@level98@mastodon.social
@level98@mastodon.social avatar

level98

@level98@mastodon.social

Always learning!... and helping others to do the same. I've done research, written papers, taught maths, physics and science at high school and university... now doing bits and pieces
#Physics #ITeachPhysics #Maths #Math #Mathematics
Theo Hughes | he/him/his | 🇦🇺

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level98, to random
@level98@mastodon.social avatar

#Procrastination

I had a small, tatty, corner desk (1m x 1m), which I'd got off the side of the road.

Somehow my daughter had a larger (1.5m x 1.5m), much newer, much nicer looking desk in her room (though, also off the side of the road... what people throw out, eh!)

I'd been thinking of buying a new desk but I've managed to keep finding reasons to put this off, long enough that my daughter no longer wants her desk! So, her desk is now mine... all mine, precious.

Yay for procrastination!!

FlockOfCats, to random
@FlockOfCats@famichiki.jp avatar

I was very disappointed when I found out what a SQUID detector actually did. 😞

#physics #chemistry #magnometers

level98,
@level98@mastodon.social avatar

@FlockOfCats Then you'll likely also be disappointed by not being able to walk up and down the related Shapiro steps?

timrichards, to random
@timrichards@aus.social avatar

Please don’t spell focused with two Ss as "focussed" - it hurts my eyes. There's no need to double the S, as the stress is on the first syllable. See also, for example, riveted not "rivetted"; targeted not "targetted".

This has been another public service announcement from Grammar Pedants United. :)

level98,
@level98@mastodon.social avatar

@timrichards Or should that be the "Gramar Pedants"? 😉

ProfKinyon, to random
@ProfKinyon@mathstodon.xyz avatar

Student: I get what lemmas and corollaries are, but what's the difference between a theorem and a proposition?

Me: That's a great question. Throughout this term, I've been trying to create a welcoming and supportive atmosphere in the class where everybody can feel comfortable asking questions like that. Your question makes me feel like I've at least partially succeeded.

Student: So you don't know either?

Me (to class): Are there any other questions?

level98,
@level98@mastodon.social avatar

@ProfKinyon It's all fairly straightforward...

A lemma is a small, monkey-like animal, and corollaries are a type of, very colourful, bird.

A theory is something you've kept to yourself (as in: "in theory") whereas a proposition is an idea you've suggested to someone out-loud - which cold get you into trouble depending on the nature of the "proposition".

level98, to math
@level98@mastodon.social avatar

A natural logarithm... that's a percussion instrument made out of a tree trunk?

#Math #Maths #Mathematics

level98, to random
@level98@mastodon.social avatar

Currently playing the computer game Disco Elysium and loving such a different take on what a game is.

I found it different in a somewhat similar way that I found "What Remains of Edith Finch" to be different.

I don't want to play this sort of game all the time, but I guess that's really the same with any genre of game I play... kind of similar to the books I read etc.

I just moved from playing Starfield, to this... so the contrast was quite stark.😀

bkahn, to random
@bkahn@mstdn.science avatar

I knew right away that "smart toothbrush" story was phony. I asked my toothbrush and it laughed at me and told me not to believe everything I read online.

level98,
@level98@mastodon.social avatar

@bkahn A genuinely smart toothbrush then!

level98, to math
@level98@mastodon.social avatar

⟺

implies and is implied by

is equivalent to

if and only if

iff

necessary and sufficient

What other symbols have so many different "ways of reading them" in mathematics?

#Math #Maths #Mathematics

level98, to random
@level98@mastodon.social avatar

It's easy to understand why people struggle to apply logic, rationality etc. in discussions, when my (essentially) advanced maths students struggle with learning about various proofs.

level98,
@level98@mastodon.social avatar

@MartinEscardo Fairly to the point, I think. One might assume that the teaching of logic and proof etc. would naturally be an explicit part of the education of mathematicians (and those who use math) but, as you note, this is not always true.

My reference was to high school maths students... and I like that it's an explicit part of their syllabus.

But, when I did tutor maths at uni, explicit classes on logic and proof were generally "optional".

level98, (edited ) to random
@level98@mastodon.social avatar

Looking to get the metre redefined so the average acceleration due to gravity on Earth is 10 ms^-2 so it's easier for my Year 12 physics students... they find the physics hard enough! 😀

#Physics #ITeachPhysics

level98, (edited )
@level98@mastodon.social avatar

@ColinTheMathmo Not if I've redefined pi as 3!

(See post linked below... oh, how I wish for quote posts.)

[Also, now you can make a joke asking ... Why would I redefine pi as three factorial? 😀 ]

https://mastodon.social/@level98/111892753926863477

level98, (edited ) to random
@level98@mastodon.social avatar

Redefining pi to be 3 is only rational.

#Math #Maths #Mathematics

[I like layers. As well as this being a play on words, it also, for anyone who wasn't aware, refers to an urban legend that there was an attempt to bring in a law to redefine pi to be 3. This is a myth, but has it's roots in a true story e.g. see https://gizmodo.com/the-eccentric-crank-who-tried-to-legislate-the-value-of-5880792]

timrichards, to Travel
@timrichards@aus.social avatar

Classic example of a dangling modifier in Leon McCarron's book 'The Land Beyond'. Good read in general, mind you - about a walk through the Holy Land. #Travel #Grammar

level98,
@level98@mastodon.social avatar

@timrichards @sister_ratched Maybe it was the sun that had experienced little rest?

level98, to random
@level98@mastodon.social avatar

I have a very limited knowledge of bird species

"Well, that's a magpie and that's a... uh... I have no idea."

So, to me, many birds are UFOs.

astro_jcm, to Astro
@astro_jcm@mastodon.online avatar

Seeing the colossal dome of ESO's Extremely Large moving for the first time is mind-blowing! 🤯

In this first test engineers used special hydraulic devices to rotate the dome 10 m back and forth at 1 cm/s. Once it's operational it'll move at about 5 km/h with motorised bogies.

Quite impressive, as the skeleton currently weighs ~2500 tons and it'll weigh ~6100 tons when finished!

📹 ESO/Cimolai/E. Tech

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3tvYABBMo0

level98,
@level98@mastodon.social avatar

@juandesant @astro_jcm Some details are given here where it says the dome will be 86 m in diameter. https://www.eso.org/public/announcements/ann19047/

level98, to random
@level98@mastodon.social avatar

My daughter just cut an avocado in half, poured balsamic vinegar into the little hollow, and ate the avocado by scooping it out with a teaspoon.

Apparently taught to her by my mother-in-law.

level98,
@level98@mastodon.social avatar

@_thegeoff Mmmm... not sure I'd go for that. Though, I like pickled eggs, the ones you used to buy out of big jars in English fish and chip shops.

level98,
@level98@mastodon.social avatar

@_thegeoff Both make sense! 😀

level98, to random
@level98@mastodon.social avatar

#USPol Let's make supreme court appointments for life... what could possibly go wrong?

timrichards, to random
@timrichards@aus.social avatar

"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away...

level98,
@level98@mastodon.social avatar

@timrichards

Hubris, thy name is the Melbourne Star. 😀

MissPixiePancake, to Humor
@MissPixiePancake@mstdn.social avatar

I guess I’ll take a poodle.

#Humor #Funny #Lol #Fun #Humor #Dog #Dogs

level98,
@level98@mastodon.social avatar

@MissPixiePancake People will now receive remuneration in poodles... but given the large sum a single poodle is worth, workers will now not get anything until they've done a poodles-worth of work... at which time they can happily take their poodle home with them.

Nobody has yet worked out how someone is actually going to pay for, say, a stick of gum but economists don't see the problem as they earn enough poodles to simply let someone keep the change.

#Surreal

jwildeboer, (edited ) to random
@jwildeboer@social.wildeboer.net avatar

I didn’t go to my dad‘s 82nd birthday today but instead went to a demonstration against (far)-right movements in Munich (where I live, 600 km away from where my parents live). His only comment after calling: “Good”. Happy birthday, dad! Please send congrats for my dad to my mom who will happily share them. She’s @treny here.

level98,
@level98@mastodon.social avatar

@jwildeboer @treny A really good present!

Kjl, to random

level98,
@level98@mastodon.social avatar

@Kjl Nice alt text!

HallGrae, to random

Calling people who refuse to use the metric system foot fetishists

level98,
@level98@mastodon.social avatar

@HallGrae Give them an inch and they'll take a mile!

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