While We Wait: Part 6

[Dachs]

Are you joking? Calc is a lot easier than pre-calc, IMHO.

Depends on what calculus you have, and what professor. Taylor series are not nearly so easy as basic differentiation and the physics applications of algebra, anyway.

 

[Justo]

For those who were interested when I posted yesterday on the storms would be happy to know that we got another massive storm last night that in some areas of the Greater Brisbane area loosed more than 250mm of water in under an hour. In some localities in the space of an hour and a bit monthly rain records for November were smashed. Flooding to the west of the city is widespread at the current time and the ground in many places is so wet that flash flooding is now the only option. My backyard was a swimming pool and the road down the street was cut off for one hour between 12:30 - 1:30 this morning.

Two train lines out of the 6 in the city are cut half way down the line. Several major highways, freeways and bypass tunnels are under water. Ipswich (where justo lives) the major satelite city of Brisbane was hard hit. People who only just got the power back on an hour before from the Sunday storms lost it again. One more person has lost her life, an 85 yo grandmother who was swept from a causeway near Gatton (west of Ipswich) early this morning. Her husband managed to escape the car and is tonight recovering in hospital.

Some 4 - 5 thousand homes have been affected so far, 300 very danegerous and in need of liveable repair and 90 that will need to be demolished outright.

We have another storm over us at the moment tonight, so this is likely to excaerbate the situation somewhat and they are talking on the news already of more storms on Friday and Saturday.

Wish us luck.

The storms at my house last night barely lasted 10 minutes and they weren't particularly strong. Although it did look alot stronger in most of the other parts of Ipswich.

They were enough to knock out the power at my house for a couple of hours so I missed sending a couple of orders that I had planned to send.

 

[Masada]

Depends on the College as well from what I understand, I barely touched math till the second year... and well even that wasn't hard [Masada is not defective at maths, just middling]. Elective wise you can generally avoid maths, but your going to end up needing to do it at some stage .

To be honest, spreadsheets, data entry, writing interpretations about data, and generally working to a methodology long set up with as little human error as possible is what we do. The math is just there so you understand some of what your doing

 

[Kal'thzar]

Depends on what calculus you have, and what professor. Taylor series are not nearly so easy as basic differentiation and the physics applications of algebra, anyway.

*blink*

Taylor series? Not really difficult just used a lot, lets see, something difficult....oh Calculating the laplacian in a spherical coordinate system for Angular Momentum (quantum mechanics).

EDIT: Ok thats just annoying to calculate but its all relative anyway.

 

[North King]

Yeah, the worst maths to be in are the annoying ones rather than the difficult ones. Like the entirety of statistics, basically.

 

[Dachs]

Taylor series? Not really difficult just used a lot,

Used a lot? By a historian?

lets see, something difficult....oh Calculating the laplacian in a spherical coordinate system for Angular Momentum (quantum mechanics).

I claim that most of math that anybody whose degree does not lie in the field of mathematics or physics will ever need or even have occasion to use is not difficult but merely annoying.

Yeah, the worst maths to be in are the annoying ones rather than the difficult ones. Like the entirety of statistics, basically.

Statistics just sucks.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Refuting:

Onto other news, Masada in conjunction with his initiative is going to remedy a paucity of backup materials for a Macro base level economics course at his Uni [I work alongside the lecturer], in line with this I'm going to try to put together a readily accessible and easy to understand PDF file based on my Uni material with a set of specific insights for NESing. That is if anyone want's it.

I'll organize it by appropriate chapters, quote from appropriate sources and thinkers, include diagrams, and possible policy decisions and consequences. I'll also provide pro-forma answers for essay questions on broad Marco topics.

All I would ask is I gain some guinea pigs. I need people with varying levels of understanding and knowledge of the topics at hand, from say interested observers, to people with nothing more than the occasional perusal of the Financial Review. This will I hope iron out any leaps of logic, and confusion that tend to happen in a work for beginners that is not properly vetted. Those for whom English is not a first language are also especially welcome.

@FC:

At least you have Internet Cafe's where you live... I went for a long while without internet in Indonesia

I'll help however I can.

 

[Kal'thzar]

Used a lot? By a historian?

You'd be suprised! Modelling etc.

I claim that most of math that anybody whose degree does not lie in the field of mathematics or physics will ever need or even have occasion to use is not difficult but merely annoying.

difficulty is always relative, and basically the difficulty will tend to increase with the complexity of the thing being modelled.

Statistics just sucks.

No argument.

 

[Dachs]

You'd be suprised! Modelling etc.

Using a Taylor series to model something sounds a lot more difficult than just using the function itself.

difficulty is always relative,

Then why are we having this conversation?

and basically the difficulty will tend to increase with the complexity of the thing being modelled.

Well, yeah. I also posit that the more complex a model becomes, the more restrictive it becomes, and the less predictive utility it has. Sooo...

 

[Disenfrancised]

Statistics just sucks.

μ[Whiny losers] + σ[Whiny losers] > [Dachs] > μ[Whiny losers] - σ[Whiny losers]

 

[Dachs]

You and your standard deviations. And means.

 

[Stormbringer]

Only if [Whiny losers] is not a constant

 

[Kal'thzar]

Using a Taylor series to model something sounds a lot more difficult than just using the function itself.

some functions just arn't nice to treat as such, also with a taylor series some information is easier to extract and understand.

 

[Stormbringer]

More importantly some functions are not integrable or differentiable, while a Taylor series, since it is a series of polynomials, always is.

 

[Disenfrancised]

Only if [Whiny losers] is not a constant

Whiny losers are a normal population .

 

[Kal'thzar]

here we see the detrimental effect of too much statistics, the brain rots and eventually your on a forum making terrible jokes....

 

[silver 2039]

This just reinforces my will not to take stats or econ. Guess I'll have to fall back on poli sci and then go into some govt work. Ambassador silver 2039 perhaps? Or Senator silver 2039? Maybe even President silver 2039. Now that would be nice.

 

[Dachs]

silver, bureaucrats don't become President.

 

[silver 2039]

silver, bureaucrats don't become President.

I said some government work. I didn't say which. I figure I'll take the foreign services exam after I graduate and see if that works out. If it doesn't I'll do something else.

 

[Adrogans]

I'd love to do a congressional or senate term or many, but I am not sure I'd want the president's job just yet.