PhD Diary - Exploration Geophysics

Let's first discuss how to spell antennae . Thanks to the proliferation of American literature and media in Australia, we have ended up with this hybridised language where sometimes it matters which way the word is spelled, and sometimes it doesn't. Antennae qualifies as a 'doesn't'. In the US and Canada, antenna is a singular, while antennae refers to a plural. At least, it does when referring to insect antennae. Metallic antennas, like are used practically everywhere, are antennae or antennas, depending on your own preference. To the point however, what actually defines an antennae? 'Antennae' refers to an object which transmits or receives electromagnetic radiation. It 'radiates' this energy thanks to a few fundamental laws of physics. As you may well know, most things have a 'charge' associated with them. This is generally due to a lack, or surplus, of charged particles of either polarity (i.e. positive or negative). When ...

What IS the Laplace equation? Whenever researching mathematics, there almost never seems to be a simple explanation of what the function actually does. Usually, this is because a function will convert one abstract notion of a small branch of mathematics into another abstract notion of a small branch of mathematics. It means absolutely nothing for the average person. To begin, lets breakdown the Wikipedia page. This is usually my default go-to, as it's written by people, not robots (usually). In mathematics, Laplace's equation is a second-order partial differential equation named after Pierre-Simon Laplace who first studied its properties. Great. I'm still none the wiser. This is often written as Δφ = 0  or   ∇ 2 φ = 0 Okay, Now we're getting somewhere. Luckily for me, I have a vague idea what the Laplacian operator, or  ∇ 2 , actually refers to. I hear you saying;  " wow, it's really that simple - all it does is relate the divergence of the ra...