Today was a much needed day off! (My last one was Thursday, July 21.) I enjoyed the luxury of sleeping in until 8:30 and even toyed with taking a morning nap. I'm still plowing through the Hawking book, but it's a little denser than I'd anticipated. Space-time, quarks, and anti-matter fill the pages. It's a little surprising, however, to read about the revolutionary ideas of Maxwell, Dalton, and Bohr in the 19th and 20th Centuries, and to recognize these names from various facts I'd learned for freshman Chemistry in college, eight years ago. This book sets the "Pauli Exclusion Principle" and the "Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle" in the context of the developing understanding of the world around us. Some things we now take for granted (like an atom's being composed of electrons orbiting around a nucleus made up of protons and neutrons) weren't always known. These discoveries were made little by little as speculative theories, experiment, and observation led to accepted fact.
This afternoon David, Dawn, Erin, and I got together at Erin's for round two of "Us verses Beethoven Razumovsky Quartet No. 1." We did a little better this time around! And I hate to admit it, but I'm enjoying the "middle part" nuances that I can create with the viola. While we rehearsed, a wonderful Texas summer thunderstorm rolled through which added greatly to the ambiance!
Another call day tomorrow. We'll see what it brings!
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2 comments:
Darndest thing, I spent my day off studying the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle and playing the Razumovsky Quartet also.
-davido
They say Heisenberg was also an amateur violist. When he and his comrades would get together for chambermusik, Werner claimed it was impossible to expect him to be at the right place in the music while at the same time playing the correct tempo.
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