M-Theory was devised to overcome the problem that "Quantum Mechanics" & "The General Theory of Relativity" are inconsistent with each other.
The key concept is that the smallest "thing" is a string, the problems arise as it needs 6 or more space dimensions that are decidedly non-Euclidean. One of the interesting consequences of M-Theory is that it "produces" the graviton without too much effort, and helps explain why there are only 3 families of nuclear particles.
The mathematics involved is somewhat fiendish, to put it mildly - one needs to be more than "merely" competent!
I find M-Theory fascinating, but it is totally beyond my mathematical abilities, to understand except at the most superficial level.
Actually Kg/cm^2 is not a valid unit of pressure - as pressure is force per unit area, not mass per unit area.
A Kg is, strictly speaking, a unit of mass.
Whereas the unit of force in SI is the Newton, which is the force required to accelerate 1 Kg at 1 m/s^2 (in metre per second squared).
Funnily enough, I learnt SI units from an American Physics text book in New Zealand more than 40 years ago, isn't it about time the rest of the USA caught up???
Actually the company Acorn made the BBC Microcomputer - the BBC (British Broadcasting Company) commissioned Acorn to produce a microcomputer.
Re:Ignorance vs. the Unknown
on
LHC Success!
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· Score: 1
I think I read that if they have to quench the beam in an emergency, it is like coping with a 250Kg bomb going off!
The only differences are that you have prepared a special place for it to happen in advance, and that it is a beam of energetic protons rather a high explosive chemical reaction...
In actual fact, people's brains often process multiple trains of thought concurrently.
However, when the brain 'decides' we need to be concious of these concurrent thoughts, we experience them sequentially.
This is the reason that time seems to slow down when we have to consciously process a lot of things in a short span of time. What is happening is that for example: 5 thought processes that might each take about 10 seconds are perceived in about 10 seconds elapsed - so we experience 50 seconds in 10 - hence time appears to slow down. Another reason time appears to slow down in in a fight, is that the brain speeds up.
Note that the actual ratio of consciously perceived time to actual time elapsed is actually far more complicated...
The amount of processing for each concurrent thought, has a non-linear relationship to the perceived time that one is concious of them. In a lot of cases, you are not concious of them at all - for example driving along a motorway in traffic, unless something changes, one is normally only generally aware of the cars around you.
I am a software developer. When I am make changes to a program I know well using techniques I have mastered - I am certainly not concious of all the thought processes behind the code I'm typing in. However, if I'm in an unfamiliar program in a language I am learning then I am very concious of what I am doing, and I take a lot longer to complete the task than someone more experienced in that area.
At least it should be obvious why HotMail is not an option - it is controlled by Microsoft. Microsoft having provided many examples of being untrustworthy,
Google's GMail!, was an after thought, but basically Having my email & searching with the same company gives them way too much power in the world (not that my email is that significant...) - also their advertising is a bit too intrusive in email.
-Nivag
Back then, at work I programmed mainframes in COBOL & Assembly Language; while at home I had fun programming in Acorn Basic on a BBC model 'B'.
Later I had a Master, and then an Archimedes.
At one time I had at least one BBC model 'B', two Master's, and an Archimedes. To be fair, I used the Archimedes, and my 4 children used the other machines. The Archimedes ran Risc-OS (a lovely user & developer friendly O/S, in ROM) and it had an 8MHz 32 bit Risc chip that outperformed a 24 MHz 386 running MS/DOS.
I taught myself 'C' on the Archimedes, and also wrote a few simple ARM2 assembler programmes. ARM assembly was the most beautiful assembly language I have seen, it beat 6502, 486, and ICL4/72 mainframe machine code languages.
I now use Java on Linux (dual core AMD64 with 4 Gig of RAM) - but I still have the fondest memories of my first BBC model 'B' micro, it had 32K Bytes, and a 2MHz 6502 8 bit processor.
Actually an imperial pound weight is equivalent of 2.2046Kg under a standard acceleration of 1 g (note that 'g' is defined as 9.80665 m/s^2 [m: metre, s: second], however the Earth's gravity varies depending on where you are on the Earth (but always much less than 5%).
While I have programmed in C and FORTRAN, I now use Java, so I have a feel for each of the languages.
I suggest you use Java, less time tracing memory and pointer problems, plus the really intensive mathematical calculation bits get heavily optimized into native machine code at run time (based on the run time profile: e.g. this 'if' statement always uses the 'then' path). If you use use the '-server' hotspot option, it will even in-line methods from different classes!
There is also a problem of knowing precisely what other elements are in the water besides Hydrogen & Oxygen, not to mention what are the isotopic ratios (e.g. what proportion of the Hydrogen nuclei have an extra proton).
Also Water contains the other elements in various compounds of different sizes and shapes, plus they have different effects on the surrounding water molecules depending on the nature of the electron orbitals - all this will affect the density of the water.
Finally temperature affects the density of water in non-linear ways. Water is actually densest at about 4.2 Celsius - water has structure that alters with temperature.
The precise composition of water that was initially used to define the Kg is not known with sufficient precision to be useful.
About 4 years ago in Dublin (Ireland), I was on a bus chartered for "Daffodil Day". So it was full of "Normal People" not "Techies". I was talking to the middle aged woman next to me about trying Linux. When the bus stopped 2 other people suggested different Linux distributions to try. So I think you'd be surprised just how many non technical people know about Linux.
I'm working at the New Zealand Correspondence School, you'd be surprised just how many of the non-technical teachers either use Linux or at least have heard of it.
On the other hand the manager of the IT department told his team hat "Open Source" software was only supported over the Internet and not very well... Mind you he does appear obessed with Microsoft. In this area he is ignorant, but he has heard of Linux - he thinks that we can save money be standardising on Microsoft. About 3 months ago he seemed upset that his team weren't enthusiastic about going to Microsoft Vista - now he says our new machines will still have Microsoft XP...
So yes there is ignorance about Linux & Open Source, but it is decreasing all the time.
The people who do not have children will be looked after in their old age by other people's children, and these childless people will be consuming goods produced by other people's children.
What is the point of amassing fabulous wealth to enjoy in your old age, if there is no one there that you can buy goods & services from? It may seem strange but every working adult is someone's child, that had to be raised and educated.
It is in the best self interests of childless people to support those who do raise children.
It is the collective responsibility of all today's adults to help raise today's children, for today's children constitute tomorrows society.
Childless people who begrudge support for parents, are essentially short sighted free loaders.
In the second World War, the Bismark was the most powerful German battleship ever to face the Royal Navy. It tried to get into the Atlantic, by going North of Scotland. The British Admiralty sent the famous command 'Seek and Destroy Bismark' (or something very similar).
Its anti-aircraft guns were radar controlled, but they were designed to shoot down 'modern' aircraft that flew at least 100Km per hour. However, the Royal Navy sent in Stringbags(nickname for biplanes that carried torpedoes) that travelled a lot slower when they flew against a howling gale! 6 Stringbags attacked. One torpedo (at least) hit the Bismark, causing an oil leak, and damaged a rudder - this made it easier to track.
Later British surface ships attacked, and eventually the Bismark's captain scuttled the ship to avoid capture.
Slashdot Mirror
M-Theory was devised to overcome the problem that "Quantum Mechanics" & "The General Theory of Relativity" are inconsistent with each other.
The key concept is that the smallest "thing" is a string, the problems arise as it needs 6 or more space dimensions that are decidedly non-Euclidean. One of the interesting consequences of M-Theory is that it "produces" the graviton without too much effort, and helps explain why there are only 3 families of nuclear particles.
The mathematics involved is somewhat fiendish, to put it mildly - one needs to be more than "merely" competent!
I find M-Theory fascinating, but it is totally beyond my mathematical abilities, to understand except at the most superficial level.
Just boot the hardware with a Linux live CD, and if the graphical interface comes up, then it can run X.
Actually Kg/cm^2 is not a valid unit of pressure - as pressure is force per unit area, not mass per unit area.
A Kg is, strictly speaking, a unit of mass.
Whereas the unit of force in SI is the Newton, which is the force required to accelerate 1 Kg at 1 m /s^2 (in metre per second squared).
Funnily enough, I learnt SI units from an American Physics text book in New Zealand more than 40 years ago, isn't it about time the rest of the USA caught up???
Actually the company Acorn made the BBC Microcomputer - the BBC (British Broadcasting Company) commissioned Acorn to produce a microcomputer.
I think I read that if they have to quench the beam in an emergency, it is like coping with a 250Kg bomb going off!
The only differences are that you have prepared a special place for it to happen in advance, and that it is a beam of energetic protons rather a high explosive chemical reaction...
Which is a sequence of zero dimensional points...
In actual fact, people's brains often process multiple trains of thought concurrently.
However, when the brain 'decides' we need to be concious of these concurrent thoughts, we experience them sequentially.
This is the reason that time seems to slow down when we have to consciously process a lot of things in a short span of time. What is happening is that for example: 5 thought processes that might each take about 10 seconds are perceived in about 10 seconds elapsed - so we experience 50 seconds in 10 - hence time appears to slow down. Another reason time appears to slow down in in a fight, is that the brain speeds up.
Note that the actual ratio of consciously perceived time to actual time elapsed is actually far more complicated...
The amount of processing for each concurrent thought, has a non-linear relationship to the perceived time that one is concious of them. In a lot of cases, you are not concious of them at all - for example driving along a motorway in traffic, unless something changes, one is normally only generally aware of the cars around you.
I am a software developer. When I am make changes to a program I know well using techniques I have mastered - I am certainly not concious of all the thought processes behind the code I'm typing in. However, if I'm in an unfamiliar program in a language I am learning then I am very concious of what I am doing, and I take a lot longer to complete the task than someone more experienced in that area.
-Nivag
At least it should be obvious why HotMail is not an option - it is controlled by Microsoft. Microsoft having provided many examples of being untrustworthy, Google's GMail!, was an after thought, but basically Having my email & searching with the same company gives them way too much power in the world (not that my email is that significant...) - also their advertising is a bit too intrusive in email. -Nivag
If Microsoft take over Yahoo, I want to use another company for email.
For obvious reasons, HotMail is not an option, nor is Google's GMail!
So what are the viable alternatives for an email provider?
-Nivag
Back then, at work I programmed mainframes in COBOL & Assembly Language; while at home I had fun programming in Acorn Basic on a BBC model 'B'.
Later I had a Master, and then an Archimedes.
At one time I had at least one BBC model 'B', two Master's, and an Archimedes. To be fair, I used the Archimedes, and my 4 children used the other machines. The Archimedes ran Risc-OS (a lovely user & developer friendly O/S, in ROM) and it had an 8MHz 32 bit Risc chip that outperformed a 24 MHz 386 running MS/DOS.
I taught myself 'C' on the Archimedes, and also wrote a few simple ARM2 assembler programmes. ARM assembly was the most beautiful assembly language I have seen, it beat 6502, 486, and ICL4/72 mainframe machine code languages.
I now use Java on Linux (dual core AMD64 with 4 Gig of RAM) - but I still have the fondest memories of my first BBC model 'B' micro, it had 32K Bytes, and a 2MHz 6502 8 bit processor.
-Nivag
The word 'dice' is a plural, the singular form is 'dix', but most often the word 'dice' is is used for both the plural AND the singular forms.
So 'dices' is definitely not correct!
Actually an imperial pound weight is equivalent of 2.2046Kg under a standard acceleration of 1 g (note that 'g' is defined as 9.80665 m/s^2 [m: metre, s: second], however the Earth's gravity varies depending on where you are on the Earth (but always much less than 5%).
I always say 'Maths' as an abbreviation, or the longer words 'mathematics' and 'mathematical'.
You're right, I am an native English speaker and I was born in England.
Does it make any difference that 'mathematics' is one of my favourite subjects?
-Nivag
While I have programmed in C and FORTRAN, I now use Java, so I have a feel for each of the languages.
I suggest you use Java, less time tracing memory and pointer problems, plus the really intensive mathematical calculation bits get heavily optimized into native machine code at run time (based on the run time profile: e.g. this 'if' statement always uses the 'then' path). If you use use the '-server' hotspot option, it will even in-line methods from different classes!
-Nivag
Actual English Measurements are metric!
Pounds are part of the old Imperial system...
I was brought up using pounds, feet, etc. Metric is much much easier.
-Nivag
There is also a problem of knowing precisely what other elements are in the water besides Hydrogen & Oxygen, not to mention what are the isotopic ratios (e.g. what proportion of the Hydrogen nuclei have an extra proton).
Also Water contains the other elements in various compounds of different sizes and shapes, plus they have different effects on the surrounding water molecules depending on the nature of the electron orbitals - all this will affect the density of the water.
Finally temperature affects the density of water in non-linear ways. Water is actually densest at about 4.2 Celsius - water has structure that alters with temperature.
The precise composition of water that was initially used to define the Kg is not known with sufficient precision to be useful.
-Nivag
Actually I don't believe in 'Evolution', I just don't see the point in believing in it!
However, I do understand that it is the best explanation we have for the diversity of life forms.
A belief is essentially an implicit assumption that something is true.
-Nivag
Hmm...
About 4 years ago in Dublin (Ireland), I was on a bus chartered for "Daffodil Day". So it was full of "Normal People" not "Techies". I was talking to the middle aged woman next to me about trying Linux. When the bus stopped 2 other people suggested different Linux distributions to try. So I think you'd be surprised just how many non technical people know about Linux.
I'm working at the New Zealand Correspondence School, you'd be surprised just how many of the non-technical teachers either use Linux or at least have heard of it.
On the other hand the manager of the IT department told his team hat "Open Source" software was only supported over the Internet and not very well... Mind you he does appear obessed with Microsoft. In this area he is ignorant, but he has heard of Linux - he thinks that we can save money be standardising on Microsoft. About 3 months ago he seemed upset that his team weren't enthusiastic about going to Microsoft Vista - now he says our new machines will still have Microsoft XP...
So yes there is ignorance about Linux & Open Source, but it is decreasing all the time.
-Nivag
My browser gave me the impression that it had not posted the comment...
I am curious, how much did it cost to save your cat?
How much did it cost to save your cat's life?
Ah! A TROLL
The people who do not have children will be looked after in their old age by other people's children, and these childless people will be consuming goods produced by other people's children.
What is the point of amassing fabulous wealth to enjoy in your old age, if there is no one there that you can buy goods & services from? It may seem strange but every working adult is someone's child, that had to be raised and educated.
It is in the best self interests of childless people to support those who do raise children.
It is the collective responsibility of all today's adults to help raise today's children, for today's children constitute tomorrows society.
Childless people who begrudge support for parents, are essentially short sighted free loaders.
-Nivag
Yes!
I want to make sure that other people have some competence at driving, and I'm willing to be taught how to drive safely.
I do not want you are anybody else driving cars that are dangerous.
There are many reasons to justify governments telling you how to use your car... some of them are actually valid!
-Nivag
In the second World War, the Bismark was the most powerful German battleship ever to face the Royal Navy. It tried to get into the Atlantic, by going North of Scotland. The British Admiralty sent the famous command 'Seek and Destroy Bismark' (or something very similar).
Its anti-aircraft guns were radar controlled, but they were designed to shoot down 'modern' aircraft that flew at least 100Km per hour. However, the Royal Navy sent in Stringbags(nickname for biplanes that carried torpedoes) that travelled a lot slower when they flew against a howling gale! 6 Stringbags attacked. One torpedo (at least) hit the Bismark, causing an oil leak, and damaged a rudder - this made it easier to track.
Later British surface ships attacked, and eventually the Bismark's captain scuttled the ship to avoid capture.
-Nivag