Recent content by Ryker

Bumping this thread, because I am in the same situation as the OP, and since I also haven't found anything. Well, I guess the one thing I found was http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straightening_theorem_for_vector_fields, but that wasn't quite what I was looking for. I namely stumbled upon this...

Well, I don't have the book anymore, so I can't check, but I don't recall them saying that explicitly in regards to this particular problem. So yeah, I can't really argue much further.

I'm reviving this thread from the dead, because I'm just going through the same book and was confused for a couple of minutes myself, as well. But the book doesn't actually state that this is an essential singularity. In fact, what they do is show that the function \frac{1}{1-z} can be written...

Well, frankly, the only thing you could do is to kick him from your study group. As for looking up solutions, that's one way to learn. Better to do that and understand the problem at hand rather than kill yourself over it and not get it all in the end. You said it yourself he gives it an honest...

I'm currently a physics major with a year left, and deciding whether to switch into mathematical physics, mathematics or applied mathematics. I'm definitely switching into one of them, as I can meet the requirements for either in my last year and all of them align better with my interests...

I don't post here often anymore due to lack of time, but I have two things to say about the new look. First, it definitely looks better, so a job well done on the aesthetics part. However, the older design seemed to me much more readable with less stuff packed right in the middle of the screen...

Sorry for taking so long with the reply, Ray, but I wanted to wait until we get our homeworks back. Well, as it turns out, my instructor did and still does think that the answer I gave in the original post is the correct one. Luckily, after you helped me, I looked at what we've covered thus far...

Thanks a lot for that, Ray, and sorry for replying so late. Your post was really informative, so I appreciate the work you put into it. As for the solutions itself, we haven't dealt with multinomial coefficients and don't think ever will, so while I figured the general formula you listed would...

Oh, sorry, I thought you meant the standard birthday problem statement of "at least three people having the same birthday", which is different from my particular case. So yeah, it's the probability of at least one trio, but not of at least three people having the same birthday. As for the...

Well it can't be the same, because that's how the question was posed to me, I didn't make my impose my own arbitrary rules on it :smile: So like I explain below, we can't have 4 people sharing the same birthday, unless there's already exactly three other ones already sharing a different one...

Homework Statement What is the probability that in a class of N people you will be able to find a trio that shares the same birthday? You only need to find one such trio, and the rest can have whatever birthday they want, as long as it's not the same as that of the chosen trio. So it could be...

Thanks for the replies. Yeah, this is what I heard today, as well. That diffuse reflection does randomize the polarization, but that if you have some metal coating, the polarization can be preserved. I was told that's why, like you said, 3D cinema can't just use any projection screen, but one...

I was wondering what happens with linearly polarized light when it is reflected from a surface such as paper? Since it undergoes diffuse reflection, it is scattered in all directions, but does it become randomly polarized, as well? I can't really find an answer to that anywhere, so I'd be...

Thanks for the replies! After thinking about it some more, that's what I figured, as well, as I just couldn't justify why there would necessarily be a minus sign.

Homework Statement Given an equation for a wave \psi(x,t) = A e^{-a(bx+ct)^{2}} determine the direction of its propagation if you know \psi(x,t) = f(x \pm vt) and use this to find its speed. Homework Equations The Attempt at a Solution I figured I would just rearrange the expression in...