Musings on the ideal potato

Ok, so in physics today we were doing a derivation about the 'potential difference' (voltage) between two points in an electric field caused by some arbitrary charged object, the potato. So during the derivation Vogel claimed that "4pi = 10" and "6/9 = 1/2."
Following that derivation, there was a question about whether the Electric force is still conservative if the 'test' charge was large enough to induce a dipole in the 'potato.' The answer is, yes, it's still a conservative force, but to reach that conclusion there was a relatively lengthy discussion. Foremost was the fact that if there was an induced dipole, it would no longer be a 'test' charge you're using. Next was the general assumption that it was an 'ideal' potato and all the charges are fixed, preventing any polarization or formation of dipoles. I think we may have scared the bagger that was observing the class.

Later in the day I was surprised that we actually had something resembling an actual MechE lecture. Yes, there was minimal notes, but we talked about degrees of freedom and rigid bodies and robots. Lots of robots. Gears too, it was a quality class. Howie had just had an eye exam or something and his pupils had been dilated, so he was wearing his sunglasses, even with the lights dimmed for the Powerpoint. This meant that if he asked for a show of hands about something, it didn't matter who raised their hands, as he couldn't see anyway. One of the more amusing, non-meche, things that happened today was someone fell asleep in the last five minutes of class in the front row and Howie woke him up and made him leave telling him to go home and sleep. Oh, that and he pointed out that in the video of one of his snake robots performing surgery on a pig that it was covered in a Trojan condom. The whole class giggled.

Right....so fencing rocked! I hadn't been since the semester started (one week I forgot completely and then last week the whole 'breathing' thing wasn't going so well for me) and it wa good to be back at it, even if I was really sore by the end of footwork. I fenced two bouts, won the first and put up a good fight against Charles, who's an advanced fencer. I wore my +1 Shirt, I think it helped.

So now, having showered, I face the prospect of attempting the Econ online assignment. Wish me luck.

[UPDATE 10:00pm ]: OK, so...the Econ thing was a joke. 15 multiple choice questions, 2 of which were just elementary algebra: If a steak costs x and beer costs y, which of these allocations is over you budget of $50 So there were 15 problems, and we had TWO hours to do the assessment.
That is all, go back to your regularly scheduled procrastination activities.