Science requires Approximations. Every kind of professional activity changes the way you think. It rewires your brain so that even when you’re off the job, things start looking a certain way. For example, to a computer programmer everything looks like … Continue reading
Tomorrow is election day here in the US, so I’m going to have a post about elections. It’s strictly nonpartisan—people seeking bile can look elsewhere. People often say things like “I’m not voting because it’s unlikely that one vote could … Continue reading
Previously, I described the main formula of Special Relativity: $$!s^2 = (\Delta x)^2 + (\Delta y)^2 + (\Delta z)^2 – (\Delta t)^2.$$This formula tells us the amount of distance squared between two points (if $$s^2 > 0$$) or the amount … Continue reading
Scientific Theories must be Elegant. Since there are always infinitely many different hypotheses which fit any set of data, there must be some prior beliefs which we use to decide between them. Any hypothesis which has an excessive number of … Continue reading
In honor of All Saints Day, here are some links to the saints on my blogroll: St. Anne the Weekend Fisher explains Why Christianity requires us to pray for members of violent Muslim mobs, and the Jewishness of the historical … Continue reading