Discoveries in the Physics & Astronomy shop | Science, curiosities, and surprises
Welcome to Olin Science 181, the Physics & Astronomy department’s machine shop. As the department’s support team, we regularly discover, design, and build all sorts of curiosities. This blog is just a small sample of the fascinating things we come across every day.
They’re interesting. Sometimes strange. Sometimes oddly charming.
Always worth sharing.
It’s an old coffee can full of tiny screws. The ones on top appear to be #3-56 (fine thread) in stainless steel, though the variety beneath is diverse. All in all, weighing in at approximately 3,063g. Individual screws weigh in – from a coarse sample – between 0.11g and 0.67g each.
Not going to throw them out, but just as unlikely to know when they might ever be put to use. Or how, precisely, we’d expect to find the necessary screws buried in such a mass.
Just, please, don’t drop it on the floor.
One of the key benefits of a 3D printer is the ability to create prototypes rapidly. Doesn’t quite fit? Adjust the model, re-slice, and set the new print to go. When you’re down to sub-millimeter tweaks with each iteration, it’s a relief to let the machine whir and ooze out the next version.
If at first you don’t succeed, try again and again and again and again…
A collection of advertisements in the latest package of toys for our toy kits. The new catalog – buy even more of our stuff! – makes sense. The Doordash bit seems unrelated, but they’re probably just spraying everywhere and hoping for a connection.
But “burial insurance you can afford” seems… a step too weird? There’s an awful lot to unpack here, and to be honest, we’ve got more important work to do.
Everyone’s coming back to campus, and isn’t that exciting?
It’s for the Observatory, obviously.
The bullet point guidelines under the Psychiatric treatment section are some pretty good advice for life and human interaction in general.
Are you ready for anything? No, of course not. But we still prefer to be well-informed and thoughtful in case of emergency.
Nothing quite like a little brushing up on the potential breadth of backcountry injuries to give you the oogies! All things considered, we’d rather read up on it and never experience it than the other way around.
There are thunderstorms outside, but we need to do a tent check. Do we have all the pieces? Will everything fit inside as planned? If it’s necessary to set this up outdoors during an actual rainstorm, have we done our practice run?
Pick the largest and least occupied space in the building and get to work. If anyone asks, you’re doing this for science! (Technically true.)
Sometimes you find oddities whose initial and continued existence boggles the mind. This clock was gathering dust atop the bookcases in the student lounge, battery-free and long-forgotten.
Where did it come from? What life did it live before it came to Olin? Who thought enough of it to acquire, but not enough to take with them?
What should we do with it now?
If it still works, it stays in service. There’s always a bit of “what’s this?” and “what’s it do?” and “how do I make it do what it does?” when stumbling across old equipment, but that’s what we have physicists for.