The h Bar

2:07 AM

@Gugg stars are for anything useful for the transcript, according to the tooltip

In practice chat stars are often used somewhat akin to either favorites or upvotes

4

user54412

3:28 AM

@BrandonEnright In my experience spacing-around-punctuation issues correlates with a native Chinese speaker struggling with English, though I don't know if that's the case here

user54412

i guess the idea of kerning is difficult to grasp in a traditionally monospace, punctuation-free language - not surprisingly

Brandon Enright

3:49 AM

@ChrisWhite that makes a lot of sense. When I see that I look for other issues so I have an excuse to edit to fix it. OCD is a terrible affliction.

ManishEarth

9:14 AM

@ChrisWhite I've seen it with Indians as well.

RhysW

9:47 AM

@ManishEarth i dont see it that often if ever, luckily!

ManishEarth

:)

RhysW

@ManishEarth infact, i see you more often :P

ManishEarth

Hang around on SO

You'll soon realize that the Indian IT industry is sadly dependent on it

RhysW

ill pass, not the best atmosphere there in my experience

ManishEarth

Yeah

I could have participated but I stayed away for the same reason

I started participating because I want enough rep to help clean it up. No point whining about something if you can help.

I pop by occasionally and answer stuff

RhysW

9:50 AM

true, i like the workplace because its still fairly quiet during most of my activity there, so i get to plod through at a leisurely pace

skip over the whole FGITW issue

ManishEarth

Yep

FGITW is the most annoying thing on SO

No time to write a nice long answer (by then the OP is gone and has accepted one already)

And I like long answers

RhysW

me too, i write entire essays as answers sometimes, but those answers are damned thorough!

though my physics contributions might start increasing too, started an open U course on astronomy

ManishEarth

@RhysW you seem to be everywhere too :P Just saw you get quoted

in The DMZ, 1 min ago, by AviD

@TRiG lets not also forget there is a chainsaw that says "Do not attempt to stop with hands or genitals", though that is probably a case of stupid fixing itself — RhysW 2 hours ago

RhysW

@ManishEarth yeah but not for good reasons :P

ManishEarth

@RhysW niiice

RhysW

10:00 AM

which one is the DMZ?

which site that is

ManishEarth

@RhysW IT Security

One of my side interests

RhysW

@ManishEarth yeah i noticed a few of your answers there too xD

ManishEarth

:)

RhysW

Seems we cover all the same sites, you just have a lot more knowledge to contribute than i!

ManishEarth

@RhysW I know nothing about the workplace.

:)

Plus I am an amateur programmer

RhysW

10:06 AM

@ManishEarth well, thats because youre in academia i presume!

ManishEarth

@RhysW yep

And I have very little reps on Academia.SE :P

RhysW

@ManishEarth from what i can tell its basically the workplace version for people in academia xD

ManishEarth

yep

I have exactly one answer there

RhysW

ah i remember that question, one of the few academia ones i read

@ManishEarth you said you were doing something with graphene the other day right?

nonagon

@ManishEarth Will the loop question be ropened ?

RhysW

10:21 AM

@nonagon loop question?

nonagon

Universe can't be a loop and the twin paradox .

RhysW

@nonagon could you link me perhaps?

nonagon

5

Q: Our Universe Can't be Looped?

With reference to the Twin-Paradox (I am new with this), now information of who has actually aged comes from the fact that one of the twins felt some acceleration. So if universe was like a loop, and the actually travelling twin again reached earth after completing the loop, then no such informat...

@ManishEarth As Nathaniel was saying that the question is similar but regarding a different topic with scope of a slightly different possible answer .

RhysW

@nonagon i think it might require an edit to clarify its individuality

ManishEarth

@RhysW yep

RhysW

10:28 AM

@ManishEarth trying to identify the allowed / not allowed 'bands' that electron clouds reside in? or am i mis remembering

ManishEarth

@nonagon What Rhys said. I'll look at it later, though if Qmechanic's the one who closed it I'd prefer him to deal with it.

@RhysW well, not "identify", but yeah, working with the bands

Not yet clear on what it is - I've been given reading to do, once the prof comes back I'll be clearer on what we're doing

RhysW

@ManishEarth ah ok, sounds interesting! ironically my favourite parts of physics are the largest parts (astronomy) and the smallest parts (atoms, quarks)

ManishEarth

@RhysW Same here. And that goes for biology as well for me :)

Though as time passes I am getting to like stuff like electromag much more than quarks :)

RhysW

@ManishEarth cellular biology was always my fav

ManishEarth

^.^

I just love the intricate system of DNA/RNA/operons/etc

RhysW

10:32 AM

did my biology paper on e.coli cultivating, people avoided me in those lessons,

ManishEarth

lol

RhysW

@ManishEarth yeah the whole intricate system involving the mRNA too, it just seems so impossibble to have accidentally come into existence

ManishEarth

Hmm

RhysW

*improbable

ManishEarth

Well, some earlier life forms and things like prokaryotes have relatively simpler systems

But yeah, a lot of things in bio are very complicated and it's hard to picture them being artificial

Got to go now, going back to campus. Cya!

RhysW

10:37 AM

@ManishEarth cya later no doubt!

ManishEarth

:)

RhysW

@nonagon i think i see a slight flaw in your theory

Though i sort of see your point

ManishEarth

Wait no that's not right

:P

Anyway, hibernating comp now :p

RhysW

Your question is saying that the knowledge of one twin being older comes from the knowledge of one twin having accelerated (to turn around at an indeterminate point) to return to earth, and that if the universe was looped then the twin wouldn't need to turn around because they could leave, go around the entire universe, and return to their start point, correct?

nonagon

11:10 AM

Yes

RhysW

@nonagon the problem is that initial motion, of going from standing, by the other twin, to movement, would take acceleration initially to begin movement, even if there was no other acceleration

even if the universe was looped too

Gugg

12:50 PM

2

Q: If a planet ceased to exist, would the solar system crumble?

We know that all objects with mass exert forces on all other objects of mass such that $$ F = \frac{GMm}{R^2}.$$ What I'm curious to know is,if any planet were to wink out of existence, (not blow up, or collide or move) would this affect the orbits of the other 8 planets (Pluto will always ...

astronomy solar-system

@RhysW Funny that you should mention Pluto, as that's the only planet that actually did wink out of existence. And we're still here. :)

RhysW

@Gugg its technically still there though :P just not called a planet anymore, dont get philosophical on me! :P

007

2:34 PM

23 hours ago, by ManishEarth

Wait 24 hours.

@ManishEarth votes not reversed.

:(

ManishEarth

hm

ill try to get that done

007

@ManishEarth I have read on a question(MSO) that atleast 6 votes are needed for auto reversal.And the culprit gave me 5 votes..........

ManishEarth

@007 not exactly

im talking about manual reversal now anyway

bit busy

007

ok.

Physics Meta

2

Q: How to get the only answer marked as correct

I have answered a question here. It is the only answer to a reasonably up-voted question (+7), but it has not been selected as the correct one. Short of tracking down the original poster, is there any way to 1) get it marked correct or 2) increase the chances of it getting marked correct in the f...

discussion accepted-answer

RhysW

3:29 PM

@PhysicsMeta this has always bugged me

ManishEarth

@RhysW Me too. However, mods aren't supposed to meddle in what's "correct" and "wrong", so giving that power to mods isn't good. Giving it to the community -- well, we already have that via votes, right?

Brandon Enright

It'd be nice to have a vote "close as answered"

ManishEarth

@BrandonEnright Not good if we close questions as answered

Plenty of times when I've put up a (IMHO better and longer) answer way after a q has been answered.

Brandon Enright

Yeah the potential for miss-use is high.

RhysW

@BrandonEnright miss use? she was my english teacher

Brandon Enright

3:35 PM

Damn I hate some prefixes. Misuse :-p

RhysW

hehe

so hey, does physics have a blog?

@ManishEarth yeah, but still, drives me crazy :P i like the nice green tick,

Ϛѓăʑɏ βµԂԃϔ

@RhysW Why not..?

ManishEarth

@RhysW nope. we may be able to get one if we have enough writers

RhysW

@ϚѓăʑɏβµԂԃϔ um, im not sure i follow?

@ManishEarth were trying to get one for the workplace too

Ϛѓăʑɏ βµԂԃϔ

@ManishEarth there are many... Isn't it?

like lubos'

ManishEarth

3:38 PM

@RhysW shouldn't be hard

@ϚѓăʑɏβµԂԃϔ Rhys is talking about an SE blog

eg programmers.blogoverflow.com

Ϛѓăʑɏ βµԂԃϔ

SE has got only one blog..! (okay, two blogs) :P

RhysW

@ManishEarth trying to keep people encouraged is difficult

ManishEarth

nope

RhysW

@ϚѓăʑɏβµԂԃϔ lots of sites have blogs

ManishEarth

@ϚѓăʑɏβµԂԃϔ SecSE, Christianity, TeX, Cooking, Bicycles, Programmers

Mi Yodeya

and that's off the top of my head

Ϛѓăʑɏ βµԂԃϔ

3:40 PM

And go on..! :D

ManishEarth

stackexchange.com/blogs

Brandon Enright

There is a christianity stack exchange?

ManishEarth

Yep

Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Biblical Hermeneutics

Ϛѓăʑɏ βµԂԃϔ

This is bad..! I ain't talking with you guys again :P

ManishEarth

0_o

Ϛѓăʑɏ βµԂԃϔ

3:43 PM

Man, I thought SE has only one blog..! Damn..!

ManishEarth

the SE blog is run by the comm team

the individual blogs are run by the community

in fact I have one (or two) posts planned for the ProgSE blog

nonagon

3:58 PM

@RhysW No , your explanation isn't absolutely satisfactory . Suppose you are two twins one is born in a spaceship and one on earth . NO law of physics disallows that , or say two completely different people , born at adzact same time ,one on spaceship and one on earth . Each one has the right to say that the other person will be younger but the one in actual spaceship will be younger as they'll see when they meet after completing the loop of the universe .

ManishEarth

@nonagon Yes, but how would you put one twin on the moving spaceship? Simultaneity is relative.

nonagon

@ManishEarth Take 2 different people

ManishEarth

Take two clocks

nonagon

@ManishEarth You put batteries in your clock once the 2 different people are born

And so they'll start at same time. I mean together in this sentence

ManishEarth

@nonagon simultaneity is relative

Relativity of simultaneity

In physics, the relativity of simultaneity is the concept that distant simultaneity – whether two spatially separated events occur at the same time – is not absolute, but depends on the observer's reference frame. According to the special theory of relativity, it is impossible to say in an absolute sense whether two distinct events occur at the same time if those events are separated in space, such as a car crash in London and another in New York. The question of whether the events are simultaneous is relative: in some reference frames the two accidents may happen at the same ...

Wait nvm

OK, your experiment makes sense again if you do it like this:

nonagon

4:02 PM

take space ship on earth ?

So that their space difference is 0 ?

ManishEarth

A spaceship passes Earth, and the Earthlings/people in the spaceship start their watches the moment the two pass

And they compare readings the moment they pass again

nonagon

Same thing I said , I think

ManishEarth

But I don't see a paradox here

nonagon

Why ? If universe is a loop , there will be a paradox

2

ManishEarth

@nonagon what paradox?

nonagon

4:03 PM

Both of them can say other one is younger

2

ManishEarth

no

nonagon

Why can't they say ?

ManishEarth

Well, it's OK if they say the other is younger

nonagon

But the one who is in spaceship will be younger .

ManishEarth

From what frame?

nonagon

4:06 PM

Because he is the one actually travelling

He is moving at a fast speed , his clock ticks slower

ManishEarth

@nonagon define "actually travelling"

nonagon

Means one is in earth and one's spaceship is moving actually with c/2 relative to the one on earth

ManishEarth

@nonagon Everything is relative.

nonagon

Oh . Then original paradox must never arise

ManishEarth

And it's perfectly OK if they think that each other is the older one

or whatever

the only way for it to be a paradox is if they stopped --> acceleration

nonagon

4:09 PM

Suppose you and I are brothers , if I leave on a spaceship , I'll be younger . Experimentally proven

ManishEarth

@nonagon yes, acceleration

nonagon

Without acceleration too , I'll be younger ?

ManishEarth

?

nonagon

So you mean to say if I return after a loop to you , we will be both of same age ?

ManishEarth

If you're moving, then yes

@nonagon No.

You'd accelerate

nonagon

4:11 PM

If universe is a loop , I won't need to

ManishEarth

And if you don't accelerate/decelerate and keep moving, it's not a paradox

RhysW

@nonagon um, then they arent twins if they are born at different times, in different places, they are just siblings

ManishEarth

Basically: It's perfectly OK for my frame clock to be faster than your frame clock AND vice versa, as long as the two frames are in motion

nonagon

@RhysW Still , this fact doesn't destroy the physics of the question

ManishEarth

It only becomes a paradox if the imbalance sticks

nonagon

4:12 PM

Imbalance is sticking

RhysW

@nonagon well it does when acceleration is always needed

ManishEarth

@nonagon Yes, because you decelerated

nonagon

Either universe isn't a loop or both will be of same age .

RhysW

@nonagon why? you cant just state 'facts' with no empirical evidence

nonagon

When did I deaccelerate ?

I am giving you evidence

ManishEarth

4:13 PM

@nonagon if you didn't, there is no paradox

It doesn't matter if there's an imbalance between two moving frames

nonagon

Suppose my spaceship window is showing time counter , i.e. no. of ticks , you on earth can see that counter

ManishEarth

Here: Bob (in a spaceship) synced his stopwatch with Alice(on Earth) the moment they passed. When Bob passes again, Bob sees that his stopwatch says 1hr and Alice's says 2hrs. Alice sees the opposite reading. This is not a paradox.

nonagon

It is being displayed on a screen attached to my ship

ManishEarth

It's perfectly OK for two frames to get contradictory readings if they are at relative motion

If the contradictory readings stick after deceleration, then it could be a problem. But they don't.

RhysW

@ManishEarth yes this, alice will still see 2 and 1, on the respective watches, they wont flip over

ManishEarth

4:16 PM

@RhysW Yep. It's perfectly OK is bob sees 1,2 and alice sees 2,1. They're in motion, we don't care about the apparent paradox

RhysW

@ManishEarth precisely, it would be a paradox if bob saw 2 on alice and 1 on bob, and alice saw 1 on alice and 2 on bob

ManishEarth

@RhysW no, it wouldn't. That's what I'm saying

It would only be a paradox if they saw contradictory readings when at rest wrt each other

RhysW

@ManishEarth no im agreeing with you :) just not wording it very well :P

ManishEarth

ah

RhysW

@ManishEarth though i am interested in why we dont care about the 'paradox'

ManishEarth

4:18 PM

@RhysW Lemme think for a moment here, I may be saying something wrong :S

nonagon

But Bob must also be able to say Alice's watched said 1 hour , otherwise he knows that he moved and since there was no acceleration because universe is a loop . IF he knows this will violate principle of relativity that you can't know that you moved . Because then one of them will know their watch moved slower

RhysW

@nonagon im presuming time moves like light, relative to the person moving

nonagon

Yes

Lets put our explanations one by one . You say what you mean to say , because I am not getting your point .

ManishEarth

Er, I goofed. It is a problem if that happens

Let's start over

nonagon

Yes

ManishEarth

4:20 PM

Firstly, here's a simple reason why I think there's no paradox:

Technically, the moon is following a path in a "looped universe" around Earth (assuming that the Sun doesn't exist)

nonagon

No

ManishEarth

This path satisfies the requirements in your question

nonagon

Moon is accelerating

ManishEarth

@nonagon heard of geodesics?

@nonagon Equivalence principle. Curvature=acceleration.

nonagon

No , :(

I don't know general relativity at all .

ManishEarth

4:22 PM

Basically General Relativity looks at gravity as "curvature of spacetime", not "acceleration"

Though it also says that acceleration is the same thing as being in a grav field.

RhysW

@ManishEarth Imagine a giant trampoline, where each thing of mass creates a dip in the fabric that causes things to move towards it (is how i think of it)

nonagon

Let me first put what I want to say since it is a very elementary thought . May I ?

ManishEarth

So basically, the Moon is going straight, just that space is curved and "straight" becomes a loop

@nonagon sure

@RhysW :9419307 that's the popsci explanation -- it's OK, but there are a lot of pitfalls

RhysW

oh plenty, but for basic understanding

nonagon

Suppose universe starts again from one place to another . Like on earth . You circle and reach start once again.

ManishEarth

4:25 PM

@nonagon What do you mean by that? Again, the moon circles and reaches the start again

007

2 hours ago, by ManishEarth

im talking about manual reversal now anyway

ManishEarth

You'd need to specify the topology of space. Torus-like?

nonagon

So if the universe has this kind of a structure , then special relativity only if correct will not allow this , because then Twin Paradox will hold

ManishEarth

@007 on it, sorry

007

@ManishEarth :(

ManishEarth

4:26 PM

@007 just pinged a comm team member. A few hours ago none of them was online.

nonagon

@ManishEarth Basically because moon has centripetal acceleration , and Universe needn't have that .

ManishEarth

@nonagon If you stood on the moon, you would not feel the acceleration

If a scientist set up his lab on the moon, as long as he didn't look at the Earth he would feel no acceleration

nonagon

Basically I am saying because earth is the place allowed to travel by foot and since we can't leave that . I am talking in this sense . Ok , now you say

@ManishEarth Alright .

ManishEarth

@nonagon do the Newtonian Mechanics calculation for a frame on the moon. You'll see what I mean :)

nonagon

Yes , I get you , no acceleration felt

ManishEarth

4:28 PM

The CFF (psuedoforce) balances out the grav force, so the net force is nothing

@nonagon And that's all that matters in relativity: What you can measure from your own frame.

nonagon

Yes .

ManishEarth

So the moon is an ideal example of a looped universe as far as your problem goes

RhysW

@ManishEarth an object that goes all the way around another object, thats relatively stationary, and doesnt accelerate, seems to fit the bill!

nonagon

So how to resolve the twin paradox if Bob And Alice are twins and bob is on moon always and alice on earth , time will pass slow for Bob. He never felt any deacceleration , BUT Alice saw him accelerating towrds her

ManishEarth

@nonagon Gravitational time dilation. Yes.

RhysW

4:31 PM

but bob also saw alice accelerate towards him surely

bob might not move, but he can see alice getting closer

007

@ManishEarth the users(in elections) with -ve votes show just -1 score even if they have -20 net.is this by design?math.stackexchange.com/election

ManishEarth

@007 yes

Actually the users show 0, it's -1 only if you downvoted

the idea is that "users should never be negatively scored"

@RhysW Firstly, the situation needs to be tweaked:

Bob is on the moon, and Alice is standing in the path of the moon

In such a case, Alice feels grav time dilation because Alice is experiencing acceleration (to stay up).

nonagon

Still Alice will say bob's velocity changed .

ManishEarth

?

nonagon

Because Bob is circling around,

ManishEarth

4:35 PM

@nonagon yes, and what prevents that from happening in your universe?

You need to give a rigorous example of a "looped" universe

A spherical geometry is a rather popular one, yes

(btw, it is experimentally proven that if the universe is spherical it is so large that one cannot come back to where they started going at subluminal speeds before the universe runs out of entropy) Or something like that. Irrelevant here.

nonagon

I can say that wormholes dont exist

ManishEarth

@nonagon Why?

nonagon

Suppose universe is flat

And there's a wormhole somewhere and it is at position 1 lightyear from earth

ManishEarth

Time travel, right?

Google Closed Timelike Curve

Kip Thorne did a lot of work on this

nonagon

And it transports you -(1 light year) w.r.t. earth

Then who got younger

ManishEarth

4:39 PM

Got screwed over badly by the media as well at one point

@nonagon Wormhole=curvature=gravitational time dilation

nonagon

I should learn some more relativity .

ManishEarth

@nonagon Yeah...

nonagon

Do you find any sense in this question btw ?

ManishEarth

Btw: Wormholes are not forbidden. Wormholes which become time machines are--they end up destroying themselves within the planck time by refocussing vacuum fluctuations.

@nonagon Sense, yes, but it needs to be specific regarding the type of looped universe and the system.

nonagon

You understand all this or know for a fact ? I am sure all of this isn't taught at IITs

ManishEarth

4:42 PM

@nonagon it is taught in fact. I haven't formally done GR yet though.

nonagon

In first year , I mean

ManishEarth

There is a department elective course that runs on even semesters for General Relativity

nonagon

Good

Ok thank you .

007

@ManishEarth [vox populi] Can this badge be awarded more than once?

ManishEarth

nope

RhysW

5:13 PM

@ManishEarth can you help me keep the comments in check on my question please? its slowly turning into a massive discussion chain

ManishEarth

@RhysW Move it to chat :)

RhysW

@ManishEarth i cant, im not part of it

its two other people

ManishEarth

oic

RhysW

3

Q: If a planet ceased to exist, would the solar system crumble?

We know that all objects with mass exert forces on all other objects of mass such that $$ F = \frac{GMm}{R^2}.$$ What I'm curious to know is,if any planet were to wink out of existence, (not blow up, or collide or move) would this affect the orbits of the other 8 planets (Pluto will always ...

newtonian-mechanics newtonian-gravity solar-system stability

ManishEarth

Yeah, I'm already there

RhysW

5:15 PM

cool, just wanted to make sure you knew which one :P

ManishEarth

done

RhysW

much appreciated,

didnt expect it to create such a stir!

Gugg

Looks like someone doesn't allow hypotheticals at all. Which, I guess, is an acceptable philosophical stance.

user54412

@RhysW the reason is you absolutely cannot do such thought experiments in most fields of physics

ManishEarth

Well, you need to be specific about how you'd "disappear" a planet

user54412

5:20 PM

Newtonian mechanics is okay, but as Ben said, EM and GR and such don't mean anything if you suddenly remove mass

RhysW

My underlying question is not theoretical, regardless of how the planet vanishes my underlying question is how much does the solar system rely on being exactly the way it is, my theoretical question of losing a planet, forces answers to think through the effects this would have, which answers my question on stability

user54412

btw, this was a popular line of reasoning among philosopher/scientists c. 1500-1800 - suppose God steps and changes things, what happens then

Gugg

Can't you just use some QM, and ship the whole planet out of the galaxy?

user54412

@RhysW I understand, but you have to understand that the correct answer for, say, making an electric charge disappear, would be "no solution"

user54412

@Gugg that sounds dangerously close to requiring a self-consistent quantum gravity theory

RhysW

5:22 PM

@ChrisWhite but my question isnt how to make an electric charge dissappear, my question is the equivalent of what would happen to the rest of the electrons if one did

Gugg

@RhysW To avoid it, if you could have anticipated it, you could have asked whether a system exactly like our solar system without one planet, would be as stable as ours.

user54412

@RhysW true, I'm just warning against extending this reasoning to other branches of physics

RhysW

Fine, a wormhole opens up, swallows a planet, then closes itself, assuming the wormhole made no changes to the remaining planets orbit itself, what happens to their orbits due to the lost planet. happy? :P

Gugg

@ManishEarth Nice: "You have 10 seconds left for editing." A bit harsh, isn't it?

ManishEarth

@Gugg meh

RhysW

5:26 PM

@Gugg lol where is that?

ManishEarth

@RhysW try to edit a chat message and wait too long

RhysW

ahh

ManishEarth

It doesn't bother me, blue username ftw :)

RhysW

:(

Gugg

@ManishEarth Is "meh" some fancy Internet-speak? Or is it a sheep?

ManishEarth

5:27 PM

@Gugg meh = shrug = don't care :P

user54412

@ManishEarth I've been meaning to ask - are these chats auto-censored or anything?

ManishEarth

@ChrisWhite Nope

Gugg

By you, you mean?

user54412

I often see "(removed)" all over

ManishEarth

Ah

You can remove your own messages

Mods can remove anything

And spam/offensive flags can remove stuff

Gugg

5:28 PM

Within 10 seconds, I guess...

RhysW

(yes that was a challenge :P)

ManishEarth

@Gugg 5 minutes iirc

user54412

well, given that you are a machine, i guess the answer is "yes" :P

ManishEarth

If you flag something as spam/offensive, it gets shown to all users on chat with 10k network wide rep/or mod powers.

They can vote "valid/invalid" on the flag

When it reaches 6 (flags+valid votes), it gets autodeleted and the guy who posted it gets a 30min suspension from chat

Not sure if it's 6 (flags+valid votes) or 6 (flags + valid votes-invalid votes)

Gugg

Can a moderator pull a planet out of the solar system within 10 seconds?

4

user54412

5:40 PM

so i've answered 2 questions, asked none, and voted exactly 4 times on math.se, and this makes me eligible to vote in their election...

nonagon

@RhysW You can do one thing. Take charges such that they in terms of forces equal our solar system , as electrostatic force is about $10^40$ times stronger , your question kind of becomes energy efficient and also gets you the kind of calculation you need.

Gugg

@ChrisWhite So, who's it gonna be?

@ManishEarth Is there money involved? Obligations?

nonagon

Electromagnetic instead of electrostatic *

ManishEarth

@Gugg ?

Gugg

Being a moderator? Money? Obligations?

ManishEarth

5:44 PM

@ChrisWhite I used up a lot of my math.se rep in bounties. One of the bounties wasn't even on a question I cared about :P

@Gugg Nope

@Gugg Voluntary. We can step down whenever we want. We can have our diamonds removed if we screw up too much.

Gugg

@ManishEarth But staying away for a month wouldn't be a problem?

ManishEarth

@Gugg ?

Sorta

nonagon

@ManishEarth How is math overflow different from all other stackexchange sites ? Kind of more serious ?

ManishEarth

As long as we tell the team

@nonagon MO is an SE 1.0 site; back when SE used to sell the software. It's becoming part of the network in a couple of months.

Math Overflow is for research level math only

nonagon

SE used to sell ?

ManishEarth

5:46 PM

Yep

nonagon

Sites ?

ManishEarth

They had SO,SU,SF, and MSO, and possibly MAth

Which were theirs

And they sold the software to many sites. Dunno which ones.

nonagon

@ChrisWhite I have heard that in US students write paper on advanced theories in their UG ? is this true ? Like on M-theory ? etc.

@ManishEarth How much is SE network worth ?

ManishEarth

@nonagon no clue

Gugg

@ManishEarth Did anyone attempt a Sokal affair like thing on SE, and succeed. I.e., give a very good looking bogus answer, getting some up votes, and then getting a hundred up votes, just due to the voting dynamics?

ManishEarth

5:50 PM

@Gugg no clue

usually bad answers get downvoted eventually

especially when folks bring it up on meta

nonagon

One thing I don't understand , how some questions like which aren't theoretical , how do they get upvotes

Gugg

Funny pictures will help.

ManishEarth

What's wrong with that?

nonagon

I mean one of momentum question was useless according to me , still it got more upvotes than any other , some of which were better than that.

I mean like pop-science questions , as in someone one doesn't understand an advanced theory but wants to learn about blackholes , how is this ever going to help ?

ManishEarth

@nonagon Because they elicit good answers

And they are questions that pop up commonly

If something is useful to a wider audience, it is usually better

user54412

5:54 PM

@nonagon I knew some very smart students as an undergrad, but none of them were publishing about M theory or strings or anything like that

nonagon

But it isn't physics . I mean there is nothing you'll actually learn from it , just a couple of false intuitions .

ManishEarth

@nonagon really? I wouldn't say that

Gugg

What I am surprised about is that there's hardly any votes on the kg question (and its answers).

ManishEarth

Firstly, popsci gets people interested in physics

Secondly, giving more solid answers to these questions helps. A lot.

nonagon

It shouldn't be that way though , maths should do that .

ManishEarth

5:56 PM

@nonagon ?

nonagon

@ChrisWhite What do these very smart students do ? I mean how are you considering them to be smarter than you ? Or may be you are one of the very smart students you know .

ManishEarth

@nonagon Does it really matter who is "smarter"?

nonagon

@ManishEarth I mean , mathematics should be first step instead of Pop-Sci . Because then only you get a idea of what is actually being done .

Brandon Enright

Smarts isn't even quantifiable in a way that can be objectively compared.

ManishEarth

@nonagon Should be, yes. However, offering a low-overhead entry to physics is necessary as well

nonagon

5:58 PM

I mean if you know calculus , then if I tell you what instanantaneous velocity is , you'll appreciate it more .

ManishEarth

@nonagon so?

nonagon

So, I think questions that require layman's answers , example : tell me what a black hole is should be discouraged . First learn the math to appreciate what the black hole is .

Transcript for