The h Bar

Manishearth

12:23 AM

@BrandonEnright Well, keep it up and you may get it sooner than you think :)

user54412

2:38 AM

@BrandonEnright Note that only 3 users have ever gotten copy editor in the history of the site

user54412

(but don't let that deter you ;) )

Brandon Enright

3:44 AM

@ChrisWhite it's one of those slow and steady things it seems. We'll see how it goes.

user54412

3:57 AM

@BrandonEnright If you keep suggesting edits, I can keep reviewing them

user54412

copy editor + steward :P

Brandon Enright

I was wondering if it was mostly the original authors approving edits or high rep folks like you and David.

user54412

maybe other high-rep people - the last minute witnessed my 7th and 8th review tasks ever

user54412

992 to go...

user54412

hmmm... it's kinda weird that I can edit any post without needing peer review, but I cannot unilaterally approve suggested edits by other users

Brandon Enright

4:07 AM

Some of the permission requirements seem odd to me

For example 2500 for tag wiki synonyms

user54412

well, you'll get there soon enough at this rate :) physics.stackexchange.com/…

David Zaslavsky

4:30 AM

@BrandonEnright it's not just to you

Moderators tend to review (and make) a lot of edits, it's kind of the nature of the job. But high-rep users can also do just as much.

Manishearth

5:12 AM

@BrandonEnright next time, flag such questions as "doesn't belong on this site>too localized"

Nothing wrong if you don't, but it's a big help if you do :)

@ChrisWhite /cc @BrandonEnright There's even a graph: stackexchange.com/users/2555843/brandon-enright?tab=reputation

@BrandonEnright It seems to be mainly me, Qmechanic, and DavidZ, with some CrazyBuddy and dmckee thrown in

physics.stackexchange.com/review/suggested-edits/stats

Lubos hasn't reviewed in a while

@ChrisWhite I find it weird too. However, you can unilaterally approve if you use the improve option

Brandon Enright

@Manishearth I really dislike all of the homework questions that are simple calculations however I wasn't sure that question needed to be flagged.

Manishearth

@BrandonEnright flag it, if it doesn't warrant closing then we'll decline it

user54412

@Manishearth yeah, but doesn't that deprive the original editor of the rep and credit?

Manishearth

Basically: If there isn't any concept to be understood and the solution will only really be useful to the asker, then it's HW

Brandon Enright

gotcha. well I'll be way more aggressive about flagging simple homework math in the future then

Manishearth

5:17 AM

@ChrisWhite no, you get to choose if you want to give 'em rep

user54412

oh - I must have missed that

Manishearth

@BrandonEnright All your flag will do is notify us and push stuff to the close vote queue. Harmless, so no probs if you make mistakes

Just learn from your declined flags (feel free to ping one of us if a flag gets declined and you don't know why)

user54412

I did that once, then it seemed like they didn't get rewarded (maybe?) - so I felt guilty and didn't do it again :/

Brandon Enright

I haven't seen any decline flags. Is there a place I can go to see those? Perhaps none of my flags have been declined yet?

Manishearth

@ChrisWhite there's a "this suggested edit was helpful" option

@BrandonEnright physics.stackexchange.com/users/flag-summary/22494

The ones with red text next to them

You have 1 declined comment flag, but they don't show up there :s

user54412

5:19 AM

also I never knew about the overall summary page - with graphs!

Manishearth

Yay graphs!

@ChrisWhite there's a lot of stuff that you've probably never seen before on SE

For example: the greatest hits page

and question timelines

user54412

lol a -4 question on greatest hits

Manishearth

@ChrisWhite it's based on views ;)

user54412

and that infernal colors-we-can't-see question that will define me forever

Manishearth

ha

user54412

5:23 AM

one day one of my GR answers will be so widely received ;)

user54412

btw @Manishearth how do I search for users on that page with graphs?

Manishearth

My top answer network wide is a 300+ vote one with a clippycorn in it

user54412

like how do I find someone's networkwide user number?

Manishearth

@ChrisWhite find their site profile, there's a "network user" link above their aboutme

For example, this is mine: stackexchange.com/users/1212053/manishearth

user54412

got it

Manishearth

5:27 AM

@ChrisWhite note that clicking on the legend will show/hide the series. For example, clicking on "Physics" here will hide Physics and reflow the graph

user54412

good to know, otherwise my miniscule contributions to those other sites would be lost in the sub-pixel noise

Manishearth

Yep

You probably should ask a few questions. Unless you want to become Qmechanic ;-)

(quite amazing that he hasn't asked a single question ever)

user54412

LOL the first time I poked around to see if high-rep users also asked questions, I looked at Qmechanic and concluded they didn't

user54412

I'll get around to that at some point

Manishearth

I find that it's quite an enriching experience when the question is well written

Like physics.stackexchange.com/questions/21678/… and physics.stackexchange.com/questions/22398/… and physics.stackexchange.com/questions/52299/…

Maybe not all well written, but they taught me a lot

user54412

5:37 AM

Well, I suppose I could ask a question if David promises to write an essay in response

Manishearth

:P

No need to approach this as "I need to ask a question", just that ask the question here next time you have one :)

user54412

actually, I've been asking all sorts of juicy astrophysics questions of my fellow grad students in my department lately

user54412

(good prep for oral exams coming up for us)

user54412

maybe I'll post some of them here

Manishearth

@ChrisWhite yep, asking and answering stuff is a great way to keep the topic fresh in your mind :)

user54412

5:55 AM

aha: "The [Greatest Hits page] divides the number of page views on a question by the total amount of anonymous question and answer feedback received (adding a bonus for high view counts). We exclude questions with less views than the median view count for the entire site."

user54412

(source)

user54412

that explains why once again its a list that's not quite monotonic in view counts

Manishearth

ah, the anon feedback

quite a lot of goodies once you reach 10k

user54412

I eagerly await that day - well, not eagerly enough to post questions I suppose :P

Manishearth

You'll get there soon enough

earning rep on Phys.SE is much faster than it was a year ago

Brandon Enright

5:59 AM

I'm still shooting for 1k :-p

Manishearth

Manishearth, Mumbai, India

30.9k 7 76 183

^rules them all

@BrandonEnright not hard :)

Brandon Enright

Nope I'll get there eventually.

Some people have so many good answers that they absorb rep constantly.

Manishearth

Yep

Brandon Enright

No doubt rep is like cosmic inflation. The high folks are accelerating away from the low folks.

Manishearth

Not too hard to catch up if you dedicate a few weeks to it

Brandon Enright

6:02 AM

Yeah I'm still trying to gain confidence though so it'll take a while before I start answering more questions.

There are many questions I think I can answer and then when I read what somebody else wrote, I think "I knew that".

Manishearth

@BrandonEnright if you're not sure if you're correct, post the answer (hat it with "not sure of this, comments appreciated)" if you like).

If it's correct, free rep

If it's wrong, you learn something!

user54412

anecdotally I feel only a very small handful of people get significant rep from old posts

Brandon Enright

I'll think about that. I don't want to be rep whoring either.

user54412

(I've gotten next to none from 2 month+ old posts myself)

Manishearth

@BrandonEnright rep whoring=bugging people to upvote/accept

It's OK if you post tons of stuff

And rep ain't that important, though it gets you shiny stuff

@ChrisWhite Lubos, Ron, and John, I guess. I get ~20 rep very ~3 days from random upvotes. I get much more on meta.so

Brandon Enright

6:05 AM

Rep and badges are some sort of evil study in psychology and we're the test subjects. I've spent at least 2x the time I would have on the site because of rep and badges.

user54412

it's mostly the popular string theory posts from 2 or 3 years ago that just keep accumulating votes as far as I can tell

Manishearth

@BrandonEnright one sec, there's a great post you may want to read

64

Q: The problem with extrinsic motivation

As a preface, I've stopped using Stack Overflow after participating in the beta and using the system for a while. I'm not trying to stir up controversy or ruffle feathers, though that seems likely to happen. Rather this is a postmortem of one user's experience with Stack Overflow. I've always ...

discussion reputation badges

Brandon Enright

I've seen okay answers by lubos have votes in the 40+ range when a better (in my opinion) answer below it has rep below 5

Name recognition really help rep for some folks.

user54412

@BrandonEnright simple solution - figure out strings, and develop a fanbase ;)

user54412

(not sure which is harder)

Brandon Enright

6:09 AM

The fanbase requires an exotic personality. Ron and Lubos seem to be experts at that.

I'll achieve neither :-)

With regard to string theory. I don't yet understand the details of the issues with QM and GR to understand why string theory is a proposed answer.

I don't even understand electroweak unification at high energies, much less unifying all the forces via some SUSY and string theory.

user54412

as for personality, the internet's a great place to reinvent oneself

user54412

little do you know I'm actually a 73-year-old grandmother living in an off-the-grid village at 20,000 ft in the Himalayas

Brandon Enright

Alright bedtime for me. Thanks for the feedback and advice and useful info!

Manishearth

7:55 AM

@ChrisWhite @BrandonEnright Sorry for dropping out on you guys -- currently there's some madness going on with our intranet, and stuff like the proxy server keeps dying

Manishearth

9:00 AM

-2

Q: Which was first, energy or matter in the creation of our universe?

Was it the Big Bang or was it something else that gives us our universe in its present condition? Did it all begin with just pure energy that eventually evolved into simple atoms of matter, that themselves evolved again into more complex structures similar to the way living organisms have evolved?

particle-physics cosmology big-bang

thoughts?

Error404

9:21 AM

Hello everyone, It is my first time here. I have a question, should I ask directly?

RhysW

@Error404 if you arent sure if it is a good fit for the site or not then asking it in chat first to gauge an indication is always welcome

Error404

Thanks RhysW, I have posted my question previously on the website, but they considered it as a homework and asked me to post it here.

Manishearth

@Error404 oh that one

Error404

Indeed.

Manishearth

could you link to it again?

0

Q: Static electrical attraction

Coulomb's law is used to calculate the electrical attraction between 2 charged particles, what formula do I use to calculate an electrical attraction magnitude between 2 plates? Let's assume the first plate holds a charge of +3x10^-4 coulombs and the other one holds the same negative amount of ch...

homework electrostatics electric-field charge coulombs-law

nvm

Error404

9:27 AM

@Manishearth. Thanks

Manishearth

gotit

You need to know that the formula for electric field from a plate is (sigma)/(2epsilon_0)

And then use that

df.unipi.it/~macchi/FISICA2/PROBLEMS/capacitorforce.pdf

Error404

@Manishearth, Thanks for the link. I'll try to work it out. If I couldn't, I'll let you know. Appreciated :) :)

Manishearth

np :)

Next time you want to ask HW-like stuff on Physics.SE, give your attempt as well.

If you don't know how to do the math formatting, we can do it for you

And conceptual questions are always welcome :)

@Error404 good luck!

Error404

Exactly, I am not a physics student, not even math student. I struggle when it comes to math. That's kind of you @Mainshearth. can't I reward you guys with any bounty on this forum?

Manishearth

one sec, brb

Error404

9:40 AM

tyt

Manishearth

@Error404 Still a good idea to learn LaTeX :)

4

Q: How can I format math/chemistry expressions here?

This post is meant to teach new folks how to use MathJax and mhchem formatting on chem.SE

discussion faq mathjax mhchem

^^ start with that

@Error404 You can reward us with a bounty if you have >75 rep, but you don't need to

We're here to help :P

Plus, bounties are to reward good answers, not good answerers :)

Error404

A good answer from a good answerer maybe?

Anyway I have to go back to work, I'll work this out when I am back. Wish me luck :D

Manishearth

@Error404 possibly :)

@Error404 You a programmer?

Error404

you can say so

Manishearth

ah

I dabble in programming

Error404

9:50 AM

a beginner, been learning for a few months some "hardcore programming"

Manishearth

@Error404 ah. Otherwise you are a student?

Error404

Yes.

What programming languages have u used before?

Manishearth

@Error404 of?

@Error404 Started off with JS (not a programming language, but I used it like one), then learned Java/C++. I learned PHP in situ, by diving into code (no tutorials or anythin). Same with python.

And I can write C# if forced to

Error404

Chemistry

I've gotta run now, hope I'll come back with good results. Thanks for your help

Manishearth

@Error404 That's great; I love chemistry. (Somehow I manage to hate it when I have it as a course, though)

You may be interested in our chemistry site:

@Error404 You're welcome :)

Error404

9:55 AM

Bookmarked already ;) Cheers.

RhysW

Heh programmers are everywhere on SE sites

Manishearth

yep

RhysW

the advantage of being on a computer all day i suppose

Manishearth

Well, SO is orders of magnitude more well known than other SE sites

So a lot of the traffic to SE sites come from folks who have heard of SO

RhysW

10:15 AM

True, thats actually a problem we are trying to solve on workplace at the moment

too many programmers leads to a limited pool of answers for other fields of work

Manishearth

@RhysW Are you a programmer or a physicist?

(by profession)

exploringnet

Can anyone answer

0

Q: Can we comment on time of flight?

Lets take two cases one ideal and one real for throwing a ball upwards. In ideal one ,ie. the air drag is neglected :the time of flight is $\dfrac{2v}{g}$ . In real case air drag is present case1) proportional to $v^n . \hat v$ where $n=1,2\ or 3$ . So time period is say $t_1$ case2) a con...

newtonian-mechanics projectile drag viscosity

It's been long without answer.

Manishearth

@exploringnet place a bounty

exploringnet

Ok , is the question all right?

Means statement or anything like that.

Manishearth

needs formatting, ill take care of that

exploringnet

10:21 AM

OK

RhysW

@Manishearth by profession, programmer, though physics was my second choice, i loved astronomy and quarks the most,

Manishearth

@RhysW Opposite for me :)

I'm a student, but I'll be a physicist by profession with programming a close second

if everything works out

RhysW

I would have loved to have done a science, cellular biology was always fun too

and my essay on biodiversity was one of my favourite things to have completed in school

Manishearth

@RhysW yep. I like cellular biology a lot as well, much more than the other parts of biology (which I like too)

RhysW

human biology was my least favourite, just didnt interest me

@manishearth so what made you pick physics over programming?

Manishearth

10:26 AM

@RhysW till last year it was 50-50

then when I came to college I found a lot of like-minded folks (physics like-minded). And after discussing with them and seniors, I decided that I want to continue with physics

I still program a lot

And I could switch to a degree in CS later if I want

Or do a programming job

Keeping my options open

RhysW

For me it was 100 - 0 to physics until last year, i didnt even know programming was what i wanted to do, i hadnt even thought about it, then one day i got an oppotunity thrust upon me on short notice, turned up to a few interviews, took a few tests and lessons, next thing you know here i am

Manishearth

But for now, I'm more into physics :)

@RhysW wow

@exploringnet it's actually an HW problem; if you can add a bit of your attempt to solve it then I'll reopen it :/

RhysW

Yeah, was a very sudden change,

Manishearth

So you directly jumped into programming?

RhysW

went from never seeing a line of code to having a job in one of the largest software companies within a week

within 2 weeks from my first interview

Manishearth

10:30 AM

how? O_0

RhysW

a combination of luck, fast learning and a good opportunity!

Manishearth

that's ... impressive... but how did you manage that in a week?

@RhysW wow

RhysW

jumped right from college in the uk into an apprenticeship, got a few weeks training, and that was that

fantastic opportunity, no idea how i have as much luck as i do!

Manishearth

There are quite a few other programmers on SO with a degree in physics

RhysW

took me a week to catch up and overtake someone who had been doing it for 6 months, impressed the right people, got kept on for the job

Manishearth

10:34 AM

Sklivvz (SO developer), casperOne (moderator)

RhysW

i would have done one, but i wanted to do research stuff in physics, but the issue is i get anxiety issues from not knowing the answer to something, so a research role was a poor choice!

Manishearth

ah

Wait so you did what in college?

RhysW

was great for intrinsic motivation, terribble for physical and mental health

Manishearth

ah

RhysW

well, technically i never finished college, i was studying physics, biology, chemistry and ICT, but this opportunity came up, a once in a lifetime thing, so i dropped everything and gave it a shot, glad i did!

Manishearth

10:36 AM

ah

Wow

I just try doing chem and bio on the side, not enough flexibility to do 'em all

RhysW

are you in the us? college in the uk is different to what college means in the us

Manishearth

India

RhysW

ah fair enough, not sure about differences there!

Manishearth

Very different, f.e. you choose your major when you join

RhysW

geez, that would have been terribble for me

i never knew what i wanted to do, it changed so frequently

but yeah thats basically my story XD

Manishearth

10:40 AM

You should blog about that

RhysW

i did start to, should probably continue it

Manishearth

good :)

RhysW

i have a blog somewhere with like, one post on it

exploringnet

12:59 PM

RhysW

1:34 PM

looks like something a coyote would make to catch a certian roadrunner

Manishearth

1:53 PM

Perpetual motion machines do exist, in a fashion:

3

Q: Quantum perpetual motion

Perpetual motion describes hypothetical machines that operate or produce useful work indefinitely and, more generally, hypothetical machines that produce more work or energy than they consume, whether they might operate indefinitely or not. (Source:Wikipedia) With this definition in mind, p...

quantum-mechanics energy-conservation perpetual-motion

RhysW

As energy and matter cannot be 'destroyed' per se, isnt the entire universe technically a perpetual system

Manishearth

more or less

RhysW

ignoring the whole 'how did it start' thing ofc ;)

Manishearth

@DavidZaslavsky looks like the computer does have big plans for me

in Arduino, 53 mins ago, by Stack Exchange

Manishearth has been automatically appointed as owner of this room. (What does this mean?)

Error404

6:02 PM

@Manishearth. Hi, I have bad, really bad news :P

Manishearth

?

Error404

about the electrostatic question

Manishearth

...

Error404

i couldn't work out the first few equations, although i tried to use simple numbers

:D

Manishearth

I gave you a pdf, right?

Error404

6:03 PM

yes

I was reading through it, just now

I will ask you a direct question, let me just collect my words

:D

Gugg

6:58 PM

@exploringnet That's no problem whatsoever.

Manishearth

7:51 PM

17

Q: Do we want the citation tool from Math.SE?

Related: How can I cite a question in SE? Math.SE has a citation tool. Basically, if you click "share" on a post, there's a little "cite" link: Clicking that, you get: This lets one properly cite a Physics.SE post in a document by the attribution rules. Do we want this? While it may no...

discussion feature-request status-completed

Hot off the press!

user54412

8:09 PM

So we have 14-year-olds pioneering quantum gravity now? physics.stackexchange.com/questions/61434/…

2

Gugg

@ChrisWhite I believe last week a 14-year-old participated in The Masters (golf, possibly its most important tournament). :)

Same guy?

user54412

I really hope so

user54412