The exam #1 average was a 63.1%. It was a very difficult exam and I was pleased by the results of most students.
We continued on with X-ray diffraction and REEL labs #2 and #3. In REEL #2 we first introduced the concept of diffraction. To learn a little bit more about the concept of diffraction I send you to this youtube link featuring University of Minnesota physics professor Jim Kakalious, who was a science consultant for the Warner Brothers film Watchmen. In Watchman Dr. Manhattan has amazing super powers. Dr. Kakalious outlines which physics phenomena are responsible for these super powers. In the movie Dr. Manhattan can appear in more than one place at once and Kakalious asks how he could possible do this. This can be explained by discussing diffraction. At the 2 min 10 sec mark in the clip diffraction is discussed, which is a signature of the wave phenomena of light.
The one thing I want to emphasize is how on earth can a collection of dots from a diffraction pattern relate to structures of solids. Diffraction can tell us the similarities and differences on the slides we used in the optical diffraction part of REEL #2. X-rays can be used to do the same thing with a crystal structure. X-ray diffraction will tell us what structure or structures are present in a given sample and when we progress to REEL 3 & 4 this will be very important to determine.
On Friday's lecture we will start talking about solid solutions and how they are formed.
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