MRI, NMR, and the Japanese Professor...

I had a 2 hour lecture today on NMR. You know what it is even if you've never heard the term before. You know it as MRI, or Magnetic Resonance Imaging. You know why you don't hear it called NMR or NMRI by Doctors? Because of that lovely little "N" at the beginning, which stands for that dreaded word "NUCLEAR"! I know, you can't hold back your shock of disbelief and fear. Actually, the American public can't seem to get over that word, and because the majority of Americans wouldn't take an MRI scan if they knew it involved "nuclear" imaging, Doctors have decided to just knock the word off... but I digress...

I didn't take notes today during this lecture, rather I wrote down my 'thoughts'. This professor is probably the most boring lecturer I've ever had. I have described his lectures to people as "listening to paint dry." Think about it. Anyway, his obtuse and vague way of teaching leaves me with many, many questions, yet when I ask questions I only get long, drawn out, obtuse, and vague answers. I'm reaching the apathetic stage faster than ever before. So let me put my Sarcasm Hat on and tell you what I learned in my lecture today...

Travelogue - NMR Lecture 11/19/03
1pm - Amazed at the speed at which I can become lost in the material.
1:15 - I ask a question regarding how the blazes he managed to get a complex number into a physical quantity. He attempts an answer and baffles the class, but I'm sure an answer is out there even though the NMR book I own doesn't seem to indicate it...
1:20 - Bogus drawing #1. Rotating coordinate system? What the?
1:25 - Oh, magnetic spins have ENSEMBLES? Who would have thunkit, I didn't know they were so talented.
1:30 - Magnetic spins begin to take on even more personal aspects when I find out that they have COUPLING. Greeaaaaat...
1:35 - Spin interactions disappear when theta = 55degrees 44minutes! (angle measure) NO KIDDING! It's the 'magic angle' of spin! No joke, the terminology exists!
1:41 - Discovery of the 'fictitious temperature' that can happen to take negative values. Anybody up for negative absolute energy? Maybe this is antimatter...
1:43 - The fictitious temperature can also happen to take an infinite value. This just makes Ramin and I crack up. Uh-huh... It's kinda like saying "two plus two equals four, except for unusually large values of two, in which case two plus two equals forty-two."
2:15 - We are told that the Hamiltonian (quantum mechanical operator) is "easy to understand" in matrix form. Bull. Make the insanity stop!
2:40 - Total amount learned = 0

"If you can't answer the question, just make fun of them."
-Me, to Ramin, regarding my prof's answer to a question

Can you tell I was a little ticked? Haha... I'll perhaps have something more pleasant in a day or so... Until then: study hard and remember that NMRI is a very safe and excellent method that really does work... I just can't explain it yet.