What's a 'zeptosecond' and why is it newsworthy in the last few days? (Page 2/2)
Notorio OCT 22, 11:39 PM

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Originally posted by rinselberg:

I know where I stand on this issue. I stand with the Zeptosecond. I'm "All In."




Thanks for posting this news flash.


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In 1999, the Egyptian chemist Ahmed Zewail received the Nobel Prize for measuring the speed at which molecules change their shape. He founded femtochemistry using ultrashort laser flashes: the formation and breakup of chemical bonds occurs in the realm of femtoseconds. A femtosecond equals 0.000000000000001 seconds, or 10-15 seconds.



Back in the 80s I was a graduate student studying electron transfers using lasers on the mere nanosecond timescale (10E-09). Our relatively poor ($) group couldn't afford the picosecond lasers (10E-12) of the group down the hall from us that were able to observe faster processes than we could. Likewise they could not afford the then ground-breaking femtosecond lasers (10E-15) built in the Hochstrasser group around the corner from them. Ahmed Zewail had been a grad student in Hochstrasser's group some years before us and was making the old professor very proud of his many discoveries in Chemistry and Physics as a professor at Caltech (I think) with hordes of grad students and post-docs doing all the dirty work. Yes, the old prof was proud but many of us students not of the 'brilliant' variety often ground our teeth at all the publicity and $$$ in orbit around then-professor Zewail. At that time we all thought femtoseconds was the speed limit but it makes sense that one could observe faster processes by looking at the interference patterns generated by two out of phase electrons. It must be fascinating work ...
rinselberg OCT 23, 03:15 AM

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Originally posted by Notorio:
[What Notorio said]


Does Notorio have the most exquisitely tuned Fiero on the planet? Spark plug timing optimized all the way down to the nanosecond?

All kidding aside, it was a "gas" to see that "quantum" of personal history that's just been recounted by Notorio. I certainly didn't anticipate anything like that when I created this forum topic.
Notorio OCT 25, 10:24 PM

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Originally posted by rinselberg:

Does Notorio have the most exquisitely tuned Fiero on the planet? Spark plug timing optimized all the way down to the nanosecond?

All kidding aside, it was a "gas" to see that "quantum" of personal history that's just been recounted by Notorio. I certainly didn't anticipate anything like that when I created this forum topic.




Yes, well, cough, cough, I'm the poor sap with a non-firing cylinder #4 with a nasty leak-down issue who can't figure out the root cause, still trying to decide whether or not to pull the engine and rebuild the bottom from scratch (the top end was already rebuilt) OR to get a 3.4 and rebuild That bottom end. Lasers, engines; it all comes down to $$$ at some point.

[This message has been edited by Notorio (edited 10-25-2020).]