Recent content by sgrunterundt

Turing machines, busy beaver function and the concept of uncomputability (and what you could do if you had an oracle that could give you uncomputable answers).

I was pretty surprised too. I like to think that Harrys reactions is pretty much how I'd react if I ever saw evidence for gods, magic or other "supernatural" stuff. Yeah, I expected it would be more similar too. He has obviously been forced to change a few things to make the world more...

Yes, if you only read the first paragraph. In fields dealing with transport of some substance you are correct. In fields like electrodynamics flow per unit area would be flux density. The magnetic B field is called the magnetic flux density. This field integrated over a surface bounded by a...

Re: The War on Christmas is real, and atheists are winning i Doesn't most of the other religions also pertain to your relationship with the god(s)?

I stumpled upon this great fanfiction. The story about how it would have been if Harry Potter had been raised by a skeptic physics professor instead. It is fantastic. It seems to describe exactly how a scientist actually would react to being faced with the fabled extraordinary evidence...

That is why I don't own a gun. If I did and was in that situation I'd be more likely to lose my life rather than 150 dollars. I am not very likely to get in that situation because if that guy lived here he'd probably not have a gun either. He'd require all kinds of permits, or get busted...

A spoof trailer some guys from the physics student cabaret made at the university of Copenhagen. Just thought people might like a good laugh. I know the guys who made it, but I am not in it myself.

I'd take the prescription pills.

Okay. Can you detail your hypothesis a bit more? Were do you propose the energy came from? You have made no factual claims aside from "gravity tends to make objects spherical"? Okay. Of course you are not required to recreate the event in order to test the hypothesis, historians, geologists...

??? How can a mathematical model be useful and accurate, and yet not be a description of physical reality? It describes reality and it describes it well, hence it is useful and accurate. To say that it is a description of physical reality is a tautology. Is it a perfect description? No. Of...

Yay. Progress. But... a minute ago I thought you claimed that a lot of mass had been removed from the Earth, and the only mechanism you put forward was an impact. If it is not a crater, then were do you propose this "hole" came from? Why do you keep giving evidence for the things no one...

No it shouldn't. A lot of research shows that it is an instinctive thing too, and not just a cultural thing (although culture can greatly exaggerate it), and therefore there must be an evolutionary mechanism behind it. It is more pronounced in women than in men, and it may have to do with...

Re: ** STICKY ** Funny Pictures v2: "OMG NEW THREAD!" Editio The title is even "Spectrum analysis is cooler anyway".

Yes of course in the top tens of kilometers of water the pressure will be below the critical point, but not below, with the weight of the top layers upon it. We are talking about the entire worlds oceans in a several hundred kilometer deep hole. The water would definitely not boil "away"...

No it is not dificult to produce. Just increase heat and pressure to above the critical point. In this hole both would certainly be higher. He didn't miss it, but he handwaved it. Uranium-238 has a half-life of about 4.5 billion years. Therefore half of it is still left from the earths...