Large Hardon Collider

[Kaylia]

I'm not sure under what model the universe is going to survive 10^78 billions years though. If expansion keep going at this rate, arent we going to be wiped around 10^11 years

[Ferion]

Why would expansion cause the universe to be wiped out?

[Kaylia]

If the universe keep expanding at an accelerating rate, you will eventually reach a point where the space between every single particles will xpand faster than light. At this points, it will become impossible for particles to have any form of interactions with each others.

[Lhyet]

That statistic was based on heat death which, am I right in thinking, is the most widely accepted 'end' of the universe?

[Woozie]

Why would expansion cause the universe to be wiped out?

Edit: This video seems to imply that the sun wont swallow up the Earth, but I always thought it would. Anyone else know what the deal is with this?

[Mizango]

Yes it is. But like you said the "end" is all speculative anyway, but most of the other theories are so intertwined with QM and strings it turns most people off, so to speak.

[Chun Liroy]

Yes, I absolutely love Brian Cox. I have that series downloaded. Unfortunately we have to catch that show online or on the Science channel. Best show, hands down.

Where can I find it? I'm procrastinating currently.

Edit: Cool video Woozie, I was also under the impression that the sun would expand to consume our orbit as well.

[Kaylia]

That statistic was based on heat death which, am I right in thinking, is the most widely accepted 'end' of the universe?

You're right, 100 billions years was for heat death. If the universe keep accelerating at the pace it currently is, big rip could be earlier though.

Anyway, we don't have to worry about that, Magical Girls are going to save us.

http://img600.imageshack.us/img600/2363/madokaa.jpg

[Mizango]

lol @ that panel Kaylia.

Where can I find it? I'm procrastinating currently.

Send you links in a few. Trying to watch online or via torrent?

[Chun Liroy]

Online since torrents don't work at uni

[Eliseos]

lol @ that panel Kaylia.

You guys are nerds.

[Mizango]

You love it!

[BerenTebogo]

So, I've been off having a wildly busy semester but I think it's time for a Sath update. First off, in case Brian is reading this, lol, fun story. So it turns out, by sheer fucking chance (seriously, think about the probability of this) that in my PHY213 class is someone from Eminence who we all know from BG. Muffins from Lakshmi is in my Physics class. How beast is that?

Anyways, lol, so now for the update / begging for assistance. Basically, PHY213 is an introduction to QM, SR, and Stat. Mech in a fairly rigorous fashion. The course is supposed to be taken alongside PHY234, Math-based physics, Diff EQs, and after Calc 3. PHY234 is apparently where everyone is learning all this complex number business. e to the (i)(theta) stuffs etc. I'm not in 234. Nor am I more than halfway through Calc 3. We just started learning double integrals last class and I've already had to derive gaussian integrals in PHY213.

The calc stuffs (gaussians, etc) I can pretty much keep a handle on. The complex numbers and shit...it's just shit I've never seen before. Like...ever. I've worked very briefly with the concept of i, but never with complex conjugates or whatever. I'm kinda feeling overwhelmed. I've managed to stumble mostly through a proof of an orthogonality integration of two functions, but really only because I take good notes. I really want to learn this stuff and I picked up a book called "Complex Variables and Applications" which is pretty beast overall but I'm stumbling pretty hard on the basic multiplication and division of complex functions already.

I'm starting to watch some khanacademy videos on the subject (the same source I use to teach myself differential equations, lolhorribleteachers) but I was wondering if there are any other sources I should be looking into that you guys recommend? I'm starting to get the (e^i@ + e ^-i@)/2 = cos@ and stuff, which is pretty cool. And Fourier stuffs are definitely cool, but the 18 credits is really getting to me. Had a 8 page proposal + oral presentation Tuesday at 8am and a 15-20 page analytical report coming in a month. My time is split between physics, math, and shit I really don't need to be doing.

You guys always seem to be able to convey concepts to me in a pretty beast way so anything you can do to help would be awesome. I feel like if I don't pick up on these complex numbers soon I'm going to get in over my head. Plus, this way, if I learn it all now I'll fucking ace PHY234 when I take it a year from now.

<3 you guys! GPA may drop a bit, I'm kinda pissed. Scrambling to fix the mistakes I made at the beginning of the semester (rl drama x1000000). Pulling a B in Diff EQ and a B+ish in ENL266. Everything else is an A...for now. So worried about dropping the GPA while I'm still in my first year.

Edit: Also in PHY112 which is Elec & Mag but that shit's fucking easy so whatever.

[Woozie]

First, that's pretty awesome that someone from FFXI and BG is in your class.

Anyways, complex numbers is really easy to pick up, so don't give up on account of that. It's one of those things you'll wake up one day and realize "hey, this all makes sense".

See if you can find a book titled "Mathematical Methods for the Physical Sciences" or something similar, or preferably "Advanced Engineering Mathematics". The authors I'd recommend are Peter O'Neal for AEM or Mary Boas for Mathematical Methods. You can probably pirate the Boas book. But you don't need those specific books. Any book with a similar title will do just fine.

Most of those books will have a section on complex variables and a section on fourier series/integrals. You don't need to know very much complex analysis yet in your physics career, but they'll start out introducing a lot of info about complex numbers in general, which you may find useful. Depending on how unfamiliar with them you are, you may want to find a college algebra/precalc book and do a bunch of problems from the book until it finally clicks. You may be able to skip the complex variables section all together since the fourier analysis section will introduce you to complex numbers and get you very used to using them.

Edit: And as I've mentioned before, a book in AEM or mathematical methods will teach you every single math you could possibly need as an undergrad plus more in a fairly self-contained, rigorous, and easy-to-understand manner (all that is required of you is that you've already taken calc I and maybe II, which you have). If you don't already own at least one of these types of books, buy one. I have an AEM book and a Mathematical methods book at home, and an AEM and two mathematical methods books that I keep at my office on campus. And when I leave for the summer this year (and last year) I take at least one or two with me. The books also prepare you very well for graduate level material. You can read most of Landau and Lifshitz with just the math background from one of these books (as well as a solid physics background too, of course). The only thing these books are really missing is real analysis and functional analysis, but technically you can get through graduate quantum mechanics without really studying real/functional (in the same way you can get through undergrad QM without Linear Algebra. People do it all the time. But knowing the corresponding math first makes a huge difference).

[Ferion]

I honestly almost never had to deal with imaginary numbers, even as a math major, which I thought was kind of strange. The only time I can even remember seeing them was in my Diff EQ class while dealing with systems of linear differential equations. So I'm sure Woozie, Kaylia, or Miz can probably explain those concepts much better than I can. If you have any specific Diff EQ or statistical/probability based questions I would be happy to help though.

Also, I'm not sure if I'm remembering this correctly, but are you trying to go to grad school in Physics Sath? If you are, I know at least with grad school for economics that when it comes to GPA adcom members only really seem to care about how you did in your math classes, classes related to your major, and basically anything that will be useful in grad school. Now I'm not saying to start doing bad in your elective courses or to not try, but if going from an B+ to a B in an English class will give you enough extra free time to get you an A in all your math/physics classes then it is probably very beneficial to do so even if it lowers your overall GPA a little (or even if it gives you a little extra free time to relax and not feel so overwhelmed). However, this is only what I've read for Econ departments, but I can't really imagine it being too different for other subjects.

[Woozie]

In math, I don't think I've seen a complex number outside of Complex Analysis. They popped up occasionally in Abstract and Linear Algebra during certain examples, but for the most part, I never see them.

[Cadsuane]

I always liked cis@ more than e^1@ when dealing with polar forms. At any rate Sath, I don't think you'll need to do that much work to get a handle on the essential concepts so don't get too freaked out.

[Chun Liroy]

Alright, so just finished watching the first episode of Wonders of The Universe. He said that pretty much all matter is non existent at the end of the universe, except for photons. Is it then possible for one to think that this "matterless" state is exactly what's "outside" the universe or what existed before the big bang?

[Eliseos]

Basically, PHY213 is an introduction to QM, SR, and Stat. Mech in a fairly rigorous fashion. The course is supposed to be taken alongside PHY234, Math-based physics, Diff EQs, and after Calc 3. PHY234 is apparently where everyone is learning all this complex number business. e to the (i)(theta) stuffs etc. I'm not in 234. Nor am I more than halfway through Calc 3. We just started learning double integrals last class and I've already had to derive gaussian integrals in PHY213.

Honestly dude, and no offense by this, but why are you taking classes before you've taken the prereqs? Especially with an 18 credit schedule, that is just asking for trouble. If you haven't had the math prereqs, you're going to be absolutely lost when the teachers don't stop and go over stuff that the students should already have been exposed to. Four classes is a lot of material to be missing out on. Also, I'm assuming "Math-based physics" is supposed to be "calc-based physics"?

[foopy]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz1HYceBp6u

Autistic boy,12, with higher IQ than Einstein develops his own theory of relativity

A 12-year-old child prodigy has astounded university professors after grappling with some of the most advanced concepts in mathematics.
Jacob Barnett has an IQ of 170 - higher than Albert Einstein - and is now so far advanced in his Indiana university studies that professors are lining him up for a PHD research role.
The boy wonder, who taught himself calculus, algebra, geometry and trigonometry in a week, is now tutoring fellow college classmates after hours.

And now Jake has embarked on his most ambitious project yet - his own 'expanded version of Einstein's theory of relativity'.
His mother, not sure if her child was talking nonsense or genius, sent a video of his theory to the renowned Institute for Advanced Study near Princeton University.

According to the Indiana Star, Institute astrophysics professor Scott Tremaine -himself a world renowned expert - confirmed the authenticity of Jake's theory.
In an email to the family, Tremaine wrote: 'I'm impressed by his interest in physics and the amount that he has learned so far.
'The theory that he's working on involves several of the toughest problems in astrophysics and theoretical physics.
'Anyone who solves these will be in line for a Nobel Prize.'
But for his mother Kristine Barnett, 36, and the rest of the family, maths remains a tricky subject.
Speaking to the paper, Mrs Barnett said: 'I flunked math. I know this did not come from me.'
And it hasn't gone un-noticed by Jake, who added: 'Whenever I try talking about math with anyone in my family they just stare blankly.'
Jake was diagnosed with Aspergers syndrome, a mild form of autism, from an early age.
His parents were worried when he didn't talk until the age of two, suspecting he was educationally abnormal.
It was only as he began to grow up that they realised just how special his gift was.
He would fill up note pads of paper with drawings of complex geometrical shapes and calculations, before picking up felt tip pens and writing equations on windows.
By the age of three he was solving 5,000-piece puzzles and he even studied a state road map, reciting every highway and license plate prefix from memory.
By the age of eight he had left high school and was attending Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis advanced astrophysics classes.

His classroom presence is quite unnerving for many of the 18-plus year old students at his IPIU lectures.
Speaking to the Indy Star, Wanda Anderson, a biochemistry major said: 'When I first walked in and saw him, I thought, 'Oh my God, I'm going to school with Doogie Howser.'
She added: 'A lot of people come to him for help when they don't understand a physics problem.
'People come up to him all the time and say, 'Hey Jake, can you help me'.
'A lot of people think a genius is hard to talk to, but Jake explains things that would still be over their head.'
And his Professor John Ross said his performance in lectures had been 'outstanding'.
'When he asks a question, he is always two steps ahead of the lecture.
'Everyone in the class gets quiet. Poor kid. . . . He sits right in the front row, and they all just look at him.
'He will come to see me during office hours and ask even more detailed questions. And you can tell he's been thinking these things through.
'Kids his age would normally have problems adding fractions, and he is helping out some of his fellow students.'
According to his parents Jake has trouble sleeping at night as he constantly sees numbers in his head.
But far from complaining, Jake has turned the sleepless nights to his advantage - debunking the big bang theory.
The next step, according to professor Ross, is for Jake to leave class altogether and take up a paid research role.