Tiniest Lamp Spans Quantum, Classical Physics

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Tiniest Lamp Spans Quantum, Classical Physics

Posted by kdawson on Friday May 1, 2009 @02:21AM from the just-small-enough dept.

Urchin writes "Physicists in California have made the smallest ever incandescent lamp using a carbon nanotube as the filament. The nanotube is so small it behaves as a quantum mechanical system but it's just large enough that the classical physics rules of thermodynamics should apply. Analyzing the light emitted from the tiny light will give the team a better picture of what happens in the twilight zone between the quantum and classical worlds." The New Scientist article doesn't mention the researchers' surprise, as the abstract does: "Remarkably, the heat equation and Planck's law together give a precise, quantitative description of the light intensity as a function of input power, even though the nanotube's small size places it outside the thermodynamic limit."

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Carbon nanotubes by Anonymous Coward · 2009-05-01 02:27 · Score: 1, Funny

Is there anything they *can't* do?!
California Environmental laws! by spineboy · 2009-05-01 02:34 · Score: 5, Funny

I'm sorry - but they will have to switch it out for a really tiny compact fluorescent bulb.

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..........FULL STOP.
1. Re:California Environmental laws! by JonTurner · 2009-05-01 02:46 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Queue the "how many physicists does it take to change a nano lightbulb?" jokes...
How many physicists... by Red+Flayer · 2009-05-01 02:43 · Score: 5, Funny

How many quantum physicists does it take to change a light bulb?

One. Two to do it, and one to renormalise the wave function.

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"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
1. Re:How many physicists... by Drakkenmensch · 2009-05-01 03:16 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  You Fool! You altered the outcome by observing it!
2. Re:How many physicists... by Red+Flayer · 2009-05-01 03:54 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  That was the point. We did not know if it had been changed already or not.
  
  As soon as we observed it, it collapsed into a changed state. (Well, half the time. The other half it collapsed into an unchanged state.)
  
  Furthermore, we had an additional problem... we made the mistake of measuring how fast we were moving the bulb. As soon as we did that, we lost track of where the damn thing was.
  
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  "Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
Crud by SnarfQuest · 2009-05-01 03:22 · Score: 4, Funny

I just replaced all the lamps in my house with these, but they just don't seem to brighten up the room like the old ones, and now my cat is missing.
The things we must endure for global warming to be a success.

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Imagine by commodoresloat · 2009-05-01 03:37 · Score: 5, Funny

Reading Beowulf under the light provided by a cluster of these lamps!
Re:An incandescent lamp??? Arrest them! by Gospodin · 2009-05-01 03:40 · Score: 2, Funny

It gets even worse: they're using a CARBON filement! Carbon, people! It's worse than plutonium!

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...following the principles of Heisenburger's Uncertain Cat...
How many to replace by Nom+du+Keyboard · 2009-05-01 04:45 · Score: 2, Funny

Okay you went and blew the light, I know I left the replacement bulb around here somewhere, but every time I look at it it disappears.

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I expect a ticker-tape parade for our new hero, by idontgno · 2009-05-01 05:27 · Score: 2, Funny

Nanoscale Inanimate Carbon Rod!

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Re:Very important kind of experimentation! by narcc · 2009-05-01 19:37 · Score: 2, Funny

I think I'm required to tell you to "shut up and calculate".

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