accept no others"

(The physics always seems to make more sense after a few...)

Great find, as always!

4 posted on 02/19/2003 5:58:57 AM PST by mikrofon (Freiheit ist nicht frei.)
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To: petuniasevan
Good one! Thanks for the ping..
6 posted on 02/19/2003 9:15:05 AM PST by GodBlessRonaldReagan (where is Scotty Moore when we need him most?)
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To: petuniasevan
bump
7 posted on 02/19/2003 9:44:45 AM PST by MozartLover
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To: petuniasevan
Thanks for another interesting post!
9 posted on 02/19/2003 7:28:08 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach (Nuke Saddam!! (Bush seems to be thinking about it ))
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