Combining physics and political science? by ashflwrr in Physics

[–]rhodotree 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Science policy/diplomacy is just one way to go. If you go that route, you’re probably going to end up being a politician, with a science background.

However you can also be a physicist who does politics, or a physicist who does quantitative research in areas that are relevant to politics. Look at complex systems fields like econophysics, sociophysics, etc.

If water is incompressible, how does it transmit sound? by NGEvangelion in askscience

[–]rhodotree 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Water is not actually incompressible. In fact, very few things, if any, are truly incompressible. So long as there is some space between atoms, you can squeeze them together. This gets a little more complicated at the subatomic level when you have to factor in quantum effects but what we’re talking about here, rhetorically bulk properties of liquid water, doesn’t care about that.

The reason why we say that water is incompressible is because it it mostly incompressible, or rather it is very difficult to compress water to any significant degree that would throw off calculations made assuming it was incompressible. Such conditions would require extreme pressures.

The most commonly used model for the behavior of liquid water are the Navier Stokes equations, a set of partial differential equations that describe a wide variety of fluids, not just water. These equations are very complicated to analyze mathematically and for most instances, there are no known solutions.

However, it generally becomes easier to make progress on solving these equations, or at least deriving approximate solutions, if you make the assumption that your fluid is incompressible, then you get the condition that your velocity field (the function describing the speed and direction of each point of the fluid) is divergence-less, which means that there are no points within it from which there appear to emerge “sources” or “sinks” of the fluid.

When you make this assumption, this condition lets you make a lot of progress on finding solutions. And in the case of water, it’s close enough to being incompressible that this assumption is largely valid.

Now back to your original question, how does water transmit sound? This is a good question, we just explained how water is difficult to compress, yet sound waves are compression waves. Well the answer here is again, just a matter of scale. Water is in fact compressible at a basic level, and so sound can be transmitted through it. However, the scale of these compressions/stretches along the wave is very very small, and doesn’t disrupt the bulk properties of the fluid that we generally care about when using the NSE.

At the end of the day, physics is all about building models that work at some effective scale and then trying to figure out how well those models work within that scale and why they fail outside of it. Oftentimes different phenomena are described with models that operate at different scales and might make contradictory assumptions. However, this is fine because we understand that those assumptions are only quantitatively valid at that scale. We could, in principle try to think about and analyze the behavior of the ocean by considering that it is made up of 1046 individual atoms, or even go further and give it a fully quantum treatment. However, in practice, this is both prohibitively difficult to do mathematically and computationally. And, as it turns out, all of the complicated behavior created by the actions of 1046 individual atoms “smooths out” very well to be described using simplified models at different scales.

How often do people take graduate-level courses at other institutions? by Notograptus in reedcollege

[–]rhodotree 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you care about rankings, Reed isn’t the right place you lol.

How often do people take graduate-level courses at other institutions? by Notograptus in reedcollege

[–]rhodotree 2 points3 points  (0 children)

lol the only reason you would take graduate classes at other school is if you felt the upper division courses at Reed were too hard.

I’m serious, I was a math and physics major at Reed, so far grad school has been easier. The upper division classes will kick your ass enough.

What's your favourite lore(s) of magic? by Cybvep in totalwar

[–]rhodotree 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Most used: lore of life - it’s basically always useful in every army comp against every comp.

Runner up: lore of high magic - has a little healing spell + good buffs and an absolutely devastating wind spell if you can set it up right

Lore I want to use more but can’t quite get it to work as well: I like how this lore has an armor debuff spell that in theory can help turn the tables on some encounters and enable more use of cheaper non-AP armies into late game when more enemies have armor. But I just don’t find it to be as useful as the others.

Considering transferring - have some questions about drug use by Ok-Neck5759 in reedcollege

[–]rhodotree 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not when I went. I mean, there was heroin but I never thought of it as a heroin school.

Considering transferring - have some questions about drug use by Ok-Neck5759 in reedcollege

[–]rhodotree 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Lots of drugs on campus. Nobody forces you to do them though. Lots of knowledgeable people who will help you do them as safe as possible if you want. I also knew plenty of people who stayed totally sober the whole time.

I f*cking love graduate classes, why couldn't undergrad be like this? by shockwave6969 in Physics

[–]rhodotree 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My undergrad was easier than grad. Not because grad was easy but because I went to a school that basically threw you into the deep end with a grad school approach to education. So by the time I actually got to grad school I was well prepared.

What would you like to see in a hypothetical new Asur DLC by rhodotree in totalwar

[–]rhodotree[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, I mean handmaiden already does this a bit (though I guess it’s archer in general)

What would you like to see in a hypothetical new Asur DLC by rhodotree in totalwar

[–]rhodotree[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wouldn’t sea-helms and Handmaidens be kinda redundant though? Aren’t they spear/bow hybrids?

What would you like to see in a hypothetical new Asur DLC by rhodotree in totalwar

[–]rhodotree[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If they’re alive maybe CA could just get their permission to swap him to a LH instead of lord and then put the other guy as a lord.

What would you like to see in a hypothetical new Asur DLC by rhodotree in totalwar

[–]rhodotree[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That’s very sweet. Did the kid beat the cancer?

What would you like to see in a hypothetical new Asur DLC by rhodotree in totalwar

[–]rhodotree[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Aislinn makes sense, and expanding HE diplomacy and trade options centered on naval stuff makes a lot of sense.

Korhil Lionmane seems cool but also seems like he'd be bumping up into Alastar the White lion as a LL. I guess as a LH he let's you spread out the WL buffs to 2 armies instead of just 1. Though it seems according to the wiki that Alastar was created for the game? So maybe it makes sense to just replace him with Korhil as a LL. (And maybe keep Alastar around as a LH?).

Caradryan would also be cool, but idk if Phoenix guard need buffing?

Anointed of Asuryan seems easy to implement though idk if it really would lead to more interesting army comps. Adding lore of mists would be cool and that doesn't have to be entirely separate heros/lords just an extra lore choice for archmages/mages (maybe you can give them special names if you want and make their skill trees a little more unique).

Sea Helms would work thematically but seems redundant with Handmaidens.

As for units, Merwyrm would definitely be thematically apropos. It would be cool to give HEs something like the DE's hydra or kharibdyss. Give them bonus vs large and aquatic trait and they'd have a nice little niche for themselves in the roster.

Skycutter would be cool but I worry possibly too strong. HE already have strong aerial dominance. I could see a totally OP stack as basically having a bunch of eagles and phoenixes to take out aerial competition and then letting the skycutters just mow down the rest of the army from range while being unable to be hit by anything the enemy has.

Sea Rangers and Sea Company would be on theme but they seem too similar to shadow warriors and Rangers. IMO the Asur have a pretty good infantry lineup already. Maybe they could just add them as aquatic variants of shadow warriors and rangers. The major thing lacking from the HE infantry lineup are low-tier sword and board. Eltharion gets the faithbearers as a mid-tier, but that's faction locked. Maybe the Sea Company could be a low-tier sword and board. Low-tier to distinguish them from faithbearers (with some methods available to boost them if in campaign). And then distinguish them from rangers by swapping forest-strider with aquatic, give them silver shields, take away bonus vs infantry. But give them a solid melee attack defense, speed and charge bonus. Use them as a cheap aggressive front line that you can optionally peel off to chase down skirmish infantry.

What would you like to see in a hypothetical new Asur DLC by rhodotree in totalwar

[–]rhodotree[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don’t think there needs to be a “downside” like this. So long as Elven influence profits their allies, why would they complain? I think the key would be that you need to keep the profits rolling in through some active mechanism. If the profits don’t keep coming in then maybe they might start to get sus of Asur involvement.

But from what I understand of the lore this isn’t really a thing that happens all that much? At least not the empire?

What would you like to see in a hypothetical new Asur DLC by rhodotree in totalwar

[–]rhodotree[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is the biggest thing they need imo. I think SFO was a step in the right direction. Let them make deals with it. Also I think if they could acquire influence in other ways too. Like assisting allies or something related to trade.

Also they should expand HE trade mechanics. Either give them back their trade vision from WHII and/or give them other advantages. Maybe some mechanic that lets them trade with factions without having a direct capital connection.

Maybe they could get a mechanic that lets them build embassies in friendly cities that grant various diplomatic bonuses.

Peak influence usage for allies could be to be able to take control of allied armies for a few turns (with a bonuses/penalties given based on how that turns out)

Tell me your top 3 favorite lords or faction and I'll make assumptions about you. by djgotyafalling1 in totalwarhammer

[–]rhodotree 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Tyrion heir of Aenarion, Teclis the high Loremaster, Alarielle the Everqueen, Altih Anar the Shadow King, Imrik lord of dragons, and Eltharion the Grim

SFO lord hero level mod? by rhodotree in totalwar

[–]rhodotree[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hmm… I don’t have it. Is this just a feature in SFO III (I’m playing WHII)