Domain: mind.net
Stories and comments across the archive that link to mind.net.
Comments · 10
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Re:Hmm
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Re:Nothing fancy.Since you went through college, I assume you can work through text books. OTOH, a college textbook might be overkill since they are often written for completeness rather than practical application.
One alternative is to browse your bookstore for any math book. Just buy it and work the problems. I buy the Dover books. These books are classic texts that have been republished using quality binding at a very reasonable price. They are cheap enough that even going through a couple chapters makes it worth the money. A particularly interesting book is Famous Problems in Geometry.
For more recent texts, many people swear by the math books by Gelfand. These are algebra and trigonometry. Concise text, good problems, and complete.
if you ever think of moving beyond Calculus, look at Div, Grad, Curl, and all that. It is a really cool book. Thinking of more application of math, a physics book might be in order. You would get math practice in the context of real problems.
As far as the technology is concerned, there is no reason no reason not to utilize the web. The problem is the chaff, which is more common that they wheat. Mathworld has always worked for me. I don't necessarily trust other sites for more than problems sets or general solutions that can be verified elsewhere(it is so easy to make a mistake even in the most simple math, and if accuracy is not the primary goal, then the mistakes become rampant). There are also good tools for visualizing certain relations. For instance, Introduction to lines, Regular polygons, and trigonometry.
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Re:The meaning of "theory"
Inertia -- the idea that an object in motion tends to stay in motion unless disturbed -- predates Newton and is generally credited to Galileo,. Newton's better credited with connecting the moon's orbit with a the gravity that pulls an apple to the ground and with putting these concepts into a mathematical framework that allows quantitative calculations. Oh and inventing calculus (but don't let Leibniz hear you say that).
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Re:Has Slashdot become crackpot central?
It didn't start from relativity, it started from Newton.
Sorry it's been so long I've forgotten precisely how it went. (It was 40 years ago, and I haven't used it since.)
And I REALLY can't remember HOW I did it. -
InfoStructure
http://www.mind.net/ could provide that, of course. Ask for Chris Leiter!
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Frontpage w/ InfoStructure
You could use InfoStructure (http://www.mind.net/ and use FrontPage!
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Re:No
Here's one I found in my Physics textbook:
P=MV.
That is to say, that momentum (p) is equal to the mass of the object multiplied by its velocity. During a collision, this momentum is transferred to the frame of the car. Modern cars are designed to crumple in the event of a high speed crash...the crumpling absorbs the energy of impact and prevents it from being transferred to the passenger compartment. However, they can only absorb so much energy before damage to the passenger compartment becomes inevitible. Since the mass of the vehicle is constant, the variable which determines the energy transferred to the passenger compartment supports is V. Speed.
As for the "every mile an hour over the limit" bit -- cars are designed to withstand a crash of 65-75 MPH. Each mile an hour above the design parameters decreases the possibility that overengineering is going to prevent the passenger compartment from buckling. And this is additive. If 76 mph makes it 5% more likely you'll soon be encased in a luxury tincan, then 77 mph makes in 10%.
This is of course neglecting tons of other deadly crash physics based on momentum, such as rollovers, impact of airbags and seatbelts, the brain impacting the front of the skull (!) or your cars ability to brake and thus avoid a crash in the first place. Needless to say, if you're speeding and thinking "it's only 5 mph," you're luring yourself into a false sense of security. Same as those who buy a big, heavy SUV thinking it'll be safer in a crash. A heavy frame is a great thing if you're absorbing a collision -- until you've got your own momentum to worry about. More weight means greater stress on the frame means the benefit is reduced, sometimes greatly so. If you look at the consumer reports numbers on deadly crashes, you'll see that the safest vehicle to drive is actually a minivan -- which, for its volume, is relatively lightweight. -
Re:Supersizing doesn't matter...Um, smartypants, the soda and the ice aren't at the same temperature to start with. Have you ever had soda at "zero degrees celsius"? I sure haven't.
You haven't? You mean you've never had pop with ice in it? Way to demonstrate your ignorance there.
Shortly after you put the ice in the pop the pop _does_ hit zero degrees celsius, or very close to it. The reason it doesn't feel quite as cold as the ice is because of the phase transition. It actually takes quite a bit of energy to convert ice at zero degrees celsius to water at zero degrees celsius. This amount of energy is actually more than the amount needed to heat water from zero degrees to one degree. This is exactly the reason why ice is good at keeping stuff cold.
The pop in the cup bumps into the ice, and "donates" any extra energy it has towards melting the ice, which keeps the liquid pop from rising above zero degrees.
Here's a web page that covers some of the basics of phase changes and energy.
This is a real-world situation, try not to let your lack of knowledge get in the way of concepts that have been well known for a few hundred years.
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Re:Just use micro-aligned crystals...
The number 19 also had some other signifigance to the Japanese but the reason escapes me at the moment.
The number 19 has attracted a large following, for a number. Maybe not as much as 7 or 13 or 666 but still respectable.
Nineteen squared equals 361, one degree more than a full circle
Spherical Geometry & 19.5 Degrees throughout the solar system
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Re:Just use micro-aligned crystals...
The number 19 also had some other signifigance to the Japanese but the reason escapes me at the moment.
The number 19 has attracted a large following, for a number. Maybe not as much as 7 or 13 or 666 but still respectable.
Nineteen squared equals 361, one degree more than a full circle
Spherical Geometry & 19.5 Degrees throughout the solar system