Recent content by joebloggs

  1. J

    Layperson asking about circle sides (Warning may not make sense)

    So then it's wrong to say that a large circle has larger sides compared to a smaller circle? In other words, you can't say both the large and small circle have the same number of sides because infinity is not a number per se? I've heard that you can have some infinities that are larger than...
  2. J

    Layperson asking about circle sides (Warning may not make sense)

    God knows if I'm posting this in the right place on physics forum but here goes... If a circle can be thought of as a shape with an infinite number of sides does this then therefore mean that each side would have to be infinitely small? Within a large circle you can draw a smaller circle...
  3. J

    How do I do log to the base 2?

    So if I have an equation which is say -0.5log0.5 - 0.5log0.5 (where the logs are to the base 2) I would type this into my calculator as log0.5/log2 * -0.5 - log0.5/log2*0.5 = 1 ? Is this how everyone else does it on their calculators?
  4. J

    How do I do log to the base 2?

    On my calculator I have a log button which is log to the base 10 and I also have a natural log button. How do I input log to the base 2 on a calculator? So far the only way I know is to go log(x)/log2 = y for instance if I'm trying to find log to the base 2 of the number 24 I go...
  5. J

    Trying to understand binary entropy function

    Ok I think I see what you are saying. 2 raised to the power of -1 = 0.5. So there is the 1 bit. This is not a problem I have to do for any paper or course (I study environmental planning). This is just personal study, I'm interested in getting a more thorough understanding of information entropy...
  6. J

    Trying to understand binary entropy function

    oh ok. How do I enter binary logarithms on my calculator? Sorry about this, I've just realized that I should have posted this thread in the coursework forum.
  7. J

    Trying to understand binary entropy function

    Ok firstly I am new to statistics but have a layman's interest in entropy. On Wikipedia i came across this article on the binary entropy function (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_entropy_function). It says... If Pr(X = 1) = p, then Pr(X = 0) = 1 − p and the entropy of X is given by...
  8. J

    When do the laws of general relativity breakdown?

    Ok, firstly I just want to say I have a layman's interest in physics. But from my limited understanding physicists use the theory of general relativity to understand big things like stars and galaxies and use quantum mechanics to understand the very small things like atoms and sub-atomic...
  9. J

    Solving the Coin Flips Problem - Probability of Tails After 9 Heads

    Hi, If I flip a fair coin 9 times and each time it comes up heads what is the probability that on the tenth time I flip the coin it will come up tails? At first I thought the probability that the coin would come up tails would be 50% as each coin flip is an independent event. But I was...
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