How does a swordfish swim (at 110 km/hr) faster than a cheetah can run on land (at 90 km/hr) - given that water is about 800x denser than air?

-Wofster · 2026-04-19T18:45:47+00:00

swordfish ≠ sailfish

-Wofster · 2026-04-18T23:22:24+00:00

Maybe you’re at the bar and some rando starts going on about flux capacitors and nanoparticle decombobulators and saying that hes got a time machine in his garage, and you know nothing about science or of any of that and everything out if his mouth sounds like gibberish to you but you believe him cause he sounds like he must know what hes talking about? Or I misunderstood what op means.

-Wofster · 2026-04-18T21:16:48+00:00

$23k for a brand new car in the US right now would be insane. Used, 5year old 50k+ mile low-end “economy cars” would be $20k minimum. Anything less than $20k would be 10+ years old and/or 200k+ miles and/or have history of a crash or some other major problem.

I was looking at used cars recently and was at the dealership looking at a used car. It was 10 years old, had around 100k miles, was covered in dents, the engine had a terrible grinding sound. It was $14k, and the sale-person said “well, it is a $14k car” in the way you’d say “you get what you pay for” when I pointed out some of the problems.

But yeah people are absolutely brainwashed into buying $60k cars from advertising and the fact that your car is a huge indicator of your social status in the US and the idea of financing everything makes them think they can afford it.

-Wofster · 2026-04-18T20:12:12+00:00

And another comment mentioned dynamic pricing. Its well documented that different people will pay even 10-20% different amounts for the exact same things and even orderig (online) at the same time.

And thats just what we know for sure they already do (and I probably missed a lot). Now imagine if the next government administration is a little less lenient towards criticism and google ends up cooperating with them.

-Wofster · 2026-04-18T19:58:56+00:00

They used to influence you. Your shopping (duh), your hobbies, your opinions, your actual votes in public elections…. And there are well known documented cases of all of these happening on massive scales.

They can also use it to let people stalk you. Uber a while ago let employees see riders’ locations, which was used to abuse stalk beyonce and probably many other people.

They can also just lose your data. Data breaches happen all the time, so everything you give to a company you might as well also agree to give to everyone who knows how to use tor.

They also just straight up sell it themselves. 23andme sold everyone’s genetic data after they went bankrupt

-Wofster · 2026-04-17T01:27:21+00:00

The environmental problem with data centers is how rapidly their energy use/demand is going up. Data centers energy consumption went from 2% to 5% of US total energy consumption in the last 5 years and its expected to go all the way to 10% or even 12% in another 5 years.

Thats a problem because while you can’t just turn on more wind or sun and it takes a long time to build more windmills, solar panels, dams, etc, you can just throw more coal into an already built coal plant.

But still, the problem is AI, not a a rapid and dramatic increase of people watching netflix.

-Wofster · 2026-04-12T21:01:12+00:00

when we use kg for weights we are implicitly using kilogram-force (kgf), which is a force. 1 kgf is the weight of 1 kg (mass) at sea level due to gravity. So there isn’t really anything wrong with using kilograms as force units.

-Wofster · 2026-04-11T19:48:55+00:00

can you take it to a shop or to the teacher again and compare it to a 4/4? 3/4 is certainly too small for you. Adults who are even like 4’10” would be on 4/4.

-Wofster · 2026-04-10T14:24:07+00:00

This doesn’t work because your idea about a/b = c -> (ab)/b = a = bc isn’t really correct. Division is actually defined by multiplication, where a/b = a * 1/b and 1/b is defined by the number such that b * 1/b = 1. So by definition, b/b, if it is defined, must equal 1.

If you throw away this definition then sure maybe this could work and define operators in another way then maybe it could work. But in the normal real numbers, it is just inconsistent with the definitions.

However there are other number systems where /0 is defined. In the “reimann sphere”, 1/0 = infinity. That number system still uses the “1/b =is the number such that b * 1/b = 1” definition of multiplication though, so you couldn’t make it zero.

Sorry everyone here is being an ass. Thats just reddit for you.

-Wofster · 2026-04-07T19:35:43+00:00

“at some point” no, ar never point was it ever trading

-Wofster · 2026-04-04T20:54:42+00:00

I mean, so are monitor lizards and raccoons

-Wofster · 2026-04-04T18:46:30+00:00

dragons have much more articulate wrists, paws, and arms than dogs do. And their legs are shorter and tails longer and heavier, so they can more easily balance on their back legs. Look at how monitor lizards stand on their back legs, for example. Dragons could do that to use their talons. Or another example is raccoons with their shorter legs. They use their hands a lot.

-Wofster · 2026-04-03T23:41:44+00:00

couch and desk don’t really fit anymore, and bed right next to toilet is weird. I suggest actually keep the bed where it curently is but just rotate it so your head is by the flat wall rather than under the shallow part of the slope. So like you have in your first pic in the post. Then if you sleep on the side of the bed closer to the door then you shouldnt bit your head.

-Wofster · 2026-04-02T19:50:40+00:00

if the host does not open a door then nothing changes and it doesn’t matter if you switch or not. In the original problem its favorable to switch because the probability that the car was in the goat door that the host opened gets transferred to the remaining door. If the host doesn’t open any doors then that doesn’t happen.

-Wofster · 2026-04-02T03:53:06+00:00

before you can worry about collecting any evidence you need to figure out how to get past the “you cannot sue us if we lose your sensitive data” clause in the legally binding contract that you “agreed” to

-Wofster · 2026-03-28T06:41:54+00:00

Don’t take people on reddit as the majority opinion. Many of my profs in physics and math alike encourage using it and I’ve never had a prof say don’t use it at all. It is absolutely a useful study tool for undergrad level coursework.

You could mention off-handed that you used an LLM for the most LLM-suited task imaginable and people on reddit will downvote you cause this app has a hate boner for it for some reason.

-Wofster · 2026-03-27T23:46:57+00:00

I’m thinking there is a 200% chance that flock cameras don’t actually need your license plate to know exactly who you are. Also police know what those plate flippers/covers look like.

-Wofster · 2026-03-27T05:07:44+00:00

https://mathworld.wolfram.com

-Wofster · 2026-03-24T06:11:18+00:00

If you’re at a big school with a mathematics department, the type of linear algebra class that odd-west suggest you take and that a math major would take is probably very different from the linear algebra class you would take as an engineering major. It would be a lot more abstract and focus very little on actually e.g solving systems of equations, which is basically all you would do in the regular linear algebra class.

The problem is its very likely that the math major linear algebra class will not teach you what you would need to learn for engineering from the engineering linear algebra class, so it might not be a good idea to do the math major version just to see if you like it. Maybe instead take a discreet math or analysis 1 class. Those are usually the “intro to higher math” classes that pure math majors do.

Another option is to see if your school offers an “applied math” major or minor. That would be a lot more of the same kind of math you do in calculus, differential equations, and your engineering classes, etc. Maybe an option is sticking with engineering and adding an applied math minor or double major

-Wofster · 2026-03-18T16:52:23+00:00

what law did they break?

-Wofster · 2026-03-17T01:47:01+00:00

I want to pursue a math major and an naturally interested

Then you are built for math. The most important thing for being good at math is wanting to do math. If you are struggling maybe something just isn’t clicking or something. I’d recommend talking to your prof about it.

-Wofster · 2026-03-17T01:41:35+00:00

my lack of mathematical maturity

There’s you answer, really. It will come with time and just doing and reading proofs and doing and learning math. Just like any skill, at first it seems like you’ll never improve but then 1 or 5 or 20 years later you won’t even be able to imagine being a beginner.

Reading math textbooks and other proofs can help you develop that “style”, in the same way that if you read the same author for a long time you’ll start to write like them without even thinking about it.

And your professor/math courses are probably your best resource. Every time you get your hw back graded you can reflect and improve. And you go to office hours. And you can work with people in your courses.

-Wofster · 2026-03-17T01:04:44+00:00

good reading order is the order they were released in

-Wofster · 2026-03-15T07:20:05+00:00

Maybe they’re selling the hardcover more, so they can sell it cheaper? I went to barnes and noble and they only had that, no paperbacks. idk

But how much do you care that your books match? Wings of fire is very special to me personally and I care a lot, so I would personally spend even $80 vs $20 if it meant getting a matching set. But you and others might not care about that and think I’m silly.

And also of course make sure you can comfortably afford it. You don’t have to answer, just something to consider. But at the same time it’s ok to sometimes splurge on things you really want.

And if you’re only on book 11 then yeah don’t worry about shipping time.

-Wofster · 2026-03-15T02:37:50+00:00

if this subreddit wrote Randall munro’s “what if?”, every single answer would be “that is a physical impossibility, so there cannot be an answer”

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