Young Bard Posted January 9, 2016 Report Share Posted January 9, 2016 (edited) Does Team Sanderson get any special powers? Also, on a seperate note, have you read Anathem by Neal Stephenson? (Disclaimer: I haven't. But it got described to me as Fantasy + Maths, and my first thought was "Chaos would love this.") Edited January 24, 2016 by The Young Bard 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stormgate Posted January 10, 2016 Report Share Posted January 10, 2016 Would you be open to the possibility of creating a tag identical to the spoiler tag except that it's for ADD moments instead of spoilers of books or other stuff? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaos Posted January 25, 2016 Author Report Share Posted January 25, 2016 Sorry, I kind of forgot this was a thing. I've been super busy. I'll be checking this more regularly. Do you dislike any currently active users? The members I dislike are jerks, and those tend to get banned pretty fast because they are being jerks. Does Team Sanderson get any special powers? Also, on a seperate note, have you read Anathem by Neal Stephenson? (Disclaimer: I haven't. But it got described to me as Fantasy + Maths, and my first thought was "Chaos would love this.") Team Sanderson does not currently have additional powers but we always keep meaning for Peter to actually be a mod. We just don't want anyone there to think there is any obligation to mod things. I haven't read Anathem but I have had it recommended. (As well as Neal Stephenson recommended to me before.) I should indeed read it. Would you be open to the possibility of creating a tag identical to the spoiler tag except that it's for ADD moments instead of spoilers of books or other stuff? I am having a hard time visualizing such a use-case--I don't quite understand your meaning--but regardless there will probably be very few new tags in that vein. The editor is so weird and funky I do not mess with that code. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rubix Posted January 25, 2016 Report Share Posted January 25, 2016 Team Sanderson does not currently have additional powers Small correction, here. Team Sanderson can reply to threads that we have locked. We granted that group that power so that Brandon could reply to his AMA that he did here a couple years back. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaos Posted January 26, 2016 Author Report Share Posted January 26, 2016 Small correction, here. Team Sanderson can reply to threads that we have locked. We granted that group that power so that Brandon could reply to his AMA that he did here a couple years back. That was like an eternity ago and totally forgot Someday... someday maybe Brandon will do another AMA... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Young Bard Posted February 3, 2016 Report Share Posted February 3, 2016 What would your reaction be if Chaos turned out to be the Intent of a Shard? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaos Posted March 30, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 30, 2016 Surprise! I am super busy and much of my time to 17S has been down to "hey is it running okay cool it works and I paid bills". But more work is coming! What would your reaction be if Chaos turned out to be the Intent of a Shard? Shards are inherently "orderly." Ruin, for example, is an orderly force that rationally destroys and breaks up the world. Any intent really would have this in mind. For this reason, I don't imagine that a Shard could even be Chaos. It's antithetical to what Shard intents are. Plus, deities like Order vs. Chaos are kind of boring. Mistborn is cool because it does a twist on the good vs. evil god. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silverblade5 Posted March 30, 2016 Report Share Posted March 30, 2016 Hey Chaos, I was wondering if you could help me out with something. In my algebra class, we recently got done with exponential and logarithmic function. I know and understand how they work, but have always wondered something: How would you solve an equation where the base was a variable? For example: how would you solve something like x^x=6, or (log (x)) 8=x? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaos Posted March 30, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 30, 2016 Hey Chaos, I was wondering if you could help me out with something. In my algebra class, we recently got done with exponential and logarithmic function. I know and understand how they work, but have always wondered something: How would you solve an equation where the base was a variable? For example: how would you solve something like x^x=6, or (log (x)) 8=x? This won't be the answer you want, but, you can't! Such equations are impossible to solve algebraically. These are called in math parlance as "transcendental equations," as opposed to your more common algebraic equations. Algebraic equations are the equations that involve only the operations addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and square roots. Functions that involve those operations are called--shockingly!--algebraic functions. They are a very small list of functions. Exponentials, logarithms, and trigonometric functions are not algebraic functions. A function that is not algebraic is called a transcendental function. Equations involving transcendental functions are called transcendental equations. Transcendental equations are really hard to solve, and you can't use normal algebraic functions to deal with them. How does one solve these? Well, in practice, you have a computer find the answer numerically. For example, a helpful Wolfram Alpha search determines that the solution to x^x = 6 is approximately 2.23183. (At least, in the real numbers.) It's literally impossible for a math teacher or anyone to ask you to solve it, because you can't. Now, this might not bother you, but here's the thing: that decimal expansion is not the true value of x^x = 6, it is merely a decimal approximation of its true value. In principle, these transcendental numbers can't be expressed "nicely". When I mean "expressed nicely" I mean "you can't use a formula with the algebraic operations to find this." It's not hard to write a transcendental equation. e^x = x or sin(x) = x are unsolvable with algebra. There's two instances of x in both of those and though you know the inverse of e^x and sin(x), you will never get any closer to isolating x. There are rare instances where we can solve these transcendental equations, but only where they are really easy. If I ask sin(x) = 1/2, there are x values that satisfy that. If you have e^x = 1, you know x = 0. Typically with transcendental functions you know values at a few places, like e^x = 1, and sine and cosine at the various exact angles. But it shouldn't be surprising that these functions are less "nice" than your usual functions, because if I say solve e^x = 2, well, you know that x = ln(2). Great. What's ln(2)? It's transcendental. You can't express it with the common algebraic operations.* So you need more advanced numerical operations to write down a decimal approximation of this. With that in mind, though you can easily represent some transcendental functions--if you are extremely lucky--hopefully this should persuade you it isn't surprising that these transcendental solutions are really hard. Mathematicians often invent what are called "special functions" to express answers to certain transcendental functions more nicely, because mathematicians hate decimals (this is because decimals are fairly arbitrary to what base you're using. We just developed our number system to be base 10, but who cares.) Wolfram helpfully told me that x^x = 6 can be written as x = e^(W(ln(2)+ln(3))), where W is the product log function, which you definitely hadn't heard of and neither did I. There's lots of weird, special named functions. They generally have a specific application in very specific problems (see Bessel functions). *The reader with a background in calculus might say that you could express ln(2) with an infinite sum of algebraic operations, namely with Taylor and Maclaurin series. That also is lucky, as it just so happens that the Taylor series of this function converges at this point, but if we had ln(2.1), we're screwed. I'm sure there's some numerical method for this, though. You'd probably use Newton's Method instead of Taylor Series anyway since that converges much faster, but I don't really have a background in numerical analysis. Long story short: almost all math problems can't be solved by hand. RIP. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaymyth Posted March 30, 2016 Report Share Posted March 30, 2016 I definitely PM'd the wrong Admin that calculus limerick on St. Pat's. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaos Posted March 30, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 30, 2016 I definitely PM'd the wrong Admin that calculus limerick on St. Pat's. That would require me to do poetry though Though I really like writing, my brain just doesn't quite "get" poetry... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaymyth Posted March 30, 2016 Report Share Posted March 30, 2016 That would require me to do poetry though Though I really like writing, my brain just doesn't quite "get" poetry... Hee. But limericks are more like the candy of the poetry world. Very simple sugars and easy to gulp down way more than is healthy. So here it is anyway: I hit poor Mi'ch with that, and I swear I could hear her blinking at her screen as she typed the response of, "You should've sent that to Chaos." 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaos Posted March 30, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 30, 2016 She linked me. I don't get it Mi'ch didn't get it because of the math. I don't get it because I see the math and don't see how it is a limmerick 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaymyth Posted March 31, 2016 Report Share Posted March 31, 2016 Admittedly, it does take a teensy bit of fudging to make the rhythm work on the last line, but here's the translation: The integral dee squared dee zee From one to the cubed root of three Times the cosine Of three pi over nine Is the log of the cubed root of e Congratulations. You have now seen exactly everything I remember from college calculus. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaos Posted March 31, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 31, 2016 Cheating to make it rhyme Also, that's more precalculus than calculus 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silverblade5 Posted March 31, 2016 Report Share Posted March 31, 2016 Obvious follow up: what tools exist beyond algebra that can help solve transdential functions? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaos Posted March 31, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 31, 2016 Obvious follow up: what tools exist beyond algebra that can help solve transdential functions? Short answer: computer algorithms. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaymyth Posted March 31, 2016 Report Share Posted March 31, 2016 Cheating to make it rhyme Also, that's more precalculus than calculus I maintain that I would have done better and gotten farther in college calc had my high school actually gone up that far in math. I wasn't even allowed to take algebra in junior high. Not for any problems on my part, but because they "didn't offer it: at that level. Stupid tiny rural school. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaos Posted March 31, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 31, 2016 That's crazy. That said, as a person who teaches Calculus 1 and 2 at the collegiate level, all you really need is a good precalc background and familiarity with algebra. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaymyth Posted March 31, 2016 Report Share Posted March 31, 2016 Very crazy. It's been 20 years since I graduated HS, and I'm still kind of bitter. Heh. It probably helps if the student taking calc hasn't just had a major emotional upheaval sending her into a period of mild depression, coupled with the fact that at that point, she had absolutely no idea how to study. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaos Posted March 31, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 31, 2016 Very crazy. It's been 20 years since I graduated HS, and I'm still kind of bitter. Heh. It probably helps if the student taking calc hasn't just had a major emotional upheaval sending her into a period of mild depression, coupled with the fact that at that point, she had absolutely no idea how to study. Yeah That sucks... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaymyth Posted March 31, 2016 Report Share Posted March 31, 2016 Yeah That sucks... Yeh, well, it was a long time ago. I got better. I eventually got my degree in elementary education, and now I work for [Redacted], Inc. Nothing to do with teaching, though sometimes I think certain clients need to go back to grade school. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaos Posted March 31, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 31, 2016 Yeh, well, it was a long time ago. I got better. I eventually got my degree in elementary education, and now I work for [Redacted], Inc. Nothing to do with teaching, though sometimes I think certain clients need to go back to grade school. Isn't that like most clients in anything ever? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaymyth Posted March 31, 2016 Report Share Posted March 31, 2016 Isn't that like most clients in anything ever? Gods, yes. It never ceases to amaze me the sheer critical mass of childishness extant in Corporate America. It probably will someday, and on that day I will be the most jaded creature to walk the earth. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FeatherWriter Posted March 31, 2016 Report Share Posted March 31, 2016 Wait there are other algebra limericks? I know this one: ( (12 + 144 + 20 + 3 Sqrt[4]) / 7 ) + 5*11 = 92 + 0 .Which is, for those following along at home: A dozen, a gross, and a score, plus three times the square root of four, divided by seven, plus five times eleven, Is nine squared and not a bit more! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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