On Wed, Nov 9, 2011 at 1:02 AM, Jean-Daniel Dupas <devli...@shadowlab.org> wrote: > Le 9 nov. 2011 à 07:44, Don Quixote de la Mancha a écrit : >> While the Space Shuttle exploded twice, I hasten to point out that >> neither of those failures was due to software bugs. >> > > No, but Ariane 5 first launch failure was ;-) > > > -- Jean-Daniel
I wrote my UC Santa Cruz undergraduate thesis on the French side of CERN, as part of the Spin Muon Collaboration. The main work of our group was to to determine the contribution by virtual particles such as Gluons to Neutrons and Protons. This required a ten million dollar superconducting magnetic solenoid, with the nucleons being convinced to line up with the magnetic field by being extra-cooled with some arcanely thermodynamic process involving Helium-3. "It comes from Atom Bombs," said one of the elderly Physicists. That ten million dollar magnet was constructed by our French colleagues. Only after getting the whole thing installed and cooled to a temperature very near absolute zero did anyone thing to ask our French friends whether the superconducting magnet wires were wound clockwise or counterclockwise. They didn't know! I don't actually know how they did it, but it was the Germans members of our collaboration who figured out the magnet winding direction without having to warm it up and take it all apart. I learned during that Summer that CERN was created in large part to help put an end to Europe's endless history of warfare. Perhaps that was a better way for the Germans to one-up the French than shooting at them. -- Don Quixote de la Mancha Dulcinea Technologies Corporation Software of Elegance and Beauty http://www.dulcineatech.com quix...@dulcineatech.com _______________________________________________ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com This email sent to arch...@mail-archive.com
