Science/Techno Babble Random, Random

All the other crazy stuff we talk about. Politics, Science, News, the Kitchen, other hobbies.
User avatar
ponchi101 Venezuela
Site Admin
Posts: 14721
Joined: Mon Dec 07, 2020 4:40 pm
Location: New Macondo
Has thanked: 3857 times
Been thanked: 5565 times
Contact:

Re: Science/Techno Babble Random, Random

#286

Post by ponchi101 »

Suliso wrote: Tue Nov 23, 2021 9:17 pm Any respectable list of physicists need to also include Planck, Schrödinger, Heisenberg and Maxwell. From modern ones probably only Feynman.
And with that quick reminder, I would indeed move Maxwell above everybody. Just by the 2nd law of thermodynamics, he should be.
How about not the physicists, but the physics? What is more important, the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, or General Relativity? In chemistry, as you would have the better opinion, what would be the most important discovery? The completion of the periodic table, for example, or the structure of atoms as they relate to their chemical characteristics?
Ego figere omnia et scio supellectilem
User avatar
Suliso Latvia
Posts: 4404
Joined: Fri Dec 11, 2020 2:30 pm
Location: Basel, Switzerland
Has thanked: 273 times
Been thanked: 1453 times

Re: Science/Techno Babble Random, Random

#287

Post by Suliso »

ponchi101 wrote: Tue Nov 23, 2021 10:47 pm How about not the physicists, but the physics? What is more important, the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, or General Relativity?
From my perspective thermodynamics. I certainly understand it a lot better, but also there are more practical applications. Having said that you can't really understand the nature of universe without all the quantum physics and general/special relativity. That's why scientists from that field so overrepresented on the list of greatest physicists.
ponchi101 wrote: Tue Nov 23, 2021 10:47 pm In chemistry, as you would have the better opinion, what would be the most important discovery? The completion of the periodic table, for example, or the structure of atoms as they relate to their chemical characteristics?
Both very important from a theoretical point of view, but I would single out instead Haber-Bosch process for artificial fixation of nitrogen. That had tremendous practical consequences (artificial fertilizers, but also weapons). Fritz Haber himself was a controversial figure because he was also an enthusiastic supporter of chemical warfare during WWI.

If we're looking further back I'd like to point to Antoine Lavoisier and him finally convincingly disproving phlogiston theory. He was instrumental in changing chemistry from a qualitative to quantitative science. You can even say finally separating chemistry from alchemy.

Few other chemical discoveries with society changing impact: antibiotics, polythene, contraceptive pills, liquid crystals, artificial dyes
User avatar
MJ2004
Posts: 417
Joined: Wed Dec 09, 2020 3:18 pm
Location: Boston
Has thanked: 116 times
Been thanked: 300 times

Re: Science/Techno Babble Random, Random

#288

Post by MJ2004 »

It seems incomplete for a list that mentions Archimedes and Euclid not to include Pythagoras.
User avatar
ponchi101 Venezuela
Site Admin
Posts: 14721
Joined: Mon Dec 07, 2020 4:40 pm
Location: New Macondo
Has thanked: 3857 times
Been thanked: 5565 times
Contact:

Re: Science/Techno Babble Random, Random

#289

Post by ponchi101 »

My understanding is that Pythagoras was more of a philosopher and his contribution to math is closely related to his Theorem. Although important, it pales in comparison to what Euclid did. And perhaps the most important discovery from his school, the identification of the existence of irrationals, was not his, but one (presumably) unknown disciple. Also, he is so surrounded in legend that it is hard to establish what he did.
Still, you have a point. He is certainly the one name most people asked about ancient mathematicians will think of, if not of all mathematicians.
---0---
@Suliso. I did not know that Lavoisier had been the one that disproved phlogiston. As I told you before, it is so hard to find books about chemistry that are not totally technical. I need to read some more on that.
Would Mendeleev be considered a physicist or a chemist? Working at that level, where both disciplines intersect so much, does he straddle both areas?
Ego figere omnia et scio supellectilem
User avatar
Suliso Latvia
Posts: 4404
Joined: Fri Dec 11, 2020 2:30 pm
Location: Basel, Switzerland
Has thanked: 273 times
Been thanked: 1453 times

Re: Science/Techno Babble Random, Random

#290

Post by Suliso »

Chemistry is often at interface with either physics or biology. I would definitely consider Mendeleev as primarily a chemist.
User avatar
ti-amie United States of America
Posts: 22983
Joined: Wed Dec 09, 2020 4:44 pm
Location: The Boogie Down, NY
Has thanked: 5302 times
Been thanked: 3284 times

Honorary_medal

Re: Science/Techno Babble Random, Random

#291

Post by ti-amie »

I've known about the Peters Projection for awhile and it's the map I have in my den. Because of our 5 url limit per post I'm only showing two of the projections and the commentary about them both.

Five maps that will change how you see the world
March 28, 2017
By Donald Houston - University of Portsmouth

Boston public schools shifted to using world maps based on the Peters projection, reportedly the first time a US public school district has done so. Why? Because the Peters projection accurately shows different countries’ relative sizes. Although it distorts countries’ shapes, this way of drawing a world map avoids exaggerating the size of developed nations in Europe and North America and reducing the size of less developed countries in Asia, Africa and South America.

Image
Peters projection. - Image Credit: Daniel R. Strebe, CC BY-SA

(...)

PACIFIC-CENTRED

Another convention of world maps is that they are centred on the prime meridian, or zero degrees longitude (east-west). But this is scientifically arbitrary, deriving from the location of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London. The result is that Europe (although also Africa) is in the centre of the conventional world map – a rather colonial perspective.

Image
Pacific-centred map. - Image Credit: DEMIS Mapserver/Wikimedia

The familiar meridian-centred map conveniently places the map edges down the middle of the Pacific Ocean so no continent is chopped in two. But maps centred on the Pacific Ocean also work well because the edges of the map conveniently run down the middle of the Atlantic. This places east Asia in a more prominent position and pushes Europe to the edge. Much of Oceania and Asia uses Pacific-centred maps. (American-centred maps are also in use, but these have the unfortunate consequence of partitioning Asia to either side of the map.)

Our meridian-centred view of the world shapes how we refer to world regions. “Far East”, for example, implies far from Greenwich, London. Seeing Europe on the left of a map and the Americas on the right can seem counter-intuitive, but it is just as correct as any other arbitrary chop point. The world is, after all, round.



https://www.universal-sci.com/headlines ... -the-world
“Do not grow old, no matter how long you live. Never cease to stand like curious children before the Great Mystery into which we were born.” Albert Einstein
skatingfan Canada
Posts: 1461
Joined: Thu Dec 10, 2020 2:00 am
Location: Smiths Falls
Has thanked: 1046 times
Been thanked: 867 times

Re: Science/Techno Babble Random, Random

#292

Post by skatingfan »

I always liked this map.

Image
User avatar
ti-amie United States of America
Posts: 22983
Joined: Wed Dec 09, 2020 4:44 pm
Location: The Boogie Down, NY
Has thanked: 5302 times
Been thanked: 3284 times

Honorary_medal

Re: Science/Techno Babble Random, Random

#293

Post by ti-amie »

Australia is not real! You're letting them control your perception of the world. :lol:

Seriously there is a Peters upside down too.

Image
“Do not grow old, no matter how long you live. Never cease to stand like curious children before the Great Mystery into which we were born.” Albert Einstein
User avatar
Suliso Latvia
Posts: 4404
Joined: Fri Dec 11, 2020 2:30 pm
Location: Basel, Switzerland
Has thanked: 273 times
Been thanked: 1453 times

Re: Science/Techno Babble Random, Random

#294

Post by Suliso »

The only lines and places which are real are both poles and the equator. Otherwise indeed can at any angle one finds convenient. However, 2D maps can only ever be an approximation of 3D sphere. No matter how you draw them something will not be correct.
User avatar
ponchi101 Venezuela
Site Admin
Posts: 14721
Joined: Mon Dec 07, 2020 4:40 pm
Location: New Macondo
Has thanked: 3857 times
Been thanked: 5565 times
Contact:

Re: Science/Techno Babble Random, Random

#295

Post by ponchi101 »

It is simply a convention, as you say.
I wonder what people were expecting the Brits to do. "Oh, we have an observatory HERE, but let's take all of our measurements and relate them to a point, let's see, uhm, let's say half the world away from us. That way it will be harder to figure out stuff".
It reminds me of a complaint I have heard in a certain country south of where I am. "Why do they draw the map with them on top?" they ask, in anger.
Because they drew the first one. And when you do something for the very first time, you get to choose how to do it.
Rest assured that if there were any advantages to drawing world maps with Australia on the top, they would be drawn that way.
Ego figere omnia et scio supellectilem
User avatar
ti-amie United States of America
Posts: 22983
Joined: Wed Dec 09, 2020 4:44 pm
Location: The Boogie Down, NY
Has thanked: 5302 times
Been thanked: 3284 times

Honorary_medal

Re: Science/Techno Babble Random, Random

#296

Post by ti-amie »

ponchi101 wrote: Fri Nov 26, 2021 3:34 pm It is simply a convention, as you say.
I wonder what people were expecting the Brits to do. "Oh, we have an observatory HERE, but let's take all of our measurements and relate them to a point, let's see, uhm, let's say half the world away from us. That way it will be harder to figure out stuff".
It reminds me of a complaint I have heard in a certain country south of where I am. "Why do they draw the map with them on top?" they ask, in anger.
Because they drew the first one. And when you do something for the very first time, you get to choose how to do it.
Rest assured that if there were any advantages to drawing world maps with Australia on the top, they would be drawn that way.
Come on man! Australia doesn't exist! And all of it's unique fauna are cgi images. Don't join the ranks of the brainwashed!

/s
“Do not grow old, no matter how long you live. Never cease to stand like curious children before the Great Mystery into which we were born.” Albert Einstein
User avatar
JazzNU United States of America
Posts: 6655
Joined: Sun Jan 03, 2021 6:57 pm
Location: Pennsylvania
Has thanked: 2786 times
Been thanked: 2374 times

Re: Science/Techno Babble Random, Random

#297

Post by JazzNU »

If you haven't heard, Amazon Web Services is suffering through an outage right now. If you can't access a website, app or service of any kind right now, it's likely on their platform. They're working on it, but no restoration time yet.

Also, if you're expecting an Amazon delivery, it might be delayed.
User avatar
ti-amie United States of America
Posts: 22983
Joined: Wed Dec 09, 2020 4:44 pm
Location: The Boogie Down, NY
Has thanked: 5302 times
Been thanked: 3284 times

Honorary_medal

Re: Science/Techno Babble Random, Random

#298

Post by ti-amie »



“Do not grow old, no matter how long you live. Never cease to stand like curious children before the Great Mystery into which we were born.” Albert Einstein
User avatar
ti-amie United States of America
Posts: 22983
Joined: Wed Dec 09, 2020 4:44 pm
Location: The Boogie Down, NY
Has thanked: 5302 times
Been thanked: 3284 times

Honorary_medal

Re: Science/Techno Babble Random, Random

#299

Post by ti-amie »

“Do not grow old, no matter how long you live. Never cease to stand like curious children before the Great Mystery into which we were born.” Albert Einstein
User avatar
ponchi101 Venezuela
Site Admin
Posts: 14721
Joined: Mon Dec 07, 2020 4:40 pm
Location: New Macondo
Has thanked: 3857 times
Been thanked: 5565 times
Contact:

Re: Science/Techno Babble Random, Random

#300

Post by ponchi101 »

Difficult from the side of the users. Apache is one level above everything we do.
Hostinger has not posted anything about this. I will keep checking.
Ego figere omnia et scio supellectilem
Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Ahrefs [Bot] and 3 guests