Mid May Activities

Returned from a whirlwind visit to NJ last night . We got to visit with several friends, see doctors ( my 13 month old hip is in excellent shape, its the rest of me that hurts) , get some building supplies, buy provisions from a local butcher and some good bagels, visit a sister, enjoy (not really) some very heavy traffic in NJ, NY and CT, and return to our "Alternate Universe" up here- all in 37 hours.

Last Saturday we visited Keene NH for the first time, to spend the day with some friends who moved to NH a few years ago.  Its a charming college town with some nice architecture and a pleasant and busy downtown. We toured the Horatio Colony ( that was the last private owner's name believe it or not) House and nature reserve. I committed the error of getting a large sundae at Keene's favorite  ice cream stand and probably ate half a pound of various forms of corn syrup. I can still feel it.

This past week, prior to leaving for NJ, was spent getting the shop joists up on jacks and tearing out the rotted central beam that was pretending to hold the joists up.

Also, last week we engaged a contractor to install a new septic field, and do some additional work on the basement floor and foundations.

We have been busy.




Here are some photos showing the remains of part of a wall that I removed, new posts and joist supports that went in last week, and some of the rotted beam that came out. I hope to get the new beam to hold up my shop in place tomorrow.

More on Communications

I must confess that I have trouble getting the information I am looking for about many of you from your facebook pages. The problem is there is simply too much data about likes and dislikes, every day events, and personal items. I would like to know if you are traveling in China, or studying biophysics in Dusseldorf. Instead I find out what music you listened to while having dinner at a corner cafe with someone unknown to me in some unnamed city.

It would be nice if I could just get an email letting me now how things are going (even if it seems not much is happening) and any special things going on every three to six months. Email information is on my facebook profile.

Reading, Roger Bacon, and Understanding

I am now reading an undergraduate text on linear algebra by Serge Lange ( one of the best teachers I had at Columbia), a book by Mark Twain, and a novel, The Black Rose by Thomas Costain. This last is an historical novel, presenting what I believe is a fairly accurate picture of life in 13th century England and elsewhere, although the main characters are fictional. The reason I mention this book is that one of the background characters is Roger Bacon, the famous monk/scientist. In the early part of the book he tells his students:

"...I must begin with the Latin phrase you have often heard. They say to you Credo ut intelligum - believe so you may understand. It is said as though... it must....be accepted without question.  I question it my young friends.  Nay I cast it out as being utterly false. I say to you instead, Intelligo ut credam - understand so ye may believe."

I hope those of you who were in my classes recognize this idea as one you have heard before. If Roger Bacon indeed said this, then the message I tried to convey ( neither so eloquently nor elegantly as Bacon via Costain) precedes my teaching career by about 750 years. If Costain made it up then I was only about 60 years behind him. In either case, I really did know I was merely paraphrasing the wisdom from many much earlier teachers. I just hope I have had some role in convincing some of you of its truth.

Working in the Basement - and elsewhere

Last Monday (4/30) we got back back from the Catskills and I dug out the turf from a 4'x4' patch in one of the two raised garden beds I built earlier. Then it was back to the salt mines, so to speak.

Tuesday, I dug out the footing for a post that will take much of the load from our mud room, my shop, and the loft running over the western two thirds of the house. This created a small rock pile with which I am still wondering what to do. Wednesday I built the form and then mixed and poured the concrete which comprises the 900 lb footing.

Thursday I figured out a way to cut a true (flat and perpendicular to the axis) end to the section of old telephone pole I will use for the post.

Friday I painted some of the steel, installed a transfer switch for an emergency generator I haven't purchased yet,  and fed some of my blood to the bugs while removing turf from another 4x8 feet of raised garden.

Saturday I wasted the day with Jean ( Mrs. Cherdack) buying porch furniture. I guess we did need some, after all we DO EXPECT SOME COMPANY this summer.

By this time, I faced the fact that I would have to remove part of the wall running across the western quarter of the basement which was falling down and was in the way. This requires placing another post, which means another footing ( ugh, how I hate working with concrete).

Sunday I removed the section of wall, piled the larger stones at the other end of the basement, and dug the hole for the footing.

I then mixed the concrete and poured the 250 lb footing. The footing, visible in the upper photo, is covered with black plastic to keep the water from evaporating as the concrete cures. What surprised me is that I got the anchor bolt exactly where I wanted it located, in the center of the footing. I'll have to wait several days for the concrete to cure before installing the posts. This will be followed by jacking up two sets of floor joists, replacing the central beam under the shop; repairing a few joists; adding 18 joist hangers and adding two rods running north/south under the shop to ties the sills in. After that I'll let the contractor reinforce the foundation walls, install some drainage,  and cover the basement floor with a membrane and gravel. Here's a shot showing the magnitude of the job: the basement is 80 ' by 25'. The basement extends 18 feet beyond the step ladder ( shiny silvery thing) visible in the background.

Oh the joys of owning an old house, but I must admit I wouldn't want a perfect place, and certainly not a new one built as they usually are today.


During this time I have been tightening the two 3/4" diameter rods I installed under the mudroom and, in conjunction with the metal band mentioned in an earlier post, managed to pull the west end of the house together by about 3/8". The rods are probably exerting a couple of thousand pounds of force on beams to accomplish this.

Here is a photo of the infamous metal strap that behaved like an overcooked noodle that is now firmly in place, trying to pull the western sill of the house toward the middle.

Monday I made some minor adjustments to the footings, tried my hand at fertilizing our maple trees ( probably did it all wrong), painted some steel, and went for a 34 mile bike ride amongst the hill towns around us.

On another note, I am becoming increasingly conscious of the invasive plants in the northeast, which tend to form dense growth that eliminates native flora. We have lots of oriental bitterroot climbing all over our smaller trees and wild shrubs. It can shade out and strangle even fairly large trees. I have seem several patches of Japanese knotweed nearby and in the Catskills. This bamboo like plant can reach over ten feet high and spread explosively. It would be a worthwhile thing to volunteer to work with organizations working on removing these pests from our fields and forests; I certainly plan to do this.

Cool End to April

Last week began with more work in the basement but progressed nicely to less toilsome and dangerous activities.

I drove down to New Jersey and met with old friends on Tuesday afternoon. Wednesday morning I met with another friend  at our scout camp in Mahwah.

I spent the afternoon at Ridge and it was great to see so many of my students from last year. It's nice to hear about how your lives are going and how well you are facing it's ups and downs. It's also nice to know you remember a teacher from as long ago as spring 2011, even if it's only because you need more rec letters.

After spending some time after school with my colleagues I headed back to North Jersey.

I spent most of Thursday at Columbia where we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Columbia Plasma Physics Laboratory. It was great to see so many of the faculty still vibrant and excited about life and their pursuits. It did remind that I missed a lot by not being involved in the experimental work at the lab, and it was a bit sad to be reminded that our country's pinch penny attitude toward funding fusion research has resulted in pretty slow progress.

I drove back home arriving 1AM Friday morning.  Later that morning I built a form for a concrete pad for a key post in the basement. We then drove to Lenox where we were interviewed to qualify as volunteers at Tanglewood this summer. We will be giving lunch to student musicians a few times ( I will not be the Cherdack who will be doing the cooking), and welcoming people in to the grounds at a few concerts.

From Lenox, we travelled to the Catskills, where we spent the next few days walking and driving around this area whose scenic beauty is very underrated. The Catskills have 35 peaks over 3500 feet high and well over 300,000 acres of forest lands. Here are a few poor photos.

More on Repairs

Friday I obtained a piece of steel 3 inches wide, 1/2 an inch thick, and 18 feet long. While I was prepared for it's weight, only about 100 pounds, I was not prepared for its lack of stiffness. It's hard to believe such a large piece of steel will behave like overcooked spaghetti.

My experiences with this band of steel today would have looked to any observer (thank goodness there were none) like the out takes from a 3 stooges film, rejected because they were too far fetched. No sooner would I get the second end up then the first would slither back down on to the floor. Most of the time it would wedge itself between a wall and post or the large rocks that litter the west end of our basement. Whenever I got close to having it in place, it shook itself and wiggled and jumped off the post it was sitting on and threw itself onto the floor; often remembering to pat me on the shoulder or arm en route. I finally got it fixed in place with some bolts and 3/4" threaded rod and now we'll see if it helps hold things together.

Impromptu Communications

While my normally conservative nature usually constrains me from doing this sort of thing, here are some shoutouts of the non-audible variety, i.e. printed shouts:

Hi to: Ms Roros; the two Frankies; I'm not Cindy; Serena the thoughtful; the two Sarah Bs; Sara A if she's out there; Ashley and Cacarly; The charming Scott ladies; Jun; the two Scott Ks; Hema and Harleen; Allie D; the two Ms Byingtons; Julie of the smile and Julia of the cosmic rays; the quiet Monica; and the not so quiet Ms Decker; the VanLandegems;  and to so many others.

Please do not feel slighted if I have missed you. 700 shoutouts would be a bit much to write or read, and I really do remember, and miss, you folks.

Physics

I had the chance to help a student who was in my class a couple of years ago. In the process I developed some additional notes on electric and magnetic fields and electromagnetic waves. If you want a copy let me know.

Given the title of this post, I know that only the real believers are reading this so I'll let you know that I have almost reached the point where I feel comfortable about why the Hubble constant doesn't yield true faster than light relative velocities. I am still not sure how to explain the "fact" that a star whose light took 12 billion years to reach us can be thought of as 43 billion light years away from us at this time.

Trip to Ridge or Escape from the Basement

Having grown weary of mixing concrete, getting hit in the head by large pieces of steel, and tripping over sharp edged timbers, I've decided to take a break from attempting to repair the sills, beams, and joists of our house, and visit some folks in New Jersey. I expect to be at Ridge soon after noon on Wednesday.... hope to see some of you folks there.

Cycling

I managed to get some cycling in over the last several days. A typical round trip in these parts involves about 100 feet gained or lost every mile. Since its a round trip this implies a minimum of 200 feet per mile gained on the uphill parts. Thus there is a minimum average of 4% grade when climbing, and usually somewhat more, since there are some flats. On my last ride I hit a 17% grade and was barely able to keep going. When I got home, the only part of me that didn't hurt was my hair. 

I was thinking of moving to Louisiana since I hear its pretty flat down there, but the other half of the senior Cherdacks vetoed any such plans.  Just as well, flat is kind of boring.

Family, Home, and Culture

Had a great time at Passover at my sister's house. She has a wonderful set of children, children in law, and grandkids. I would have to say that my family's best talent  is the ability to pick great spouses.

I recently began working on the sills, beams, and joists of my house  and this will probably keep me pretty busy through mid May, with time out for rides, cultural activities, etc.

Speaking of cultural activities, yesterday we went to the fine arts museum in Springfield  MA. It has a small but very fine collection of paintings, well worth seeing if you are in the area. We followed this with dinner in Wethersfield, CT, a fine old town with many pre revolutionary and some fine federal period buildings. This was followed by a great concert with the Hartford Symphony playing the Dvorak Cello Concerto, and Sibelius Second Symphony. Fine and exciting performances with Gerard Schwarz conducting with his son the cello soloist. Not a bad ending to a day that started with removing forms from a concrete pad I poured on Wednesday and getting a beam up on house jacks.

Admissions, Rejections, etc.

So far I have heard from about half of you as to how you have fared in this years great college bazaar. Please let me know how you did so we can celebrate, commiserate, or ponder the the mysterious working of admissions offices together. Also, please remember that whatever happens won't change my opinion of you; I already know you much better than those college admissions people do.

Good luck to all.

Colorado Trip (Revision 1)

We just returned from Colorado early this morning ( got in at 3:00AM)  where we visited our son Daniel. He is doing his Post Doc at Colorado State University on neutrino measurements. Most of his time is devoted to developing ways to interpret the signals from instrumented targets to determine what particle reactions occurred.

While out there I did some cycling with him [ I am trying hard to believe that his choice of speed and terrain had more to do with his strength and enthusiasm and less to do with collecting my life insurance]  and without him and some hiking with Daniel, some with Jean, and some solo. Daniel lives and works in Fort Collins, a very bike friendly town, where he survives with 2 bikes and no cars. The town is pretty flat but the challenging foothills start right at the edge of town.  People are very friendly and mostly physically fit. Even casual riders often move at near 20 mph.

We spent four days in Rocky Mountain National Park hiking along trails that led to lakes or mountain tops. I felt the reduced air at 10,000 feet, moving even slower than my usual "deliberate" pace. The trails are not marked very well and with snow covering the footbed they are difficult to follow. Daniel and Jean's cousin's husband, Joe, and I spent about 3 hours last Saturday following false  tracks on Flat Top Mountain , sometimes through 8 foot deep snows, before finally locating the right trail to the summit. By then time and energy were running out so we headed home. Views were still great, but I regretted missing the top by such a wide margin. The three Cherdacks did a nice stream side walk on Sunday, the bright sun contrasting with the snows on the mountains.

Elk were plentiful and some areas were fenced in to keep the elk out and allow plants to regenerate. The elk looked pretty ragged this time of year as they shed their winter coats. Despite melting the snows, the forests and meadows looked pretty dry; this and the prematurely warm weather  are making forest fires a real danger.

Jean and I went back to the park Tuesday night and Wednesday I hiked up to the summit of Flat Top solo. I saw only 5 other people on the mountain all day. The trip was about 9 miles with about 3,000 feet of gain... not much different from a hike to major peak in the Adirondacks of New York, but the altitude had a major effect on me. I used snowshoes on Saturday, but I used crampons for much of the hike on Wednesday.


Here comes some physics. Skip it if you must, but don't tell me; I'd rather not know

Since static pressure at a point is caused by weight of fluid above that point we have

delta P/delta y  = - density of air x g ( force of gravity per kg  or 9.8 N/kg). In other words the force on a square meter ( pressure, P) declines ( thus the negative sign) by the weight of one cubic meter of air ( density x g) when every you go up ( in the positive y direction) by one meter.


Pressure P is related to the number of moles of gas per cubic meter ( n/V) by

P=n/V  R( Universal gas constant of 8.31) x T(temperature in Kelvin which was about 300)

So P = n/V x 8.31 x 300 or n/V = P/2500

Also the  density of air = (n/V) x kg mole of air and

air has a density of about .029 kg/mole. Thus we have density = n/V x .029

delta P/delta y = -(n/V)x.029 x9.8 = -(P/2500) x.029 x9.8 = -P/8772 ( Pascals/m) [ A Pascal is 1 Newton of force per square meter  of area].  The solution to the equation is
P = Pat sea level(which is 101,000 Pascals) x e ( or 2.78 the base of natural logs) ^-y ( height above sea level)/8772

or P = 101,000 Pascals e^-y/8772.

Flat Top Mountain is about 4,000 m high so the pressure on top is about
101,000 x e ^- (4000/8772) or about 63% of what it is at sea level.

The hike was great and the view were wonderful, more than 40 snow covered peaks to the north and west, some classic pyramids, others blocky, cliff seamed  piles. Deep canyons and many lakes to be seen as well.  Here are some photos from near the lakes and meadows at about 9,000 feet. The last picture is from our cabin where we stayed Wednesday.

Cliche March

March lived up to its billing as to coming in as a lion. We got about a foot of snow on Wednesday/Thursday; followed by about two inches of frozen rain/snow on Friday night/Saturday morning. This made for some great snowshoeing on Friday.  I followed a nearby trail near us that leads about 3/4 of a mile to an old disused, but still well kept, little cemetery. The last burial was about 1870 and most of the plots belong to just four families. I'll try to post a picture soon. Near the cemetery, the trail passes through some beautiful pine and hemlock groves. Just stopping looking at the snow covered trees made my short trip take well over an hour.

The other major issue in my life is Ingemar. Apparently this old Volvo thinks 300,000 miles is enough. Either some sensor or the main engine control module is malfunctioning and so far several tests have failed to uncover why it idles very lean and then quits.  I'll have to run some more tests and may have to get assistance from my wife. This will require some diplomacy on my part since she believes 21 year old cars should be forcibly retired.

In the meantime, while I love winter, warmer weather,  forecast to be starting Wednesday will make woodworking in unheated spaces and home and car repair a lot more comfortable. In the meantime 16 degrees tomorrow morning and 12 degrees for a low on Tuesday morning.