A student approached me in the lab the other day
in a state of some concern. She had managed to produce a wonderfully well-resolved emission spectrum for Lithium and yet the principal lines disagreed quite substantially with the wavelengths at which she was expecting them based on her calculations. Was this a problem with the instrument, she wondered, or had she miscalculated the positions of the lines?

Turns out she'd only gone and treated Lithium as being entirely Hydrogenic, and had completely forgotten to apply any quantum defect to the principal line series! Oh, how we laughed.
(LongJohnBaldry, Mon 22 Mar 2010, 14:11, 13 replies)

Ha ha ha ha!!
The thick cow
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Mon 22 Mar 2010, 14:13, closed)

Hahahahahahaha
I hate it when that happens.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Mon 22 Mar 2010, 14:26, closed)

Classic!
Man, some people...
(cypherspace is not a toaster, Mon 22 Mar 2010, 14:40, closed)

Silly moo.
I bet she had the atoms upside down, too!
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Mon 22 Mar 2010, 15:23, closed)

Oh, it's vitally important to get that 'U'-shape facing the right way
But she could have made life a lot easier for herself if she'd just crossed off the mass...
(LongJohnBaldry, Mon 22 Mar 2010, 15:25, closed)

You are, of course, correct.
If you have the "U" facing the wrong way, all the quarks fall out.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Mon 22 Mar 2010, 15:55, closed)

Is it sad
that I understood that completely?

*Hangs head in shame*
(Petite chien is going to do science to it, Mon 22 Mar 2010, 15:26, closed)

No.
It's a good thing. If you must hang your head in something, may I suggest custard?
(LongJohnBaldry, Mon 22 Mar 2010, 15:28, closed)

Haha
Or maybe melted chocolate... Certainly not the cadmium solutions I have just made up!
(Petite chien is going to do science to it, Mon 22 Mar 2010, 16:10, closed)

What a fuckwit.
This isn't funny, people like that should be killed.
(NoveltyCondomHead Clanks Wams., Mon 22 Mar 2010, 15:35, closed)

it's certainly...
...a good case for enforced (forced?) sterilisation at birth.
(tweebianmonkey Should be known as Widget, Mon 22 Mar 2010, 15:44, closed)

I couldn't agree more.
In fact, sterilise all children at birth just in case.

Or kill them, that would save valuable resources. Kill them all, the hydrogenically obsessed jizzbuckets!
(NoveltyCondomHead Clanks Wams., Mon 22 Mar 2010, 16:43, closed)

Yeah but come on
I bet loads of us have done this but just don't want to admit it.
(Smale is stuffed, Mon 22 Mar 2010, 17:50, closed)