When gravity quits there will be an extended rebound effect. For a time
there will be a negative gravity. This oscillating gravity wave will decay
in an exponential manner, but is expected to have a very long T2. In the
short term we will handle it by turning all our superconducting magnets
upside down and having their legs mounted to the ceiling. This way the boil
off rate will be greatly reduced with the helium boiling up to the liquid.
Later on we'll have a circular track installed so that the magnet can
rotate from the ceiling to the floor with an appropriate dwell time so that
no point real or imaged will be lost.
Rob Kleps
>Mike,
>
>We here at MIT are gravely concerned about just such issues. As you may
>recall from Stanley Kubrick's 2001, those entering the new millenium had
>an excellent example of how to solve just such a problem: live on a
>rotating space-station that, through the use of centripital acceleration,
>creates its own gravity.
>
>Of course, this would not be cost-effective, at least given the present
>federal funding constraints.
>
>To deal with this contingency, then, we here at MIT are planning to
>construct a large, rotating laboratory (a rotating frame for our instruments,
>if you will).
>
>This will breath new life into the phrase, "Sit on it and rotate."
>
>Given the slow timetable associated with this and other major lab renovations,
>we have turbo pumps standing by to keep cryogen boiloffs low.
>
>On a related note, theoreticians have yet to agree on whether this will have
>a major impact on the Bloch equations.
>
>I will keep you and the rest of the group posted.
>
>Jeff
>
>P.S. Happy Holidays/Y2K
>
>Dr. Jeffrey H. Simpson 617-253-1812 ofc
>Instrumentation Facility Director 617-253-1806 lab
>Department of Chemistry 617-253-0873 fax
>Massachusetts Institute of Technology jsimpson@mit.edu
>77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139
Rob Kleps, Ph.D. 835 S. Wolcott
Senior Spectroscopist Chicago, IL 60612
NMR Lab, M/C 937, E-102 312-996-8550
Research Resources Center FAX 312-996-0539
Univ. Ill. at Chicago kleps@uic.edu