Brownian Notions
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Quote
“The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the Universe to do. -- Galileo Galilei
Do you have trouble believing that an infinite all powerful creator takes a personal interest in each of us? The trouble with such doubts is that the infinite God we imagine in not infinite enough. The care and attention of God is large enough to shine on each of us just as Galileo's sun can ripen grapes in Italy and in rice in China in full measure.
posted by Y.H.N.
Do you have trouble believing that an infinite all powerful creator takes a personal interest in each of us? The trouble with such doubts is that the infinite God we imagine in not infinite enough. The care and attention of God is large enough to shine on each of us just as Galileo's sun can ripen grapes in Italy and in rice in China in full measure.
posted by Y.H.N.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Physics Labs Taught On lIne
"How do you do a physics lab on line?" That is the question that causes most people to dismiss the teaching of physics on line. I don't think that physics (or physics lab) is necessarily impossible on line but the delivery needs to be looked at more closely. We can not simply expect that students will naturally organize themselves into a collaboration. This is a difficult goal even in the classroom. If we add the unfamiliarity of the on line environment this task takes on an understandably daunting cast.
Just some preliminary thoughts.
posted by Y.H.N.
- We will need to assign roles. I have resisted this step in the classroom largely because I don't want to deal with it. I would have to codify each role and facilitate the growth of each student in those roles.
- Small groups communications tools will need to be established. Groups of 3 persons seems to be about the correct size (I'm guessing here.) If entries of individual students can be associated with their roles within the group grading will be possible.
- More frequent grading will be necessary. The first feedback the students receive should not be that they have failed.
- Care will need to be given in selecting the student groups. The students may need to work online together is chat rooms or using other tools.
Just some preliminary thoughts.
posted by Y.H.N.
Labels: online teaching, teaching
Sunday, June 07, 2009
Lord of the Ants
I just watched a wonderful NOVA video about the life and work of Ed Wilson. I first heard of Ed Wilson in his book along with Bert Hölldobler Ants.
posted by Y.H.N.
posted by Y.H.N.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Quote
Paraphrase
Preliminary and thesis exams have the right idea when the faculty committee pushes until the student starts getting the answers wrong or gives up and says, `I don't know'. The point of the exam isn't to see if the student gets all the answers right. If they do, it's the faculty who failed the exam. The point is to identify the student's weaknesses, partly to see where they need to invest some effort and partly to see whether the student's knowledge fails at a sufficiently high level that they are ready to take on a research project. --- UVA Microbiologist Martin A. Schwartz
posted by Y.H.N.
Preliminary and thesis exams have the right idea when the faculty committee pushes until the student starts getting the answers wrong or gives up and says, `I don't know'. The point of the exam isn't to see if the student gets all the answers right. If they do, it's the faculty who failed the exam. The point is to identify the student's weaknesses, partly to see where they need to invest some effort and partly to see whether the student's knowledge fails at a sufficiently high level that they are ready to take on a research project. --- UVA Microbiologist Martin A. Schwartz
posted by Y.H.N.
Labels: quotes
Monday, May 11, 2009
Compile root with PyROOT support
On new ubuntu machine I downloaded the sources and typed
made the following additions to my .bashrc file
alias root='root -l' # prevents the annoying splash screen
export ROOTSYS=/home/sforrester/root/root # tells you where root is installed
export PATH=$PATH:$ROOTSYS/bin # tells you where the root executable is
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:$ROOTSYS/lib # Required for PyRoot
export PYTHONPATH=$PYTHONPATH:$ROOTSYS/lib # Tells python where to look for ROOT.py module.
Here are the steps.
sudo apt-get install python2.6
sudo apt-get install python2.6-dev
./configure linux --enable-python --with-python-incdir=/usr/include/python2.6 --with-python-libdir=/usr/lib
make
Note make install still does not work. I will figure this out later.
sudo make install Error!!
Lessons learned. The PyRoot instructions say to set the python include directory to the location of Python.h. They mean Python.h from the python release, not the one included in the root source. (DUH!). Python development was required to obtain the symbolic link "libpython2.6.so -> libpython2.6.so.1" Of course the pointed to file was already present but did not want to assume libpython2.6.so was the same as libpython2.6.so.1
posted by Y.H.N.
made the following additions to my .bashrc file
alias root='root -l' # prevents the annoying splash screen
export ROOTSYS=/home/sforrester/root/root # tells you where root is installed
export PATH=$PATH:$ROOTSYS/bin # tells you where the root executable is
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:$ROOTSYS/lib # Required for PyRoot
export PYTHONPATH=$PYTHONPATH:$ROOTSYS/lib # Tells python where to look for ROOT.py module.
Here are the steps.
sudo apt-get install python2.6
sudo apt-get install python2.6-dev
./configure linux --enable-python --with-python-incdir=/usr/include/python2.6 --with-python-libdir=/usr/lib
make
Note make install still does not work. I will figure this out later.
sudo make install Error!!
Lessons learned. The PyRoot instructions say to set the python include directory to the location of Python.h. They mean Python.h from the python release, not the one included in the root source. (DUH!). Python development was required to obtain the symbolic link "libpython2.6.so -> libpython2.6.so.1" Of course the pointed to file was already present but did not want to assume libpython2.6.so was the same as libpython2.6.so.1
posted by Y.H.N.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Root installed on Vista Machine
I finally have the Root Analysis s Framework installed on my local Vista machine. What a pain tin the Keister!!!
Here are the steps -
posted by Y.H.N.
Here are the steps -
1) Use the Windows installer package, but keep the download page open.
2) Try to start the application from the Start menu. It will fail because of some missing .dll file.
3) Go to the bottom of the page to find links to the relevant .dll files.
4) Copy these same four files to the directory C:/root/bin
5) Try to start the application again.
posted by Y.H.N.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Nueces County
Maker has posted a simple recipe for creating self generated album covers from you favorite band that never existed.
I can almost imagine summer nights on the gulf coast spent listening to this album that never existed!
Have fun with it.
posted by Y.H.N.
Maker has posted a simple recipe for creating self generated album covers from you favorite band that never existed.
I can almost imagine summer nights on the gulf coast spent listening to this album that never existed!
Have fun with it.
posted by Y.H.N.
Labels: gimp
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Feeling Down
When I'm feeling down everything seems to be colored by that fact. I received an offer of one section of a well paying online course to teach. Am I grateful and happy to have a job? No I am currently teaching two sections and feeling I've been fired. I know it is the economy and I know that other excellent teachers are also receiving fewer sections.
posted by Y.H.N.
posted by Y.H.N.
Labels: teaching
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
The Blaster
Astronomy Cast describes the phenomena of Astrophysical Maser sources of coherent light. This put the idea into my head about chemical burning leading to a metastable energy state which would be be used for stimulated emission.
If packaged small enough the chemical could be expendable ... kind of like ammunition. So not only am I thinking about astrophysics all the time. I'm also thinking about Star Wars blasters. Hopefully by writing the idea down I can get it out of my head.
posted by Y.H.N.
If packaged small enough the chemical could be expendable ... kind of like ammunition. So not only am I thinking about astrophysics all the time. I'm also thinking about Star Wars blasters. Hopefully by writing the idea down I can get it out of my head.
posted by Y.H.N.
Dark Matter is not Particulate
Consider that dark matter, what ever it happens to be, is not particulate in the manner that baryonic matter is. The foundations of thermodynamics lie in statistics of particles. Any kind of matter composed of particles will presumably display thermodynamic behavior. Dark matter is not seen to heat up or to radiate. Now also consider that gravitational lensing effects occur from baryonic matter when it forms compact objects due to gravitational attraction. Gravitational lensing from dark matter is not observed except on the very largest scales. Apparently compact dark matter objects are not observed. All of this argues against any theory which describes a particulate dark matter candidate.
As an alternate consider an elastic medium which resists compression. If we can describe compression energy held within this medium it could account for the expansion and for the lack of compact dark matter objects.
posted by Y.H.N.
Consider that dark matter, what ever it happens to be, is not particulate in the manner that baryonic matter is. The foundations of thermodynamics lie in statistics of particles. Any kind of matter composed of particles will presumably display thermodynamic behavior. Dark matter is not seen to heat up or to radiate. Now also consider that gravitational lensing effects occur from baryonic matter when it forms compact objects due to gravitational attraction. Gravitational lensing from dark matter is not observed except on the very largest scales. Apparently compact dark matter objects are not observed. All of this argues against any theory which describes a particulate dark matter candidate.
As an alternate consider an elastic medium which resists compression. If we can describe compression energy held within this medium it could account for the expansion and for the lack of compact dark matter objects.
posted by Y.H.N.
Labels: cosmology, dark matter, physics
Friday, January 23, 2009
Lambic Beer
Karen is away and so I decided to treat myself. I stopped at our local whole foods and picked up a ham shank (red bean and rice for Monday) as well as a few delicacies. The Peach Lambic is joined by a Jarlsberg cheese, a Honey Crisp apple and a toasted English muffin with marmalade! Yum
posted by Y.H.N.
Karen is away and so I decided to treat myself. I stopped at our local whole foods and picked up a ham shank (red bean and rice for Monday) as well as a few delicacies. The Peach Lambic is joined by a Jarlsberg cheese, a Honey Crisp apple and a toasted English muffin with marmalade! Yum
posted by Y.H.N.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Math Projects in My Future
Cyclic analysis in the stock market is as near as I can tell as discredited method of predicting market movements. With that in mind I am still curious about the behavior of the Fourier coefficients in the time series. Do the Fourier components vary smoothly or do the components veer wildly. Is the time dependent movement of these values subject to Fourier analysis themselves. Does a chaotic system like stock prices imply a chaotic behavior in the flourier components? Is there anything to be learned about the power space depiction of chaotic systems?
A large set of paired random numbers should display am R-squared value of zero. In fact it does. My question concerns small sets of random number pairs. How fast is R-squared equal to zero approached?
Histogram Class size. Obviously a histogram with one bin is useless in that all information is lost. Like wise a histogram with as many or more bins as p=there are data points is equally useless. Here is the question. How can one optimize the a normal distribution in a set of data through bin size.
Three projects .. I suppose three weekends. I will keep you updated.
posted by Y.H.N.
Cyclic analysis in the stock market is as near as I can tell as discredited method of predicting market movements. With that in mind I am still curious about the behavior of the Fourier coefficients in the time series. Do the Fourier components vary smoothly or do the components veer wildly. Is the time dependent movement of these values subject to Fourier analysis themselves. Does a chaotic system like stock prices imply a chaotic behavior in the flourier components? Is there anything to be learned about the power space depiction of chaotic systems?
A large set of paired random numbers should display am R-squared value of zero. In fact it does. My question concerns small sets of random number pairs. How fast is R-squared equal to zero approached?
Histogram Class size. Obviously a histogram with one bin is useless in that all information is lost. Like wise a histogram with as many or more bins as p=there are data points is equally useless. Here is the question. How can one optimize the a normal distribution in a set of data through bin size.
Three projects .. I suppose three weekends. I will keep you updated.
posted by Y.H.N.
Open-sourcePphysicsTextbooks
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Textbooks for technical courses run into hundreds of dollars. This is in part due to the enormous expense and effort which goes into making a textbook. It is also a result of the very limited market for technical material. After all not every college student is required to take physics.
It is for that reason I have been looking at several electronic versions of free textbooks.
The first is of course Motion Mountain. The text has a decidedly different approach to the material. The traditional ordering of the subject matter is almost entirely absent. This is good in that I am coming to despise the pseudo historical narrative that accompanies the actual physics contained in the text. It is bad in that there is not way a school is going to adopt the book.
Light and Matter: open-source physics textbooks This text actually looks lie a traditional text whirl the author holds forth on the historical material in his own fashion.
Both look promising and I look forward to reading both.
posted by Y.H.N.
Textbooks for technical courses run into hundreds of dollars. This is in part due to the enormous expense and effort which goes into making a textbook. It is also a result of the very limited market for technical material. After all not every college student is required to take physics.
It is for that reason I have been looking at several electronic versions of free textbooks.
The first is of course Motion Mountain. The text has a decidedly different approach to the material. The traditional ordering of the subject matter is almost entirely absent. This is good in that I am coming to despise the pseudo historical narrative that accompanies the actual physics contained in the text. It is bad in that there is not way a school is going to adopt the book.
Light and Matter: open-source physics textbooks This text actually looks lie a traditional text whirl the author holds forth on the historical material in his own fashion.
Both look promising and I look forward to reading both.
posted by Y.H.N.
Sunday, January 04, 2009
Physics Videos
I've been looking at the concept of teaching physics online. This is a difficult sell for a couple of reasons.
None of these objections are insurmountable and as part of my noodling with the idea (investigation would be too great a word to describe my efforts) I have been collecting videos, papers and other online resources. Here are a couple of the videos.
Force, Energy and Power
Pole Vault
Projectile Motion
Entropy and the Arrow of Time
posted by Y.H.N.
I've been looking at the concept of teaching physics online. This is a difficult sell for a couple of reasons.
- The first is because of the laboratory component that traditionally accompanies the introductory physics lecture. How does one go about introducing experimentation with an experimental setup which is only online without having it look like a simulation?
- There is a great deal of personal interaction is transmitting the whole "physical intuition," the whole analytical approach to problem solving, to a new generation of students.
- An introductory physics course typically involves a great deal of homework. Most students are not prepared for this and are quickly discouraged without an instructor there to demonstrate some level of interest and concern.
None of these objections are insurmountable and as part of my noodling with the idea (investigation would be too great a word to describe my efforts) I have been collecting videos, papers and other online resources. Here are a couple of the videos.
Force, Energy and Power
Pole Vault
Projectile Motion
Entropy and the Arrow of Time
posted by Y.H.N.
Monday, December 08, 2008
Optimistic vs. Pessimistic or Hippies Stink
I was bothered by the article but could not quite put my finger on what the issue was until this morning. This morning I realized that being optimistic or pessimistic is less important than a world view filled with meaning and purpose. A setback to an optimist can be a devastating blow or an expected if surprising turn of events to a pessimist. Neither is as important to the will to continue the work of a society, as a sense that that work some how matters.
I reject the authors illusion to polio and AIDS. Does anyone believe that the arrival of AIDS would have been delayed had a polio vaccine not been found? A motivated pessimist concentrates on the fact that new diseases are inevitable and that a vigilant watch on public health is necessary. An motivated optimist concentrates on the fact that we live in a world where we do not have to deal with both diseases at once and for a period of time had to deal with neither. Both world views motivate advances in medicine and the quality of human life. What then of either the optimist or pessimist who can be roused to neither vigilance nor advancement? What then of people who can focus only on the fact that people saved from one cause of death are still doomed to another? The lack of meaning and even a denial of the possibility of meaning is a disease every bit as deadly to a society polio or AIDS is to the body.
In another thread on this list, “Red Days” the illusion was made that service people are deluded,
I do not speak for all service people, but there is a large body of veterans who KNOW that what they are doing and have done is brave, American and yes honorable. No matter how you think their service is being used, and on this point I am willing to admit that people of good will can differ, the offer that each of these veterans has made was to place their bodies between their country and its enemies. It is a sacrament to offer everything that one is, body and soul to protect the ones that one loves. For many of these young people it is the first thing that our society has ever offered them to believe in so deeply that it is worth giving years of ones life to hardship and privation, to be willing to die for and even the possibility of being maimed in body and soul.
Before 911 the value of patriotism, its forms and even the moral character and historical burden of the country were all academic pursuits. They were topics we could discuss over coffee and agree to disagree. On 911 they were not longer academic. Every person had to ask themselves, “Is this country worth fighting for?” I think that for many people that answer was no. In this view nothing can be achieved so it is not worth trying. Every setback is a defeat, every American causality is an Antietam, every civilian causality is a Mai Lai. To borrow a phrase, a little nuance is called for.
Does my life have some intrinsic meaning? I would answer no but to actually live my life in such a state of nature is as intolerable as rejecting basic hygiene. One of my favorite books is, “Man's Search for Meaning” by Victor Frankl, "Everything can be taken from a man but ...the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way." Life has meaning because I will make it have meaning. I will be an optimist because like blonds, they have more fun. That's just basic philosophical hygiene.
Post Script, I was asked if that last line was my way of implying that "Hippies Stink." That was not my intention but the point is not without merit.
posted by Y.H.N.
I was bothered by the article but could not quite put my finger on what the issue was until this morning. This morning I realized that being optimistic or pessimistic is less important than a world view filled with meaning and purpose. A setback to an optimist can be a devastating blow or an expected if surprising turn of events to a pessimist. Neither is as important to the will to continue the work of a society, as a sense that that work some how matters.
I reject the authors illusion to polio and AIDS. Does anyone believe that the arrival of AIDS would have been delayed had a polio vaccine not been found? A motivated pessimist concentrates on the fact that new diseases are inevitable and that a vigilant watch on public health is necessary. An motivated optimist concentrates on the fact that we live in a world where we do not have to deal with both diseases at once and for a period of time had to deal with neither. Both world views motivate advances in medicine and the quality of human life. What then of either the optimist or pessimist who can be roused to neither vigilance nor advancement? What then of people who can focus only on the fact that people saved from one cause of death are still doomed to another? The lack of meaning and even a denial of the possibility of meaning is a disease every bit as deadly to a society polio or AIDS is to the body.
In another thread on this list, “Red Days” the illusion was made that service people are deluded,
“This rhetoric is false and besmirches the tragic loss of these soldiers who THINK they are doing something worthwhile, "brave", and "American". The losses from this war are nothing but painful and tragic.”
I do not speak for all service people, but there is a large body of veterans who KNOW that what they are doing and have done is brave, American and yes honorable. No matter how you think their service is being used, and on this point I am willing to admit that people of good will can differ, the offer that each of these veterans has made was to place their bodies between their country and its enemies. It is a sacrament to offer everything that one is, body and soul to protect the ones that one loves. For many of these young people it is the first thing that our society has ever offered them to believe in so deeply that it is worth giving years of ones life to hardship and privation, to be willing to die for and even the possibility of being maimed in body and soul.
Before 911 the value of patriotism, its forms and even the moral character and historical burden of the country were all academic pursuits. They were topics we could discuss over coffee and agree to disagree. On 911 they were not longer academic. Every person had to ask themselves, “Is this country worth fighting for?” I think that for many people that answer was no. In this view nothing can be achieved so it is not worth trying. Every setback is a defeat, every American causality is an Antietam, every civilian causality is a Mai Lai. To borrow a phrase, a little nuance is called for.
Does my life have some intrinsic meaning? I would answer no but to actually live my life in such a state of nature is as intolerable as rejecting basic hygiene. One of my favorite books is, “Man's Search for Meaning” by Victor Frankl, "Everything can be taken from a man but ...the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way." Life has meaning because I will make it have meaning. I will be an optimist because like blonds, they have more fun. That's just basic philosophical hygiene.
Post Script, I was asked if that last line was my way of implying that "Hippies Stink." That was not my intention but the point is not without merit.
posted by Y.H.N.
American Triumphalism
We've been warned that American Triumphalism is not likely to make us popular with the rest of the world. In the worst case it could even lead to further taunting from our European Allies. But now it seems that there is a group making the Triumphalist look like the the very model of modesty. I usually don't post comments from other blogs but this one was just too precious to pass up.
The backstory: In 2000 the EU got together and declared that they would become "the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-driven economy by 2010". Given the transatlantic venom at the time this was taken to be a direct challenge to the United States.
Now it is beginning to look like the equivalent of Nikita Khrushchev's "We will bury you!" as reported by the EU Observer.
A commenter on Tim Blair's site left this comment.
(hat tips in order to Instapundit and Tim Blair.
posted by Y.H.N.
We've been warned that American Triumphalism is not likely to make us popular with the rest of the world. In the worst case it could even lead to further taunting from our European Allies. But now it seems that there is a group making the Triumphalist look like the the very model of modesty. I usually don't post comments from other blogs but this one was just too precious to pass up.
The backstory: In 2000 the EU got together and declared that they would become "the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-driven economy by 2010". Given the transatlantic venom at the time this was taken to be a direct challenge to the United States.
Now it is beginning to look like the equivalent of Nikita Khrushchev's "We will bury you!" as reported by the EU Observer.
But the bleakest picture comes when comparing the two economic blocs in terms of research and development. Europe is expected to catch up with the US in 2123 and then only if the EU outstrips America by 0.5 percent per year in terms of R&D investment.
A commenter on Tim Blair's site left this comment.
So at this rate Americans will become ethereal beings able to transcend time and space about the time that Europeans learn to program their Tivos.
(hat tips in order to Instapundit and Tim Blair.
posted by Y.H.N.
Friday, November 07, 2008
Identity Politics
A long post about the Republican party and identity politics has been brewing in the back of my mind for a long time. It will however have to wait till I get this paper out. In a related thought I offer this.
Are gays about to be thrown under the bus with respect to the Democrats refusing to repeal the DOMA? I would say yes and in a related question no they are not going to get anything out of this administration.
One might be tempted to view this as an opportunity for Republican, or at least the libertarian wing. If we had anything to offer gay Americans this would indeed be an opportunity. At least with the democrats they have a place in the party, even if it is under the bus.
posted by Y.H.N.
A long post about the Republican party and identity politics has been brewing in the back of my mind for a long time. It will however have to wait till I get this paper out. In a related thought I offer this.
Are gays about to be thrown under the bus with respect to the Democrats refusing to repeal the DOMA? I would say yes and in a related question no they are not going to get anything out of this administration.
One might be tempted to view this as an opportunity for Republican, or at least the libertarian wing. If we had anything to offer gay Americans this would indeed be an opportunity. At least with the democrats they have a place in the party, even if it is under the bus.
posted by Y.H.N.
Labels: Identity Politics
