The h Bar

Brandon Enright

02:59

Lately I've noticed some unusual upvoting of blatant low-quality homework questions. I wonder if someone is trying to counter the cleanup algorithm or influence our close voting habits?

Recent examples: physics.stackexchange.com/questions/144404/… and physics.stackexchange.com/questions/144492/… and physics.stackexchange.com/questions/144493/…

Granted people can vote however they choose but some real crap is getting upvotes.

Kyle Kanos

It's not just those 3 either

Brandon Enright

Oh no, it's almost every question.

Kyle Kanos

I've been seeing copy-and-paste HWs get upvoted

Brandon Enright

I tried to pick 3 from today I thought were particularly blatant about being homework.

Kyle Kanos

I guess it doesn't quite bother me too much because we're usually able to close them fast enough

Brandon Enright

03:10

Yeah it doesn't bother me either. I just have homework closing on the mind because Dilaton emailed me yesterday and again today to tell me that he's identified me as the worst of the close voting problem and that I must be politically motivated.

Kyle Kanos

Hmm, I'm not too far behind you in the stats page (2768 vs 3324) and I've not gotten any emails

Maybe he doesn't want another book list :/

Brandon Enright

Well he thinks I target "very high-level technical advanced topic theoretical physics questions" and basically said he thinks I'm doing it because I don't understand them

Kyle Kanos

He didn't add "legitimate" in there?

Brandon Enright

I do target questions I think are purely calculational in nature and that's often the "I was working on such-and-such advanced problem in my favorite physics book and..." which I think is the ones he really is upset about.

Kyle Kanos

Were those types of questions allowed over at TP.SE when it was alive?

Brandon Enright

03:19

TBH I'm not sure.

If I saw a meta post where the community agreed that advanced calculation help was on topic I'd change my stance on them.

I think the reason Dilaton rubs me the wrong way (and probably others) is that he has trouble separating his argument about what this site should be about from underhanded accusations that people are either dumb or somehow politically motivated to censor certain types of science questions.

Kyle Kanos

The only thing that really bothers me about him is how uneducated he is when it comes to the actual policies of this site vs what he thinks they should be

Like that Meta Post he cites when removing HW tags from "advanced" questions

The only answer to that question contradicts the post!

Brandon Enright

Yes he included a link to that post in his email to me today :-)

Kyle Kanos

Have you responded? Or plan to?

Brandon Enright

I'm actually responding to him now. I'm going to suggest he makes a meta post about primarily (or purely) calculational problems on advanced topics.

I don't think we should treat "advanced" learners any different than beginners. I think everyone agrees we should close questions that are basic number crunching or apply-the-formula type questions.

Kyle Kanos

He emailed me once after the Meta post "What is PO & how is it related to Physics.SE?"...I responded with a list of like 30 literature books he should read because he didn't know what newspeak was

Brandon Enright

03:30

Or even "I tried to apply the formula but I got the wrong answer, does anyone see where I went wrong" which is very common for even for questions even on advanced topics.

Kyle Kanos

That particular type of question probably could use its own Meta post

IIRC, the last time we dealt with HW questions, the community was rather split on those ones

Brandon Enright

Yeah it doesn't surprise me. Like I said, I'd rather not discriminate against beginners working on kinematics problems but allow the same type of question just because it's on general relativity or similar.

Anyways, that's what I'll suggest he does. Emailing me to tell me I should ignore questions I don't understand isn't very productive.

Brandon Enright

03:43

So this is what I wrote back to Diliton: pastebin.com/GkH9nnYC

David Z

06:07

For what it's worth, I never respond to emails about Stack Exchange (except from the SE team)

Ice Boy

That is worth something :)

David Z

06:36

Oh, I don't think I can make it to the chat session this week :-(

New_new_newbie

07:22

Mods: Regarding that declined flag (CW), thanks for the detailed comment for why you declined it. I find the reason sufficient and completely buy it, so I see no need to follow up on meta.

This was in response to the end remark "Feel free to follow up on meta", by some anonymous mod.

The reason make sense too, and makes SE more transparent and democratic. Thanks for the clarification :)

David Z

08:54

0

Q: where do newoton's come from?

Hi I study physics about three years at university but after these years I still don't know how Newoton derive his laws.I know that he tried to find the best model to describe the motions but It's a bit hard to believe for example how did he knew that an object move in constant velocity without ...

Curious as to why someone upvoted that

@New_new_newbie it's good that you feel the issue is resolved, of course, but I also want to mention that when there is a nontrivial or "interesting" reason for why a flag is declined, we often prefer to have it show up on meta. That way other people benefit from the explanation too.

In other words, if you ever have a flag declined for a reason that doesn't quite make sense, or if you feel the decline comment doesn't explain the decision, it's not because we (mods) are trying to be opaque or undemocratic. We're trying to push the issue out into the open to get community input on the decision and to set a public precedent.

New_new_newbie

11:12

@DavidZ Yes, that's a nice policy actually. In this case however, it is good that making a post CW is a decision to be taken by the post owner only, and not the mods. So, I have no issues with the decline reason.

But again, not as a mod, but personally, do you agree that it is a Danuesque canonical question?

David Z

11:40

@New_new_newbie which question was that?

New_new_newbie

12:05

@DavidZ This -

("All deletions are soft deletions, mods can see it") :P

Ice Boy

:O

except for those who are present

New_new_newbie

@IceBoy - The sole reason behind removing is political correctness. It is not the kind of things one should be caring about, but if I post a question some time, and the author of the post happens to know the answer, I don't want him to not answer thinking "Oh! He's that SoB who flagging my posts and costing me rep".

Of course, no will concede that it will be so, but of course, it will be so. :)

So, I humbly request "those present" to add more fiber to their diets :P

Ice Boy

12:26

@New_new_newbie I see nothing ;-)

David Z

12:58

@New_new_newbie I guess it looks like one

(BTW I don't know that there's anything to be gained by hiding the link)

ACuriousMind

14:00

Is it me, or is the site unusually slow right now?

Qmechanic

@ACuriousMind : Nah, it is also very slow for me.

Jim

14:17

i just thought maybe i was going really fast today. Bummer :(

Mew

Ah awesome, I thought it was just me

Kyle Kanos

14:54

It's almost 10 am for me and I have only 9 close votes left.....this must be some sort of record

ACuriousMind

@KyleKanos I've run out of votes every day in the last week...but not that early

Kyle Kanos

I've only actually done it once in the last 7 days

But I've gotten down to 4 for most of those days

And I technically started at 9 pm last night when it's 12 UTC

Here is the attached exam.   I was testing to see if Gmail would warn me that I should have an attachment since I used the word "attached" in the last email.    The only way to test it is to "send" so it didn't work.   So much for a good feature, right?

I just got that in an email from my TA boss

Jim

I remember gmail used to remind me that i was forgetting attachments

i just figured maybe I stopped forgetting. But maybe gmail stopped reminding

Kyle Kanos

15:11

Looks like it was a non-Google-affiliated Google labs thing

Wonder if they're "new version" that they released last year disabled it somehow?

ACuriousMind

17:17

@ACuriousMind I need answers with proper validity as zeroth law explains to us. — Vinayak 3 mins ago

Anyone understand that sentence?

Jun-Goo Kwak

@ACuriousMind You're on a downvoting closing thread spree.

Kyle Kanos

@ACuriousMind Not me, sorry

ACuriousMind

@Jun-GooKwak No, my voting behaviour has not changed over the last few months. It's a habit, not a spree.

JamalS

17:39

@ACuriousMind: Hi, I was wondering if you could help with an issue I've been pondering. How do you define a 'small' perturbation in GR? It doesn't make sense to simply say that the components of the perturbation are small relative to the background, as for example, any would seem large relative to the off-diagonal elements of the Schwarzschild metric. The reason I ask is because I'm performing some perturbation theory on a particular solution, and I'd like to address that issue in my paper.

ACuriousMind

@JamalS Uh...that's a good question. And I've no authoritative answer. Perhaps one could diagonalize background and perturbation and say the perturbation is small, if its eigenvalues are small? (I don't even know if that is true for "small" perturbations in practice...)

JamalS

18:19

@ACuriousMind: I'll look into it. I suspect it has to be handled case by case.

Physics Meta

21:32

0

Q: Let me write "lagrangian" in lower case

I wrote this question, intentionally using lagrangian, not Lagrangian. Google is a company name, a proper noun, but google is a verb; Fermi is a person name, but fermion is a noun. I think this is right, alike Feynmann. I know that Lagrangian is widely accepted and if I write different, readers w...

discussion

ACuriousMind

@PhysicsMeta Lolwut?

Danu

@KyleKanos Wow, really, e-mails? That's a lot of effort.

Kyle Kanos

Actually, I got one today

He asked that it's contents be kept private, so I'm not going to say what was in it

Danu

Dang

I got my whisky ready and everything

JamalS

21:48

What?

Bring me into the loop, Danu :)

@KyleKanos: Oh, thanks for putting that guy in his place :) What difference does it make to him if we correct it to "Lagrangian"? lol

Danu

@JamalS I was just referring to the juicy discussions between Dilaton and Kyle

JamalS

@Danu: Did you see the discussion I had with Curious regarding perturbation theory?

Do you have any suggestions?

Danu

Also, I am disappointed in the lack of participation in the history of science and mathematics SE by physics.SE users (except for @Omen, of course)!

@JamalS Can you just say something about linearization being a good approx?

that's the usual description of 'small'

just like with the flatness of manifolds (relevant in this context, I guess)

ACuriousMind

@Danu Sorry, but I know almost nothing about the historical details, and I'm not that interested in them to go and ask questions about it

Danu

@ACuriousMind You're really missing out. And I personally find certain parts of physics history essential to understanding what e.g. quantum mechanics or GR is about

JamalS

21:53

Indeed, the historical development of a field lends unique insights.

Danu

Does anyone know why the conserved quantity that arises from Noether's theorem is always called a current? Furthermore, do you think this is a physics or a history question?

JamalS

It's both a history and physics question.

There's likely to be a historical reason, and that original justification is based on physics.

Danu

yeah

I'll ask it on HSM

ACuriousMind

@Danu If you ask who named it and why, it's rather history, I think. I'd also think the reason is because it locally obeys a continuity equation - it flows through space, just like a fluid.

Danu

@ACuriousMind just hte continuity equation?

hmm...

JamalS

21:59

^Probably

Danu

I'll ask anyways

(It's funny, @ACuriousMind, now that you mention this I realize I thought about this before and reached this conclusion too)

^too much 'this' in that sentence

ACuriousMind

@Danu For me, it would be reason enough to call it current - but it may well be that the coiner of that term had something else in mind

Sometimes, I wonder how people come up with their questions...take this one. It's not bad, but never in a million years would I have wondered about the amount of sound energy coming from a burning log...

Phonon

22:29

hey there guys

Danu

1

Q: What is the reason for the 'electromagnetism terminology' when discussing the conserved quantities found through Noether's theorem?

In (theoretical) physics, it is customary to describe the system under consideration in terms of the Lagrangian. One of the major advantages of this approach is that it allows us to analyze the symmetries of the system in a systematic way. Arguably the most important result in this context is wha...

theoretical-physics history-of-terminology

@Phonon Hola

Phonon

how's it going?

ACuriousMind

@Danu FYI, That link's only visible to people that are in on the private beta

Danu

pretty good, pretty busy

@ACuriousMind Now you'll have to ask me for an invitation, now won't you? :D

Phonon

XD

ACuriousMind

22:38

@Danu What a devious plan. You may have overestimated my curiosity, though ;)

(I am aware of the irony of saying that, given my nick...)

Danu

ACuriousMind

lol

Danu

the good ol' rageface

many years since I saw that for the last time

(more like 2, actually)

Phonon

:)

somehow we always make a mess out of this chatroom :p

2

Danu

everybiody else left, lol

ACuriousMind

22:47

Damn it, it's not really anonymous who's starring here anymore ;D

Danu

It's... YOU!

Phonon

:)))))))

ACuriousMind

To cite a wise man:

::whistles and looks at the ceiling::

(I can't really whistle, especially not inconspicuously, though...)

Danu

I actually specialize in whistling (no joke)

ACuriousMind

@Danu Are there competitions or something?

Danu

22:52

No, but I can do some vibrating tones, and I practice everyday on my bike to/from uni ;D

ACuriousMind

Haha

I'm really not talented, musicwise - and in this case, I'm lucky if my "whistling" produces sound at all

But vibrating tones...I tip my hat to you, good sir! ;)

Danu

I'm really quite proud of it. Maybe I can find a way to record a few seconds

Phonon

I whistle so well, Chladni figures form up on my dusted books....

2

talk about a nerdy joke...right? :((

Danu

I've almost got my recording... lol

picosong.com/fDUX

the first part sounds a lil shitty lol, but oh well, you get the picture

ACuriousMind

23:10

@Danu Haha...you sound like an exotic bird or something :D

Danu

One of a kind, baby

ACuriousMind

@Phonon Is it bad that I had to google what Chladni figures are? (I know the figures, but I didn't recall the name)

Also, best filename ever :P

Danu

@ACuriousMind That's my go-to random filename

ACuriousMind

I cannot bring myself to give anything non-descriptive filenames, though I always find other people's random names funny

Danu

@ACuriousMind You may be suffering from a case of German.

ACuriousMind

23:14

@Danu Yeah, it runs in the family.

Danu

Seriously, quite a few of your fellow countrymen (and especially women) really need to let loose sometimes :P

ACuriousMind

I...don't disagree, really.

Phonon

@ACuriousMind no of course not :), that guy was awarded by Napoleon for discovering his famous figures ;)

ACuriousMind

Though I'm puzzled why you'd perceive women as more stuck-up than the men, I believe we are equal-opportunity cold-hearted robots ;)

Danu

@ACuriousMind It's probably just because of the physics women - they're more... antifeminine than the average, I'd assume.

Gonna go and try to catch some sleep now guys, MQM @ 8 AM tomorrow </3

ACuriousMind

23:25

@Danu Ouch, 8am is cruel. G'night :)

Danu

Tuesdays through Thursdays, my man

Phonon

@Danu gn8

ACuriousMind

@Danu You sure I'm a man? ;)

(On the internet, no one knows you're a dog...)

Phonon

LOL

37 chrome tabs open....never ending problem...you have the same issue @ACuriousMind ? :D

stuff you leave open to go back to later and to read, but you never get around to it, so they just keep accumulating...

ACuriousMind

@Phonon I mostly bookmark the stuff and then never read it :D

Phonon

23:37

:DD

@ACuriousMind btw, do you understand much from this answer? physics.stackexchange.com/questions/142746/…

I for one, am lost

ACuriousMind

@Phonon No, not really

I understand some individual steps, but the whole thing doesn't form a coherent picture for me

Phonon

yeah

Danu

@ACuriousMind ...meant it more like 'dude'

Phonon

what happened Danu? had a bad nightmare of algebraic geometry? :DDD

Danu

no, you guys kept pinging me on my phone, lol

Phonon

23:50

XD

you have SE set up on your phone? wtf

addict!

ACuriousMind

@Phonon You mean...you don't? :D

Danu

@ACuriousMind Now I finally understand this comment (the latter part)

Phonon

@ACuriousMind didn't even know there was an app for it

ACuriousMind

@Danu Ahhh...no, the we is not intended to mean any gendered subset of Germans.

@Phonon There are no bad dreams about algebraic geometry ;)

Danu

@ACuriousMind ...or so you say now! :P

Two suggestive comments in a row? Coincidence-meter says no! :D

ACuriousMind

23:56

Be careful with inferring from small sample sizes! :P

Phonon

:DD

please don't go there guys...

Danu

lol

are you thinking what I'm thinking?

Phonon

:DDD what are you thinking?

Danu

anyways, I don't really care about whether you have a penis or not (or TWO!)

Phonon

LOL

Danu

23:58

@ACuriousMind Who needs these fancy 'sigmas' when you've got intuition? ;-)

ACuriousMind

WTF did just happen in your minds there? :D

Phonon

hahahhaa

Danu

@ACuriousMind the fact that you don't know is very telling ;D

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