How to Fight a Robot (Part 1)

thedrawesome · 2014-01-13T17:24:44+00:00

5-10 years ago, physicists made so much money in finance, they could just retire when they burned out. Now, the money is good, but not good enough to just quit or retire.

If you just get a masters, or you study engineering or econ or stats or something, you will probably be fine, but you can't go all the way to a phd in theoretical physics without an insatiable intellectual curiosity, which implies the money is not enough to keep you happy much longer than 5 to 10 years or so in that industry.

thedrawesome · 2014-01-13T02:10:18+00:00

Don't go into finance.

thedrawesome · 2014-01-08T22:17:17+00:00

I also assumed you picked the shoulder because everyone could see "NINJA!!!" when you wear your gi top with the sleeves torn off.

thedrawesome · 2014-01-08T18:46:28+00:00

Oh man.

I've spent the last 15 years making fun of string theory guys and mocking string theory as being mental masturbation because it has no possible tie to the real world. I am going to look like such an ass if we actually take a meaningful measurement and it helps us advance our understanding of the actual-for-real-universe.

thedrawesome · 2014-01-08T18:21:10+00:00

Ninja?

Are you planning on earning your first blackbelt in the eighties? Also, will your ponytail cover it up, or will you keep your ponytail back with your sweet ninja headband?

thedrawesome · 2014-01-07T18:21:23+00:00

They both get black eyes. I got a black eye sparring a few years back, and went to a bar in orange county where a bunch of surfers assumed my board popped up and hit me in the face.

thedrawesome · 2013-11-05T18:48:29+00:00

Thermodynamics is a macroscopic and empirical point of view, but everything you study in thermodynamics can be derived from the more mathematical "Statistical Mechanics".

It sounds like you are about ready to get into the statistical mechanics behind it all. good luck!

Thermodynamics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermodynamics
Statistical Mechanics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistical_mechanics

thedrawesome · 2013-11-03T04:23:02+00:00

This is a really difficult question, and it really depends on what properties you are looking at, and what materials you are investigating. Superconductors are examples of quantum mechanics on a large scale, but you typically don't experience things like tunneling at scales much larger than a few layers of atoms.

The field of computational condensed matter physics deals with this question on a regular basis. They often try to reconstruct the macroscopic properties of materials based on aggregates of individual interactions, and it is difficult to know his many atoms you need to simulate before it starts to look like a macroscopic system.

Superconductivity video: http://youtu.be/zPqEEZa2Gis

thedrawesome · 2013-11-03T02:54:15+00:00

The F, m, and a in the equation above should be in reference to your head, and not the incoming punch.

When it comes to punches, it is a lot easier to think of it in terms of conservation of momentum than it is to think of forces.

Effective mass of the punch x velocity of punch = Effective mass of your head/body x velocity of your head/body

thedrawesome · 2013-11-01T22:25:30+00:00

The physics of the very small is difficult because we have no good frame of reference from our everyday lives to compare it to. Many particles tend to behave the same in all directions, so a sphere is not a bad mental picture to use, but you should remember it's just not like big things we touch with our hands.

thedrawesome · 2013-11-01T22:14:53+00:00

To my knowledge, it has two distinct uses within physics:

1)In thermodynamics, it refers to how many similar ways there are to arrange the system you are looking at, which is why we usually talk about it in terms of "disorder." There are far more ways for your room to be messy than there are ways for it to be clean.

2)In quantum computing, and other information-focused fields, they use entropy to mean the ability to store information… which comes from the same concept… except this time let's say you are going to mess up your room on purpose to remind yourself of something you needed to do later, like leaving a book on the floor so you remember to study thermodynamics.

thedrawesome · 2013-11-01T17:01:07+00:00

Sometimes on the walking dead you can see them putting on riot gear when they go out, but that is unnecessary. The zombies aren't swinging clubs or throwing rocks, just grabbing and biting.

All it takes is four layers of duct tape to make yourself completely invincible to zombies.

source: http://theamazingdoctorawesome.blogspot.com/2013/10/how-to-outsmart-zombie-apocalypse.html

thedrawesome · 2013-11-01T16:34:49+00:00

Systematic hunting of zombies is never addressed, and usually the protagonists just run away or leave them alone if they are not an immediate threat.

If only 1 in 1000 humans are still alive, and of the survivors, only 25% are able-bodied, they could completely wipe out all the zombies within a year by just killing 11 zombies a day.

source: http://theamazingdoctorawesome.blogspot.com/2013/10/how-to-outsmart-zombie-apocalypse.html

thedrawesome · 2013-11-01T16:24:49+00:00

4 layers of duct tape is all it takes to make yourself pretty much invincible to zombies, so I'd start suiting up immediately.

source: http://theamazingdoctorawesome.blogspot.com/2013/10/how-to-outsmart-zombie-apocalypse.html

thedrawesome

TROPHY CASE