Exact Numbers

Recently I have been counting steps as I walk. I pick particular short stretches along frequently traveled routes and count each time I walk them. The numbers vary quite a bit. I can't say, for example, that a stretch of sidewalk is 54 steps long, but I could give a pretty good guess of the mean at 54 and the shape of the distribution.

It's natural to believe that the exact number of steps does not exist, because once you walk it, it vanishes. Each time you try to count it, you will get a different number. The distribution eventually takes a characteristic shape, but each time you walk it, the outcome is unpredictable.

Now another counting problem. Count the number of ants in New Brunswick. You can't actually go and find every single ant. Even if a team of 100 people committed a year to it they wouldn't find every single ant. You'd have to get some kind of an estimate. And it wouldn't be exactly right, and every time you did it, you'd get a slightly different estimate.

Now the question is, does the number of ants exist? First, a slightly less weird question: is there any way to observe the exact number of ants directly? My inclination to this question is no, simply because I haven't thought of a way to do so. Then a slightly harder question: is there a way to observe the exact number of ants indirectly? Another way to put it, is the number of ants divisible by three, and how would we ever know? The question this is getting at is, is there any way in which whether the number of ants is divisible by three will affect our experience in a way that is observable to us? This is the really careful way of asking, is the world in which the number of ants exists any different than the world in which that number does not exist? Which is yet again a really careful way of asking, does the number of ants exist? Again my inclination is no, but only because I haven't thought of a way to make it exist.

Anyone who thinks we live in a deterministic world hasn't looked around them recently enough.

Desk Writing

SEC-205 has some of the best writing on the desks. Here is a sample:

Hello person sitting at this desk
Hello, o you fr
Hello to both of you.
Hello you three.
Goodbye
You say goodbye and I say hello
ppl, go see Forgetting Sarah Morgan...
Ridiculous
Yeah I wanna see that (and Ironman)
I like bunnies. <-- bunnies? No one likes bunnies!
Hello you four. Though I will be parting my seat forever, I wanted to let you know your messages were entertaining. I shall take your advice and see the movie. Farewell fellow desk writers.

It's not goodbye, it's _I'll see you later
Farewell to you all !! :)

Relativistic Asteroids

I have long been bothered by the lack of relativity in the arcade game asteroids. This problem has been addressed! See Relativistic Asteroids.

By the way, does anyone know a portable way to embed an applet in xhtml 1.1?

Stall Writing

I found some beautiful writing in the bathroom in Scott Hall. It was in several different handwritings.

A MAN WHO HAS A
"WHY"
TO LIVE
CAN DEAL WITH ALMOST
ANY
"HOW"

A MAN WHO HAS A
"WHAT"
TO DO
PROBABLY WON'T
TRANSCRIBE
FORTUNE COOKIES
INTO
BATHROOM STALLS
Unless their
"what" to do
is to
transcribe
fortune cookies
into
Bathroom
stalls
I think we all need
a hobby
THIS IS MY
HOBBY
THIS IS MY
PASSION.

Efficiency of a Microwave

I wanted to find out what percentage of the power supplied by my
microwave ends up in the food as heat. It was tricky because I did
not have a thermometer. I used the following procedure.

Measuring input power:

1. Unplugged the refrigerator and checked that no computers or the
   stove were running.
2. Timed how long it took for the wheel on the power meter to
   revolve once.
3. Put some chili in a bowl in the microwave, turned it on for three
   minutes.
4. Timed how long it took for the wheel on the power meter to
   revolve once

Measuring output power:

1. Emptied a tray of ice into a glass bowl and added
   room-temperature water.
2. Waited till the water felt as cold as the ice.
3. Poured the water through a strainer into a measuring cup. Measured
   the volume of water.
4. Poured the water back into the bowl. Covered the bowl with
   a lid.
5. Put the bowl in the microwave and set the timer for 1 or
   2 minutes. Waited for the bell to ring.
6. Took out the bowl, poured the water through a strainer into the
   measuring cup and measured the volume.

Data

Input power

Trial	Time with Mic. Off (s)	Time with Mic. On (s)
1	74	17
2	77	19

Output power

Trial	Time (s)	Init Vol of Water (mL)	Final Vol of Water (mL)
1	120	500	600
2	120	125	330
3	60	330	410

Calculations

Power meter formula from

Michael Bluejay.

Base Power = ( 3.6 * 7.2 ) / (Time with Mic. Off)

Total Power = ( 3.6 * 7.2 ) / (Time with Mic. On)

Input Power = Total Power - Base Power

This gives 1.17 kW, 1.03 kW. The average is 1.1 kW.


Output Power = ((Final Vol of Water) - (Init Vol of Water))
* (1.0 g/mL) * (333.55 J/g) / (Time)

This gives 0.28 kW, 0.60 kW, 0.445 kW. The average is 0.44 kW

This gives an efficiency of 40%. Unfortunately, the 90% t confidence
interval for the Output Power is (0.17, 0.77) so more trials are
needed.

Today #2

Today is annoyingly like any other day. The world has not changed much in one day, or any day. People have not changed much throughout history. But those are very big things, and they change slowly. I am small. I have changed, because when there is only one of me, and it is so unconsequential, it is very free to change. I am glad I changed, but I am begining to fear a limmit. I am bound by the fundementals of human nature, and cannot easily escape them. There is a way that I would like to though, if I could determine precisely what it is. I reached the conclusion of what I must do through a mode of thought that will not permit me to actually accomplish the goal. I must bring about a very drastic change.

Square 16

Wine = Wine Is Not an Emulator ==> W = Wine ==> 1 = ine ==> 1/e = ni ==> 1/(ei) = n ==> ei / -(e^2) = n ==> i / -e = n ==> 0.36788i ≈ n But WINE is an emulator.

Not terribly good...

This HTML was created

using Microsoft Word® 97.

Beautiful, isn’t it?

<p>This HTML was created </p>
<p>using Microsoft Word® 97.</p>
<i><p>Beautiful</i>, isn’t it?</p>

That's the spirit! make it look as awful as possible, even if you have to use nonstandard html to do it. Well done. (But compared to the html this blogger form can create, it's really not that bad. Things like using a <span> tag for italics)

Today #1

Today is Prickle-Prickle, the 6th day of Discord, int the YOLD 3171. Isn't that nice to know? Today, seen in a larger scale of things: You can't even see it.

Question #1

What is a foomatic and why is it printing software? (And why do I number all my posts ??)