Wow, this is wild. billionths of a second?!
"Millionths", abbreviated "mths of a second" here for... reasons... Known to the entire world, including American STEM people, as a microsecond.
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Los Alamos is capturing images of explosions at 7 millionths of a second
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Re: Los Alamos is capturing images of explosions at 7 millionths of a second
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm reminded of Grace Hopper's famous nanoseconds lecture: https://youtu.be/gYqF6-h9Cvg?t=78
1 ns * c = 1 ft, to put in perspective: 7 μs * c is 1.3 miles. (Protip: just type "7 μs * c in miles" into Google)
7 μs is also the time it takes light to travel about 1,400 Ariana Grandes.
Re: Los Alamos is capturing images of explosions at 7 millionths of a second
#43Re: Los Alamos is capturing images of explosions at 7 millionths of a second
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Millionths", abbreviated "mths of a second" here for... reasons... Known to the entire world, including American STEM people, as a microsecond.
Anything to avoid using the proper units, you wouldn't want the Americans audience to be enlightened wouldn't you.
What irks me is that they could have abbreviated "7mths of a second" to just "7us" while ADDING clarity!
Re: Los Alamos is capturing images of explosions at 7 millionths of a second
#45Every time I read about one of the national labs doing this research, I wonder how much longer we will head about these. I feel fairly positive that DOGE's layoffs and budget cuts mean this output will fade away in time.
I worry about this, but these capabilities are hard to replace. This kind of research hasn’t historically been something you can outsource to private companies. Or—at least—it hasn’t been until now. Even if this administration wants to open that door, the infrastructure investment required for the accelerators alone is staggering: easily in the multiple billions.
Maybe I'm misreading your comment, but you seem like you're talking about privatizing this research whereas the other commenter seems to be talking about public cuts leading to a reduction of research. Just because something gets cut doesn't mean it gets outsourced elsewhere.
Re: Los Alamos is capturing images of explosions at 7 millionths of a second
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
The national labs are absolutely getting budget cuts.
For sure. But depending on what Congress does, think defense budgets could grow, which would mean more money for defense-positioned Labs like Los Alamos.
Nuclear research is done under the Department of Energy, not DoD. Los Alamos is a DoE lab, and the DoE received major cuts in the recent budget bill, though that shifts energy efficiency research into weapons research and net increases lab funding.
Re: Los Alamos is capturing images of explosions at 7 millionths of a second
#47Every time I read about one of the national labs doing this research, I wonder how much longer we will head about these. I feel fairly positive that DOGE's layoffs and budget cuts mean this output will fade away in time.
It’s for bombs, it’s untouchable.
It might end up financing a gold-plated airplane for a library.
Re: Los Alamos is capturing images of explosions at 7 millionths of a second
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
The first line of the articles says "seven-millionths of a second", which would be 1/7μs or 0,14μs. They also mention that the camera shot 16 frames in that period, so that would be once every 0,00875μs or once every 8,75ns Youtubers are a couple of magnitudes away from that, AFAIK
I would say you described "one seven millionth" of a second (1/7,000,000 s) "Seven millionths" would be 7/1,000,000 s (7μs). They take 20 to 40 images in that period using 7 cameras, so any given camera might be as low as 1.4μs per frame.
Yes, but they said seven-millionths of a second, not seven millionths of a second. Technically they're right that that's what it means, but I'd expect an editor to recommend against that phrasing in favor of the one you used to avoid confusion.
Re: Los Alamos is capturing images of explosions at 7 millionths of a second
#49Every time I read about one of the national labs doing this research, I wonder how much longer we will head about these. I feel fairly positive that DOGE's layoffs and budget cuts mean this output will fade away in time.
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What if we found leprechauns and they gave us their pots of gold, think of all the scientists we could hire then! Certainly we should be prioritizing the leprechaun search.
Re: Los Alamos is capturing images of explosions at 7 millionths of a second
#50I imagine this falls under the remit of "nuclear warhead research without actual warheads".