Recent content by Hector Mata

I say you should. Pros: LaTeX pays off mostly when producing long documents with lots of inner structure (i.e., index, parts, chapters, sections, subsections, appendix, etc.), or when there are many tables, figures, code listings, or math. I think it is worth it even if you write pure text...

I use TexMaker, it's downloadable and free.

I wish someone had told me that when I went through two semesters of organic chemistry :))! I said: Then: I think we agree, more or less. Anyway, back to the point of the article that began this discussion: do you know if there's such a thing as a "theoretical" chemist or biologist? I...

This was a very interesting read! I think the biology faculty he cites were mostly reacting to the constant attack that their field is under, specifically in the form of "evolution is just a theory". And so they (rightly) point out that evolution is a demonstrable fact, and by "theory" they...

lesa: The replies by ZapperZ and Choppy are very informative. I would just summarize by saying that scientists are usually very conservative about their claims, or the impact of their findings. They constantly hedge their bets and qualify their statements ("it is probable...", "more research...

Usually publication in a respected peer-review journal is enough. However, there are exceptions: for the example you cited specifically, I recommend you take a look at this: http://scholarlyoa.com/2014/02/18/chinese-publishner-mdpi-added-to-list-of-questionable-publishers/...

For your background, I would recommend the following first: Classical Mechanics by Taylor Classical Electrodynamics by Griffiths These should be relatively easy for you given your stated math profile, but you'll learn a lot with relatively little suffering. Once you are done with...

Classic nonsense that actually got published: Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity

This may help: http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/1273024/aproximating-the-volume-of-a-sphere-by-dividing-it-into-infinitesimal-cubes The idea is you already know the area of a cross-section of a sphere (a disk) from geometry: πr2. So now, what happens if you try to stack disks on top of...

Hyperbolas come from double cones: In this image, that would be #3. This is what https://www.physicsforums.com/members/hallsofivy.331/ meant when he said:

Yes, they are all over the place in math and physics. Indeed, there are entire branches of physics that would be impossible to do without them. $$\sqrt{-1}$$ is represented by the letter i. The wikipedia page has many more details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_number

LaTeX is probably worth learning even if you are not a physicist, if only for the sake of producing ordered, clean, structured documents. You can achieve any result of Microsoft Word with LaTex (though sometimes it takes creativity and some coding skills), plus there's lots automated functions...

I agree with this. However, it may be the case that our limit, wherever it is, is nevertheless sufficient to understand "real" problems, i.e., the ones Nature will throw at us (physics, chemistry, biology, etc.) and the ones we create (economics, politics, etc.). I'm not a neuroscientist or...

Rescy, I am sorry you are in such a situation. I don't really know how important physics is to you, but if it's what you really want to do, you should pursue it as best as you can. Langauge will come with practice. No social skills? No problem: that's no different than most other physicists...

Do you want to be a physicist, or not? Do you want to do something meaningful with your life, or not? Then what are you doing thinking about girls when there are so many problems in J.D. Jackson's Electrodynamics? And what about all the missing steps in Sakurai? You think Feynman spent his...