TO: Dr. Michael Banks, News Editor of @physicsworld
FM: Bruce E. Camber
RE: Your position as News Editor and the spirit and expertise found within your homepage(s): IOP, and other comments online, i.e. Twitter

First Instant Message: 22 January 2024

22 January 2024 – @Mike_Banks Here’s a quirky one for you: https://81018.com/star-formation/
Quirkiest: The universe in 202 base-2 notations from the Planck base units: https://81018.com/chart/ Also quirky is this bit on ethics: https://81018.com/relations-2

First email: 22 January 2024

Dear Dr. Michael Banks:

Regarding quirky stories, our high school geometry class discovered Max Planck’s 1899 calculations for the Planck base units and used them as our stopping point. We were chasing embedded geometries — tetrahedron and octahedron. Down inside we went — in 45 steps we were among the fermions; and, in another 67 steps we were at the Planck Length. We turned around, eventually using all the base units, and multiplied by 2. In 112 steps we were back in the classroom; yet Planck Time was still infinitesimal. Finally, we were out to one second within Notation 143, one year in notation 169, 1000 years in 179, a million years in 189, and a billion years in 199. That was a surprise. We were out to the edges of the universe in 202 notations.  

That’s our introduction to becoming totally idiosyncratic. It was too easy!

We thought it was all so cool; we decided our charts were the best possible STEM tool: https://81018.com/stem/

The numbers are here: https://81018.com/chart/.  Our very first chart in 2011: https://81018.com/big-board/

But we quickly learned, it’s all quirkiness. I thought you might enjoy a recent bit about the LLNL-NIF. Doing a series of searches, I came across your work. Interesting? Too quirky? I know how idiosyncratic it is, but what does one do with simplicity and commonsense?  

I’d love to hear from you!

Thanks.

Warmly,

Bruce

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Bruce E. Camber