Opinions on pic related? I'm using it to teach myself calc before starting my degree. Good idea or no?
Good idea, but supplement it with a book. Unless you're doing pure math, probably Stewart.
>>8136035
You must have triple bonds because you are alkynes of retarded.
>>8136039
top kek. Why am I retarded for this?
Just finished reading The Walking Whales: From Land to Water in Eight Million Years. It's a reasonably easy read and a comprehensive guide to what we know about the evolution of the whale. Do you guys know of any other books that provide a readable outline of the evolution of a clade?
Does it talk about that hip bone which has no current use? I've been interested in learning more about that.
>>8136017
Also interested.
While this isn't the same thing and it is fiction, but the book "Evolution" by Stephen Baxter follows humanities' evolution from tiny mouse-like creature to homo sapiens, to some other thing later on. It is actually pretty depressing.
>>8136021
Not enough to read it just for that. Really glosses over modern stuff and goes into each landmark fossil we have.
When did you fall out of love with mathematics?
>>8135700
When I met mathematicians.
>>8135700
When public education beat it out of me. I've since fallen back in love with it.
>>8135700
When I was introduced to the concept of imaginary numbers.
How fucked would we on Earth be if the moon just disappeared one day?
Well, the oceans would be monumentally fucked
All of the coastal areas would flood, and the earth could potentially speed up its rotation, depending on how the moon disappeared
not as bad as if the sun fell out of orbit
This man thinks that the insights of theoretical computer science are as deep and as important in the endeavour of understanding the universe as the ones of physics. According to him theoretical computer science is like physics with a bottom-up approach.
Is he right?
of course he is right
>>8135521
No.
>>8135521
No one can tell for sure.
In some aspects he's not wrong.
Does anyone know how to replicate a ln(x) function using simple math?
Doesn't need to give a similar result mathematically, but the graph should look similar.
Basically making it peter out.
>not knowing about Maclaurin expansions
underage detected
>>8135475
>replicate a ln(x) function using simple math
>simple math
What does this even mean? Logs are literally basic arithmetic already.
Do a fucking taylor series, you little bitch.
Or just do some type of root if you're just looking for diminishing returns
>tfw watching Feynman's Fun To Imagine and realizing that memorizing whole encyclopedias won't come near to his inherent intelligence
Why should one even try after seeing such an astonishing genius in action /sci/?
>>8135434
you shouldn't.
leave it to people who can actually draw connexions, ie create more knowledge from what they already know.
since when was it about intelligence?
What does memorizing encyclopedias have to do with intelligence?
Any computer can do it easily, but check Microsoft's captionbot and see how dumb computers are.
Is the big chill taken very seriously in cosmological circles?
Because there's a huge problem with it. For the universe to keep expanding it needs more energy so infinite energy has to keep coming from somewhere so it can't ever run out of energy.
To put it simply, an object in motion stays in motion unless acted upon by an outside force. Ie. You can move something an infinite distance with a finite amount of energy. That being said, spacetime isn't actually expanding, so no energy is required. In fact, the lack of energy density is what is acclerating the expansion
>>8135563
>spacetime isn't actually expanding
go on
>the lack of energy density is what is acclerating the expansion
citation?
>>8135361
>Is the big chill taken very seriously in cosmological circles?
it's the most popular theory, so what you think?
Post funstuff with a scientific twist
ITT:things that 13yo nerds laugh off to
>>8135250
contribute or gtfo then?
will solar sails dominate future space travel?
>>8134695
I don't think so, the sails have to be massive to achieve a worthwhile amount of thrust, and that amount decreases as the solar sail vessel is pushed further away from Sol. You could use lasers to help push it along, but eventually you'll still run into the same problem. For example, if you wanted to take 40 tons to mars, you'd need a solar sail 2000 square meters across, and the trip would take almost two years. VASIMR thrusters could push you up to a faster speed and don't get weaker the further away they are from Sol.
Could work in conjunction with electrical thrusters for small light probes though.
>>8134717
>Sol
It's fine to do that here but please don't be that guy.
no
solar sails are useless
Fusion is obviously the future, but until then fission would do just fine if anyone besides shitty Old Space government assets were spending money on it. Or if it ever got a "go" for actually being done.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-07/china-pushes-plan-for-oceanic-space-station-in-south-china-sea
Reportedly the prototype/initial base will support 12 men. Then it will either be expanded or replaced so that it can support 33 men. It wil lbe nuclear powered and, contrary to earlier reports it will be a fixed seafloor habitat rather than a mobile submarine.
The official story is that the base is meant to facilitate deep sea mining. Aren't there cheaper ways to do this, like operating tethered robots from a boat? Could there be some other use for a structure of this type that they're not being open about?
>>8134610
A space cannon perhaps?
>>8134610
>Aren't there cheaper ways to do this
I've no idea. I'd imagine there would be, but this might be more about some show of economic and technological might. A bit like the US did with the space race.
Eh, yes, ROVs might be simpler, but you could say that about space, too. This is a potential propaganda coup for them, rather than playing "space oneupsmanship" and trying to beat us to Mars, perhaps they hope to be the first to get people waaaay down there, instead.
Is the mind in the brain or is the brain in the mind?
>inb4 picking both or neither, you have to pick a side
The brain is in the mind which is inside the head
>>8134476
What? No, the brain is the physical organ composed of neurons, and the mind is the result of the connections between neurons. That's like saying that a computer exists in the OS... The OS is that software that runs in the hardware of the computer.
Reality and perception is based in the brain and the brain is located in reality. Hmm
Hi, two questions.
1. I have a big test that I'm somewhat nervous for, what music is best to listen to before a test, and what music should I definitely not listen to? Classical? "Pump-up" music? Piano? Ambient? Chaotic avant-garde music?
2. What can I eat that will keep me awake, focused, and energized for a long test?
>>8134189
1. Look up piano playlists on Spotify
2. Bananas
>>8134191
What about piano music that I already really enjoy, or should it be something that won't get stuck in my head?
>>8134189
I'm pretty sure results vary wildly for different people but this this what I do;
1. nothing at all. I have commute for 1.5 hours on public transport to get to my uni, and I usually read. before big tests I just sit and do nothing but clear my mind and then organize ideas and concepts for the test.
2. fresh fruit half an hour before.
Every time I point out a problem with Musk's Mars plans I just get "reuseable rockets bro!" thrown at me. There is no point in arguing with these imbeciles, they think reuseable rockets will solve every problem in space travel ever. Musk hasn't even reused a rocket yet FFS.
The whole thing has pretty much become pied piper-tier now. Legions of neckbeards unhappy with their mundane lives believing that this one man will get them an exciting life on another planet. It's all faith, BFR, MCT are all dreams. No maths to back any of it up, cancellation upon cancellation of even the Falcon Heavy. If I ask how is it going to make it 225,000,000 km? I get the reply "it will be really big!" and if I ask how is it going to get there for less than $100 billion? I get the reply "It will be resueable!". That's it, that's the entirety of SpaceX's plan to get to Mars. May as well wait for Jesus to take you there.
what gives you the credit to point out the problems with Musk's Mars plans?
Falcon heavy was not canceled or delayed
They chose not to work on it because there was no market demand for it
They haven't reused rockets yet because they are limited on launch rates and want to study the landed stages/make sure theres no damage.
Possibly they didn't have extra stage 2's at the time either.
>>8134114
>It was not launched on the date that it was supposed to launch on
>It was not delayed
D E L U S I O N A L
In/On my eyes, I have 3 types of "things" floating around.
The 1st type seems to be on the surface of my eye. Those look like fibers, dots, and a few other shapes. They look like super out of focus stuff and will shift, drift, change type, and disappear when blinking. Sometimes there aren't any and sometimes there's tons.
The 2nd type seem to be standard, "floaters." They are just dark shapes that I rarely notice. They don't move very fast but almost always move "down" relative to gravity. I started noticing these shortly after being electrically shocked into unconsciousness.
The 3rd type seems to be something akin to moving "pixels". I can only see them well when looking at a bright solid color, like a white wall or azure sky. These are best seen in sunlight. They encompass my entire vision, as though my vision is completely made up of only these moving things. They move like whirligig beetles on the surface of water. Fast and erratic. They speed up, slow down, squiggle their path, do loops, etc. They don't show up as a solid object. More like movement traces. The best way to describe them is by looking at the later part of this image of whirligig beetles, when they move faster, and imagining them being invisible where you can only see their trails through the water. I've been seeing these since I was a small child. Another very good example is microbe movement like in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKMmmoymW8g
My question is, what the hell is the 3rd type?
>>8133785
Yeah I have something similar, like a pink static constantly fills my vision and is worst at night.
I've learned to ignore it. Thats about all you can do.
>>8133785
I forgot one more thing with the 3rd type. When I sneeze of cough really hard, the "stars" I sometimes see a second after that trace out the same squiggly patterns. It is as though, some of those things get bright for just a very brief moment.
>>8133793
Pink. That is neat. Mine are more like chromatic aberration you see on a super close up macro image, but there's no source, just a squiggly point of chromatic aberration. So they tend to have many colors.
