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3:04 AM
Hi, everybody.
 
3:52 AM
@DanielSank Sup!
 
4:06 AM
@Avantgarde hi
Just about to watch a movie.
 
Which one?
 
4:30 AM
@Avantgarde Guardians of the Galaxy
 
Never saw it (the first one). Good so far.
 
:)
enjoy!
 
user228700
5:05 AM
 
user228700
@JohnR: Morning :-) HOME, I am home!!
 
Chennai never looked so good! :-)
Is everyone back, or are they still on a bus somewhere?
 
user228700
Nope! :-) I'm pretty tired though. And also starving.
 
user228700
@JohnRennie No, they're on their way back on a different train. They'll be home by evening.
 
Aha, you did get train places for everyone in the end.
 
user228700
5:09 AM
Thankfully, yes! :-)
 
user228700
What's up with u?
 
So you're alone in the house and you get to cook whatever you want to eat - all day!!! :-)
 
user228700
If only :-( There's next to nothing to eat here.
 
Take-away pizza!!
 
user228700
Gotta finish washing my clothes and then go buy some milk.
 
user228700
5:12 AM
@JohnRennie I'll have bread and jam in the morning but yes, I think I'll have a pizza for lunch!
 
And there was some pudding you had last time, though I can't remember the details ...
 
user228700
Ah, yes, yes, butterscotch mousse :-)
 
user228700
I don't think I've got enough money on me to buy that as well though.
 
user228700
I mean, I have, but I've decided to start saving up for a trip to Darjeeling so I am going to spend my money as wisely as I can!
 
What's the plan for Darjeeling?
In the UK Darjeeling is mainly known for its tea.
Hi Dawood :-)
 
user228700
5:20 AM
Well, Darjeeling, Mussoorie...
 
user228700
There is no plan as of now. I only know that to go there would be a dream come true.
 
Missouri? In the USA?
 
user228700
Dusty old railway stations, tracks winding through the hills, Ruskin Bond, trams...
 
Missouri has an unreasonable number of towns named for famous places elsewhere.
 
user228700
@JohnRennie Oops, autocorrect :-)
 
5:24 AM
[Random question] Dependence of entropy on topological arrangement of components in a system?

(Actually, I am not sure whether it is physically possible for two systems to have the same spatial configuration but different connectivity, cause any attempt to put a connection in between the components and that "bridge" should count towards the entropy (even if said bridge may be something immaterial like a field), and thus changing the connectivity is basically the same as changing the average configuration of the bridge in phase space...)
 
@Kaumudi.H ah, yes, Mussoorie makes more sense :-)
Meanwhile I'm stuck in Wookey Hole, miles from anywhere, and it has been raining for 24 hours.
 
user228700
Read Ruskin Bond (/watch Barfi) and anybody will want to visit.
 
user228700
@JohnRennie Wtf, is it still raining?! Omg...
 
There's a massive storm system hovering over the UK. There have been flood warnings in several aresa.
 
user228700
Oh Gosh! :-(
 
5:27 AM
Isn't barfi a kind of food?
Why would you want to watch food? :-)
In my case watch it disappear :-)
 
user228700
Haha, yes, it's a sweet :-) Also a movie.
 
user228700
I'll brb. Gotta eat something.
 
6:16 AM
@JohnRennie Hi John. Not sure if I've missed you. My laptop is playing up.
And every time you talk about "Wookey Hole" I imagine Chewbacca hanging round nearby.
 
:-)
Wookey Hole is a village close to Wells in Somerset, England. It is within the parish of St Cuthbert Out. One possible origin for the name Wookey is from the Old English wocig (an animal trap)., although it is also a possible alteration from a Celtic word ogo (cave) referring to Wookey Hole Caves. The village of Wookey Hole is dominated by the Wookey Hole Caves tourist site which has show caves and a controversial crazy golf course which was built on the site of the village bowling green. The village has shops, a pub, restaurants, hotels and a campsite. The former paper mill building, whose water...
 
Is that where you live? It looks very quaint.
 
My mother lives in Wookey Hole and I'm down here visiting. I live in Chester, which is a medium size city in the north of England.
 
Right, I know where Chester is.
How is your mother's vision working out after the surgery?
 
It is very pretty, but out here in the countryside there is nothing to do. The nearest big town is an hours drive away.
@DawoodibnKareem It's gone well. I have to take her back for a checkup on Thursday, but so far it appears to have gone very well.
 
6:20 AM
@JohnRennie back in my days we used our imagination!
 
Oh that's good. I am lucky to have never had vision problems, so it's so easy to take such things for granted.
 
6:46 AM
278
A: What experiment would disprove string theory?

Luboš MotlOne can disprove string theory by many observations that will almost certain not occur, for example: By detecting Lorentz violation at high energies: string theory predicts that the Lorentz symmetry is exact at any energy scale; recent experiments by the Fermi satellite and others have showed t...

8
Q: What experiment would disprove loop quantum gravity?

Crystal OpticsLoop Quantum Gravity (LQG) is a theory of quantum space-time that attempts to describe the interconnection between general relativity and quantum mechanics. It's main postulate is the granularity of space on the quantum scale. Though, is there an experiment that can disprove it? Some ideas of an...

Now, someone should make "What experiment would disprove causal dynamical triangulation?"
 
That someone could be you.
 
Nobody cares about CDT
You might as well ask about non-commutative geometry
 
I kinda lost track of which are the popular QG candidates, surely won't be just String theory and LQG nowadays?
 
7:05 AM
Must be time for you to lead a comeback then.
 
I think LQG took a hit after the measurements of light dispersion
 
Why do programming professors teach their students to store money in floating point data types?
 
because money can inflate
 
Well, yes. But they mostly do it in exercises where you're just adding and subtracting amounts.
 
That was a joke. On a serous note, I don't know the answer.
 
7:10 AM
There are cases where a floating point data type makes sense for money, but it certainly shouldn't be the default that everyone goes for.
 
I've forgotten so much of my C++. :(
 
It annoys me that Stack Overflow has thousands upon thousands of questions where someone has posted code with money stored as double.
And it annoys me again when graduates join the workforce and need to be undoubled.
 
heh
 
Sorry, I'm just in a ranty kind of mood.
I realise this isn't the right room.
 
It's alright
 
SBM
7:18 AM
hello
 
hey SBM
 
SBM
@Avantgarde forgotten?
 
@DawoodibnKareem: in these days of millisecond trading it may well be necessary to store fractions of a cent, penny or whatever. So doubles may be needed for currency.
 
SBM
yes
good afternoon @Avantgarde
 
@JohnRennie Certainly. That's why I said "...There are cases where a floating point data type makes sense for money..."
 
7:20 AM
@SBM Forgotten what?
 
Haha, I got the joke that time.
 
My eyes are bleeding
0
Q: How does excitations in quantum field works?

Bertel How does excitations in a quantum field propagate? An analogy to this is ripples on a pund. However, these ripples extends outwards in a 360 degree circle, which is not how particles behave. "DOES THE EXCITED STATE TRAVEL IN A STRAIGHT LINE IN ONE DIRECTION? Why is the excitations in quantum fi...

 
SBM
10 mins ago, by Avantgarde
I've forgotten so much of my C++. :(
 
@DawoodibnKareem actually even then I'm not sure it's safe to use a double. I would guess the resolution is predetermined, e.g. thousands of a cent, and still stored as an int.
 
@JohnRennie Yes, I'd prefer to use some kind of decimal type for those cases too.
 
7:21 AM
Oh yeah. I enjoyed programming in C++ some years ago. I've been out of practice for a while now. It's ok though, since I didn't need it reallly.
 
> People should never underestimate that all caps has a luminosity of at least 100 times of normal text, blindness can ensure in extreme cases
 
The case where it makes sense to use a double is where you're calculating stuff like how much money you need to save every week if you want to retire as a millionaire (given suitable values for your current age, the interest rate and so on).
 
blindness can ensure in extreme cases :-)
 
SBM
@Secret It's unnecessary emphasis
 
@DawoodibnKareem I guess doubles are fine anywhere that you don't care about rounding errors
 
7:23 AM
I used to know someone who lost his job by not caring about a rounding error.
 
@DawoodibnKareem if they were responsible for handling my money I'd fire them too!!
 
It amounted to something like one penny per week over several years, for each of hundreds of thousands of customers.
(Do you say "penny" for 1/100 of a pound sterling? I know the plural is "pence" but I've never needed the singular before).
 
@DawoodibnKareem Yep
 
SBM
I guess so.
oh
 
that's a lot of money
 
7:29 AM
Regardless, I don't believe in firing someone for an honest mistake.
It's a lot of money, but it's not like he embezzled it.
 
well, believing someone's 'honesty' can often be on shaky grounds
moreover, the number of people involved was huge
 
I also believe that if one person's mistake causes that kind of loss, then there's something wrong with the business' processes. This is what things like code review and system testing are for. It's kind of my mantra that every bug in a software system is the result of at least two people stuffing up.
 
True ...
 
But again, I'm saying this in the wrong chat room, aren't I? This is physics, not software engineering.
 
SBM
oh no worries
if the entire chatroom was only filled with physics it'd be monotonous
 
7:34 AM
speak for yourself
Physics is great
 
I know, but the Stack Exchange network is already overpopulated with computer geeks.
 
... Including many of the people in this one :P
 
It's ok
 
geek is a term used by people reluctant to admit that what they actually are is a nerd :-)
Me, I'm a nerd and what's more I'm a happy nerd :-)
 
7:39 AM
For everyone in this room: What are your interested in other than physics and mathematics?
 
The usual stuff
The movies
Books
Music
Vidyah gehms
 
gemz
I could never really read books. Lots of music though, yeah
 
@Avantgarde sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll pretty much covers it.
 
hahaha
 
And reading science fiction ...
Or all four at once!
 
7:42 AM
Nice
:P
 
Yeah, "sex, drugs and reading science fiction" doesn't quite have the same ring to it.
 
Obviously you don't remember the role playing satanism scare of the olden days
 
@Slereah are you kidding. I routinely listen to rock tracks backwards for the satanic messages.
 
SBM
@Avantgarde programming
 
Though I was really startled to find "+---" in the latest Black Sabbath album.
 
7:44 AM
@JohnRennie Any good ones?
 
SBM
reading also is interesting if the book is good
 
@JohnRennie Throw it out
 
@JohnRennie +---?
 
Music, books, tea, a bit of computer games, tea, computers (and computer science), tea, food in general, tea, the list goes on...
 
@Avantgarde old joke, and not very funny :-)
 
7:45 AM
@Mithrandir24601 I think you forgot to put tea in there
 
SBM
no
 
@Avantgarde Ah, so I did. Edited
 
SBM
so much tea
 
Just counted - I have 23 different teas, then some more at my parents'
 
How do you sleep afterwards?
 
7:55 AM
Sorry, I'm energy drink
 
@DawoodibnKareem I don't drink them all at once!
 
Your search - +--- - did not match any documents.

Suggestions:

· Make sure that all words are spelled correctly.
· Try different keywords.
· Try more general keywords.
 
+--- and -+++ refer to signatures of the spacetime metric
-+++ is the superior one
 
Now I'll never get John's joke.
Oh, I see. Don't know what it has to do with Black Sabbath, but never mind.
 
SBM
hmm
 
8:07 AM
I hate "what does my professor mean by X" questions. The only correct answer is "ask your professor".
 
Professor X you say
 
No, I mean "our professor told us to floople blarg thlug. What did he mean?"
 
He might be having a stroke
 
Hello everyone
Anybody heard of this country
lol
 
oh come on
 
SBM
8:22 AM
fruit salad; :|
 
Surprising isn't it
Nowhere to be seen, such a place. I need to book tickets
 
8:37 AM
[Random] Consider the following metric: $$-x dt^2+r d\theta^2+r d\phi^2+dr^2+$$
(Ok I need to lookup how a torus is expressed in polar coords. again...)
 
what about the metric tho
 
I am trying to calculate a piece of looping space translating in the x direction as time progress
The spacetime manifold as a result should look like a slanted prism with the base an ordinary torus and the height aligning the time direction I guess..
 
@Secret that's a bit like Rindler space, though your metric is singular at $x=0$, which makes it a bit useless since the rest frame of an observer is singular.
 
You don't need to have a fancy torus
Just take a flat torus and a slanted curve
 
9:05 AM
Geneva is too expensive
Good lord
And everyone speaks bloody french
 
uh, but a flat torus has 4 degrees of freedom (because it embbeds only in $\Bbb{R}^4$ or above), if a flat torus is used, then what degrees of freedom will be left behind for it to "translate by 1m along the x direction" for example?
 
Why are you embedding something
Spacetimes don't need to be embedded
 
Spacetime has 3+1 dimensions, but a flat torus has 4 degrees of freedom, so it would use up the 3+1 dimensions, thus the remaining direction where it can translate will not be independent of the existing 3+1 directions?
(I am most likely wrong, because I am trying to use geometric intuition in $\Bbb{R}^n$ to think about how it will look like on a spacetime diagram...)
...uh wait a sec, I think I got something really wrong about my understanding of flat torus. Nvm then...
 
Hello every one
 
"One can think of the string field as a linear combination with momentum-dependent coefficients (fields) of states of the first quantized ghost number one space."
$\int d^{26}x$
the horror
 
9:19 AM
I need help in solve homework problem coul any body help me please
 
What's it?
 
Geneva
 
That was for user
But nice
And French is nice, no?
Hard, though. For me :D
 
9:20 AM
ok fine, so it has two degrees of freedom as expected. I really have to stop trying to glue edges of manifold and be content to just label them as "identifying these edges together"
 
I can't uploding it in the chat
Work and energy problem
 
What's not good about French?
@user82922 Just ask here
 
I can't speak it
 
me neither
 
My problem is that when dealing with manifolds, I always end up unconsciously gluing the edges that is marked, thus unconsciously embed the resulting object in higher dimensional space
 
9:23 AM
they don't speak English too there?
 
for example, this gluing instruction will give you the 2-torus, flat or not
but if you try to physically roll it up as instructed you will only ever get the ordinary 2-torus and not the flat one
 
user228700
Yo, @Balarka:
 
It's not compulsory to embed your 2-torus in Euclidean 3-space.
 
user228700
 
I was about to say "oh my gosh those are expensive" till I saw the price was in rupees.
 
user228700
9:25 AM
Ah, haha :-)
 
that's cheap in INR
 
user228700
Relatively, yes, certainly.
 
user228700
The laptop's with my parents so I am still yet to download them films :'-( @JohnR
 
Another metric I had in mind is this one:

$$ds^2 = b(t)(-\left(\alpha^2 - \beta_i \beta^i\right) \,dt^2 + 2 \beta_i \,dx^i \,dt + \gamma_{ij}\,dx^i\,dx^j)-dt^2+dx^2+dy^2+dz^2$$

where $b(t)$ is a smooth concave function
(Basically the alcuberrie drive plus the charging up and powering down bit, modelled very simply as the expansion and contraction of the bubble region of the alcuberrie metric)
 
the "charging up" bit is called a logistic function
or somesuch
 
9:31 AM
Actually, if you convert it into any of the world's "big currencies" it's extremely cheap.
 
If there is powering down it is a tophat function
 
@Kaumudi.H no hurry.
 
user228700
@DawoodibnKareem Unfortunately, yeah.
 
why unfortunately? :P
 
user228700
@JohnRennie Thank you :-)
 
9:34 AM
@Kaumudi Fun. I am not sure if I support my previous suggestion of reading that book though, but since you decided to buy it...
It's a good book.
 
@Kaumudi.H though of course it means you can't watch any films today.
I must admit that when I'm travelling my laptop never leaves my sight.
 
One interesting thing can be done with that metric is considering a spacecraft powering up the alcuberrie drive, then 'travel' for t seconds, and then powering it down again. This will help shed some light on how a more realistic alcuberrie drive will function (though I am suspecting a more realisitc powering up/down will involve the bubble expanding along the length of the craft instead of isotropically)

Not sure if anyone had done that calculation before since as far I knew from talking to GR people, the alcuberrie metric is never modelled in a dynamical situation
 
user228700
@JohnRennie Says who? They'll be back by evening! :-)
 
@Kaumudi.H OK, you can't watch any films right now :-)
 
user228700
@JohnRennie My parents wanted it to work in the train...
 
9:36 AM
Have you tried putting the film on a USB drive and watching it on the TV?
 
Dynamic alcubierre drive have been done before
 
@Mithrandir24601 Hey if you have a chance, please check out my post.
 
It's not a terribly good idea for various reasons
 
@Kaumudi.H you realise they'll be downloading pornography and blaming it on you :-)
 
user228700
@BalarkaSen Huh. Now what makes you take that back?
 
user228700
9:37 AM
@JohnRennie Yes, but no subtitles :-(
 
user228700
@JohnRennie Lol.
 
@JohnRennie Good one, man. Everyone on earth wants to imagine their parents downloading pornography.
 
@DawoodibnKareem I thought that would make everyone feel vaguely nauseous :-)
@Kaumudi.H ah, yes.
 
user228700
> vaguely nauseous
 
user228700
Correct.
 
9:39 AM
Meh, I know my parents only watch boring porn, so it's okay
 
:: John wishes he had never started this ::
 
user228700
@JohnRennie That is the appropriate reaction :-P
 
It's a novel about utter despair and degenerate thoughts and deranged logic of the Underground Man. I can connect to him but I am not sure if I am doing good recommending it to everybody
 
Ok, and including the drive being fried by the semiclassical radiation produced at the bubble
 
9:41 AM
Yeah Alcubierre bubbles have horizons
those are Bad
 
@Kaumudi.H: your parents won't get that much work done. Your laptop is really designed for power, it has the fastest of the third gen i7M CPUs, but as a result it doesn't have a stunning battery life.
 
user228700
@BalarkaSen Are u worried that those to whom you recommend this will start identifying with the protagonist's principles? Fret not, I'm fairly certain that I won't.
 
user228700
@JohnRennie They have the power cord with them! :-)
 
Alcubierre horizons are easy to show if you switch to static coordinates
(Alcubierre metrics are really static spherically symmetric spacetimes)
 
9:42 AM
@Kaumudi.H There is power available on the train?
 
user228700
@JohnRennie Yep!
 
Wow, then that's better than UK trains!
 
@JohnRennie Swiss trains have power too
 
French trains often do not officially have power available
BUT
Last year, I discovered that most cars have a hidden power outlet
So I usually try to find it
 
Hidden WHERE
 
9:44 AM
The ceiling above one of the seat
 
No, I mean, there's not many examples of people out there who turned out to be murderer and criminal from reading Notes :P Just that peering through a sewage of a brain is not a pleasant experience; I am not sure if your literary tastes are like that
 
@BernardoMeurer cool :-) Though you need to warn them about the massive power surge before you plug your monster of a laptop in :-)
 
But do read it, see if you like it
 
user228700
@BalarkaSen Lol, OK. I want to explore different genres so I will read it anyway.
 
It's not just an arbitrary story, keep in mind, but the literary work that bootstarted existentialism after Kierkegaard
 
user228700
9:45 AM
@BalarkaSen I know, I know...
 
a'right. I'm off.
 
user228700
@BalarkaSen Bye!
 
@JohnRennie Hehehe, it's not that power hungry
Today I go back to Portugal
I have purchased
- Cigars
- Chocolate
- Absinthe
- A knife
 
@BernardoMeurer To be fair I think it drinks less than 20W when you aren't recompiling the kernel. Though that was before you stuffed it full of memory.
 
And that's all I did here
 
9:47 AM
@BernardoMeurer no hairbrush?
 
@JohnRennie Meh, DDR3 isn't particularly demanding on power
@JohnRennie I saw a nice one but it cost upwards of 100 CHF
Which I do not have
 
It's not the cheapest country, that Switzerland.
 
It's the most expensive place on earth
No joking
 
I am guessing based on that, the TARDIS spacetime also have similar horizon problems because for each time slice, there's basically two alcuberrie warp bubble facing in the opposite direction (referring to the plots in that TARDIS paper), which means, any spacetime that has that bubble like geometry /-/ will probably collapse under the (forgot name, but definitely not unruh) radiation
 
A meal for two at any restaurant you end up paying ~55 CHF
Which is ridiculous
I pay 30€ in lisbon for me and a girl and we eat like kings
 
9:50 AM
half of that here
or maybe even less
 
To be fair 30€ wouldn't buy you much in London, though life is a lot cheaper up here in t'North.
 
user228700
 
user228700
Man, if I only had the money...
 
Wow, that's scenic!
Where is it?
Darjeeling?
 
user228700
@JohnRennie Yeah!
 
9:51 AM
@JohnRennie London is for suckers
Long live Chester
 
That looks vaguely like Thomas the Tank Engine.
 
@Kaumudi.H would it be that expensive to visit? I would have guessed that the train to Darjeeling wouldn't cost that much.
 
user228700
And I've already wasted Rs. 495 on pizza this afternoon :-( It'll be years before I make it.
 
> wasted Rs. 495 on pizza
That's not a waste :-)
 
Dominos?
 
user228700
9:53 AM
@JohnRennie From Chennai?! Who the heck travels all the way to Darjeeling from Chennai by train?!
 
Would you fly? I guess that would cost a lot more.
 
@Kaumudi.H Just walk there
 
People travel across Europe by train for fun ...
 
user228700
 
9:54 AM
I love me a good train
 
Chennai to Darjeeling is a looong distance
 
choo-choo!
 
user228700
@JohnRennie Well, yeah, but the trains suck here!
 
Damn, Kaumadi is from the Tamil Kingdoms
 
user228700
@JohnRennie It would, yeah...
 
user228700
9:55 AM
@BernardoMeurer Lol, no, I am not. I'm really from that adjacent region of Kerala. I just live here. It is home though.
 
Flights inside India can't be that expensive? I find flights to EU countries for <<100€ all the time
@Kaumudi.H S P I C E S
 
It depends. If they're popular destinations during peak tourist times, prices surge. Otherwise it's alright
 
user228700
@BernardoMeurer Yep yep.
 
Again, sorry for answering your question Kaumudi
 
user228700
I'd still need a bunch of money for accommodation, food etc.
 
user228700
9:58 AM
@Avantgarde :-P Dude, it's no problem.
 
@Kaumudi.H Get friends, crash at their place
I'm at my cousin's
I pay by assembling IKEA furniture
I assembles a bed, a sofa, a shelf and a cupboard yesterday
 
user228700
I'm saving up though! I'm Rs. 5000 up already! (the other bit seemed a bit like bragging so I edited it out :-P)
 

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