Off of the Topic: Social Thread v4.1 (Special Edition)

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(rimshot)

VaporTrail posted on 5/31/05 10:52pm

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You're all a bunch of nerds.
[hr][/blockquote] This is good - I just wish I had been on more yesterday so I could join in. [face_nerd]

 

You're all a bunch of nerds.

Actually, knowing this stuff is essentially my job.
<- Engineering Physics Ph.D. Student.

-Spiff

 

Nerd job.

EDIT: I found This while surfing Wikipedia. It's an Engineer's drinking song from MIT, thought you might think it entertaining.

 

Standard fare... taught to all frosh minus the MIT references:

Venus is a statue made entirely of stone,
Not a fig leaf on her she's as naked as a bone.
On noticing she had no arms an engineer discoursed,
"The damn thing's broken concrete and it should be reinforced"

etc.

The correct tune to sing it to is The Battle Hymn of the Republic.

-Spiff

 

LUCAS: My original vision for the prequels was to have Fred Savage as Anakin. In fact in the special edition I'm putting him in, complete with Wonder Years style narration.

"Being thrown into lava was a totally new experience for me, it reminded me of gym class without the trauma".

 

^^
I'm going to have nightmares about that
... then some voice well tell everyone why ... NOOOOOOOO

 

lol i stopped science

Fig, as always, being counter-productive

So what happens when he turns on his headlights?

According to Drew, it would work as normal for him. Meh, I'd like to think that the light piles up in front, like sound waves in front of a rocket car approaching the sound barrier, then collapses and flows behind it... I think thats what sound waves to...

(I realize they're completely different forms of energy, but it's still a cool visualization to turn on your headlights and the light originates behind you somewhere.)

 

A commie* and an engineer were stranded in a boat,
One man was too heavy and the poor boat wouldn't float.
The engineer would flip a coin to settle the dispute,
So he flipped it overboard, and the commie gave pursuit.

*commie = commerce student/businessman

-Spiff

 

I've created a monster.

 

hehehe

 

Arjuna - Actually if someone is traveling at the speed of light, then projects light in their traveling direction, The light would appear to not travel beyond themselves, or beyond the area they are taking up, because they will be traveling WITH the light.

And it's not 'According to Drew" Its According to Einstein's theory of Relativity. - I'm not making this stuff up.

I'm not saying humans can travel in time, I'm just obtimistic as to whether it may happen. I'm saying other things in our universe achieve it.

MUONS Are particles that come from the sun and once they reach the earth's atmosphere and come into contact with it, they almost instantly die. But they are traveling at more than 99% the speed of light, so they are able to make it all the way to the earth's surface.

When I say that, I'm going by memory, so there may be a flaw in what I just said and the physics major may catch it, but the basic idea is right. There are particles called MUONS that achieve significant Time Dilation to have a longer life span relative to our point of perspective.

 

Everything we know about muons:

http://pdg.lbl.gov/2004/listings/s004.pdf

The lifetime of the muon in its rest frame is constant. The mean lifetime of a muon is 2.19703 +/- 0.00004 microseconds.

The time dilation argument is pretty much correct. In our frame of reference, a fast moving muon lasts longer.

-Spiff

 

MUONS Are particles that come from the sun and once they reach the earth's atmosphere........

GEEKS Are people who are still talking about science long after everyone else has stopped listening.

 

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One reason why I love TFN.

 

It's Interesting.

 

Oh blah blah blah, how can you travel time if it doesn't even exist? It's just a stupid concept people invented to keep track of things.

 

You're right. As far as a clock is concerned. But Time is a dimension just like the 3 dimensions of space.

For something to exist, it must have length, width and height, no matter how large or how microscopic. But it also has to have duration, it has to exist for a certain amount of time.

In this sense, Duration is not a man made thing and does exist. Just like length isn't a man made thing, but the measurment of "inches" and "Miles" are man made concepts. As are "hours" and "Minutes"

 

In other news - I just saw the first June '05 member in here. Seems almost too soon...

 

Yeah but travelling time? It's bogus. It makes for magnificent movies (Back to the Future, Bill and Ted, and if you're a MST3K fan, Time Chasers) but really.

 

Well yea, I mean, Those movies are science fiction man.... I'm not saying Time Travel can be achieved any of those ways... I'm simply saying, having time pass slower for one thing than another.

 

Going backwards in time, yeah, it's pretty bogus. But forwards, from an individual standpoint anyway, is far from it.

EDIT: In other-other news, This is some of the better horror writing I've seen in a long time. It's like what Dean Koontz tries so hard to be. Some strong language, mindblowing terror, black humor involved. Click at your own risk.

 

GEEKS Are people who are still talking about science long after everyone else has stopped listening.

So... what you're saying is that geeks are people who are interested in science and have a longer attention span than you? Got it. Incidentally, "geek" usually implies superior intellect as well. The term is condescending only because people are resentful of geeks due to their own inferiority complexes.

-Spiff

 

General Reikan, no, I don't think that was it. This one had some sith fighting on some beachside cliffs and had really amazing latex masks.

 

geek (n. Slang)

1. a) A person regarded as foolish, inept, or clumsy. b) A person who is single-minded or accomplished in scientific or technical pursuits but is felt to be socially inept.

2. A carnival performer whose show consists of bizarre acts, such as biting the head off a live chicken.

 

Heh, and to think that this started off with a theology joke

I know it's not "According to Drew", I meant it as more, "According to Drew's sources".