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3:01 PM
@heather I have a question abut the code
in particular this bit:" if location > 26:
location = location-26"
 
what about it?
 
isn't it possible for even (location - 26) to be greater than 26
 
yes
okay, yeah.
i wasn't thinking there.
I guess, i wanted it to subtract 26 until it was lower than 26, as if it was iterating through the alphabet multiple times
 
yes I think there would be a modulo 26 function you could use
or otherwise a second loop would be required
where you loop until location <= 26
 
I used a while loop, let me update it.
 
3:05 PM
do you know of the "modulo" function
 
yes
 
that is "location%26" will give location in mod 26
 
%
 
yea
 
location = location%26 will give what i want?
 
3:06 PM
not exactly
 
without the while loop?
 
nearly though
1%26 = 1
2%26 = 2
but 26%26 = 0
and then 27%26 = 1
 
oh, nice
 
so if you say location = location%26
then go, if location = 0 then location = 26
maybe that will work?
 
hmm
 
3:07 PM
because you want 26 to remain as 26 don't u?
 
yes
i think i'll keep it as the while loop for now, because it is more readable
 
but 26%26 will be 0
 
I have officially finished my Linear Algebra course
:)
 
this doesn't need to be super short and efficient, so.
@BernardMeurer, yay \o/ (::round of applause::)
 
@heather do you need to "end" the while loop?
or does it just check the next line
 
3:09 PM
@heather Despite your best efforts of stealing my last-minute help from me :P
 
@BernardMeurer, yes, sorry about that!
 
It's alright, don't worry :)
 
@Kenshin, pretty sure no
 
I did a sweet proof in the exam
@ACuriousMind Go have a beer
 
@BernardMeurer, nice!
 
3:10 PM
@heather I think perhaps you need to end the loop
 
@heather I'll post it on the linear algebra room after my Chem exam monday
 
before you define "newmessage"
 
@BernardMeurer, okay. Good luck on the chem exam - is this your crazy chem class?
@Kenshin, it's python, it uses indentation...?
 
I don't know the python syntax, does it understand indentation?
that's interesting
 
python is dependent on indentation
that's how it begins/ends a loop, colons instead of brackets, etc
 
3:13 PM
oh k
 
Basically I give you a transformation that an n-dimensional matrix into a real number. This transformation is such that $f(AB) = F(BA)$, with B, A being n-dimensional matrices. Also $f(I)=n$ where $n$ is the order of the Identity. Prove that this transform is the Trace operator, and then prove the mentioned properties.
 
I've never seen a programming language do that
 
what i'm really looking for is a logic error, because it isn't changing the first letter in the message i want to encode, which is nuts, because under no circumstances should it not be changed
 
@heather Gimme teh codez
 
3:14 PM
@ACuriousMind What is the difference between a diffeomorphism and a weyl transform in 2D
 
does it work for other letters @heather?
 
@heather Let me change your life
 
@Kenshin It's called the off-side rule, Python and Haskell are probably the well-known examples of it.
 
According to Some Paper, in 2D a weyl transformation is equivalent to the coordinate transform $z \to f(z)$ with $f$ some holomorphic function
But then isn't that the same thing as a diffeomorphism?
 
@BernardMeurer, how so?
 
3:16 PM
but it feels a bit odd because I don't think all conformally related metric as minkowski space are flat
 
@Slereah A diffeomorphism is a map $\phi : M \to M$ that changes coordinates, the metric and everything else by the standard rules, a Weyl transform is a direct transformation of the metric $g\mapsto \Omega(x)g$.
 
@ACuriousMind ty very interesting
 
as they would be if it was just a coordinate change
I know, but the fellow says that for Minkowski space
Since the metric is $ds^2 = dz d\bar z$
Any weyl transform can be written as what I said
And then the Weyl transform is just $f'^2 dz d\bar z$ or something
which sounds reasonable
But does that mean that all metrics conformal to flat space are flat?
I would expect so if it's just a coordinate transform
 
@Slereah Indeed it isn't, not all conformally flat manifolds are flat.
 
[chr(x) for x in range(97,123)]
This generates the alphabet
 
3:19 PM
but it seems weird since from what I've gathered, all Lorentz surfaces are conformal to flat space
 
wow
 
@heather Go read on list comprehensions
it's some cool magic
 
So is it more general than a coordinate transform?
 
@Slereah Yes, that is also true, and part of the reason gravity is trivial in 2D
 
Now I gotta go back to chemistry
 
3:20 PM
@BernardMeurer, I've used them before but I didn't realize they could be used for the alphabet!
@BernardMeurer, okay, thank you.
 
Well, not trivial :p
 
@ACuriousMind Go prove what I mentioned above
It's a fun exercise
 
but quite simple
But anyway, what is the distinction here between a coordinate change and a weyl transform?
 
@Kenshin, what do you mean "does it work for other letters"
 
@Slereah Have I not answered that?
The Weyl transform does nothing to the coordinates, it just directly changes the metric
I'm not sure what exactly you want to know
 
3:24 PM
Well yes, but if mathematically it is identical, wouldn't that give them both the same curvature
 
@Slereah How could something that changes the coordinates and everything else be "identical" to something that just changes the metric?
 
@heather another quesiton about the code
your test is "if location > 26"
 
@Kenshin, what?
right
 
and you use alphabet[location]
 
indeed
 
3:28 PM
but doesnt the index of alphabet range from 0 -25
so if location = 26 it will error?
 
I add one to location somewhere, i think...one moment let me look
yeah, i did
look at the definition of location
line 16
 
yes I saw it already
my point is you are passing that into alphabet[location]
and this parameter must be between 0 and 25, not 1 and 26
 
oh, duh
(::face palm::)
 
so I think given this, you can just use location = location%26
and no need for the + 1
 
or, one moment
hmm.
okay, updated
 
3:34 PM
@ACuriousMind Why are you not loving me?
 
@BernardMeurer What?
 
@ACuriousMind I pinged you like thrice already, and you didn't give me love
 
@heather the program is working now correct?
 
24 mins ago, by Bernard Meurer
Basically I give you a transformation that an n-dimensional matrix into a real number. This transformation is such that $f(AB) = F(BA)$, with B, A being n-dimensional matrices. Also $f(I)=n$ where $n$ is the order of the Identity. Prove that this transform is the Trace operator, and then prove the mentioned properties.
@ACuriousMind How would you go about showing that?
 
@Kenshin, yes, I think I figured out all the problems
 
3:39 PM
good job
gtg
laterz all
 
have a good day/night
 
@BernardMeurer Is it given that it's linear?
 
@ACuriousMind Ya
When I say "n-dimensional matrix" I mean $A, B \in \mathbb M_{n\times n}$
 
Well, you decompose a matrix as $A = A_{ij} E_{ij}$ for the basis matrices $E_{ij}$ with entry 1 at ij. We have that $f(E_{11}) = f(E_{22}) =... = 1$ because a base change turns all of these into each other, and $f(B^{-1} A B) = f(A)$ follows from $f(AB) = f(BA)$.
And we get $f(E_{ij}) = 0$ because $f(E_{ij} E_{ji}) = f(E_{ij})$ but $f(E_{ji} E_{ij}) = f(0) = 0$.
So $f(A) = \sum_{i,j} A_{ij} f(E_{ij}) = \sum_{i,j} A_{ij} \delta_{ij} = \sum_i A_{ii} = \mathrm{tr}(A)$. Enough love for you, @BernardMeurer?
 
4:00 PM
AHA
That's what I did too!
Well, minus the basis thing
I defined matrix multiplication as a sum
 
@BernardMeurer Not quite sure what you mean by that
 
Imagine $A=[a_{ij}];B=[b_{ij}]$, the first diagonal entry of $AB$ is $\sum_{z=1}^{n}{a_{z,1}\times b_{1,z}}$
 
Yes, that's the definition of matrix multiplication, how does it help me here?
 
Because you define the trace one the basis of this (with another sum)
and it becomes clear how $Tr{AB} = Tr{BA}$
 
Yeah, how does it help you to show that $f$ is the trace?
I.e. which step of mine do you want to replace here?
 
4:07 PM
Eh, well, I just defined this function and showed that it: a) Summed across the diagonal b) Obeyed the desired properties, and thus was the Trace
I'm not replacing, I'm just saying how I tried to solve it :P
 
I'm not following you
 
On Twitter?
 
Showing that some specific $f$ you defined that obeys the properties in the question is the trace doesn't show that all such functions are the trace
 
Huh? I didn't define $f$, the question already said $f$ was the trace, you just had to prove it
i.e. prove that the trace of AB = trace BA, that the trace works for any given square matrix, that Tr(I)=n
 
No, that's not what the question is asking.
 
4:11 PM
The one I translated no, the original one would be more precisely written like this
 
As you wrote it, it's asking to show that, if a function $f : M_{n\times n} \to\mathbb{C}$ fulfills $f(AB) = f(BA), f(A+B) = f(A)+f(B), f(\mathbf{1}_n) = n$, then $f = \mathrm{tr}$.
 
It was me being a bad translator
 
Which is a nice exercise; what you said sounds as if you just showed $\mathrm{tr}(AB) = \mathrm{tr}(BA), \mathrm{tr}(\mathbf{1}_n)$, which is pretty boring.
 
Wait
I gotta study Chem
We will continue this
 
4:29 PM
@ACuriousMind Can you explain how is it that showing that the trace matches all the requirements specified does not prove that the function is the trace?
 
@BernardMeurer Say I dropped the requirement of linearity and value at the identity, i.e. only claimed that any function $f(AB) = f(BA)$ was the trace. You could still show that the trace fulfills this, but it's not the only function that does so (e.g. the determinant is another)
 
@ACuriousMind Sure, but we don't drop any requirements
what I did was come up with a formal definition of the trace and then show that it had all the properties asked
 
@BernardMeurer Well, but how do you know there isn't another function that fulfills the same requirement?
Just because you can't think of one that doesn't prove the trace is the only possiblity
 
Because those requirements define the trace!
 
How do you know?
 
4:33 PM
heck that's how we defined the darn thing
 
That's the entire point of the exercise - prove that these requirements uniquely define a function, and that that function is the trace.
 
Wtf
Screw this shit
How much is Burger King's wage?
 
-2
A: Joule-Thomson effect of Van der Waals gas

prakash bhuniaSolve Van der Waal's equation and approximate the $PV$ term by $RT$, and you will have your required equation. Although we are introducing an error, it will hardly affect the final result since there will be both $a$ and $b$. For Van der Waal gas: $$\left(p+\frac{n^2q}{v^2}\right)\left(v-nb\ri...

@ACuriousMind, did I do the above edit alright?
 
Come on man
I can never get any of this crap right
Sigh
 
@heather What do you mean? (I trust that you can read the image as good or bad as I can)
@BernardMeurer If it's any consolation, your error is one that many people make when first confronted with this type of exercise
 
4:44 PM
@ACuriousMind, I suppose so, yeah. nevermind.
 
[Universal algebra] After consulted with the maths guys, hopefully the formalism makes sense now...
All elements in a cayley table:

Def 1: Given a magma $(M,\circ)$ of $n$ elements. Let $S$ be a $1 \times n$ matrix or $n \times 1$ matrix where its entries are elements $a \in M$. The cayley table is then given by the outer product $T=S \otimes S$, which is a $n \times n$ matrix. For all matrices, the tranpose is defined in the usual way, thus $(T^\textrm{T})^\textrm{T}=T$

Rows and columns

Def 2: Rows and columns of the cayley table are given in the usual way: For all $i\in M$, $T_{ai}$ is the row correspond to the element $a$ multiplied to $S$. i.e. $aS=T_{ai}$. Similarly, columns are g
In english: multiplication $\circ$ maps rows to rows, columns to columns. If a row is guarentee to map to a row that is from the cayley table, then the magma is associative
Typo: $Sb=T_{ib}$
 
@ACuriousMind I'm growing more and more dislike for formal maths :/
Proofs and things like that
I loved LA
but yet I can't prove the simplest thing
It seems like I'm building bicycles for fishes
 
omg, look at this: dafix.uark.edu/~danielk
someone should tell Kennefick that the nineties called and they want their web design back
 
Oh god, why red?
 
eye is bleeding from staring into that endless red
 
4:55 PM
well, at least it's intentional dafix.uark.edu/~danielk/Politics/redpage.html
 
This guy must be insane or something
 
I guess it's not quite so outrageous if you consider it's from 2008, but still
 
btw Emilo, a weird question, what is the context of that complex plot that is your avatar?
 
in any case, he's the crack science historian who got to the bottom of the Einstein run-in with Phys Rev, cf. dafix.uark.edu/~danielk/Talks/PhysRev.pdf and physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/abs/10.1063/…, so maybe we oughta cut him a tiny bit of slack
 
@ACuriousMind Have you ever come across the 'Arakelov' metric of a Riemann surface?
 
5:02 PM
@JamalS nope
 
@ACuriousMind How about the Faltings invariant?
 
@Secret It's figure 11c in arxiv.org/abs/1507.00011
 
@JamalS No, haven't seen that either. I don't know much except for the basics about Riemann surfaces.
 
it shows the evolution of the roots of a certain complex-valued equation as a parameter is moved around in a loop
it shows that after one loop, the roots move around and exchange places, so they are all in some sense the "same" root
 
Yeah, I guess there's nobody I could really ask here.
 
5:05 PM
@JamalS Danu, perhaps
 
@JamalS Sadly @0celo7 is banned
 
::clears throat::
 
2
A: How can we combat arrogance and ignorance on physics stack exchange?

heatherOh, the agony of questions like these. Arrogance, meh. Physicists should be a bit arrogant, they've certainly worked through enough degrees and years of maddening "when will I ever get my PhD?" craziness that, while it does sound incredibly fun, I think gives permission for a tad bit of arroganc...

this answer is probably way to sarcastic.
i just couldn't resist.
 
@AccidentalFourierTransform ::hands over lozenge::
3
 
5:10 PM
t̥̥͇ḫa͓̘̣͜ṋ̖͔͝ͅͅk̳̻̺͉̝̯͙s̝̦͕̯ͅ
 
@AccidentalFourierTransform Has encontrado el variante de Faltings o de Kawazumi-Zhang?
 
no, why do you ask?
:-P
 
In the evaluation of the two-loop graviton amplitude in type II string theory, the integration of the invariant of a Riemann surface times some particular modular form over all metrics on genus 2 surfaces arises.
 
Yeah, I know what a string is
I can help you with that
 
The invariant was originally studied by Kawazumi-Zhang but is essentially equivalent to the Faltings invariant, and I was interested in how it can be computed explicitly, in terms of the period matrix of the Riemann surface.
Integrating it seems easy thanks to a method by Green et al, once you know its form of course.
@AccidentalFourierTransform Are you Spanish by the way, or just studying in Madrid?
 
5:14 PM
@JamalS I am from Madrid, living in Barcelona rn
 
@AccidentalFourierTransform Oh, I was in Barcelona in August - I'll be back next year.
 
hmm, the two saddle points are very close together in Fig. S4, as if they are going to touch soon...
 
@JamalS Madrid is better ;-)
 
@AccidentalFourierTransform I might be flying there just for 1 night for New Year's Eve.
 
actually, Barcelona is lovely. I really like it in here
 
5:16 PM
I'll be going 5th to 20th August
Then probably down to Marbella, Andalucia (where my parents are), until the end of the summer.
 
for something in particular? or just tourism?
 
@AccidentalFourierTransform An event.
 
Well, Spain is great in Summer. The nicest weather in Europe ;-)
And you are from the UK, right?
 
@AccidentalFourierTransform Yes, but I grew up in Spain. Only went back to the UK for university.
 
Cool, you're the first one here in SE whos been to Spain that I know of :-)
 
5:19 PM
@AccidentalFourierTransform My favourite country; more of a home to me than the UK.
 
I've never been to Marbella, but I bet its beautiful
Where in the UK do you study?
 
@AccidentalFourierTransform In the west mids
@AccidentalFourierTransform Marbella is great, but just don't go during tourist season, it's awful.
It's very easy for you to go to Marbella, if you take the train from Barcelona station to Malaga station (renfe), it's about five hours. Then just go by car down to Marbella area.
The train goes through Madrid, so you could stop there too
 
@JamalS and I'll probably go back to Madrid for the summer, so it is actually easier to go down there some time
But yeah, in summer it is too crowded
 
5:37 PM
@AccidentalFourierTransform How so?
I was in Madrid for a few hours...
I was in Barcelona twice, both times for a few days. Barcelona was cool, but I didn't have enough time to take in Madrid.
Sevilla was neat.
 
@DanielSank Lots of British, and Northern European tourists during the summer - you'll see everything packed, even supermarkets, at least in Marbella as they often rent or have places down here.
 
@DanielSank Madrid is a very nice place to live actually
I've lived in several places and I always go back to Madrid
@JamalS Everywhere near the coast in Spain is full of people from the UK and Germany
 
@AccidentalFourierTransform Well yeah, when I say Marbella I mean Costa del Sol :)
 
5:57 PM
Hey guys! Do anyone of you know where I can get data regarding time taken for orbital decay p(due to gravitational wave radiation) of binaries. Wiki doesn't have much info.
 
Does anyone here currently live/is in London?
@JohnRennie? Hmmm @EmilioPisanty?
 
6:28 PM
0
Q: Is it acceptable to quote a Nazi claim on Physics SE?

claude chuberI have no intention being rude, and have been hesitating a long time before posting this question. The fact is that a user of the Physics SE, MAFIA36790, includes this quote in his public profile: "There will come a day, when all the lies will collapse under their own weight, & truth will again...

 
6:39 PM
@BernardMeurer not no longer, no
moved out in February
why?
 
6:53 PM
@EmilioPisanty I have a 12 hours layover at Heathrow
Thought I'd use the chance to buy some fellow h-bar member a beer
 
@BernardMeurer flying home for Christmas?
 
@ACuriousMind Yeah :)
Christmas and New Years
I'm back on the 4th because my analysis exam is on the 9th
I foresee getting rekd
 
exams around New Year? Ew.
They're usually end of January/start of Februrary here
I don't need to take any anymore, though :)
 
You lucky dog
I have Analysis on the 9th and Digital Systems on the 12th!
Digital Systems is the subject where I broke the matrix
I have a 10/20 (E) in theory, and a 19.2/20 (A+) on lab, lol
So now I also have to do the oral exam
 
What sort of things do you do in "Digital Systems"?
 
7:05 PM
We saw boolean algebra, hmm, most fundamental components of circuitry (Multiplexers, decoders, logic gates, encoders, demultiplexers, counters, shift registers, flip-flops, RAM, ROM, ...), finite-state machines with state diagram and fluxogram descriptions, hmmm
VHDL programming and intro to FPGAs
 
Why what?
 
why everything
 
@AccidentalFourierTransform 42
 
all you said, all of it
why?
 
7:07 PM
@AccidentalFourierTransform Because I'm a computer engineer
 
that makes sense
 
@ACuriousMind Why'd you ask?
 
Because I didn't know what that course entailed? I'm told showing interest in what other people do is something humans do ;)
 
@ACuriousMind It is! I just thought you were going to make some point about it :P
Silly AI
But yeah, I broke the class
 
7:44 PM
@BernardMeurer well, I wouldn't say no to a beer, but I'm unfortunately not in London
I can recommend good pubs to pass the time, though ;-)
 
Last time I went drinking waiting for something I lost my train and woke up in Denmark
5
Gimme those pubs :P
I have picture evidence
Basically my Chem exams
 
@BernardMeurer you can't go wrong with the Princess Louise
nice and central, good cheap beer, awesome Victorian interior
 
You had me at cheap :)
 
the John Snow is also plenty good
nice name coincidence, and it actually has an even more awesome reason for the name
 
They probably don't know how to make drinks though
(Please someone get the reference)
 
7:56 PM
@BernardMeurer what, as in some fancy version of a cosmopolitan or something?
no, I don't get it, sorry
as in, You Know Nothing, Jon Snow?
 
Yeah :P
 
@BernardMeurer yeah, but this is John, not Jon
got there about 250 years earlier?
discovered that bad water causes cholera
 
Dammit, this is why I failed reading comprehension
OH
THATS WHY THE NAME
THATS AWESOME
 
took this public water pump and messed it up, took out the handle so it didn't work anymore
and bingo, no more cholera
... and, of course, Britain being Britain, the water pump is still there, minus the handle
with the John Snow pub in the background
 
Oh man that's really cool
 

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