Home front briefly: In late September and early October repaired the porch deck, installed a new porch ceiling and a couple of lights and switches. I am still fooling with the mudroom door and working out how to reinstall the interior pine boards.
Physics: Because Sara Allen was doing some research and archiving at the American Institute of Physics on the work of Brillouin, I have been thinking hard about the true nature of the wave representation of particles and why wave speed is actually given by (d omega/dk) rather than just omega/k. Remember, I hope, that omega is 2 pi freq and k is 1/(2 pi x wave length) so the 2 pis cancel and omega/k is just freq x wavelength which is also equal to wavelength/ period, which of course equals wave speed which follows from one of my mantras: wavelength = wavespeed x period .
One way to think of this particle speed = d omega/dk issue is that a particle must be represented by a collection of waves so that there is no single frequency but the wavelength is still period x wave speed so even for a collection of waves of a range of frequencies the slope of wavelength as a function of period is still the wave speed. Enough of this for now, but comment or email about this if you are interested.
ITALY:
We spent fifteen days in Italy and had a great time. We visited Rome, Bellagio ( Lake Como), Rio Maggiore (Cinque Terra on the Ligurian Coast east of Genoa), Siena ( Tuscany) and Spoleto ( Umbria). I have already posted about some of this on facebook and will do more, but here is a summary for my loyal readers. Rome was crowded and noisy, lots of traffic and sirens, but the ruins of the center of western civilization for centuries are still very impressive and worth seeing as were St. Peter's and Castel Sant'Angelo. The food in Rome, and everywhere else we stayed, was good to outstanding. We stayed in a bed and breakfast comprising a half a floor or so of a gracious old apartment building. The room was large and well furnished and the host was the model of informed hospitality. We were just across the street from the Rome Opera, but nothing was being performed during our stay. FYI, the B and Bs email is info@armoniaopera-bb.it
The is surrounded by mountains called the Pre Alps. I hiked to the top of Monte Grona about 5000' above the Lake one day. I started at 2000' after a ferry to Menaggio and a bus ride and reached the Refugio Mennagio at about 4000' where I took some pictures. I went to the top but the views were obscured by clouds. In fact, the best views from from the ferry. Light carpentry is not the greatest way to get in shape of mountain hikes and my legs were sore for a few days.
From the ferry, looking toward the north end of the lake.
From the Refugio
The food in Bellagio was superb, the restaurants and shops charming, and the closeup and distant scenery marvelous. Here are some shots from Bellagio, whose streets are often too steep and narrow for cars and have stairs instead of sidewalks in places. The peak in the second photo is similar is similar in height to the one I hiked to. We stayed at the hotel Florence in Bellagio , a grand old fashioned place with a very knowledgeable and courteous staff. One concierge gave me very sound advice on hiking, and they have a patio right on the lake shore.
Within a short walk from Bellagio is a fishing village, Pescalo. Here are some shots ffrom there.
I'll continue with another post soon.
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