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This proves how phenomenal the human brain is:
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe. ceehiro source unknown The following concerns a question in a physics degree exam at the University of Copenhagen: "Describe how to determine the height of a skyscraper with a barometer." One student replied: "You tie a long piece of string to the neck of the barometer, then lower the barometer from the roof of the skyscraper to the ground. The length of the string plus the length of the barometer will equal the height of the building." This highly original answer so incensed the examiner that the student was failed immediately. He appealed on the grounds that his answer was indisputably correct, and the university appointed an independent arbiter to decide the case. The arbiter judged that the answer was indeed correct, but did not display any noticeable knowledge of physics. To resolve the problem it was decided to call the student in and allow him six minutes in which to provide a verbal answer which showed at least a minimal familiarity with the basic principles of physics. For five minutes the student sat in silence, forehead creased in thought. The arbiter reminded him that time was running out, to which the student replied that he had several extremely relevant answers, but couldn't make up his mind which to use. On being advised to hurry up the student replied as follows: "Firstly, you could take the barometer up to the roof of the skyscraper, drop it over the edge, and measure the time it takes to reach the ground. The height of the building can then be worked out from the formula H = 0.5g x t squared. But bad luck on the barometer. "Or if the sun is shining you could measure the height of the barometer, then set it on end and measure the length of its shadow. Then you measure the length of the skyscraper's shadow, and thereafter it is a simple matter of proportional arithmetic to work out the height of the skyscraper. "But if you wanted to be highly scientific about it, you could tie a short piece of string to the barometer and swing it like a pendulum, first at ground level and then on the roof of the skyscraper. The height is worked out by the difference in the gravitational restoring force T = 2 pi sqrroot (l / g). "Or if the skyscraper has an outside emergency staircase, it would be easier to walk up it and mark off the height of the skyscraper in barometer lengths, then add them up. "If you merely wanted to be boring and orthodox about it, of course, you could use the barometer to measure the air pressure on the roof of the skyscraper and on the ground, and convert the difference in millibars into feet to give the height of the building. But since we are constantly being exhorted to exercise independence of mind and apply scientific methods, undoubtedly the best way would be to knock on the janitor's door and say to him 'If you would like a nice new barometer, I will give you this one if you tell me the height of this skyscraper'." The student was Niels Bohr, the only Dane to win the Nobel prize for Physics. - Source unknown - received from a friend. |
Mnemonics
Joachim Verhagen's Mnemonic site ... OSI Data Model: Physical, DataLink, Network, Transport, Session, Presentation, Application All People Seem To Need Data Processing sciencenews.org ... e: To destroy a building we detonate a quantity of hydrogen bombs. (count the letters of each word) How I want a drink, alcoholic of course, after the heavy lectures involving quantum mechanics! The number of letters in each word represents successive digits of pi: 3.14159265358979.
Game Theory
What is game theory? Game Theory - history and theorists Concise game theory from MathWorld.Wolfram.com gametheory.net incl. Various lectures, e.g. Mike Shor - course Checkout the dollar auction game Celebrated forecasts - interesting fun
Complexity & Chaos
CompLexicon Non-linearity and complexity - esp the last two paragraphs Benoit Mandelbrot Julia and Mandelbrot Set Explorer Fitting Models to Chaotic Data by J. C. Sprott
Games & Diversions
I was trying to avoid having a section like this. Such is temptation. Shockwave daily jigsaw - takes a few minutes to load typically.
Career Anchors
Career Anchors Revisited: Implications for Career Development in the 21st Century : Edgar H. Schein : MIT Sloan School of Management : February, 1996, Revised March, 1996 Career Anchors: What Are Your Real Values? Career Anchors of Filipino Academic Executives - an interesting extension
Business Modelling & Decision Making
Lexicon of Statistical Modelling and Related Topics Mind Tool's mission is to help people starting their careers understand the essential skills and techniques which will help them to excel, whatever their chosen profession. Techniques for Effective Decision Making Tools for Understanding Complexity Creativity Tools Operations Research Models and Methods Models - circles, grids and acronyms that you either love or hate The seven principles of Breakthrough Thinking "Breakthrough Thinking" decision-making principles Resources for design theory and related parts of discrete mathematics and statistics Ockham’s Razor is one of the most important epistemic principles. It states that if you have to choose from some number of competing theories, choose the simplest theory because it is most likely to be true.
Aesthetics & Science
Science, Maths, Beauty, Simplicity - quotations Classic Graphic Design Theory Information Interaction Design
Connections - Six degrees of separation and all that stuff
The Kevin Bacon game - The Oracle of Bacon at Virginia Small World Project - Duncan J Watts & all Kevin Bacon, the Small-World, and Why It All Matters Random graphs with arbitrary degree distributions and their applications Authors: M. E. J. Newman, S. H. Strogatz, D. J. Watts Peter Cochrane's Uncommon Sense: Six degrees and supernodes e.g. "... More recently computer simulations, mathematical studies and internet experiments - plus observations on biological brains and organisms - have served to confirm further the apparently universal small separation number. But the most revealing discovery has been that of the supernode. It seems that very few networks offer even or homogenous structures. They are almost always clustered assemblies that concentrate around a smallish number of super nodes. For us such a node might be a manager who can bridge the organisation we work in from one side to the other and by-pass thousands of people, or it might be our ISP that links directly to some international hub linking all the major cities on the planet. In such cases the degree of separation is four. If on the other hand we have to go via our manager’s manager, or an additional ISP node, then we quickly move up to six. Now here is the fun part! It turns out that these networks based on super nodes are incredibly resilient. Should a node or supernode fail or become damaged, the rerouting is super efficient. In most cases such a failure will see little or no change in the degree of separation. This is a primary reason that internet failures, brain damage and other biological malfunctions can often be overcome. It is also why companies can often achieve great success despite pockets of disastrous management. ..." - Peter Cochrane is a co-founder of ConceptLabs CA, where he acts as a mentor, advisor, consultant and business angel to a wide range of companies. He is the former CTO and Head of Research at BT, as part of a career at the telco spanning 38 years. Academic papers in maths, physics etc. - au.arXiv.org e-Print archive mirror |