The h Bar

David Zaslavsky

04:48

@ϚѓăʑɏβµԂԃϔ recommended, but not required.

David Zaslavsky

05:56

0

Q: Error bars for pair-correlation function

I have obtained some data from neutron diffraction for some material samples. The "rawest" form of the data is the structure function $S(Q)$. We can choose a variety of different Q-maxes when Fourier transforming the data into $g(r)$, along with applying something like a Lorch function to smoot...

Should that be migrated to scicomp? I think it's a numerical issue at heart and thus not quite on topic here.

ManishEarth

06:32

@DavidZaslavsky i agree, migrating...

David Zaslavsky

08:22

0

Q: Whats the theoretical max speed to go around the world?

I light of the new Scramjet tests i have a question thats been bogging me. I live in Denmark, about the furthest i can travel is to New Zeeland which is roughly on the opposite side of the earth. It's 18800 km away The new Scramjet might do mach 24 (8167 m/s) We start out doing 0 m/s (obvious...

gravity speed distance

Off topic? The limitations of commercial airlines don't seem like physics material

ManishEarth

yeah seems like it

Theoretical max speed is c-\frac{1}{\infty}

Physics Meta

10:59

0

Q: what is the purpose of the popular science tag?

I have just noted that we have a popular-science tag. What is its purpose? Does it mean that the answers are expected to be pop science level, that just the question is pop science but the answers can nevertheless be techical for people other than the OP, or is it meant to characterize questions ...

discussion tags tagging

RhysW

11:18

@ManishEarth hey manish :D

ManishEarth

hm?

RhysW

@ManishEarth im just saying hi :P no double meaning!

ManishEarth

oh hi then :)

RhysW

It's the 20th, my brain is telling me this is important for some reason and led me here to this chat

ManishEarth

I don't know of anything important today :)

Dilaton

11:54

@Qmechanic what do you think about the purpose of the popular-science tag? I would appreciate an answer from you to my corresponding meta question a lot ...

Brandon Enright

19:00

Is something changing with the flags? I went to flag a question as off topic but I don't have those options anymore. I'd be happy to flag and type a reason but still, what's up?

Ah figured it out. I'm an idiot. It's already closed.

ManishEarth

19:58

@BrandonEnright Actually there's a major overhaul to the flag system coming up

But it probably won't affect you, it will be on the mods side.

Brandon Enright

20:12

@ManishEarth thanks. In this case it was just stupidity on my part.

Gugg

@ManishEarth I'd like your opinion.

-11

Q: A tick box for "delayed response"

For sites (like) Philosophy.SE and Physics.SE: I would like to propose a tick box under a question, that makes sure that during the first, say, 24 hours, no answers will be visible to anyone (except that an answerer can see and edit his or her own answer). It would have some benefits. Independe...

discussion feature-request

ManishEarth

@Gugg upvoted, but i sort of agree with the answerer here: not much use

I see what you mean about independent answers, but this probably isn't how that should be dealt with

Gugg

Maybe, maybe. Only a little bit frustrated that they don't carefully read the proposal. :)

ManishEarth

hm

Gugg

Some of them seem to think that it allows for abuse. IMO, it can't.

Not more than the current situation.

The answers seem hopelessly focused on SO. Perhaps, that is the ideal, but thus far it doesn't apply to some other sites.

ManishEarth

20:28

@Gugg Yeah, I hate that

It's usually useful to specify that you're not talking about SO on MSO

hopefully the MSO<->MSE split will happen soon

Gugg

I'm totally unaware of SO. I initially thought it was a rival.

ManishEarth

No, the thing is that MSO is both the meta for the network and for SO

Gugg

I like your "furious" response! :)

ManishEarth

And you need to be excruciatingly specific before they stop giving SO specific answers :/

Gugg

OK, so we're "niche". Good to know. :)

What's FGITW?

ManishEarth

20:38

Fastest Gun In The West

try to answer a question on SO, you'll get what I mean

Basically you need to be the first to post an answer. A lot of answers get posted quickly and the first couple get upvotes (which entails more upvotes)

So people write short answers and then abuse the 5-min grace period to slowly substantiate them

600

Q: Fastest Gun in the West Problem

I feel like there's a problem with Stack Overflow, as the number of people prowling it increases. Each question's answers are sorted by descending score and then by descending time of posting. This means that if a person sits down and answers a question in a long, thorough way, going through eve...

discussion answers fastest-gun

Gugg

I guess it makes sense for a hugely populated site.

Brandon Enright

@ManishEarth I've noticed. Some years back I was answering lots of perl and regular expression questions on SO and never got much in the way of upvotes even though my answers were often the only correct or good answer.

ManishEarth

@BrandonEnright Yeah. A good, substantiated answer isn't as well received as a fast one

Makes me want to pull my hair out :P

Gugg

@BrandonEnright Your answers are always the best. That should be automated. :)

Brandon Enright

@Gugg careful I might let it go to my head :-p

Physics.SE has the opposite problem with not enough people so sometimes detailed answers are understood by too few people.

3

ManishEarth

20:43

Didn't think of it that way, but makes sense

Gugg

@ManishEarth Are you ever fearing of democracy? :)

ManishEarth

@Gugg ?

Gugg

The popular vote. Does it scare you sometimes?

ManishEarth

Yes

I have seen people give immense support to horrific things

Brandon Enright

21:08

@Gugg Very. It's a scary world out there.

ManishEarth

@Gugg Deleting a message means that you ensure the nearby mods will scramble to read it :P

user54412

@Gugg Yeah, many of the people who are active on MSO don't even know there are other stackexchange sites

user54412

there's no other explanation for their behavior sometimes

ManishEarth

The entire discussion with Jeff here

48

A: Is there a rule of thumb for objective questions asked out of curiosity?

See also: What "practical" physics problems do you "actually" face?? I agree with Isaac here. On science sites, this rule can actually be counterproductive. Questions asked out of curiosity generally fall in the following types: "I think I see a paradox here", "What would happen if?", and ...

user54412

you would think a bunch of programmers would be more logical

3

ManishEarth

21:09

(there's a deleted answer by him with a lot of discussion here revealing that many MSOians don't know how science sites work)

@ChrisWhite lol

Brandon Enright

@ManishEarth you're a Meta machine.

ManishEarth

:P

Gugg

I challenge you: What were my comments?

ManishEarth

It's rr

and @Manishearth In

ha

Gugg

F*** you! :) Brilliant.

ManishEarth

21:12

there's a little 'history' button

IIRC you can use it on your own messages as well

and room owners can use it

Brandon Enright

Did out chat censor that F*** or was that done by hand?

ManishEarth

By hand

There are rooms which use it regularly

Gugg

No, I wrote "Fuck you".

ManishEarth

ha

One major user is the Teachers' Lounge :P

Gugg

Teacher's Lounge? Sounds good.

ManishEarth

21:15

chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/4/teachers-lounge

Mod only room

For cross-site mod issues (and for advice on moderation especially for new mods), but when none of that is happening we talk of random stuff

David Zaslavsky

Kittens and bitcoins and trolls (oh my)

Seriously though

4

Q: Existence and uniqueness of Stokes flow

What are the solution existence and uniqueness conditions for Stokes' flow? $$\nabla p = \mu \Delta \vec{u} + \vec{f}$$ $$\nabla \vec{u} = 0$$ Maybe you could also provide some articles or books about the topic? Most physics books seem not to care about these details.

fluid-dynamics flow

Migrate to math? It seems like a good candidate for migration to me

Brandon Enright

@DavidZaslavsky I saw that question yesterday and I thought the answer provided by michielm was good and probably would have required a physics and not math background.

Dilaton

21:35

@DavidZaslavsky I agree with Brandon. In addition to what he says, mathematical properties of the solitions of the NS equations can have physics implications. For example complex time singularities can be shown to determine the UV behavior of the TKE spectrum in turbulence, and I am not sure but

Gugg

@ManishEarth How come my last edit is not there?

Dilaton

There might be some physics implication of the uniqueness issue too.

Gugg

@ManishEarth Forget that.

user54412

@DavidZaslavsky I don't think it's OT enough to force migration. Really the OP should choose, since he's been warned that more general results will probably come from math

user54412

if he wants necessary/sufficient conditions for existence/uniqueness, it should be migrated; if he wants physical insight into a few interesting cases (and there is no indication yet that he does), then here is better

David Zaslavsky

21:50

@BrandonEnright That's not what I'm asking, though. Is the question a physics question or not? I don't see the physics content in it.

Brandon Enright

You're right it's a purely math question from that perspective.

David Zaslavsky

When considering whether something is off topic or not, we only think about the question itself, not what sort of answers it could get. People here can answer all sorts of questions that are not necessarily physics questions.

Since the OP requested migration and I'm not seeing an argument that there is physics content in the question as currently written, I'll migrate it.

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