What is the sound of one excited atom ? ... now we know. Wow.

[eustacetilley]

m.paris wrote:
"The Cost of Admittance"

Is that a slip, a pun, or a test to see who is paying attention?

You get three cookies.
It's actually also a quote, from Andy Warhol, regarding the NYC Art Scene, and I've been waiting for just this chance to slip it in. (I also slipped in a bit of Lewis Carroll, who has far more to do with Modern Math than one might think.) (I've quoted that Feynman bit before.)
There are some terms that I will never have a chance to play with- "Emittance" for one. Not only isn't it an interesting word, the concept is wrong. It's a first order conceit in an area where higher order realities prevail.
I've mentioned "Barn" and "yrast" before, and "yrast" is particularly fun, because it is a double-pun, the second one being in Swedish.

"Phonon" is a muddle. It is an "English" word, coined by a Russian Physicist, based on a Greek word for "sound". Like "Spin", it is immediately subject to confusion on first encounter.
"Phonons" only have the very slightest relation to "sound". There is something vibratory about both, and thats it. "Vibrons" would have been a much better choice, and devices used to create such fascinating phenomena would then be known as "Vibrators". (Trivia: Edison invented the first electrical vibrator. Or maybe his wife did, but Edison was always loathe to share credit.)

Eustace

[eustacetilley]

DP wrote:
Eustace, do you actually have a copper spoon?

Funny that you should mention that...
No, I don't, but Mom had a selection of spoons and a large Copper bowl dedicated solely to whipping egg whites. (Mom made spectacular meringues, with a hole forming naturally in the center during baking, in which to stuff a strawberry and enough whipped cream, which was whipped up in a second glass bowl, usually by me.)
Although she used Copper utensils by tradition, it turns out that there is real chemistry behind it. It has to do with Copper Ions stabilizing protein bonds on the surface of the bubbles.
When she wasn't whipping up egg whites, I was allowed to play with the shiny things, as long as I used plenty of hot water and only a brass scrubbing pad to clean them with afterwards.

Eustace