Science Talk

[moog]

yeah we started to cover all that in the later calculus classes i took but it got really lame the way they explained it. alot of abstract theories come about in analyctical geometry but i didnt take that shit

 

[Ellie]

A level maths was good we just had a really bad layout so we all failed pretty much (I got a C because I'm awesome).

Seriously, the headteacher decided it would cut costs to merge the Year 12 and Year 13 maths class together, so year 1 and 2 of A-levels got taught at the same time. Never thought we'd have entirely different things to do so they ended up moving us to a 3-5pm session (to put this into context, the WHOLE SCHOOL closes at 3pm) with a teacher who had RETIRED but they drafted him in because they could pay him less. We didn't even cover one of the six modules until THE WEEK BEFORE THE EXAM (I got a U in that one - Unclassified, <40%, basically a fail).

 

[LiquidMetal91]

aww...

 

[dadevvtsvre]

So I came across something crazy today. Graham's Number.

This number is so INCONCEIVABLY HUGE that if you were to visualize each digit as one planck volume (10^-105 meters cubed) our ENTIRE UNIVERSE would still be way too small to contain it. whaaaaaaaat how why does this even exist nooooo :psy:

Comparing Graham's Number to a googol would be like comparing VY Canis Majoris to a grain of sand.

 

[Daxis]

it's funny how there's a freaking article about large numbers.
i find this slightly disturbing.
I'm not a mathematician, but it's interesting thinking about numbers so large they are almost infinite but not. like, what can graham's number even be used for?


on the other hand,

 

[Ellie]

Surely anyone can find a larger number than any defined number by simply adding one.

I now declare wyatt's number to be (graham's number + 1)

 

[Ellie]

http://www.worldscienceu.com/

 

[Ellie]

Netflix have put a series of Neil Degrasse Tyson's lectures on, from The Great Courses. They're not too bad, watching through them at the moment.

 

[Injury]

100% suggest watching "What the @#%? Do We Know?: Down the Rabbit Hole" or something like that. It will pop up when you search for it. It is awesomeness!

 

[coyotecraft]

I watched that in my first year of college for some sort of critical thinking class. From what I remember, it got all new-age pseudoscience-y at the end.

Didn't it have something about ice crystals taking unique shapes based on the emotion/word that was on the bottle? Most of the class were photography majors. I didn't realize it until years later, but that video was probably meant for them to debunk.

 

[Injury]

Yea, it did have that ice thing.

Japanese scientists took 10ml of water in a syringe, put it on a slide and wrote a kanji on a label, while thinking/feeling their kanji's meaning...

Positive emotions turned out pretty, negatives turned out nasty looking.