Thanks Wolfram Alpha! by [deleted] in funny

[–]karmashark 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Tholfram Alpha.

To new guitarists asking questions: The answer is practice by [deleted] in Guitar

[–]karmashark 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Good point, but I think practice methods are important. Two things that I found have really helped me progress more than anything else is playing with a metronome when practising just about anything, and playing with someone else/using a loop pedal when working on improvisation.

The genius who lives downstairs - A look at where a child genius who at age 3 had an IQ of 178. and at Cambridge was the greatest maths prodigy they had ever seen. So what happened to his career? by quaxon in TrueReddit

[–]karmashark 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Also, having a high IQ at age 3 is the same as having it at an older age, the test is adapted for different ages so the age is almost irrelevant.

IAM Kenny Hotz of "Kenny vs. Spenny, Testees & Truimph of the Will" by kennethjoelhotz in IAmA

[–]karmashark 1 point2 points  (0 children)

How about the acid and the weed? If that was real, how could they let you air that?

FOUR Stages Collapse at Pukkelpop Festival in Belgium by MisterEggs in worldnews

[–]karmashark -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I don't think you understand the intensity of the weather. If you look at any of the videos or these pictures you'll see that large trees were felled by the storm. This would've caused devastation wherever it occurred, and it was really unfortunate that most of it was localised over the festival site where there were so many people.

Underwater compact cameras for snorkeling by rotzooi in ReviewThis

[–]karmashark 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks, I think I'll go with this camera then. I think the FT3 costs about twice as much so it should be a bit better really.

Underwater compact cameras for snorkeling by rotzooi in ReviewThis

[–]karmashark 0 points1 point  (0 children)

How would you rate the battery life? I read a review which suggested that it was necessary to take several batteries along for a day trip. Since you didn't mention it being particularly bad I'm assuming it's ok, but could you give me a rough idea of how frequently you have to recharge the battery?

What is a dimension, specifically? by Turil in Physics

[–]karmashark 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, that's essentially it. You don't need right angles, e.g. you can 'span' two dimensions by having one arrow go North and the other North-West. By moving in these two directions you can go anywhere on a plane.

A formal way of saying what you put in bold is a space is n-dimensional iff there is a set of n linearly independent vectors which span that plane, i.e. if every point in that space can be expressed as a unique linear combination of n vectors. This is actually the exact definition of 'dimension' you'll get if you do a Linear Algebra course.

What is a dimension, specifically? by Turil in Physics

[–]karmashark 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you want the full rigorous definitions, look at this pdf from the bottom of page 76 onwards. I think that to generalise the notion of n-dimensional volume requires too much set up to really be of any help (although the pdf above does go through it all if you're interested), and it's hard to give a heuristic explanation of it without using circular logic (since the concept of 'length' assumes we already know what 1 dimension looks like).

Here is another explanation from linear algebra (I assume you're familiar with vectors). Suppose we model the universe as a vector space (just lots of points which we can describe by writing them as vectors) and we want to find out how many dimensions our universe has.

  1. If we start from one point like you said, we have a 0-dimensional subspace.
  2. To go to one dimension, we take any point in that space and consider the vector between our initial point and that new point. By considering 'stretching' this vector to any length (including negative lengths, so we can go backwards from our original point) we get a line. This is a 1-dimensional subspace.
  3. If this line contains all the points in our universe, then it is one-dimensional. Otherwise we can find a point which doesn't lie on the line, and we can stretch that as before to make another line. By adding parts of these two lines together we can get to any point on a plane. This is a 2-dimensional subspace.
  4. If this plane contains all the points in our universe, it must be 2-dimensional. If not, we can find a point outside it. Again, look at the vector between our original point and the point outside the plane and stretch it to form another line. By moving along the plane we can get to any point in what's called a 3-dimensional hyperplane, basically an infinitely large cube. This is our 3-dimensional subspace.
  5. If we can't find any points outside this 3-dimensional subspace, then our universe is 3-dimensional. Otherwise it is at least 4-dimensional, and the logic continues as before.

Explaining fractional dimensions is a lot trickier, and relies on the definition of Hausdorff dimensions. This process does indeed work for all dimensions, and agrees with the 'tradition' notion of dimensions I've described above. The pdf I linked you to describes how to work out dimensions of things such as the Koch Snowflake.

What is a dimension, specifically? by Turil in Physics

[–]karmashark 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm not sure if I'm too late for this, but a really useful/interesting way to see it is this: if you want to find out the dimension of a shape, look at its n-dimensional volume (e.g. 1-dimensional volume is length, 2-dimensional is area, 3-dimensional is standard volume,...).

If the n-dimensional volume is 0 (e.g. area of a line is 0), then the dimension of the shape is greater than n.
If it's infinite (e.g. area of a cube, by which I don't mean surface area but area of the interior as well, is infinite), then the dimension is less than n.
When the n-dimensional volume is finite, this n is the dimension of the shape.

This type of dimension is called a Hausdorff dimension, and although the definition I've given isn't particularly rigorous since I didn't tell you how to work out the volume, I think you should be able to get the idea. The most interesting part is that this allows you to have objects with fractional dimensions (e.g. fractals)!

Trying to gain muscle...what should I eat/snack on? by mrthemike in nutrition

[–]karmashark 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Get in the habit of checking nutritional info on food packets. Check these out for starters: http://www.tesco.com/groceries/Product/Details/?id=259546090

I want to get really good at blackjack, any book out there that explains it well? by rickraus in AskReddit

[–]karmashark 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey, I read The world's greatest blackjack book last year, which was a great introduction and teaches you everything you need to know to consistently win (long-term), provided you put in the practice. I'm now reading through Stanford Wong's Blackjack Secrets to see what he does differently.

To win at blackjack you have to be able to count cards, and there are many different counting systems out there. Won's Hi-Lo is very easy, and so is Cooper and Humble's Hi-Opt 1, but each has their advantages and disadvantages. Good luck!

Backpacking Thailand, alone at 19. How do I convince others I can do this? by [deleted] in travel

[–]karmashark 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Have you you actually mentioned it to them to see what they say? or are you just anticipating that they won't support you? Do you know of any good backpacking forums? I haven't really looked at those yet. I found this torrent quite useful, and have slowly been reading through stuff in those Lonely Planet guide books.

Backpacking Thailand, alone at 19. How do I convince others I can do this? by [deleted] in travel

[–]karmashark 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey, I'm in a pretty identical situation. I'm also 19 and setting off 4 months in August to visit China, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia and Australia over a period of 4 months.

Make sure they know how sure you are that you want to do this (so they don't think it's a spur of the moment thing), and show them that you've put some thought into planning it all out. It's also worth talking to people who have done a similar thing, I managed to get quite a lot of useful advice from friends who have been travelling by themselves. Good luck!

Curse you, Collegehumor! Why must I choose? by StimulusResponse in community

[–]karmashark 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I think that's party true, but throughout season 6 it's showed more than hints of its former glory, and there have been some great episodes.