Busy Week

The last several days have been pretty busy. I've got twenty two new rafters in place to help support our loft roof, which is doing some sagging after 125 years. Ten or twelve more to go. This involved cutting and installing 15 foot long 2x6 s using brackets I made from angle iron and what are called collar ties cut from 14 foot long 1 1/2 by 6s. Managed to get this far with no new cuts or bruises. Wish me luck on the rest.

Also managed to fix a VCR and a CD player 9 mostly new drive belts) and find and order replacements for some bad transistors in an old Sony receiver. It is a nice piece of equipment and weighs slightly less than a Sherman tank. It was built to last, but not to withstand shorted speaker wires. Transistors burn out quickly since they have low impedance and are sensitive to temperatures. Got to be careful with old equipment.

Speaking of old equipment, I got bored
 of only hearing my complaints while working in the loft so I assembled a sound system using a CD player, a 30 year old amplifier, a 35 year old speaker, and a 55 year old tuner. The tuner is a little weak, but the other components are not bad.

I am supposed to give a lesson on how the physics of torque is used in engineering to seventh graders in a Greenfield magnet school next week. If it goes well maybe I can show how one principle can explain why riding uphill in low gear is easier and why bridge beams are deep and narrow, not wide and shallow.  More likely, I'll just show them how lucky they are to have their regular teacher every day.

We saw War Horse. I thought it was a fine movie. It reminded me of how pointless and wasteful most wars were, particularly World War One. Also we picked my wife's car after it was repaired following a parking lot get together.

Also managed to get mildly confused by Griffith's contention ( in his primer on particle physics) that the weak force does not change generations of leptons. I thought muon ( 2nd generation lepton) to electron, electron anti neutrino ( both first generation), and muon neutrino ( 2nd gereration) was a weak interaction. I relize we are still left with a sum of zero total first generation leptons ( particles and antiparticles cancel in this accounting) and one second generation lepton, as we started, but there are two first generation particles in an existence as a result of the decay. Enough of this, I'll check with my son.

Hope to see some of you at Ridge on Friday, if this week's snowstorm isn't a show stopper up here.