So, I spent most of today down in the lab at work, waiting for my new resistor victim to fail, and it never did! It seems my modifications to the setup have worked, and I’m now figuring out how we’re really going to control the temperature accurately using resistive heating. Well, at least the concept is proven. Now we’re just awaiting a new, bigger power supply and chamber; unfortunately, I’ll be long gone by the time the real testing gets underway, but at least the temperature regulation issue is pretty much solved.
I’ve also been working on finishing up my speech. I think I’ve gotten it pared down to approximately the right time limit. Good thing — they want me to practice before the team tomorrow afternoon. It’s a shame about the length, though; it would have made such a fine half-hour talk, too. Well, when I deliver it elsewhere, it’ll be longer.
In addition to these projects, it seems I’ve been assigned a slew of simulation and analysis tasks during a recent collaboration meeting. Hopefully, they’ll let me keep working once I’m back at Lehigh… there’s no way that’s all getting done in two weeks, especially with a talk to give and a paper to write, not to mention packing and coming home. We shall see.
As I mentioned, we went climbing in El Rito yesterday, and it was amazing. I think we were out there for about ten hours total; I climbed more than I ever have before in a day. I led a few 5.9 routes (and took my first lead fall [15-20 feet], and it was fun), practiced a lot of lead belay, virtually walked up a 5.10b route because they lied to me and told me it was a (much easier) 5.8… funny how that works. All in all, it was a fantastic day of climbing, and the most amazing New Mexican food ever (from a tiny, disheveled-looking cash-only place in El Rito) was icing on the cake.
My overambitious plan to get up early and bike this morning was foiled by said 10 hours of climbing, so I’m aiming for tomorrow morning biking, followed by work, followed by climbing at the gym. It’ll be an adventure…
Thanks for reading. Post a comment. Ask me something. I love questions.
2 responses so far ↓
1
Kate
// Jul 30, 2007 at 9:08 pm
I have a question about the resistive heating. Are the resistors being used to control the temperature of the chamber? If so, I’m still confused, since the fact that it can’t disperse heat in the vacuum was the problem in the first place. Straighten me out?
2
lanlandy
// Jul 30, 2007 at 9:51 pm
Excellent point. You’re exactly right; due to the vacuum, heat doesn’t really move past the cold head. If there *were* air in there, it would turn the whole experiment into a giant ice cube. Since it doesn’t really work yet no one completely explained this to me either, but the only way I can imagine that this will work is that the PMT will be placed in thermal contact with the cold head. Another option would be to fill the chamber with liquid neon or argon, and have an additional outer chamber with a vacuum (to prevent the ice cube thing). It’s a valid point; I’m not sure exactly what they have in mind…
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