Science With Franny

This is Franny's idea. Most times, Franny finds science and how-things-work of only passable interest, at least when I talk about them. However, once in a while, and usually laying in bed almost asleep, I'll hear something like, "Do rocks have cells?" Actually, that was a question that she apparently asked a friend during biology class in high school, but it's a good example of the kind of stuff that comes up. Anyway, I dare say I have a more extensive science education (and interest) than she does (although in her defense, she does know a lot more than she lets on), and since I'm am also a known nerd, I am obliged to come up with answers or explanations for these sometimes ridiculous issues. Occasionally, these conversations even end up making me think about things in new ways and make connections I hadn't considered before. For me the topic is usually done by the time I fall asleep, but Franny usually at least pretends my explanations were interesting and has several times said that I should blog about them in case someone else is wondering about the rock/cells debate. So here goes. This is science related stuff that was interesting to Franny at least once. (This particular batch of stuff all came up last night.)

Recently, Franny spilled some oil from an oil lamp onto a bathmat. She blotted up most of it and then threw it into the wash. She showed it to me at this point and the spot where the oil had been had melted/dissolved/deformed and looked like a 4 inch wide brain poking out of the bottom of the mat. Anyway I mentioned to her that washing oil soaked things is discouraged and drying them is a big no-no. As the warning on our machine says, drying "anything that has ever had any type of oil on it (even cooking oils)" can cause "death, explosion, or fire." The mat never made it into the dryer thank goodness, and by the time she had blotted up the stain, it probably didn't have much left on it anyway, but I'm glad we didn't test the theory. The problem is that oil becomes much more volatile at higher temperature and presents a fire or explosion hazard due to all the motors and relays and such that can make sparks. It's even worse if you have a gas dryer, for obvious reasons. When Franny and I were moving to Portland, we stopped in Worland, Wyoming, which is exactly in the middle of nowhere and is where my mother spent some years growing up. Anyway, we specifically stopped to do some laundry and I was amused by the signs saying "No Roughnecks". You might think that's a redneck joke, but roughnecks are the guys that work on the oil rigs. Since they are often drenched in oil, this is exactly the issue the signs were about. Most things are not designed for use in environments where explosive conditions exist, and most electrical items have some potential for making tiny sparks during use. Some things are designed as explosion-proof, including some of the scales that I work on, since they sometimes need to be used in places with flammable gases or powders. (I do work in some hazardous environments occasionally, but the only time I've ever had to worry about this type of thing was in a flour mill of all places. I had to get some guys to stop welding because a pipe had developed a leak and was spewing a cloud of flour through the room. They understood just fine, but I still got flour all over everything, included my up-until-then precision weights. What fun to clean.)

We also got to talking about a gift card to Ritz Camera that we have and what she might buy with it. I mentioned a wide-angle attachment for her camera, and I was surprised to find out that despite here excellent photography background, she didn't know what I was talking about. The focal length of a lens determines how much of your field of vision appears on the imaging surface of the camera (either the film or digital chip). Most of you have probably seen this when adjusting the zoom on your camera. You may not have known it, but you were adjusting the focal length of the camera and thus changing how much of what was in front of you would make up the picture. Most people have used a zoom to get more detail about a portion of a scene, but most cameras can only shorten the focal length to a certain point. A wide angle lens or attachment shortens the effective focal length further and allows more of the scene to be in the picture. This isn't much good if you want more detail, but it helps if you are trying to photograph something relatively big and getting further away from it is impractical.

I can't remember what prompted it, but Franny mentioned that she didn't really understand radio waves. I noted that they were basically the same as lots of other things: microwaves, infrared light, visible light, ultraviolet light, x-rays, gamma rays, and I believe cosmic rays too. She said that those didn't make much sense either. We got into a discussion about photons and what they were. A photon is sort of a wave in that it acts like a wave when interacting with other light waves and in the way it can be manipulated, and sort of a particle in that it does not require anything else to propagate it and it comes in discreet, although very tiny amounts. It's not really a particle though in that it has no mass and is moving, ironically, at the speed of light, which particles can't do without infinite energy. It's not really a wave either, in that it has momentum and in large enough quantity, can push things. It can be affected by gravity, as in bending around star or getting stuck in black holes. One thing I couldn't remember last night was whether you could affect any of this with magnetism. I feel like you can, but I couldn't come up with an example. It was late, so the discussion didn't get into much more detail than that.

If you didn't know I was a nerd before, I've certainly confirmed it now. Much of my science is remembered from college chemistry and physics, so it may be remembered incorrectly or just plain wrong. Please leave a comment if you'd like to make any additions or corrections. I assume I got something wrong, or at least incomplete anyway. And Franny, if I mischaracterized anything you said, hey, it was late.