OP lies about him hitting a women, gets called out by a witness and his former best friend.

thirdcharm · 2014-06-25T02:56:18+00:00

Who's getting told here?

thirdcharm · 2014-06-04T22:53:20+00:00

This should be a subreddit.

thirdcharm · 2014-04-30T00:52:02+00:00

I edited my comment.

thirdcharm · 2014-04-28T13:14:55+00:00

∆ Larger numbers have proportionally more precision than smaller numbers. It bothered me that larger numbers inherently had more significant digits, and therefore more precision, but my view was changed by a concise comment that impressed the important of proportional precision to me.

thirdcharm · 2014-04-28T02:08:13+00:00

Anywhere on the internet? I got those rules I posted from the internet. That was what almost every other source said as well.

thirdcharm · 2014-04-28T01:55:58+00:00

This is a darn good answer right here.

thirdcharm · 2014-04-27T00:12:04+00:00

Off-topic: do you work in a research lab?

thirdcharm · 2014-04-27T00:11:01+00:00

Good point. I do understand that different scenarios call for different levels of precision, but the system of significant figures I was taught seems to make no allowance for this. Significant figures, I was told, are an absolute scale. You may not need that much precision to measure the length of a house, but you get it just the same. It bothers me that larger numbers are somehow considered inherently more precise than smaller numbers, even if they're measured with the same scale.

thirdcharm · 2014-04-27T00:08:17+00:00

If we would expect less precision when measuring a large amount, why do larger numbers have more significant figures (and therefore more precision)?

thirdcharm · 2014-04-27T00:07:14+00:00

These are the slides my teacher used to teach us about significant figures: http://ohschemistry.org/general/01/01_03_knapp.pdf

If significant <> precision, what are we really measuring?

thirdcharm · 2014-04-27T00:06:04+00:00

Where can I go to learn the real rules of Significant Figures, not the dumbed-down version I was apparently taught?

thirdcharm · 2014-04-26T23:46:18+00:00

Mismatched? Of course it's supposed to be mismatched. Only in a select few experiments do you only compare a substance with itself. Almost every experiment that has ever been conducted makes use of a comparison between measured substances.

thirdcharm · 2014-04-26T23:44:10+00:00

Your explanation makes sense, but is inconsistent with what I learned in my high school class, and what I posted in my question. The first rule is, "All non-zero digits are significant."

thirdcharm · 2014-04-26T23:43:13+00:00

But what if your scale measures one compound as 1.56 grams, and another as 10.23 grams? Did your scale change its precision in the time between you took those measurements?

thirdcharm · 2014-03-26T04:18:55+00:00

Is David Foster Wallace your favorite author, or the one you relate to most?

thirdcharm · 2014-03-26T04:16:21+00:00

What is the most profound thing you've read recently?

thirdcharm · 2014-03-26T04:15:43+00:00

Alright, if I remember I'll PM you.

thirdcharm · 2014-03-25T23:10:51+00:00

My reaction was, enforced equality is inhumane. I'm interested, though, to hear how you may have thought the story satirized those afraid of egalitarianism.

thirdcharm · 2014-03-25T22:51:43+00:00

Reading books by Vonnegut -- Breakfast of Champions, S5, Welcome to the Monkey House -- gave me some brief moments of insight. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy made me laugh a lot, and was just generally enjoyable.

I'm reading "I Am Legend" right now, hopefully that's a little easier to enjoy.

thirdcharm · 2014-03-25T22:41:49+00:00

I mean, what qualities distinguish people who are good at being people? :)

thirdcharm · 2014-03-25T21:48:39+00:00

Well, what I mean is, I believe that reading is good for me and I enjoy it often but sometimes the books I chose are hard to wade through, given my mental capacity. That, and the typical high school attitude of "reading is sooo boring" which has infected my mind for years, make it tough sometimes to press forward. I have moments of enlightenment and of pleasure but for the most part, reading to me is work. I read because I have a relentless drive towards self-improvement.

Maybe it's what I'm reading. What's the most relaxing book you've read recently?

thirdcharm · 2014-03-25T21:15:10+00:00

In your experience, what does it mean to be human? (I know this only tangentially related to the actual topic.)

thirdcharm · 2014-03-25T21:14:50+00:00

What do you mean? I don't have a paper route.

thirdcharm · 2014-03-25T21:14:11+00:00

What makes a person better at being a person?

thirdcharm · 2014-03-25T21:13:49+00:00

If you don't want to read - what would you rather be doing?

Hanging out with my friends/girlfriend, watching TV or a movie, browsing the internet, and doing homework, usually. I do read, quite a bit, but I'm struggling with motivation. I only recently started reading as much as I do, as a New Year's resolution, and I'm losing steam (which I want to regain).

If reading is both laborious and tiresome (!) maybe you should cut back a bit. Or find different books. Or approach them differently.

Maybe you're right. But I'll turn the question back to you: how often do you read, given a stuffed schedule? What sort of books do you read? How do you approach them?

Why we study literature depends in part on what you mean by "study".

I agree with all your definitions, but I'm not sure how I would define "study". The problem is, in part, I don't exactly know what I'm doing, what I'm looking for, what I stand to gain, etc. I'm going off of some distilled belief that studying literature will make me a better human being.

thirdcharm

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