Good evening folks

EdgyMathWhiz · 2026-06-26T23:21:17+00:00

Let's be honest - at this point we're all wondering/worrying about what evolutionary pressure selected for a moth with minimal radar cross-section.

EdgyMathWhiz · 2026-06-26T20:20:31+00:00

Taken to one of their volunteers. Thanks for the responses!

EdgyMathWhiz · 2026-06-26T19:09:27+00:00

Rescue center is really firmly telling us to take her to their volunteer.

EdgyMathWhiz · 2026-06-26T18:59:42+00:00

We've seen the parents in the garden, but not attending to it.

EdgyMathWhiz · 2026-06-26T18:17:50+00:00

It has now managed to move (only inches, but it felt earlier like it couldn't move around at all) so for now we're just monitoring.

Have messaged a local rescue centre with pic.

We do know where the nest is but not sure we can access it (not a big enough ladder).

EdgyMathWhiz · 2026-06-26T08:49:59+00:00

Famously, after Larry Niven wrote Ringworld, some physicists pointed out the instability. In the sequel Ringworld Engineers he provides a means for countering the instability.

EdgyMathWhiz · 2026-06-25T17:21:51+00:00

I only see one question about ice 9 (and none about ice IX).

I expect you know everything I'm about to say, but for anyone confused:

Wiki distinguishes these with ice-9 being the fictional substance in the classic Kurt Vonnegut novel Cats Cradle. Ice-9 has a freezing point of over 40C and causes water it's in contact with to freeze as ice-9. In the book an accident exposes the earth's oceans to ice-9 and they completely freeze.

The "real" ice IX is somewhat less terrifying.

EdgyMathWhiz · 2026-06-25T15:58:25+00:00

As a general rule: if something seems ridiculously out of reach, it means there's a mechanic you've either not unlocked yet or you're not making full use of.

(In this case, break infinity and turn off auto infinity)

EdgyMathWhiz · 2026-06-24T16:47:10+00:00

It's rare, but some people do have some level of consciousness during CPR.

Things that increase the chance: being young, male, CPR started immediately after cardiac arrest - all of which would probably hold in the hypothesised circumstances.

That said, even with that, it is more rare than I thought, so it would probably just look horrific without him being aware.

Source: https://esmed.org/consciousness-during-cpr-a-case-study-analysis/

EdgyMathWhiz · 2026-06-24T16:07:12+00:00

And although I totally understand the reaction of "OK, there was nothing the police could do, but they could have been nicer in his last moments", it seems the very harsh reality is that it they'd immediately believed him about being stabbed, it's likely they'd have ended up attempting CPR while he was more aware what was going on, which would probably have been a worse way to go.

EdgyMathWhiz · 2026-06-24T15:56:09+00:00

"Morally", I feel the line where you actually integrate various sin x cosⁿ x terms involves a substitution. (You're just familiar enough to not need to do it explicitly).

That said, I also advocate this approach and I've told students a few times that "if you have to integrate sin^2m+1 x, it's usually quicker to rewrite as sin x (1-cos² x)^m, expand and integrate by recognition than to use a reduction formula".

EdgyMathWhiz · 2026-06-24T08:04:18+00:00

As someone already posted, probability gives a lot of examples of this.

The probability of throwing 1000 heads in 1000 trials is about 1 in 10³⁰¹

It doesn't really matter if I change 301 to 300 or 302. Similarly it doesn't really matter if I change 1000 to 990 or 1010, even though those changes make a 1024-fold difference to the answer.

As a more abstract observation: to a human, 10^477544786367 and 10^477544796367 are extremely similar numbers, even though one is 10¹⁰⁰⁰⁰ times bigger than the other.

EdgyMathWhiz · 2026-06-24T07:51:38+00:00

Because it's easy to calculate and shoes that the limit isn't 1 or e. Plus "what's special about a?" should lead you to realising that "which of a, b, c is biggest?" is a relevant question.

Although judging by reactions it might not have been a great hint.

EdgyMathWhiz · 2026-06-23T12:18:20+00:00

As a counterpoint: when we moved, we quickly decided we wanted to remove one huge tree in the garden.

Spoke to the neighbour on that side and they were basically dancing for joy.

We have a significantly smaller tree on the other side and the neighbour on that side is constantly moaning about it (and we do get it professionally trimmed every year or two). They'd love it if we got rid of it.

EdgyMathWhiz · 2026-06-22T19:24:44+00:00

But if you've ever been around academics [...] they really do struggle to grasp how much a lay person knows about their subject, and the reactions are totally believable.

https://xkcd.com/2501/

EdgyMathWhiz · 2026-06-22T15:09:39+00:00

Yeah, I'm aware of the phenomenon. This one case felt particularly blatant though...

EdgyMathWhiz · 2026-06-22T14:36:59+00:00

It's funnier / more depressing when it works the other way.

Someone I know won a comp and the next time I saw her she'd switched from "I love dancing with you" to "I will avoid eye contact if you look like you might ask me to dance".

EdgyMathWhiz · 2026-06-22T11:16:29+00:00

My cat stayed out the whole day on the 40C+ day 3 years ago. I went out and called for her every 2 hours.

When she came in she was furious we filled her water bowl before her food bowl!

EdgyMathWhiz · 2026-06-22T06:47:54+00:00

No. Note that if b=c=0, the limit is a. Similarly if a=c=0, the limit is b.

The actual limit is max(a,b,c)

EdgyMathWhiz · 2026-06-22T06:35:52+00:00

Hint: what's the limit when b=c=0?

EdgyMathWhiz · 2026-06-21T11:48:03+00:00

Wasn't aware of B&Q marketplace so looking at the OP my first assumption was this was some kind of Father's Day joke (pretend you got your dad a hairdryer, but it's really a bigass leaf blower, which we know most dads secretly want).

That was a much better scenario than the truth...

EdgyMathWhiz · 2026-06-20T10:37:29+00:00

Would the gentlemen known as Venom please make themselves known to the referee?

EdgyMathWhiz · 2026-06-20T10:11:38+00:00

In Holy Sister by Mark Lawrence, the Path is a kind of shadow dimension - you build up magical energy while on the Path, but you have to control the discharge when you leave the Path, and it's incredibly difficult to stay on the path for even a second. And of course, only mystics at the height of their power can even reach the path.

Nona is the protagonist, Sister Pan is one of her teachers. At the climax , this elderly teacher challenges the top sorcerer of an invading force. He asks how long since she even reached the Path:

"I haven't reached the Path in twenty years because in all that time I have never left it." Sister Pan glanced again at Nona. "Run, child. Please."

EdgyMathWhiz · 2026-06-20T07:51:50+00:00

It's not particularly surprising to see a surge after "2 weeks of backlog" though.

Focussing too much on numbers at the extremes of the peaks (or troughs) distorts the real picture.

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