The h Bar

ACuriousMind

4:00 PM

@obe Why does it "matter"?

Sir Cumference

@obe Who cares if it ends?

ACuriousMind

Why would eternal things "matter" more than fleeting ones?

user218912

i'm not a philosopher, don't ask me these questions :p

John Rennie

This got suddenly deep ...

user218912

it just feels like they matter more.

ACuriousMind

4:01 PM

@obe What does "matter" even mean? A large amount of pseudo-philosophy on the "point" of doing things falls flat because it doesn't stop to carefully consider what it means for something to "matter".

Sir Cumference

@obe Eternity is overrated

user116211

@ACuriousMind ohh.

Secret

@JohnRennie stagnation is a slow death

boredom is one of the most horrible psychological states, and has been responsible drive of a lot of atrocities

Sir Cumference

@obe The point of life is to do what you want with it. You've got a bunch of years, see what you can do.

vzn

@Secret (thx for interest.) agreed. yet rome wasnt built in a day. some leading/ visionary scientists are slowly working on it. it will take years. its already been years.

ACuriousMind

4:03 PM

@JohnRennie Sometimes we degenerates surprise you, eh? :P

user218912

@ACuriousMind do you know what the current idea(s) for something to "matter" is?

Sir Cumference

Doesn't matter if it isn't eternal, it'll still be worth the time

ACuriousMind

@obe That depends entirely on who you ask.

user218912

@ACuriousMind you? xD

John Rennie

@ACuriousMind Bosons the lot of you!

I'm a fermion, I'm exclusive!

Sir Cumference

4:04 PM

@obe It has mass

Secret

I am a superposition of a fermion and boson, I can be degenerate or non degenerate if I want to

John Rennie

@Secret You're super (symmetric)!!

Sir Cumference

@Secret You're super degenerate

Congrats

user218912

lol

ffahim

Guys... are the number of all electrons and protons constant in this universe?.. I meant is it ever possible for man to create a single proton or electron?

Sir Cumference

4:06 PM

@ffahim Pair production?

user218912

it's just that I don't see a point in learning qft and doing all these problem sets if I'm gonna die anyway...

ffahim

Sorry @SirCumference

I don't get that

John Rennie

@SirCumference that doesn't change the net number of electrons because it always creates a poistron as well as an electron.

Sir Cumference

@ffahim High energy gamma rays can split into electrons and positrons

John Rennie

@ffahim look at ...

Lepton number

In particle physics, the lepton number is a conserved quantum number representing the number of leptons minus the number of antileptons in an elementary particle reaction. In equation form, L = n ℓ − n ℓ ¯ , {\displaystyle L=n_{\ell }-n_{\overline {\ell }}~,} so all leptons have assigned a value of +1, antileptons −1, and non-leptonic particles 0. Lepton...

ACuriousMind

4:09 PM

@obe I think nothing "matters", i.e. there are no objective meanings, no "points" of doing things to be found. But things can matter to you, i.e. you can adopt a (subjective) worldview in which certain things are declared to be desirable. As for which worldview to adopt, I haven't found the One True Worldview yet :P

John Rennie

As far as we know lepton number can't change so the net number of leptons can't change. NB I say leptons because electrons, muons and taus can all change into each other. So the number of electrons can (temporarily) change e.g. if an electron turns into a muon.

ACuriousMind

@ffahim We can create protons and electrons, just look at $\beta$-decay.

Sir Cumference

@ACuriousMind I was thinking about something

user218912

@ACuriousMind cool viewpoint, never thought of it that way.

Sir Cumference

Say pair production happens, and by chance, the positron undergoes positron capture in some nearby antimatter atom

ffahim

4:11 PM

Ohh.. but the question came in my mind while reading biology.. when mitosis happens there creates new electrons and protons...

Secret

@obe Newscientist basically have the same conclusion as Acuriousmind when they talk about the purpose of life in one issue

ACuriousMind

@JohnRennie You have to include the neutrinos there, because the various forms of $\beta$-decay/inverse $\beta$-decay change "electron/muon/tau numbers"

John Rennie

Oops, yes.

ACuriousMind

@ffahim No, mitosis doesn't do that.

Sir Cumference

@ffahim Mitosis does none of htat

ACuriousMind

4:13 PM

Mitosis is cell division, it divides everything that's in the mother cell at that point up among the two daughter cells.

Sir Cumference

That's molecular arranging

John Rennie

There used to be a band called Mitosis ...
... but they split up.

Sir Cumference

@JohnRennie ...

user218912

lol

Secret

@ffahim What seemed like something duplicated is basically split from the mother cell, thus the number of electrons and protons inside stays constant and should be the same as that of the mother cell when you add them all up in the daughter cells

0celo7

4:14 PM

@ACuriousMind how the hell do you know that?

ACuriousMind

@obe It's a pretty standard variant of existential nihilism, really.

@0celo7 Because I paid attention in biology class?

user218912

@0celo7 it's already been established he knows everything. :p

user218912

@ACuriousMind I wouldn't know, never read any philosophy xD

Secret

Th nihilism I have when I was emotionally frustrated is a type of straw nihilism (yes, check TV Tropes for that term). Basically nothing is more beautiful and perfect than everything become nothingness itself

For me in all my other emotion states, I am agnostic

John Rennie

Nihilism is a curiously adolescent male phenomenon ...

The rest of us discovered sex and now life has a purpose ;-)

Secret

4:17 PM

My purpose of life is simple: To unlock the mysteries of nature

ACuriousMind

@JohnRennie It's the natural act of rebellion after you've been typically been taught "purposes" and "meanings" by others and didn't really question them up to that point.

user116211

I thought Nihilists were terrorists.

John Rennie

@Secret you seriously need to get laid more often.

ACuriousMind

@MAFIA36790 What.

Terrorists are typically not nihilists because it takes a great deal of conviction in your higher goal to go kill a bunch of innocents

user116211

I read few years ago; can't remember.

user116211

4:19 PM

My history lessons.

user116211

Maybe prior or during WW1.

John Rennie

Are you mixing them up with anarchists?

0celo7

@ACuriousMind I did too, but how do you remember it?

user116211

I remember I read them as some group of terrorists.

user116211

@0celo7 This is one of the few things you can't forget.

ACuriousMind

4:21 PM

@JohnRennie I hope so, because the only context in which I could imagine nihilists being called terrorists is ideological propaganda :P

user218912

@0celo7 I have the same problem, I always purge my mind of things I learned before when I don't need them anymore.

user116211

Wait, let me google.

ACuriousMind

@0celo7 I can't answer that question, I don't do anything to remember it

Secret

Like most people, I tend to forget things I have no use for a long time, but present with the correct trigger, they will usually be recalled or relearnt very quickly

user116211

WTH; white terror? Nay; I couldn't remember I read that.

user218912

4:24 PM

nihilism is a meme now though

user116211

is it?

user218912

kind of

user116211

ohh.

user218912

but that's barely surprising since basically everything is a meme now lol

user116211

@obe Find a meme on Bourbaki then.

John Rennie

4:27 PM

Is it just me isn't seeing obe's gravatar? I just get the chrome missing image symbol.

ACuriousMind

@JohnRennie I had that too, I reloaded the page and it went away

user116211

@JohnRennie refresh it.

ACuriousMind

Or rather, the error went away. The image came back :D

user218912

@JohnRennie I could set my avatar to the missing image symbol xD

John Rennie

I've just tried refreshing and it made no difference. I'm seeing the big gravatar but not the little one.

user116211

4:28 PM

I noticed that blank image for a brief amount of time.

user218912

maybe I should leave and come back?

John Rennie

Nope, still missing. Oh well.

user116211

Well, I'm using Opera.

user218912

fixed?

user218912

@MAFIA36790 why in the world would you use that?

user116211

4:29 PM

What?

user116211

Opera is good.

user218912

vs chrome?

user218912

doubt it.

John Rennie

Nope.

user218912

oh

user218912

4:30 PM

try clicking my avatar on the top right

user116211

Click on his image. See what happens.

user218912

it should fix

John Rennie

But then we nihilists don't care about these things. It's all futile anyway :-)

I'll go and find an Archduke to bomb.

user218912

lol

user116211

very well.

EwokNightmares

4:32 PM

anyone used sequential analysis before?

MetaEd

user116211

._.

user116211

Where in the world could you get that?

MetaEd

@MAFIA36790 It seems to have come from a fake meme generator. Which, for Bourbaki, is perfect.

user218912

perhaps to stop being nihilistic I should find someone else to care about because I don't care about myself :p

John Rennie

4:35 PM

What language is that? Google Translate is just shrugging its shoulders ...

user116211

@obe about the girl?

user116211

@JohnRennie Maybe French.

John Rennie

No umlauts in French

user116211

ohh.

user218912

@MAFIA36790 maybe! idk...

Loong

4:38 PM

@JohnRennie Swiss German

John Rennie

Aha, thanks :-)

user116211

Master @loong, kudos.

0celo7

4:51 PM

@MAFIA36790 do you know there's only one h in "oh"?

user116211

oh.

Secret

I am even lazier, I use O sometimes when I meant Oh

ffahim

Sorry guys for my poor knowledge in biology... :-(

ACuriousMind

@Loong I understand it except for the "chonch au", what does that mean?

John Rennie

@ACuriousMind what do the bits you understand translate into in English?

ACuriousMind

5:02 PM

@JohnRennie "Chonch au" is Bourbaki? / I don't think you've ever heard of it.

Could also be "I don't think I've ever heard of it", I'm not sure what grammatical person "hesch" is.

Shing

is it me, or we can no longer tag @user in any comments?

John Rennie

@ACuriousMind Thanks. I recognise ghört as similar to gehört, but the rest of completely defeats me.

@Shing it works for me

ACuriousMind

@JohnRennie "glaub" = "glaube ich"; "nonie" = "noch nie"; "devo" = "davon"

@Shing What do you mean?

0celo7

Holy shit, that is just mangled German

ACuriousMind

Are you perhaps trying to @-reply to the author of the post?

0celo7

5:06 PM

Almost Pfälzisch lol

@ACuriousMind wtf is conch au?

John Rennie

There are restrictions on pinging in comments, though i can never remember the details.

Shing

@ACuriousMind I can't tag ppl in the comments now.

maybe something wrong with my firefox

ACuriousMind

@0celo7 Read my message two messages above that :P

user116211

@Shing Which post?

0celo7

Ah. I thought you said that but couldn't find the message when looking to confirm.

ACuriousMind

5:08 PM

@Shing What do you mean? What exactly happens when you try?

Shing

@MAFIA36790 My post asking about many world interpretation

@ACuriousMind I typed @Ch ... then there are no option above my "@Ch..."

user116211

@Shing I guess you were contacting one of the posters.

user116211

@Shing It won't happen.

0celo7

@ACuriousMind do physicists use "for finite l" to mean "for l not zero"

user116211

Unless there are comments by users other than you and him.

ACuriousMind

5:11 PM

@Shing Christoph wrote that post you're trying to comment on. The author of a post is automatically notified, you don't need to ping them.

@0celo7 yes

user116211

Yes^.

Shing

okay, I see

ACuriousMind

physics.SE: The only place where "prepare your cat-killing device" is a perfectly normal thing to say.

0celo7

@ACuriousMind 4chan.

@ACuriousMind do you agree that it's a retarded terminology?

ACuriousMind

@0celo7 Nothing on 4chan is "perfectly normal".

@0celo7 It's stupid and confusing.

Secret

5:13 PM

To be read in the afternoon tmr: Symplectic groups

ffahim

A tennis ball was in free falling state.. 10s later it hit the ground... how high it will come bouncing off?

Secret

Caption: Current progress:

user116211

@Secret WTH.

Secret

plus 10 more A4 papers of wikipedia pages copies

(Well not exactly word by word copies, else it is not notes)

I seriously procrastinated too much, I should have already got to lie groups at least a week ago

0celo7

@ACuriousMind How dare you

Secret

5:19 PM

But there seemed to be no easier way to organise and project more than 20 pages of wikipedia into one A4 paper so I can read it all at once

One of my study methods relies on taking a birds eye view on whatever I am trying to read, and then the various subsections will start to link together when I read from that vantage point

0celo7

@Secret type it

People will not think you have schizophrenia

user116211

@Secret Can you read this? I can't.

Secret

It's not easy to read, but it is meant to be temporary for the next step: Convert them into actual lecture slides to make a self study notebook

user116211

Pretty hardwork.

Secret

I once done that back in my year 2 electromagnetism subject and those powerpoint slides still help me a ton.

It is, especialy for people liek me who just cannot pay attention and focus easily

Caption: A similar philosphy being employed to project the key concepts of susskind's book onto a whiteboard roughly a month ago:

0celo7

5:27 PM

...

Physics Guy

@Secret What's that 'bout ?

Secret

Picking out the key concepts from susskind's Theoretical minimum QM book

that was done when about a month ago I was beefing up my quantum learning

ACuriousMind

@Secret Why the odd column structure? It's almost impossible to read anything there

Secret

It's wrote in the book order from left to right, top to bottom

0celo7

Because he has schizophrenia. He should get help...

ACuriousMind

5:29 PM

I mean, I also have condensed things onto A4 because we were allowed to bring one sheet of A4 to an exam, but it looked more like this:

0celo7

Does ACM have OCD?

Waiting

ACuriousMind

@0celo7 Please don't allege that other people are mentally ill unless they've said so.

Secret

ACM: Your style looks more of the horizontal type

ACuriousMind

Yes, because we read from top to bottom and from left to right!

0celo7

That looks horrible

Secret

5:32 PM

Well, mine read exactly in the same way, but columns takes precedence (in order to (somehow?) save paper)

0celo7

Cursive is just such a bad handwriting style

Literally never looks good

Secret

Some of my physics friends have a "block structure" for their A4 exam sheets where they first partition the paper into blocks of variosu sizes, then wrote things horizontally inside each one

0celo7

@ACuriousMind nothing against you of course

You hate my shoes, so now we're even

Secret

@Secret To elaborate, this is because I tend to overuse space when presenting the same amount of information with horizontal taking precedence compared to vertical

NB: ACM's A4 paper is quite readable for me

yang mills and renormalisation stuff

0celo7

@ACuriousMind wtf my prof just said "the probability of finding the particle in a finite region is finite"

The two finites there mean totally different things!

Secret

5:39 PM

that's physics people, get used to that

0celo7

Now ACM is salty

Secret

True to the temporary nature of my dense notes, they are sometimes wrote with so many steps being jumped, or imprecise math language and mix of notes symbols with maths symbol, that they do have limited "shell life"
When they expire and I lost access to those thought process that I have on those notes, they are unreadable even to me

The more permanent notes, however have more sentences to remind what the content is about. For example:

user116211

@Secret Why would you skip steps?

user116211

Unless they are trivial, you shouldn't.

Secret

The temporary notes are not intended to be word by word copy of a concept of interest, but to highlight the key points to be focused on when preparing for exam or for idea mixing.
For example, if the focus is not the proof of the theorem, the proof will be skipped and only a keyword is left behind to be checked later when they are converted into powerpoint slides

another reason is simply because I don't like writing a lot of words, thus shorthands and notations are frequent

The issue is that most of the notation I use in those temporary notes are not standard notation, and they can only be understood with respect to some recent experience I had or memory. Thus if the memory fades, those notation frequently become unreadable withut careful comparison with the original source

Caption: Example of permanent notes:

The major difference is rather than using symbols and notations everywhere, it is filled with annotations to remind what those pieces of concepts means

The style however is still two columns, because of my tendency to overuse horizontal spaces

And this is the block style I mentioned about for one of my friends

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