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Calligraphette_Coe
1 hour ago, Heart said:

New career goal. :wub:

Mine is to construct a machine that makes monopoles. Maybe then we could deconstruct gender and asexuality such that it wouldn't be like experimenting by cutting a bar magnet in half, only to find each piece has it's own new north and south poles.

 

'Course with my luck, the machine would probably burn out every electrical transformer for blocks around.....

 

BTW, did anyone else read about Feynman's exploits in safecracking? Like anything else that seems magical on the surface but often comes down to human carelessness, he tried combinations to other physicist's safes that involved things like using the constant as the combination. Others came from studying the construction of the locks. I think I read this in "Surely You're Joking, My Feynman!"

 

 

I used to do this myself. Bought lock picking tools and found out how easy it was to get past cheap locks. Where I work, there is a lock box that holds the keys to all the high security stuff around the plant. It's 'protected' by a lock that is so easy to pick that I use a special key tool I made up to get in it. To anyone looking, it looks as though I have the key. One day the boss lost his key, so I gave him my fake one. Predictably, he was back in a few minutes to tell me that it didn't work. So I gave him a fake puzzled look and said 'Show me.' He handed it back to me, we went to the lockbox with it and I had it opened as easily as if it _were_ the key. I locked it back up, and then handed him the 'key' again. Of course it didn't work for him. But he did then figure out  that he'd been had. " Ok, I KNOW this is one of those F...... engineer tricks. What gives." hehehehe I only partially explained it to him. Downside, now everytime some loses a key, gues to whom the come to rescue them?

 

 

 

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51 minutes ago, Emery. said:

Well, I was in physics and computer science before , so... I had a taste of a theoretical math too (a minor).

But thank you for the cake regardless :)

Haha. Right. It's been a while since I was round apparently, I'm forgetting things now. I suppose I'm internet-old now :P

 

But hey. It's always good to bounce around a bit til you find the local minimum in your potential function ^_^ (I almost said "a happiness potential well" with the idea that you'd find it and be happy to chill there, but then I realized that the way most people could read that would be to think I meant you to get stuck in a low-happiness state, and that's just not at all what I was going for :P ).

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Calligraphette_Coe

BTW, lots of scientific computers run on Linux, for which the mascot is Tux the Penguin. So you could say that the penguin is involved with this research. :)

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24 minutes ago, Calligraphette_Coe said:

Mine is to construct a machine that makes monopoles. Maybe then we could deconstruct gender and asexuality such that it wouldn't be like experimenting by cutting a bar magnet in half, only to find each piece has it's own new north and south poles.

 

'Course with my luck, the machine would probably burn out every electrical transformer for blocks around.....

 

BTW, did anyone else read about Feynman's exploits in safecracking? Like anything else that seems magical on the surface but often comes down to human carelessness, he tried combinations to other physicist's safes that involved things like using the constant as the combination. Others came from studying the construction of the locks. I think I read this in "Surely You're Joking, My Feynman!"

 

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I used to do this myself. Bought lock picking tools and found out how easy it was to get past cheap locks. Where I work, there is a lock box that holds the keys to all the high security stuff around the plant. It's 'protected' by a lock that is so easy to pick that I use a special key tool I made up to get in it. To anyone looking, it looks as though I have the key. One day the boss lost his key, so I gave him my fake one. Predictably, he was back in a few minutes to tell me that it didn't work. So I gave him a fake puzzled look and said 'Show me.' He handed it back to me, we went to the lockbox with it and I had it opened as easily as if it _were_ the key. I locked it back up, and then handed him the 'key' again. Of course it didn't work for him. But he did then figure out  that he'd been had. " Ok, I KNOW this is one of those F...... engineer tricks. What gives." hehehehe I only partially explained it to him. Downside, now everytime some loses a key, gues to whom the come to rescue them?

 

 

 

That's an AWESOME story!!!

 

I remember one year, a whole bunch of engineering students at my undergraduate university got together and compared their keys. They each had keys to different buildings and labs, so they were able to reverse engineer what the skeleton key of the university looked like (or close enough). So they made one, and then used it to let themselves into what we called the clock tower (a ten story high tower, basically just with a clock at the top). They then disassembled a shell of an old volkswagon beetle (not the chasis, engine, or any of the interior bits) and carried it up, piece by piece, to the top, then re-built it at the top and left it there.

 

Talk about respect. Administration had a fit though :P

 

Let's see if I can't find the news article.. ah here it is. http://globalnews.ca/news/1134961/vw-beetle-appears-on-ubcs-clock-tower/

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3 minutes ago, Calligraphette_Coe said:

BTW, lots of scientific computers run on Linux, for which the mascot is Tux the Penguin. So you could say that the penguin is involved with this research. :)

Linux has been my reliable workhorse home OS since I was in second year of my undergrad ;)

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39 minutes ago, Heart said:

But hey. It's always good to bounce around a bit til you find the local minimum in your potential function ^_^

Yep, that's what I'm trying to do. Trying to optimise the path. I hope I'm making the right shot this time.

 

I like Linux too, but I haven't quite mastered it yet. It never breaks, hee hee. Unlike commercial stuff. Or it sometimes breaks terribly, because some program was written by someone as scatter-brained as me ;)

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On 3/30/2017 at 5:37 AM, Emery. said:

Mathematicians solve only trivial problems, as RichardFeynmann said ;) 

There are easily solvable trivial zeros of the Riemann Zeta Function. There are also non-trivial zeros of the function. Mathematicians cannot explain why the non-trivial zeros always have real part one half. Feynman seems right.

 

There is another famous mathematician/physicist named Freeman Dyson. When Hugh Montgomery was working on his PhD on the Riemann Hypothesis, he met Freeman Dyson. Dyson asked him about his work, and Montgomery said that the non-trivial zeros form a distribution of 1 - (sin(pi*u)/(pi*u))2. Dyson's eyes widened, and said, “That’s the form factor for the pair correlation of eigenvalues of random Hermitian matrices!”

 

Fascinating. This equates the Riemann Hypothesis with quantum mechanics, specifically the electron orbits.

 

If we could only get a grip on the non-trivial zeros. I keep telling myself, "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

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1 hour ago, Calligraphette_Coe said:

did anyone else read about Feynman's exploits in safecracking?

Yep, I vaguely recall reading that years ago. :)

 

I have done a little lock-picking in my day. Some easy combination locks, where you could actually feel it when you got a number correct (cheap old bicycle lock), and some key locks (work cabinet that I picked using a paper clip).

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@Kelly , Strange! I have some math to learn now, but I'll surely look into it when I'm finished.

 

Aha, it was in "You must be joking MR Feynmann", CC.

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Beware, Emery. When it comes to the Riemann Hypothesis, I must say, "Be afraid; be very afraid."

 

It can suck the life out of ya.

 

OK, it is also interesting as hell.

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Calligraphette_Coe
22 hours ago, Heart said:

That's an AWESOME story!!!

 

I remember one year, a whole bunch of engineering students at my undergraduate university got together and compared their keys. They each had keys to different buildings and labs, so they were able to reverse engineer what the skeleton key of the university looked like (or close enough). So they made one, and then used it to let themselves into what we called the clock tower (a ten story high tower, basically just with a clock at the top). They then disassembled a shell of an old volkswagon beetle (not the chasis, engine, or any of the interior bits) and carried it up, piece by piece, to the top, then re-built it at the top and left it there.

 

Talk about respect. Administration had a fit though :P

 

Let's see if I can't find the news article.. ah here it is. http://globalnews.ca/news/1134961/vw-beetle-appears-on-ubcs-clock-tower/

I love it!  

 

I've had a lifelong hatred of working on cars. You bruise your knuckles, cut your hands and motor oil makes a lousy moisturizer. Plus you always forget where you laid your copy of the Haynes service manual which you have to  buy everytime you buy another car. Now _diagnosing_ problems is a whole 'nuter cake! Little ole moi sits back with a drink while someone _else_ gets their hands dirty. They're always so grateful and one doesn't have to get in undignified positions.

 

But I digress.

 

I had to work on my own Beetle to get through school. They were really pretty simple, and I got to the point where I could borrow a floor jack and have the engine out of mine in 10 minutes. I put a fan system in mine to pull hot air from the heater boxes up to the windshield during those subzero Celsius days we get here locally. But  I certainly didn't like having to do it and I found no great feeling of accomplishment from having done it. I did, however, take one apart as you described above to help a friend convert one to a dune buggy. 

 

Oh! Follow-up to the safecracking story above?

 



 

I'm spoilering these to protect the guilty. It's not likely that the transphobic people I work for would read these and put pi and e together to come up with Calli's Identity, but why tempt fate?

 

A few months after the lockbox incident and after I got relieved of I.T. duties, the new people in charge of it lost the key to the I.T. lockup from the oh-so-secure main lock box. Kind of silly to have a locked room where you store the spare four $5 mouses, $10 keyboards and 10 cent blank CDs, but what do I know?

 

So they came to me and asked me how, since the key was lost, I was able to get into the room the other day to get a replacement keyboard out for a manager who shared their morning coffee with their Dell?

 

I gave them a "Really???" look, which took about 20 seconds to sink in as to whom they asking and why it was a Captain Obvious question. They never did find the key and now it's always unlocked.

 

Unless, of course,  I feel like screwing with them after I leave there and pick it closed again.....

 

One of these days they'll put a new lock on it, and someone will say something dumb like "Let's see you get into it now!" After which, I'll pull a Feynman and leave a huge wall-sized note inside it that says "Challenge Accepted!"

 

 

 

 

 

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On 2017-06-24 at 6:07 PM, Kelly said:

Beware, Emery. When it comes to the Riemann Hypothesis, I must say, "Be afraid; be very afraid."

 

It can suck the life out of ya.

 

OK, it is also interesting as hell.

And the best use of fine print award goes to... Kelly! ;)

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Calligraphette_Coe
On 6/24/2017 at 11:46 AM, Emery. said:

 

Aha, it was in "You must be joking MR Feynmann", CC.

Arrrgghhhh... I'm such a typomaniac lately. I'm not sure about the German spelling of his last name, though. I googled it and it came back 'Feynman'?

 

Since we're on the subject of books, are there any semi-academic ones about physics or science in general out recently that would be in my local Barnes and Noble store that you'd recommend?

 

One of my favorites from years ago was "Yes, We Have No Neutrons:An Eye-Opening Tour through the Twists and Turns of Bad Science" by A.K. Dewdney.

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Neil deGrasse Tyson has a new one out called Astrophysics For People in a Hurry, which I enjoyed. It's a little book, but covers quite a bit for laypersons like me. Might be too elementary for some?

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My bad. That was my German spellcheck in the brain at work :P

 

I'm reading Stephen Hawking's books recently. 

 

Dewdney, I think... wait... yes, "The New Turing Omnibus". But I didn't get wrapped up in it. Maybe I'll take a look this summer again.

 

Oh my. My reading list is exploding! 

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It's quite long, but I really enjoyed it. It seemed like it would likely be accessible, at least in great part, to laymen (though I can't really judge that perfectly, it's been a long time since I was a layman in physics). But even as a seasoned physicist, it held new wonders for me. Black Hole War: My Battle with Stephen Hawking to Make the World Safe for Quantum Mechanics by Leonard Susskind.

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Calligraphette_Coe
On 6/25/2017 at 1:44 PM, daveb said:

Neil deGrasse Tyson has a new one out called Astrophysics For People in a Hurry, which I enjoyed. It's a little book, but covers quite a bit for laypersons like me. Might be too elementary for some?

 

On 7/3/2017 at 6:47 AM, Heart said:

It's quite long, but I really enjoyed it. It seemed like it would likely be accessible, at least in great part, to laymen (though I can't really judge that perfectly, it's been a long time since I was a layman in physics). But even as a seasoned physicist, it held new wonders for me. Black Hole War: My Battle with Stephen Hawking to Make the World Safe for Quantum Mechanics by Leonard Susskind.

@daveb, I coudn't find this one in my local book stores, but they are carrying a very interesting one to which he was a contributor: Star Talk. It's about a $30 hardcover, but it looks pretty interesting. I put it in my notebook for the time when it may come out as a paperback. It had so many color pictures, which always look better in 8.5 x 11 than on a screen, so I'm hoping to get it sometime in paperback.

 

@Heart, I found and bought 'Black Hole Wars.......'. I love the intriguing possibility that the whole universe is a hologram. :)

 

I also found an interesting math book, "The Mathematics Bible", and upon finding a chapter on Cantor and his work on inifinities? Hooked me and I plunked down the tariff for that one, too. Poor Cantor, he had so much abuse heaped on his work, I feel a little like he could have been a patron saint for infinite variability of transness.

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3 hours ago, Calligraphette_Coe said:

I coudn't find this one in my local book stores

I'm surprised. Are those stores not carrying it or something? I got my copy at Barnes & Noble (because I had a coupon), but I would think it would be carried in lots of stores.

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Guest And Peggy

I bought Black Hole Wars, but I have like 10 books I have to read first so I'll probably read it in like a month or so lmao

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Calligraphette_Coe
On 7/8/2017 at 1:03 PM, daveb said:

I'm surprised. Are those stores not carrying it or something? I got my copy at Barnes & Noble (because I had a coupon), but I would think it would be carried in lots of stores.

Well, this *is* the Rust Belt and apparently what's trending is anything with 'Trump', 'Harley Davidson' or some sort of celebrity worship in the mall book stores that are about the only places here to buy books except for Wal*Mart. The only B&N store left is up in the state capital.

 

However, I decided to make a trip down towards Baltimore today, and one of the chain stores down there had it. And for 40% off with a club membership (which I always renew for the past bunch of years).  So, I now have a hardcopy version of it for which I paid $12.  :::::happy dance::::

 

Something I've run across in the last three STEM books I've read? Even though they were all written by guys, they all lamented that in the past, women in STEM careers were often not given credit for their contributions and that opportunities in the  four feels are still heavily tilted towards men. And how that isn't logical, or ideal and has to change but that they didn't know exactly how to go about it.

 

Oh! And I discovered that Fermat's day job was being a lawyer.

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1 hour ago, Calligraphette_Coe said:

mall book stores that are about the only places here to buy books except for Wal*Mart.

Ha! I once lived in a town where for a while the only bookstores were a Christian bookstore and an "adult" bookstore.

 

Now I live in a town with Powell's (multiple branches), B&N, even an Amazon store (that I know of but haven't been to) and numerous independent bookstores. It's like I've gone to heaven. :D

 

Cool that you were able to get a copy and at a great price!

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Toothlesss
27 minutes ago, daveb said:

 

 

Now I live in a town with Powell's (multiple branches), B&N, even an Amazon store (that I know of but haven't been to) and numerous independent bookstores. It's like I've gone to heaven. :D

 

I've been to the Amazon Bookstore in the Garden State Plaza. It's pretty cool.

 

I like ordering books off Amazon, especially since I can get free shipping once the order goes up to $25. 

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On 7/8/2017 at 6:36 AM, Calligraphette_Coe said:

they are carrying a very interesting one to which he was a contributor: Star Talk. It's about a $30 hardcover, but it looks pretty interesting.

I bought this one today, thanks to you! :D 

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A lot of cool books have been discussed here. I shall order some of them on Amazon.

 

I am still working on my math book, Infinite Fractions, and hope to eventually finish it. It starts with the Farey Sequence and ends with the Riemann Hypothesis, and travels down some interesting wormholes along the way.

 

I did just publish my children's book (aimed at 9-12-year-olds). It is now available on Amazon.

 

Ayway, it is Palindrome Week for 'Mericans. They typically write the date as 7/11/17. The digits are 71117, a palindrome. Tomorrow is 7/12/17, or 71217, and so on, up to 7/19/17. :)  

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Calligraphette_Coe
On 7/10/2017 at 10:09 PM, daveb said:

I bought this one today, thanks to you! :D 

Glad I could return the favor. I read "Astrophysics for People in a Hurry" in one sitting. Haven't done _that_ for a while! My poor retinas and slightly damaged visual cortex slowed me down a bit from my years-ago, pre sttroke pace of reading a 250-300 page book in a weekend. It's funny though, I read the most and the fastest when I'm feeling anxious or a a little bit uncomfortable / PTSDish. It calms me down soooo much. 

 

And sometimes, it even gives me insights. In AfPinH, there was section that mentioned scintillators--a really common component in the stuff I work on all the time. I had a particularly tough problem with one in one of my new machines doing something totally unexpected. And I had a manager who of course doesn't know beta plus decay from professional wrestling, hovering over the area wanting to know when this expensive piece of equipment was going to be properly born. Noody else there wants to learn how it works because of the radiation and the dodgy physics, so all they know how to do is took for stuff that smokes or has blown up.

 

Intuition told me that problem was in the math box. A little more fishing with a good ole Tek scope showed that the summer circuit was acting really weird. Turns out there was a soldering defect on a chip in something called a pulse stretcher. Fixed that, and bingo, all the math converged and it worked great. One big source of anxiety sent to the cleaners! Yay! And the positrons rejoiced!

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  • 2 weeks later...

I was watching a bit of the "numberphile" youtube channel earlier and they had a little joke at the end that made me laugh and think of some of my favorite mathematically-inclined AVENites.

 

A guy walks into a bar and says, "I'll have ten times what they're having."

And the bartender replies, "That's an order of magnitude!"

:lol: 

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Just dropping by to say I will be covering Gender until a new moderator comes in for this section. If anyone has concerns, please do not be afraid to send me a PM. :cake:

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ChillaKilla
32 minutes ago, Serran said:

Just dropping by to say I will be covering Gender until a new moderator comes in for this section. If anyone has concerns, please do not be afraid to send me a PM. :cake:

New mod? New mod? Election?! :ph34r::D

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4 minutes ago, ChillaKilla said:

New mod? New mod? Election?! :ph34r::D

Election or shuffle, when it's decided, I'll let you know by posting here (so everyone can participate in an election if there is one) :)

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