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user19161
12:02 AM
@Mahnax If you think you can get into Cambridge, you should consider studying math or physics there. The three year math course contains lots of theoretical physics courses too. But it is hard to get in.
 
@JasperLoy Well, I am hoping to go to a prestigious school. Perhaps Cambridge is the one.
 
user19161
@Mahnax Then good luck! Though you should also look at Oxford, Imperial College and Warwick. Oh I forgot, if there is no scholarship you need to consider the finances too.
 
All right, folks, enjoy your figgy puddings! I'm off!
 
user19161
@aediaλ Bye!
 
@aediaλ Bai! Merry Christmas!
@JasperLoy I will be applying for all the scholarships I can!
 
user19161
12:06 AM
@Mahnax Becoming a lunatic is one of my regrets in life. Not getting into Cambridge is another one.
 
@JasperLoy Well, maybe when you go back to school, you can!
 
user19161
@Mahnax North America is better for grad studies, UK for undergrad IMAO.
 
@JasperLoy Hmm, I have not looked into it much, so I don't know.
 
user19161
@Mahnax When the time comes just explore all the websites and compare their course offerings.
 
@JasperLoy I shall.
0
Q: Correct form of a chapter reference

Adhesh JoshIf I have the following sentences, which version is correct: This chapter provides.... or This Chapter provides.... Note the capitalisation of 'c'. Chapter 1 provides.... Chapter One provides... Note the use of numbers This model was discussed in Chapter One This model was discussed in ...

Off topic?
 
user19161
12:09 AM
@Mahnax I looked at the MIT, Harvard math undergrad courses. They don't cover as many topics as the top UK universities though they may treat some more deeply in the honours version. But if you want to do undergrad math in the US, I strongly recommend Chicago.
 
@JasperLoy Why is that?
 
user19161
@Mahnax Because they treat the undergrad topics very very deeply in their special honours version that only a selected few can take. The grad program in Chicago is also superb.
 
user19161
But I mention all these because I think you have a good chance of getting into these places since you are a genius.
 
@JasperLoy Thank you! That means much to me.
 
user19161
@Mahnax If I were not a lunatic I might have been able to get into these places, but not anymore. Now I just hope to recover and then apply to the average ones and hopefully they will accept me despite my bad records.
 
Jez
12:13 AM
smart. unbig. uncar. ungrammatical.
 
@JasperLoy Bad record?
@Jez Thank you for your insight.
 
user19161
@Mahnax Well I did not do too well in my undergrad, and I have not really been doing anything the last few years, so bad CV.
 
@JasperLoy Ah. Well, I'm sure you'll get in somewhere. You are very intelligent, after all.
 
Jez
@Mahnax the first 3 are from a US TV commercial :-)
 
@Jez ohh.
16 rep til I can VTC!!
Yay!
 
user19161
12:18 AM
@Mahnax Yes, my life would be very different if not for the abuse that turned me into a lunatic. But life does the choosing sometimes, not us.
 
@JasperLoy So true. God giveth, and God taketh away.
 
user19161
@Mahnax And maybe God will grant me my two wishes not too soon but soon enough I hope.
 
@JasperLoy I pray that he does. But you must try your very hardest if you want them.
 
user19161
@Mahnax I do, but some things are hard to control, I just want you to know.
 
@JasperLoy I am very well aware. I had a father and a brother before, you know. But they are gone now.
 
user19161
12:21 AM
@Mahnax In fact it is precisely highly responsible and motivated people who get these conditions.
 
@JasperLoy I hope never to have any, but who knows?
 
user19161
@Mahnax That is why if you think you are going nuts you must tell me and I may be able to advise you.
 
@JasperLoy I am not close to going nuts at the moment, but I will let you know if ever I am.
 
user19161
@Mahnax Good good.
 
@JasperLoy 'Tis, 'tis.
 
user19161
12:25 AM
@Mahnax Will you be at a countdown with Mariah?
 
@JasperLoy On New Year's?
 
user19161
@Mahnax Yup.
 
user19161
@Mahnax John Nash could not do any math for 20 years because of his schizophrenia in case you did not know.
 
@JasperLoy No, New Year's will be spent with four male friends playing video games, watching movies, and dining on crumpets and tea at exactly midnight, as per tradition.
@JasperLoy I have never heard of this John Nash.
 
user19161
John Forbes Nash, Jr. (born June 13, 1928) is an American mathematician whose works in game theory, differential geometry, and partial differential equations have provided insight into the forces that govern chance and events inside complex systems in daily life. His theories are used in market economics, computing, evolutionary biology, artificial intelligence, accounting, politics and military theory. Serving as a Senior Research Mathematician at Princeton University during the latter part of his life, he shared the 1994 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with game theorists Rein...
 
12:28 AM
@JasperLoy Oh my.
A Nobel prize winner.
 
user19161
@Mahnax You should watch the movie but the real story you need to read the book. A Beautiful Mind.
 
@JasperLoy That's the title?
 
user19161
A Beautiful Mind is a 2001 American drama film based on the life of John Nash, a Nobel Laureate in Economics. The film was directed by Ron Howard and written by Akiva Goldsman. It was inspired by a bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-nominated 1998 book of the same name by Sylvia Nasar. The film stars Russell Crowe, along with Ed Harris, Jennifer Connelly, Paul Bettany and Christopher Plummer. The story begins in the early years of a young prodigy named John Nash. Early in the film, Nash begins developing paranoid schizophrenia and endures delusional episodes while painfully watching the loss and...
 
@JasperLoy Hm, I shall get the book from the Library.
 
user19161
A Beautiful Mind is an unauthorized biography of Nobel Prize-winning economist and mathematician John Forbes Nash, Jr. by Sylvia Nasar, professor of journalism at Columbia University. It inspired the 2001 film by the same name. Starting with his childhood, the book covers Nash's years at Princeton and MIT, his work for the RAND Corporation, his family and his struggle with schizophrenia. Although Nasar notes that Nash did not consider himself a homosexual, she describes his arrest for indecent exposure and firing from RAND amid the suspicion that he was a homosexual (then considered g...
 
12:31 AM
@JasperLoy It looks interesting. Yes, I shall definitely take it out.
 
user19161
@Jez Merry Christmas!
 
Jez
thanks
 
Ah yes, Merry Christmas @Jasper @Daniel @Cerb @Jez @Fallen @Daniel @JSB @Sjohn @WesT @Jez !
 
user19161
@Mahnax Wow!
 
@JasperLoy Couldn't resist!
 
user19161
12:34 AM
@Mahnax I wanted to say that to Joel but I was scared as he never talked here before.
 
Now they're all leaving.
:'(
@JasperLoy Well, at least you're not bold like A Very Laser Christmas. He called Mr. Atwood fat.
 
user19161
@Mahnax Not in front of him I guess.
 
@JasperLoy Well, in chat.
 
user19161
@Mahnax Well we have all said things about Jeff in chat.
 
@JasperLoy Mhmm.
But I have not offended him.
 
user19161
12:37 AM
@Mahnax But pretty harmless things, adjectives like silly you know.
 
@JasperLoy Indeed.
We could never insult the Atwood.
 
user19161
@Mahnax The Feynman lectures are good for physics. Richard Feynman was a Nobel too.
 
@JasperLoy Maybe I will look into them sometime.
 
user19161
The Feynman Lectures on Physics is a 1964 physics textbook by Richard P. Feynman, Robert B. Leighton and Matthew Sands, based upon the lectures given by Feynman to undergraduate students at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 1961–63. It includes lectures on mathematics, electromagnetism, Newtonian physics, quantum physics, and the relation of physics to other sciences. Six readily accessible chapters were later compiled into a book entitled Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics Explained by Its Most Brilliant Teacher, and six more in Six Not So Easy Pieces: Einstein's Re...
 
Ah, dinner! Bye!
 
1:21 AM
Oh my goodness, that was delish.
 
user19161
1:34 AM
@Mahnax Boo!
 
@JasperLoy Oh hai!
I had chicken with compound butter, potatoes, carrots, and onions, as well as sweet potatoes (yams).
'Twas delicious.
 
user19161
@Mahnax I thought about it. I actually have a copy of Feynman lectures that I don't think I ever need again since I won't be a physicist. If you ever come here to visit I will give you the three volumes to take home if you want!
 
@JasperLoy That would be wonderful! Might be a while before I can visit, though.
 
user19161
@Mahnax And you can browse my personal math collection too though I would still need them. I have 83 math books in my bookshelf currently.
 
@JasperLoy Oh my! That is a large amount of math books!
 
user19161
1:40 AM
@Mahnax I got them long ago over the years but did not read much. So my advice is don't get anything unless you are really sure you would make good use of it.
 
@JasperLoy I don't purchase many books.
Usually I just take them out from the library, then return them.
 
user19161
@Mahnax Very good. I had a lot of bad habits in the past that I have changed.
 
@JasperLoy I have a bad habit: I but a lot of Starbucks coffee. It is so delicious.
I do have a job, so I can do that once a week. But it adds up.
Hey @Mitch!
 
user19161
@Mahnax But I must say I am actually very thrifty as I don't spend on anything other than books!
 
@Mahnax hey just popping in to see what's up
 
user19161
1:44 AM
Of course I go for the movies occasionally and stuff like that.
 
@Mitch Good good.
@JasperLoy Hm, movies here are so expensive that usually, I don't bother.
Unless it looks really good.
 
user19161
@Mahnax I like Starbucks earl grey tea. It is the cheapest drink there other than the free water.
 
user19161
@robusto Merry Christmas!
 
@JasperLoy Hm, how much is coffee at Starbucks in Singapore?
And merry Christmas @Mitch!
 
user19161
@Mahnax About 5 bucks I think in local currency.
 
1:47 AM
@JasperLoy Ah, same here. Expensive, but very good.
 
user19161
@Mahnax The tea used to be three bucks in my college days but is now four I think.
 
@JasperLoy We have Tim Horton's, which is cheaper, but isn't so much specialty coffee as it is normal coffee.
It is still good though.
 
user19161
@Mahnax I used to sit in Starbucks with my favourite math book and study for hours.
 
@JasperLoy I do that with my friends for finals.
Minus the tea, plus coffee.
I think I will go get some coffee soon.
 
user19161
@Mahnax I am more of a tea guy.
 
1:50 AM
@JasperLoy I like both, but coffee is slightly better.
I like Earl Grey tea a lot.
 
Just a quick comment mostly to Mahnax...looking back at what you guys were saying about universities, Harvard/MIT/Princeton/Cambridge/UChicago all have the best research profs in the world. Also, the math undergrad and grad programs are all equally excellent.
 
Interesting. I will consider them all.
 
user19161
@Mitch Are you a mathematician Mitch?
 
My goal in life is to get a Ph.D. and become a professor. "Dr. M. [lastname]". I can see it now!
 
But those first four are harder to get into just because they have more prestigious names (lots of marginally good people around the world will send applications just because they can say 'I applied to so and so')
 
1:53 AM
@Mitch Hm, in Math, I have 100%.
And in Science, 97%.
Is this good enough for those schools, do you think? (directed to Mitch and Jasper)
 
I have a PhD in computer science, in the theoretical area, which could just as easily been done in a math department.
 
That is very impressive.
 
user19161
@Mitch Ah I see. Oh you usually come to chat and leave without a word.
 
@Mahnax you have a 100% in what?
 
@Mitch Mathematics.
 
1:55 AM
sorry, 100% of what in math
on a standardized test?
 
user19161
@Mitch He's talking about his grades in school. He's in high school.
 
I have not answered a single question incorrectly in Mathematics thus far.
 
@JasperLoy I get it.
 
And in Science, I have answered 97% of all my questions correctly.
 
@Mahnax what stage/form/grade are you in?
 
1:57 AM
@Mitch I am in grade 10.
I will be entering the IB program next semester.
 
so doing what math subjects at the moment? and what next year?
and in what country?
 
@Mitch Canada.
 
(the IB program is a good thing, it's tougher, and the tougher things you do the better.)
(for being considered well by college admissions/the rest of life!)
 
@Mitch We do not have different kinds of Math classes, really. There is math 10, 20, 30, and 31. Though technically, math 31 is a Single-Variable Calculus course.
 
I don't the financial situation but McGill and UToronta are excellent.
I don't -know- the ... that is.
 
1:59 AM
@Mitch I do not want to go to university in Canada.
I want to study at a prestigious school, if at all possible.
 
user19161
@Mahnax Why? Canadian universities are good too.
 
Good Canadian universtiies are good
 
@JasperLoy I know. But I want to study in another country.
 
user19161
@Mitch That is tautological!
 
(good Moroccan schools... well, some good people can come out of there)
anyway...if you follow all that...a prestigious school i also (almost tautologically) hard to get into for -anybody- that crosses the threshold into acceptability; there's only so many places.
 
2:03 AM
Well, I'm off to go pick up a gift, and get coffee. Bye! Thank you for your insights, @Mitch and @Jasper.
 
what I'm saying is that, yes, your current scores sound great (and that you're going in the IB program is also great and that you'll be doing some calculus in high school is great) but that doesn't guarantee a place
@Mahnax which is to say try to get into the best program possible, but if you don't (for arbitrary reasons out of your control) you'll do well whereever you go.
 
 
1 hour later…
3:30 AM
Back! With coffee and two books: A Beautiful Mind and one about our friend Paul Erdös, @Jasper.
 
user19161
@Mahnax Is the latter the man who loved only numbers?
 
@JasperLoy — Back atcha.
 
@JasperLoy Yes, that's the one.
Merry Christmas @Robusto.
 
@Mahnax — Same to you.
 
Spread holiday cheer wherever you go! lalala, sings
 
user19161
3:33 AM
I don't smoke so I will never get robustos.
 
@Robusto Merci beaucoup.
 
user19161
Smoking is bad for health. health warning
 
Call the roller of big cigars,
The muscular one, and bid him whip
In kitchen cups concupiscent curds.
Let the wenches dawdle in such dress
As they are used to wear, and let the boys
Bring flowers in last month's newspapers.
Let be be finale of seem.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.
Take from the dresser of deal,
Lacking the three glass knobs, that sheet
On which she embroidered fantails once
And spread it so as to cover her face.
If her horny feet protrude, they come
To show how cold she is, and dumb.
Let the lamp affix its beam.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.
— Wallace Stevens "The Emperor of Ice Cream"
 
Odd...
sips coffee
 
user19161
@Mahnax You know that robusto is a cigar and alain pannetier is an Iranian baker right?
 
3:35 AM
@JasperLoy I knew the cigar thing. But the poem is odd.
 
I am also 初夢. The first dream of the new year.
 
@Robusto How many languages do you speak?
 
Three and a half.
-----------
One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;

And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glitter

Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a few leaves,

Which is the sound of the land
Full of the same wind
That is blowing in the same bare place

For the listener, who listens in the snow,
And, nothing himself, beholds
—Wallace Stevens, "The Snow Man"
In honor of winter.
 
Winter is a nice time of year, until it gets to -35˚C, then we all complain and get mad.
stomps feet angrily like that.
 
Where do you live that it gets that cold?
 
user19161
3:39 AM
@Mahnax Really, is that a joke, -35?
 
user19161
You only get that in Antarctica or something!
 
@JasperLoy No joke... @Robusto Alberta, Canada.
@JasperLoy Nope.
 
How far north?
 
user19161
You also get that in outer space I think.
 
@Robusto I shan't say.
@JasperLoy Outer space is colder.
I am a minor, after all.
 
user19161
3:41 AM
@Mahnax Rubbish!
 
A gold minor?
 
@Robusto Ha, no. An under-18 minor.
 
user19161
Well, sometimes I get +35 here, very rare though.
 
@JasperLoy Blasphemy! waves finger derangedly
 
Then what are you doing in the adult chat?
 
3:42 AM
Chatting.
 
user19161
It's OK, you have sonic and genesis in your ranks.
 
This place is incomprehensible, but nobody said that I couldn't chat here.
 
BTW, even if I were a sexual predator, which I'm not, I sure wouldn't seek my prey at the Arctic Circle.
 
user19161
I have not seen sonic for quite a while. Maybe his mum did not let him come here.
 
user19161
I am not a predator either.
 
3:44 AM
@JasperLoy Hm, that's a shame.
 
user19161
I am only a lunatic.
 
@Robusto I am not in the Arctic circle.
 
Whatever. Alberta is north of Montana, which is still way too cold in the winter.
 
I am not joking or lying. It gets to -35˚C here, not always though.
 
user19161
@Mahnax In Soviet Russia, the arctic circle is in you!
 
3:46 AM
I come from Chicago, where it can get down to nearly that cold.
 
@JasperLoy Thankfully, the Soviet Union fell, and is no more.
@Robusto Hm, Chicago. Never been there.
 
Well, it got to -27F one year, which is about -33C.
 
Ah yes, you Americans and your foolish Fahrenheit.
 
With the wind-chill it was -85F.
 
What is it based on?
Fahrenheit, I mean.
 
3:48 AM
Not foolish. You metric bigots with your inability to remember the number 32.
 
I can remember the number 32 just fine thank you very much.
 
user19161
To convert from C to F, times 9 divide 5 plus 32.
 
@JasperLoy I also knew that.
 
user19161
To convert from C to K, plus 273.15.
 
Just think of it like this. 10° C is 32°F + 18, or 50. 20 is 68, 30 is 86, and 40 is hell on earth.
 
user19161
3:50 AM
Interesting that there is C and F for temperature when the most vulgar words start with C and F.
 
So do some of the most sublime words. The same ones, probably.
 
user19161
And interesting that in Hokkien, a dialect of Chinese, the C word also is spelled with C when transliterated.
 
Hm, apparently Fahrenheit was based on a mixture of ice, water, and ammonium chloride.
Whereas Celsius is based on the melting/freezing point of water.
 
See, half of Celsius is useless for describing temperatures human beings can live with. Who cares what temp water boils at?
 
It's nice that it's a nice, round number like 100.
Why does the Imperial system still exist?
 
3:54 AM
Fahrenheit has 100 too. It's just not as hot, which is a virtue, IMO.
 
user19161
@Mahnax 32 is 2 to the power of 5.
 
@JasperLoy Well aware.
243 is 3⁵.
 
user19161
But neither C nor F is the SI unit!
 
user19161
It is the K!
 
Ahh, Kelvin! Kelvin and Hobbes!
 
3:57 AM
All measurements are essentially arbitrary, whatever their rationale. And I decided long ago that I wasn't going to budge an inch on metric.
 
@Robusto I will forever refuse to use the Imperial system, unless it is absolutely necessary.
 
user19161
Interestingly while C usually stands for the complex numbers, F and K usually stands for arbitrary fields in math, with K being korper or field in German I think.
 
user19161
And interestingly from C, F and K we have ...
 
I can tell you one reason why a inches and feet are better than centimeters and meters. For one thing, a foot has even factors, while a 10-based system has only 3. So put that in your pipette and smoke it.
 
user19161
KFC!!!
 
user19161
3:59 AM
Hahaha.
 
@Robusto Inches and feet cannot be usefully translated into decimals.
 

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