I’d like to share with you all a humorous article by Yasha Berchenko-Kogan, describing what mathematicians (specifically math graduate students) do all day. It is very much in accord with what my own research experience has been like. https://gist.github.com/4158578
November 2012
Physics / Relativity / Science And Math
FTL Part 2: The Universal Speed Limit
It is impossible to travel faster than the speed of light, and certainly not desirable, as one’s hat keeps blowing off. ~Woody Allen This is Part Two of a multipart series on faster-than-light travel. This time, I’ll describe why it’s difficult to travel faster than lightspeed. At the end of my last article, I told you that the speed of light is constant, independent of the speed of the observer or the source. If I drive past you at half the speed of light with my headlights blazing, the photons of my headlights will be going past you at
Education
Some Thoughts on Education: Part 2
Bonus content! This is a follow-up entry to my previous post, A Few Ideas on Education. Enough people have given me thought provoking content, that I wanted to share what they’ve said and what I think about it. Using Computers to Teach Math (I’ve already posted this in a comment on the original post, so if you’ve read that, you can skip this section.) Someone on my facebook feed asked me for my thoughts on the ideas promoted by this video: http://www.ted.com/talks/conrad_wolfram_teaching_kids_real_math_with_computers.html For the most part, I think this school of thought is spot on. Conrad Wolfram is simply
Physics / Relativity / Science And Math
FTL Part 1: The Speed of Light is Constant
Nothing travels faster than the speed of light, with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws. ~Douglass Adams, Mostly Harmless This is part 1 of a many-part series on faster-than-light travel. Before we can discuss how to travel faster than light, we need to understand why this is a problem in the first place. Why is the speed of light the universal speed limit? The answer starts with the invariance of the speed of light. By this point, everyone knows that the speed of light is constant, but it is not at all obvious
Education
A Few Ideas on Education
“Wow! 2500 hits! I really didn’t expect such an enthusiastic response to my first blog post! Thanks for all your enthusiasm! Andy Colyer asked me the following question in the comments. I’d love to get your thoughts about how to get children interested in math and physics. What the progress of the curriculum should be. Any text or material recommendations, etc. Did you do mathcounts? I decided that maybe I could share my answer with all of you. (Don’t worry, an article answering Kosh’s question on the requests page will be up soon. This is just bonus content.) Before
Analysis / Mathematics / Science And Math
Taming Infinity: infinite sums, infinite primes and the sizes of infinity
The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. ~Howard Phillips Lovecraft To infinity, and beyond! ~Buzz Lightyear Infinity: The Early Years When I was about ten, I had the following conversation with my friend: Me: I want Pokemon Yellow the most of anyone! My Friend: No, I do! I want it twice as much as you! Me: I want it
Uncategorized
Hello world!
The Physics Mill is up and running, and I’ll write my first article soon! If there’s any topic in physics or math that you’d like to learn about, leave a comment on the requests page, or shoot me an email at questions.thephysicsmill@gmail.com.