The h Bar

skill patrol

1:00 PM

they're to busy in their asian child labour sweat shops to answer your call

Danu

@skillpatrol lol

David Z

@ACuriousMind really? It seems to be about building a device, which I would think puts it in the realm of (what we call) engineering. Of course it's also off topic for a few other reasons too.

skill patrol

@Danu money first

0celo7

@DavidZ if someone asked how to build the LHC, would that be engineering?

skill patrol

Engineering = Applied Science.

Danu

1:03 PM

@0celo7 Are you DanielSank? :P

0celo7

I think the PSE description says engineering != science

David Z

@0celo7 we make an exception for established physics experiments

ACuriousMind

@DavidZ I'd just chosen one of the other reasons. You're right, technically it asks "What are the problems in building this?" so it's engineering, but, well, the problems are not with the specific proposed device here.

0celo7

@Danu I am curious if whatever I end up working on will be considered science

Danu

@0celo7 You particularly? I think we all know the answer to that one!

ACuriousMind

1:05 PM

@Danu He can't be DanielSank, he's too easily trolled by you ;)

0celo7

@ACuriousMind I let myself be trolled

Danu

@ACuriousMind :)

David Z

@ACuriousMind well, but if the problems are not with the specific proposed device, but rather the fact that it's asking about how to build a device at all, I would think that supports the engineering idea

0celo7

@Danu see, I'm probably being trolled right now

Danu

Being a victim is a choice! (pliz no take serious pliz)

0celo7

1:05 PM

@Danu in some cases

ACuriousMind

@DavidZ I'd have said the main problem is that "supposing we can inverrt gravity" doesn't make sense in the first place.

0celo7

like people complaining about "aggressive towing practices"

makes me laugh every time

Danu

@ACuriousMind @DavidZ I think this conversation is pointless, lol

Dominic Michaelis

suppose $0=1$ ...

ACuriousMind

@Danu I agree that the point, if existent, is rather elusive, yes

Danu

1:07 PM

@ACuriousMind hah

ACuriousMind

@Danu Nevertheless, physicists are known to search for elusive things ;)

Danu

@ACuriousMind You ain't no physicist yet!

skill patrol

@ACuriousMind I really like your choice of words :-)

Danu

0

Q: would it be possible to build a team to work on a quantum gravity theory?

I'm looking to collaborate with a group of people on a quantum gravity theory I have. I have been reading the questions and answers on this site and there are a couple of user that I'm interested in making contact with "John Rennie" and "qmechanic" I was wondering if it would be possible to have ...

LOLOLOLOL

ACuriousMind

@Danu I do have a BSc in Physics, unlike you liberal arts peasant :P

skill patrol

1:09 PM

peasant?

Danu

@QMechanic @JohnRennie quick, solve the biggest open problem in physics with this guy! This is your chance!

0celo7

@Danu lel

Danu

@ACuriousMind I do have the same degree as you.

Joke's on you!

0celo7

Qmechanic already knows it

David Z

@ACuriousMind well, yeah, that too. So if it wasn't closed as engineering, non-mainstream would have been next up.

0celo7

1:09 PM

he is just a secretive bastard

David Z

@Danu haha :-P I think I can safely go ahead and delete that one...?

ACuriousMind

@0celo7 banned4life

Danu

@DavidZ Yush!

0celo7

@ACuriousMind I'll be switching IPs in a week

they can't hold me down for long

Danu

You'll be easily identified

user54412

1:11 PM

@ACuriousMind FWIW I agree. I think "device" is used as a placeholder -- a shorthand way of concretizing an abstract thought experiment.

ACuriousMind

@Danu: "Define valuable"...really? :D

0celo7

@Danu no

ACuriousMind

@0celo7 We'll recognize your vidya-playing, cat-loving, inept-trolling persona anywhere ;)

0celo7

@ACuriousMind I won't have time to play vidya in college, I won't have a cat anymore (oh god it hurts), not sure about the third one

user54412

@0celo7 No, pure math is not science :P

0celo7

1:13 PM

@ChrisWhite not sure what this means

skill patrol

@ACuriousMind this has value that can't be defined

ACuriousMind

@0celo7 He means no way you're gonna be an engineer when you're grown up :P

0celo7

@ACuriousMind define engineer

are the people working on nuclear fusion at the national labs engineers?

skill patrol

11 mins ago, by skill patrol

Engineering = Applied Science.

0celo7

@ACuriousMind I'm gonna be a bum, I know

ACuriousMind

1:15 PM

@0celo7 Person using scientific knowledge to build devices, I guess

user54412

@0celo7 Are they building the tokamak to spec, or are they figuring out how the plasma behaves?

0celo7

Americans: is Chick-Fil-A really that good? I've always thought it was a bit expensive...

Slereah

I want to build a team to solve quantum gravity!

Physics warrior

2

Physics mae

2

Physics cleric

2

Physics rogue

2

Physics ranger

2

0celo7

@ChrisWhite I dunno the specifics.

David Z

@Slereah mage?

0celo7

1:17 PM

@DavidZ no mae

user54412

@0celo7 I've always thought all fast food was more expensive than everyone thinks it is. But where else do you get decent chicken sandwiches?

Slereah

mage yes

ACuriousMind

@Slereah Which god do these serve?

Slereah

The physics warrior is the computational physicist

ACuriousMind

Also, lol @ stars

Slereah

1:18 PM

He uses brute force to solve problems

The physics mage is a theoretical physicist

The physics cleric is an epistemologist

user54412

Grad student protip: bulk rice and peanut butter are some of the cheapest ways to survive.

0celo7

ranger?

Slereah

Not sure

David Z

@Slereah you can edit, y'know

Slereah

I guess the rogue will just plagiarize papers

0celo7

1:19 PM

@ChrisWhite one of the perks of being an "engineer" is that you don't pay for grad school

ACuriousMind

@Slereah I'm always playing mages, and like theoretical physics. Coincidence?

0celo7

@ACuriousMind you play mage in Skyrim?

teach me your ways

I just can't do it!

user54412

@0celo7 I'm also "paid" to go to grad school. But it's less than minimum wage, and I couldn't afford to eat fast food every day on it.

ACuriousMind

@DavidZ We told him. He's rebellious against modern chat technology

Slereah

In Elder Scrolls game I try to play everything

Since you can level up everything

But magic is pretty hard

0celo7

1:20 PM

@ChrisWhite I'd get paid more than that.

ACuriousMind

@0celo7 Oh, the listing of classes there made me think of PnP, not computer games :D

0celo7

Oblivion is so hard...I can't figure out how to level my shit

And archery is so shit

Slereah

Oblivion isn't overly hard, but the enemy leveling is annoying

0celo7

the first oblivion gate was an hour of rage

ACuriousMind

@0celo7 Can't you use something other than shit as variable? I always get weird images/idea from that.

Slereah

1:22 PM

You know what's fun tho

Shivering Isle

0celo7

@ACuriousMind stuff

Slereah

A metasyntaxic variable

0celo7

@ACuriousMind That must be an American teenager thing then. shit = stuff in my mind

ACuriousMind

@0celo7 I really imagined you training a piece of shit to level it up.

0celo7

@Slereah I have the quest marker for that in the lake

@ACuriousMind you Germans

ACuriousMind

1:23 PM

I might have problems.

Slereah

der scheisse

0celo7

lol

Kyle Kanos

@vzn With DLCs and mods available for many PC games, the base game is the version without all those.

0celo7

@KyleKanos also no patches

Kyle Kanos

I'm not convinced on that aspect

0celo7

1:24 PM

@Slereah what does the physics ranger do

Slereah

Hm

ACuriousMind

@Slereah die, not der

Slereah

Not sure

Kyle Kanos

v1.1 of Oblivion is what is on Steam, so it's the base version for a good number of people

Slereah

He lets his animal friends do the physics???

He build physics traps

Maybe he is an EXPERIMENTALIST

ACuriousMind

1:25 PM

^was just about to say that

user54412

@ACuriousMind You don't have to wish death on people for getting the wrong article.

ACuriousMind

...okay, I laughed

0celo7

@Slereah he's an engineer then, not a physicist

what

(I understand the German)

Slereah

1:27 PM

THE BART, THE

ACuriousMind

@0celo7 It's a classic Simpsons scene!

0celo7

@ACuriousMind never watched it (the show)

Slereah

>never watched the simpsons

So how is life on Mars

user54412

and he claimed to be American...

0celo7

I've never watched Family Guy either

name some other popular shows

Slereah

1:29 PM

Did you watch Back to the Future or Ghostbusters

0celo7

No, No

Slereah

Apparently @0celo7 is an entirely hypothetical man

Huy

Wat you've never watched Simpsons???

0celo7

Nope.

Slereah

@0celo7 was raised on a cult compound

0celo7

1:31 PM

Nope.

Slereah

He spent his youth doing farm work and reading the bible

0celo7

@Slereah No, no.

ACuriousMind

@0celo7 You have no idea how many references have simply passed by you, then.

user54412

He's also failing this Turing test.

3

0celo7

@ChrisWhite lol

@ACuriousMind Probably.

Slereah

1:32 PM

I'm pretty sure more people have seen the Simpsons than have read the bible, really

0celo7

No.

Slereah

while(1){print("no");}

0celo7

Yes.

I've never seen any Arnold movies. I've never seen Lost.

Slereah

while(1){if(rand())print("no"); else print("yes");}

Have you ever seen a television

0celo7

I prefer the prequels.

Slereah

1:34 PM

The devil's box

0celo7

@Slereah Yes. I watch TV.

Slereah

what do you watch

although

I suppose that if you are 17

0celo7

I won't say. The bullying will only intensify.

user54412

2 days ago, by 0celo7

@Danu I don't have HBO Go either.

Slereah

Maybe the Simspons were already shit when you were of age

when were the Simpsons last good?

ACuriousMind

1:35 PM

@0celo7 We do know you watch Grey's anatomy, I think.

Slereah

Season 13 was still okay

So 13 years ago

He was 4

0celo7

I wasn't allowed to watch them when I was a kid, and I'm not going to get into them now.

@ACuriousMind I do.

Slereah

Is it because Bart disrespected his father

People were shocked by the Simpsons in the 80's

0celo7

No it's because the show is "disgusting and socially unacceptable".

Slereah

It was kind of weird

ACuriousMind

1:37 PM

Have you seen Buffy or Firefly?

@0celo7 k

0celo7

No, no.

Kyle Kanos

That's what your parents said of it?

0celo7

@KyleKanos One of them. The other refused to even consider a show with stupid yellow people.

Slereah

Did you watch Lamb Chop's Sing Along

It is a Wholesome Show

0celo7

@Slereah wtf no

I have no idea what that is.

Kyle Kanos

1:38 PM

I know Lamb Chop b/c of my younger brother & sister

Slereah

Lamb chops play-Along

►

0celo7

How the heck do people have the time to watch all these shows and movies, play video games, go to school, and do whatever else?

@Slereah what the hell

Emilio Pisanty

Hi guys

quick question

Slereah

Well what do you do when you are home from school

0celo7

@Slereah Skyrim

Emilio Pisanty

1:40 PM

I made a tag [solar-cells] for this one

0

Q: What is the electron barrier tunneling mass, and why it is necessary? What is the ebarrier tunneling mass of AlGaAs?

I am doing solar cell simulations in synopsys software. I am getting a persistent error saying ebarrier tunneling mass has not been defined. Is anyone familiar with this error? What is this tunneling mass and why is it necessary? What is its value for AlGaAs, and how do I input it into the ...

quantum-mechanics solid-state-physics software tunneling solar-cells

Slereah

Skyrim isn't v. long

Emilio Pisanty

and then I discovered [photovoltaics]

should they be synonyms?

Slereah

Even if you do it fully that's a few weeks at best

0celo7

I have 500 hours

ACuriousMind

@EmilioPisanty imo, yes

user54412

1:40 PM

@EmilioPisanty probably

Emilio Pisanty

Still feels useful to have [solar-cells] - much more discoverable by new users

Slereah

You can play Skyrim as long as you want, but at some point you only do radiant quests

HDE 226868

@EmilioPisanty There was an interesting discussion on Engineering about something similar:

Slereah

Which are awful

HDE 226868

2

Q: Clean up solar tags

I noticed a recent question (How can I connect mismatched solar panels in parallel?) with three tags relating to solar power/photovoltaics. Each of these is an existing tag: solar-panel has 6 questions solar has 4 questions photovoltaic-cells has 5 questions (4 of which are shared with solar-pa...

discussion tags

user54412

1:41 PM

@EmilioPisanty synonymized tags still show up in the tag suggestions while typing I think?

0celo7

@Slereah make a new character

Kyle Kanos

@ChrisWhite Correct

Slereah

why

All characters are basically the same

Emilio Pisanty

@ChrisWhite yeah.

0celo7

So you can get skills to lvl 100 even faster.

Slereah

1:42 PM

Race, gender and initial build barely matters

user54412

@Slereah I ran out of scripted quests at ~450 hours

0celo7

I love Skyrim because of grinding.

Slereah

It's not like you're playing Vampire Masquerade

0celo7

@ChrisWhite Ok that's just ridiculous

Name some other shows!

Emilio Pisanty

OK, I can't propose the synonym officially but I put it here

0

A: Tag synonyms for voting

solar-cells → photovoltaics

0celo7

1:44 PM

what is community wiki for

ACuriousMind

@0celo7 Do you watch Sci-Fi or Fantasy at all? If not, that severely limits the shows I can name

0celo7

@ACuriousMind Probably not.

@ACuriousMind What's really scary is that you have like twice as many games in your Steam thing than I own in total.

So how on Earth did you manage to do all of this?

I'm not considering someone having a social life here. I'm wondering purely logistically, how on Earth is there enough time?

Huy

@0celo7: Maybe he doesn't spend 500h in Skyrim. :P

ACuriousMind

@0celo7 I've been playing all these for...three years now, I think. In the holidays, I sometimes spend entire days playing, but even when I've other stuff to do, I usually play between 2 and 4 hours a days, I think. (Yes, I don't sleep very much during the week :D )

Slereah

Most games are not very long

Especially modern day games

Modern day games are usually 1 to 3 days to complete

ACuriousMind

1:47 PM

@Huy I think the averages across the games is something like 15-30 hours, yes

0celo7

@Huy He has that much in Skyrim + PoE

ACuriousMind

I have almost 600 hours playing XCOM :D

Huy

Impressive.

0celo7

Christ

Slereah

The game I spent the most time on was probably Minecraft

Not sure how long I clocked in

0celo7

1:48 PM

I think Skyrim has finally surpassed Pokemon Ruby.

Slereah

I played it for hours for several months when I was unemployed

0celo7

I have no clue how I managed 500h in that game tbh.

Slereah

Currently I mostly play Neo Scavenger

Hobo simulator

0celo7

If you take all of Pokemon together...that's a crazy amount of time.

Slereah

lots of hours in a day

Especially when you're still in school

0celo7

1:51 PM

wtf

hobo sim is a real thing

$15

Slereah

Well technically it's a post-apocalyptic simulator

But it is very close to a hobo simulation

0celo7

technically you're a hobo in Skyrim until you buy a house

Gaurav

585

Q: What are "Community Wiki" posts?

Some questions and answers are marked Community Wiki and are owned by a Community Wiki user. Why have Community Wiki posts? How do Community Wiki posts work? How does a post become a Community Wiki post? How can the Community Wiki status be removed from a post? Return to FAQ Index

support faq community-wiki posts

Slereah

Yeah, but in Skyrim, you don't have to eat or sleep or keep warm

0celo7

mods

ACuriousMind

1:55 PM

@0celo7: The obvious answer why we have this time is that we physicists have secretly invented a real-world variant of the time-turner.

(If you don't know what a time-turner is, I give up)

John Rennie

@Danu Aw, it got deleted. There goes my chance of fame :-)

0celo7

@ACuriousMind give up

huh, I did read all of those books

ACuriousMind

@0celo7 No Harry Potter, really?

0celo7

that was too long ago to rememeber one little thing

I remember it now

Kyle Kanos

That item was the whole plot of Book 3

Danu

1:59 PM

@0celo7 Get 'im, boys!

0celo7

@KyleKanos I REMEMBER NOW

I just had to get the series right

Kyle Kanos

Well it's curious that you could forget in the first place

HDE 226868

There is now a series of mass edits correcting the spelling of "Van de Graaff".

Danu

@ACuriousMind You don't even wanna know how much time I have on CoD: MW2 hahaha

@HDE226868 lol, oh Dutchies

0celo7

@Danu this

MW2, BLOPS, BF3

oh lord

ACuriousMind

2:02 PM

@Danu But...there's so much other things to play!

0celo7

@ACuriousMind I have around 1,000 in MW2 :'(

Danu

@ACuriousMind I like competitive games :P

0celo7

holy fuck

873 hours in BF3

ACuriousMind

@0celo7 And you're asking how I find the time? I think 1000 hours is about 30 or 40 of my lesser-played games

0celo7

that was a good game

Slereah

2:04 PM

let's check my steam games to see my most played one!

0celo7

@ACuriousMind I completely forgot about MW2

dear god that was a good game

ACuriousMind

How can you forget about a game you spent 1000 hours of your life on?

3

0celo7

quite easily apparently

Slereah

Hm, can't access steam

0celo7

MW2 was back in the Germany days

@Slereah works fine for me

Slereah

2:06 PM

yeah dunno why

Maybe work blocks it?

ah, seems to work now

Gaurav

@ACuriousMind How can you be so bold about it when Ghosts exists ?

0celo7

@ACuriousMind why bold

Slereah

apparently my record (on steam) is indeed Skyrim

348 hours

ACuriousMind

@Gaurav I don't follow

@0celo7 Because this is a really important question to me :D

0celo7

@ACuriousMind I also forgot about GTA4, but there's no way to estimate that

Xbox does not record play time AFAIK

ACuriousMind

2:09 PM

@HDE226868: You really want to tell me that Worldbuilding should not be supervillain.SE?

Slereah

Second most played game is technically Baldur's Gate

BUT

That's because I left the window open for 3 days

ACuriousMind

lol

0celo7

I think my Skyrim play time has that issue as well

HDE 226868

@ACuriousMind Oh, I forgot that most people don't know about the topic challenge:

5

Q: Fortnightly Topic Challenge #13: Weapon-Design

Now begins our thirteenth topic challenge! Topic: weapon-design Dates: 3 Aug - 17 Aug Proposed by: Because I, for one, just loooove ka-boom-boom. After all, who doesn't? Remember to use this tag if you're asking a question as part of the challenge. In two weeks, we'll announce the sta...

discussion featured

0celo7

because the Xbox boot times are multiple minutes, I saw no reason to close it when I went to do homework or eat

@ACuriousMind well it's really belligerent and scary

Slereah

2:12 PM

My weapon design is the nuclear dagger

Gaurav

@ACuriousMind Well, I think if you've played Ghosts, MW2 is almost forgettable.

Slereah

It is for discreet assassinations of powerful foes

ACuriousMind

@Gaurav Ah, played neither.

@0celo7 It'd scare me far more if I forgot 1000 hours of my life like that.

I'm beginning to like boldface :D

Slereah

@ACuriousMind If you think that's scary

0celo7

@ACuriousMind ::hides::

Slereah

2:13 PM

Try to remember what useful things you learned in school

0celo7

Dude that game was so much fun

Kyle Kanos

I would not be surprised to find out that I've put 1k hours into Final Fantasy 7 or Counter Strike: Source

Slereah

What do you remember from high school lit classes

0celo7

Get a bunch of guys together and play some CoD

@Slereah I remember Gail had a really strange looking gut

ACuriousMind

@Slereah I remember many things from school. Few of them are "useful".

0celo7

2:16 PM

that was a bit much

ACuriousMind

lol, I saw that

Kyle Kanos

I missed it

By like 0.5 seconds

0celo7

@ACuriousMind I apologize

ACuriousMind

@0celo7 I'm not offended, lowly pre-engineer.

0celo7

@ACuriousMind no emoticon = serious

or is this a tolling

this chat is horrible

ACuriousMind

2:17 PM

@0celo7 :|

0celo7

we should change topics

Slereah

the sad thing about being a pre-engineer is that all you can hope for the future is to be an engineer

ACuriousMind

@0celo7 Yes, the bells are tolling :D

0celo7

ugh I have to write a paper on that shit ass book

Slereah

ass books are the best books

0celo7

2:18 PM

@Slereah ...

Slereah

what book it is

ACuriousMind

@0celo7 A...paper? Summarizing it, interpreting it, or somethign else?

0celo7

I get the impression from this chat that I'm doomed to banging gears together and drooling

@ACuriousMind "emotional response"

Slereah

0celo7

mfw I thought my cat was a pair of pants

ACuriousMind

2:19 PM

@Slereah You are impossible.

@0celo7 Pairs of pants are awesome. You can stitch them together to get any surface

0celo7

@ACuriousMind you know that chair he always sleeps on? he's sleeping under it now

ACuriousMind

Of course, if you're boring , you just call the pants "three-holed spheres"

0celo7

@ACuriousMind I learned all about this in string theory

Slereah

Doubly connected 2-manifolds

ACuriousMind

Connectedness of underwear is important

0celo7

2:22 PM

I know what that is

ACuriousMind

@0celo7 ...because you are a pair of pants? I don't follow

@0celo7 Very good :D

0celo7

Slereah

abstrusegoose.com/130

0celo7

@ACuriousMind what

I'm just saying he's sleeping on the floor for some reason

cf. image aboe

ACuriousMind

@0celo7 You said "mfw my cat thought I was a pair of pants" and then told me he sleeps under the chair. I thought there was some connection

0celo7

2:25 PM

no

I'm just procrastinating

wait

@ACuriousMind I said I thought the cat was a pair of pants

there was a connection

the cat is on the floor and I thought he was a pair of pants

ACuriousMind

Ahhhh

mfw I can't read

0celo7

see mfw makes sense because we have faces as avatars

for instance, @KyleKanos would have to say msupernovaw

Kyle Kanos

mrw and mfw are interchangeable

0celo7

no one says mrw

Kyle Kanos

@0celo7 reddit.com/r/MRW

So the redditors are no one?

0celo7

2:32 PM

reddit is meme-tier

Slereah

Memes r good

2

0celo7

2:49 PM

@KyleKanos You watching the debate tonight?

Kyle Kanos

Maybe, might just study some more

Dominic Michaelis

I got the feeling that every pde in physics is solved via using some exponential function

Slereah

nah

although a lot of them will be exponentials in some limit

Kyle Kanos

Exponentials make for good trial functions

Dominic Michaelis

yeah trial functions but pdes doesn't behave very well in uniqueness of solutions after all

Transcript for