The Secret Life of Electrons

[thebes]

Little tiny bits of cosmic matter they are literally
everywhere. Without them recorded music would be…well… the sounds of silence.

Now I’m not to well educated in the hard sciences, so I
choose to think of them as tiny little critters with happy faces, you know,
just like Reddy Kilowatt but lots and lots more of them. Sort of like an anthill on steroids they are
always running to and fro, bouncing off of things.

They seem to like long tunnels and charge recklessly down
them with seemingly no thought where (they seem
long if you’re an electron) may lead. Is it the race or the end they seek, or
are they like children engaged in an eternal round of backyard play. Push and pull, linear, up and down and in
and out they seem to care not.

Are they hedonists, or just being abused, because someone is
always stripping them. Do they even a sex or are they some cosmic neuters
gamboling their way through places we’ve never been.

I can’t prove it but I suspect their life is somewhat like
ours. Day to day they are just drones, carrying stuff here, puling stuff there.
The same ole same ole.

Comes the nighttime though little streams of them will peal
off from whatever they are doing. Running a fridge, crashing a computer,
keeping the time on an electronic clock. Off they’ll go, get into whatever glad
rags electrons wear and congregate where the action is, in better stereos all
over this land. Sure some of the down
and outers will hang out at the Bose bar, much to the amusement and derision of
their more sophisticated brethren.

Now the billions and trillions of the little creatures
gathered at my house tonight are a motley crew and reddy for almost anything.
I started them off with Aqualung, because they really love all the changes in
tempo, reverse polarity on mikes, quite passages interspersed with a lot of
head banging. Its like a microscopic
mosh pit with the little electrons bellying up to the electrode bar from time
to time before they head back to the floor.

Who knows where we’ll all be heading tonight me and my
sub-atomic friends. More rock, some
jazz, blues, a little reggae, will we trip the light fantastic or grow languid
basking in the warmth of a sultry chanteuse.

In the secret life of electrons is it the journey or the
moment that holds sway?

All I know is I’d better keep them away from the neutrons.

So what excites your electrons?

[tom b. 57]

Right now my electrons are gettin' off on some Jimmy Thackery and the Nighthawks.

[thebes]

I'm a big fan of the Nighthawks Tom. They've been a force in the local music scene here in Washington, DC for going on forty years.

Primarily bar house blues. I once saw them backing up Muddy Waters. Now that was a treat!

[Groomlakearea51]

Thebes: That wouldn't have been round about 1970-1971 at some bar place near the Chain Bridge in Georgetown?

[thebes]

You're probably thinking of the Cellar Door, a great venue now sadly gone.

I was dating my wife when I saw him so probably later 70's. Also, it was a bigger venue, I'm thinking the Lisner Auditorium at George Washington University. About a year later I got to see him again playing in a meeting hall on the campus of Georgetown University. Anice smallish venue which was perfect for his sound. He had his own band with him at that gig.

[oscarsear]

Your comment about the "anthill on steroids" reminded me of a rather macabre memory. I once owned a condo that was built on an anthill (had to be). You could turn your back on a sandwich for a second and it would be swarming with the stupid things. A neighbor would put her trash in her freezer just to keep it ant free until she took it out. Since I was single at the time I would run my dishwasher about every 3 days when it was full. Well the ants got in there as well. It would be black with them. I started putting ant poison bait traps in the dishwasher as long as they were hungry. I'd never had much luck with these before but for some reason they loved them when inside the dishwasher. They would go through about one a day. On the 3rd day when I opened the dishwasher door it was loaded with live ants doing what they normally did but they were all in slow motion. Instead of their normal happy frenzied pace there were millions of sluggish ants going about their business. I don't know if they knew they were slow or if they hurt but it was eery. I felt bad for about 20 seconds. Then I ran the unit. BTW that works really good for ant control. I killed off the one species and another took over and I killed all of them too. The place was ant free for months. Then when I moved into my fiances house I used the same technique to rid her place of ants also.

[pauln]

They aren't as fast as you think. Even in a DC conductor passing high amperage the individual electrons may take days to move a few centimeters through the conductor.

The real secret about electrons may be that there is only one of them. In space-time, the electron is allowed to pass back and forth through what we see as time and space (we see the ones passing in reverse time as another particle). This allows a single electron to be available to operate at all places and times - each measured electron is us just catching him at a particular place at a particular time - he gets around everywhere and everywhen. This helps explain why all electrons appear to be identical.

[thebes]

The real secret about electrons may be that there is only one of them. In space-time, the electron is allowed to pass back and forth through what we see as time and space (we see the ones passing in reverse time as another particle). This allows a single electron to be available to operate at all places and times - each measured electron is us just catching him at a particular place at a particular time - he gets around everywhere and everywhen. This helps explain why all electrons appear to be identical.

Paul, there's only ONE of them? That's a little scary. What if it gets mad at us.

[pauln]

Well, the concept of the idea "What if he gets mad at us?" implies that there would be a time before he got mad, and then a time from which he was mad. But in space time there is no difference between then or now or future - it is already mapped out like a sculpture. So in a sense, if he ever got mad or was mad at any place or time it's "already" a done deal. Same as the concern that he might break, or malfunction, or take a holiday, or split, disolve, fall into a black hole (tricky one there...) whatever... So I'm just saying, there is no conditional or hypothetical attribute to the question.

You might say that if he [was/is/will be] mad, that [will have/is/will be] [already/currently/ presently] [have happened/happening/happening] [then/now/later] in space-time.

And beside, why would he get mad at all of us? We SET users are very undemanding of the electron. It's the high power folks who should be watching their backs.

[:S]

[jacksonbart]

Here is a cool link

http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/applets/orbits.html

[Daddy Dee]

JB cool link.

I like Nighthawks at the Diner -- Tom Waits

my favorite electron quote: "the electrons don't care!" -- Trey Canon

[oldtimer]

For added entertainment with the link read it in the voice of professor farnsworth from futurama.

And, to answer another thread, Thebes, if the electrons don't care, you can't piss them off!

[thebes]

Well, the concept of the idea "What if he gets mad at us?" implies that there would be a time before he got mad, and then a time from which he was mad. But in space time there is no difference between then or now or future - it is already mapped out like a sculpture. So in a sense, if he ever got mad or was mad at any place or time it's "already" a done deal. Same as the concern that he might break, or malfunction, or take a holiday, or split, disolve, fall into a black hole (tricky one there...) whatever... So I'm just saying, there is no conditional or hypothetical attribute to the question.

You might say that if he [was/is/will be] mad, that [will have/is/will be] [already/currently/ presently] [have happened/happening/happening] [then/now/later] in space-time.

And beside, why would he get mad at all of us? We SET users are very undemanding of the electron. It's the high power folks who should be watching their backs.

Anybody got any aspirin. My head hurts.

I think you SET guys are in for a rude awaking though. We keep him jumping, back and forth etc. while with you guys he just lays there getting bored.

Power Rules!

Good link and very informative JB

[oldtimer]

Thebes i have a lot. Now they tell me I should not be taking it. I will gladly send you all i have, probably at least three bottles.