I imagine that's applied mathematics then. From a theoretical point of view, it may be very interesting. For example, the question of how randomly the digits are distributed, and if there might be a pattern to be found in them. (Not a simple repeating pattern, obviously).
But probably the most important benefit to science is the progress in numerical algorithms used to calculate pi that can also be used to calculate other, more useful things. Beating a world record is a great way to motivate programmers to come up with new, innovative ways to squeeze more power out of computers.
That would actually be a good idea. Transform it to base 26 (or a few extra for spaces and punctiaton) and look for words. There will be lots of them, obviously. Maybe here and there you'll find a small sentence. Some phrases like "here he is" would be likely to turn up. 10 trillion is about the ninth power of 26, and there are lots of possible small phrases of that size. For whole chapters, you'll need slighty more digits to have any chance of finding them, though. "Slightly" actually meaning humongously exponentially more. To increase the expected phrase length by one character, you would need 26 times as many digits. But they are bound to be in there somewhere! (No guarantee, we don't know how truly random pi is, even transcendental numbers can have some sort of system in their digits, for example a copy of pi with all the shakespearean parts removed would still be transcendental)
maybe (...) it is actually photons that have a very tiny rest mass?
I was wondering the same thing. How has "c" ever been measured? By using rays of light, right? What if it turns out they have never really measured c, only the speed of light which is slightly slower than c? And maybe the neutrinos are not faster than c, just faster than light because they have an even lower mass than the already tiny mass of photons? Maybe they have just shown that "speed of light" < "speed of neutrinos" <= "c".
I think you are the one who doesn't understand the science here. Einstein's theory of relativity includes relativity of simultaneity: two observers will not always agree whether or not two events happened simultaneously, if one happened before the other, or vice versa. This is not a problem as long as the events could not possibly communicate with each other in a way that violates causality. As long as information can only travel at the speed of light or slower, no observer will ever see something happen before its cause. But if neutrino's can travel faster than light, this means that in certain reference frames (that of a very fast moving space ship passing by the earth, for example), the neutrino will actually arrive before it left the detector. Now do the same experiment in the space ship, and those neutrino's will be traveling back in time (arriving before they left) in our own reference frame here on earth. With a suitable combination of space ships, you could predict tomorrow's stock prices and pay for the space ships.
All of this assumes that Einstein's theory is correct, and light travels at "the speed of light" ("c"), etc... Maybe some of those assumptions are slightly wrong, and the theory may have to be adjusted little bit, but it's definitely more serious than a simple "who says we can't go faster, watch this". It's a very fundamental problem. Many results of relativity have been proven by experiment, and the "back in time (in certain reference frames) if going faster than c" bit is a logical consequence.
Where did you get that information? Apart from a teasing remark at a gamers conference (some feature would have to wait for Portal 3), Valve never actually gave any kind of time frame or other information about Portal 3, did they? Did I miss it?
I think that's a long enough time frame, by then we'll all have wireless internet everywhere at speeds a hundred times as fast as your best wired connection now.
Have you ever tried riding a big roller coaster? I guess not.
Swinging your arm around quickly may indeed be slightly painful. But that is a much higher G-force, well above that which would make you lose consciousness. If your arm is 1 meter long, and you are spinning it around at two revolutions per second (I'm sure you can do more than that), the tips will already be experiencing 15g.
The only ill effects I've had from high G-forces is tiredness and a slight headache afterwards, never during the event. I don't think that's an issue in this case, except maybe St.-Peter may have to stock up on asprin tablets.
I've had 6g in an airplane, and all it did was blur my vision, remove colors, and give me a feeling of almost passing out. No small pains at all, I don't know where you got that idea.
Some roller coasters exceed 5g, and few people riding those complain about nausea or small pains. (Of course, people who ride them have usually already done smaller ones, liked them, and are therefore less likely to experience nausea). The only bad effect is the fear of missing out on a part of the wonderful ride by passing out.
I must say, high G turns are not my favorite part of any roller coaster. I much prefer the low or negative G parts and the inversions. High G's are a necessary evil for some manouevres, as far as I am concerned. But they are certainly never painful.
Yes, even though he does say that, it's weird that he first seems to be extolling the many virtues of laser light, monochromaticity being one of them, before saying that they're converting it to white light. I dunno, maybe it's just me, but it made me do a double-take the first time I read the article.
Yes, I thought it was pretty funny how they first said that laser light is monochromatic, and then a bit further they're saying how nicely white the light from these new headlights is. Something tells me that the author of the article does not know what "monochromatic" means. True, if I read it again, it does talk about the conversion, but the way the article is written does give me the suspicion that the author does not know what "monochromatic" means. Otherwise he might have added a few words here and there to explain the difference.
Yes, that would be very difficult. Especially now with the locked cockpit doors that keep everyone out, including fellow crew members. If one of the two pilots has to go to the toilet, the other has to let him in again. If he decides not to, the plane is entirely his. And even if that pesky fellow crew member does not have to go, you can always use any of a number of lethal objects that are available in the cockpit. Fire extinguishers, crash axe, etc... Good thing they at least take their nail clippers away.
Yes, I was wondering that too. Our cells carry loads of genetic material picked up pretty much everywhere. They just go "hey look, some code, I wonder what will happen if I execute it". We just call it a virus if it makes us sick (or rather, sick enough to notice). So what if this medicine attacks something that has already infected all of the cells in our body without us noticing?
Slashdot Mirror
I imagine that's applied mathematics then. From a theoretical point of view, it may be very interesting. For example, the question of how randomly the digits are distributed, and if there might be a pattern to be found in them. (Not a simple repeating pattern, obviously).
But probably the most important benefit to science is the progress in numerical algorithms used to calculate pi that can also be used to calculate other, more useful things. Beating a world record is a great way to motivate programmers to come up with new, innovative ways to squeeze more power out of computers.
That would actually be a good idea. Transform it to base 26 (or a few extra for spaces and punctiaton) and look for words. There will be lots of them, obviously. Maybe here and there you'll find a small sentence. Some phrases like "here he is" would be likely to turn up. 10 trillion is about the ninth power of 26, and there are lots of possible small phrases of that size. For whole chapters, you'll need slighty more digits to have any chance of finding them, though. "Slightly" actually meaning humongously exponentially more. To increase the expected phrase length by one character, you would need 26 times as many digits. But they are bound to be in there somewhere! (No guarantee, we don't know how truly random pi is, even transcendental numbers can have some sort of system in their digits, for example a copy of pi with all the shakespearean parts removed would still be transcendental)
Actually, if the results are correct, we should be getting the reply by yesterday at the latest.
OK, there goes my Nobel prize... Thanks for clearing that up, I didn't think of that.
You're going way too fast for us there.
maybe (...) it is actually photons that have a very tiny rest mass?
I was wondering the same thing. How has "c" ever been measured? By using rays of light, right? What if it turns out they have never really measured c, only the speed of light which is slightly slower than c? And maybe the neutrinos are not faster than c, just faster than light because they have an even lower mass than the already tiny mass of photons? Maybe they have just shown that "speed of light" < "speed of neutrinos" <= "c".
I think you are the one who doesn't understand the science here. Einstein's theory of relativity includes relativity of simultaneity: two observers will not always agree whether or not two events happened simultaneously, if one happened before the other, or vice versa. This is not a problem as long as the events could not possibly communicate with each other in a way that violates causality. As long as information can only travel at the speed of light or slower, no observer will ever see something happen before its cause. But if neutrino's can travel faster than light, this means that in certain reference frames (that of a very fast moving space ship passing by the earth, for example), the neutrino will actually arrive before it left the detector. Now do the same experiment in the space ship, and those neutrino's will be traveling back in time (arriving before they left) in our own reference frame here on earth. With a suitable combination of space ships, you could predict tomorrow's stock prices and pay for the space ships.
All of this assumes that Einstein's theory is correct, and light travels at "the speed of light" ("c"), etc... Maybe some of those assumptions are slightly wrong, and the theory may have to be adjusted little bit, but it's definitely more serious than a simple "who says we can't go faster, watch this". It's a very fundamental problem. Many results of relativity have been proven by experiment, and the "back in time (in certain reference frames) if going faster than c" bit is a logical consequence.
Yes, we could well have actual portal guns, too :-)
Where did you get that information? Apart from a teasing remark at a gamers conference (some feature would have to wait for Portal 3), Valve never actually gave any kind of time frame or other information about Portal 3, did they? Did I miss it?
I think that's a long enough time frame, by then we'll all have wireless internet everywhere at speeds a hundred times as fast as your best wired connection now.
Have you ever tried riding a big roller coaster? I guess not.
Swinging your arm around quickly may indeed be slightly painful. But that is a much higher G-force, well above that which would make you lose consciousness. If your arm is 1 meter long, and you are spinning it around at two revolutions per second (I'm sure you can do more than that), the tips will already be experiencing 15g.
The only ill effects I've had from high G-forces is tiredness and a slight headache afterwards, never during the event. I don't think that's an issue in this case, except maybe St.-Peter may have to stock up on asprin tablets.
I've had 6g in an airplane, and all it did was blur my vision, remove colors, and give me a feeling of almost passing out. No small pains at all, I don't know where you got that idea.
Some roller coasters exceed 5g, and few people riding those complain about nausea or small pains. (Of course, people who ride them have usually already done smaller ones, liked them, and are therefore less likely to experience nausea). The only bad effect is the fear of missing out on a part of the wonderful ride by passing out.
I must say, high G turns are not my favorite part of any roller coaster. I much prefer the low or negative G parts and the inversions. High G's are a necessary evil for some manouevres, as far as I am concerned. But they are certainly never painful.
Yes, even though he does say that, it's weird that he first seems to be extolling the many virtues of laser light, monochromaticity being one of them, before saying that they're converting it to white light. I dunno, maybe it's just me, but it made me do a double-take the first time I read the article.
Yes, I thought it was pretty funny how they first said that laser light is monochromatic, and then a bit further they're saying how nicely white the light from these new headlights is. Something tells me that the author of the article does not know what "monochromatic" means. True, if I read it again, it does talk about the conversion, but the way the article is written does give me the suspicion that the author does not know what "monochromatic" means. Otherwise he might have added a few words here and there to explain the difference.
I hope the jury and everyone else in the courtroom will get to see the pictures. That will teach her :-)
Four links taken down in 3...2...1...
but they'll have a lot less fun boasting about it!
Yes, that would be very difficult. Especially now with the locked cockpit doors that keep everyone out, including fellow crew members. If one of the two pilots has to go to the toilet, the other has to let him in again. If he decides not to, the plane is entirely his. And even if that pesky fellow crew member does not have to go, you can always use any of a number of lethal objects that are available in the cockpit. Fire extinguishers, crash axe, etc... Good thing they at least take their nail clippers away.
And how fast you're going :-(
The Netherlands are not in the USA, though. Roughly half the cars in Europe are diesels.
I'm a pilot for Air France, living in Belgium :-)
No, but I'd be interested to learn of a namesake who works there?
Yes, I was wondering that too. Our cells carry loads of genetic material picked up pretty much everywhere. They just go "hey look, some code, I wonder what will happen if I execute it". We just call it a virus if it makes us sick (or rather, sick enough to notice). So what if this medicine attacks something that has already infected all of the cells in our body without us noticing?
You're probably much too late. I suggest contacting Intellectual Ventures for a license.
As if the RIAA would care about such details. They'll sue anyway. By the way, I wish I had mod points to mod GP funny.