Great one-liners from PF members

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The discussion centers around sharing and appreciating humorous and witty one-liners from the Physics Forums. Participants highlight various clever remarks, often related to physics, science, and the absurdities of homeopathy. Notable contributions include quips about relativity, the limitations of crayons, and humorous takes on homeopathic remedies. The thread also touches on the nature of scientific discourse, emphasizing that interesting questions often arise amid conflicting ideas. Additionally, there are playful exchanges about the nuances of communication, humor in technical discussions, and the importance of clarity in scientific explanations. Overall, the thread celebrates the blend of humor and intellect found within scientific discussions.
  • #301
It's like watching a tennis match and focusing on how the players have tied their shoelaces. Yes, it's important that a player's shoes don't fall off while he/she is running around; but, it hardly adds to an understanding of the game. ##-## @PeroK
 
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  • #302
DennisN said:
And no-one gets banned on PF. They get liberated from the tyranny of the forum rules.
Sadly, this is all too true.
 
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  • #303
"I confess that I get tired of HW problems that are trying to trick the students instead of focusing on the key analytical issues."

DaveE in "Find the current through a complicated circuit"

(However I am not saying that that problem is an example of this artificiality.)
 
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  • #304
That is a different principle introducing real-world type situations, suitable for the more advanced stages IMHO.
 
  • #305
epenguin said:
"I confess that I get tired of HW problems that are trying to trick the students instead of focusing on the key analytical issues."

This statement is pretty misguided. The problem in that thread is typical of Olympiad-style papers (viz: circuits with a few little twists or exotic geometries), designed to make the student think instead of chugging through the mindless book-work level analysis.
 
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  • #306
epenguin said:
"I confess that I get tired of HW problems that are trying to trick the students instead of focusing on the key analytical issues."

DaveE in "Find the current through a complicated circuit"

(However I am not saying that that problem is an example of this artificiality.)
here's the link. A simple flattened-out redraw of the circuit is all that's required. Not a trick, but simple stereometric insight. Admittedly unrelated to key analytical issues.

1648640021979.png
1648641033694.png


##\ ##
 
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  • #307
@berkeman, I would interpret "It was not a theory but imagination" to mean something like "it's not something that I think is surely or necessarily very likely true or hold as a theory, but something that I imagine might be true" ##-## I think that the 'appears in a reputable textbook or peer-reviewed journal' criterion that PF embraces is a useful 'guidepost' or 'bright line' idea here.
 
  • #308
ergospherical said:
This statement is pretty misguided. The problem in that thread is typical of Olympiad-style papers (viz: circuits with a few little twists or exotic geometries), designed to make the student think instead of chugging through the mindless book-work level analysis.
The "mindless book-work level analysis" you refer to is in the realm of physics HW assignments or circuit simulators. The real working analog EEs have their hands full with schematics of real world, complex circuits to deal with.

This is the world EEs work in:
LINRSCHM.jpg


Not contrived puzzles with 6 identical resistors in tetrahedrons. It's a math puzzle, maybe a lesson in recognizing symmetry, that is all it's good for. So, if you need to quiz a freshman physics student with a HW puzzle, go for it, but it has virtually no value in the real EE world. This is a great example of why EEs think physicists don't understand circuit analysis. Perhaps it's beneath y'all, IDK.

In my studies at prestigious universities in EE, and then in 30 years of working with circuits, I never, ever, had to deal with anything as contrived as this tetrahedron. Teaching students methods to deal with complexity will pay off, teaching them to find tricks for quick solutions to quizzes is fleeting at best. Either they'll never need it, or it won't work for real problems.
 
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  • #309
DaveE said:
It's a math puzzle, maybe a lesson in recognizing symmetry, that is all it's good for.

I think many would argue this is quite valuable. Inspect, for example, the following problems. Although you'd probably say they're completely useless for a budding electronic engineer, both provide insight into some key physical principles and problem-solving techniques.

1648721573744.png


1648721421953.png
 
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  • #310
I think that both @ergospherical and @DaveE are correct. I have designed production electronics and I have occasionally had lovely inspired flashes of insight. They are synergistic.
 
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  • #311
off topic offramp.jpg
 
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  • #312
Thanks @phinds, back on track:

Having done countless computing interviews, school prestige is nowhere near the importance many students think. ##-## @bhobba
 
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  • #313
Please don’t misquote your own source. ##-## @Dale
 
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  • #314
If you reach down and pull up on your bootstraps (shoelaces), you don't reduce your weight, you just strain your back. ##-## @russ_watters
 
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  • #315
Let me say it again: never never use physics textbooks for studying math. ##-## @wrobel
 
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  • #316
weirdoguy said:
Let me guess - you didn't come here to learn, did you? You came here to force upon us all of your misconceptions just to tell us that GR is not correct.
 
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  • #317
Orodruin said:
Until you ... pose a properly defined question, all we can do is to point out that you in essence have asked what to do when the traffic light shows blue.
 
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  • #318
PeroK said:
It's too advanced for me to say whether it's elementary or not!
 
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  • #319
1651970031515.png
 
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  • #320
Mr. Alertness ##\uparrow \uparrow \uparrow## noticed my 'stealth' quote ##-## I thought I could get by with posting a screenshot without raising much notice ##-## :smile:
 
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  • #321
sophiecentaur said:
You may have experienced a bit of the PF 'ton of bricks' effect.
 
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  • #322
Regarding Power Blackouts.

Algr said:
I'm still not convinced that a billion dollar industry understands the issue better than me. :/
 
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  • #323
In a discussion about QM Interpretations:

Demystifier said:
Or to use your metaphor, perhaps it looks, swims and quacks like a duck, but it was not hatched like a duck.
 
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  • #324
PeterDonis said:
No, because, in the words of Wolfgang Pauli, you are not even wrong.
 
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  • #325
jbriggs444 said:
Discovering and teaching are different things.
This was about why we don't learn GR directly from Einstein's papers.
 
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  • #326
In response to a question from a user about how to derive an equation...

Ibix said:
Basically, you have told us where you want to go but not where you are. That makes it tricky to give directions.
 
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  • #327
Newish poster opened a thread. 'Nuclear disaster (war)' and was worried that the war in Ukraine could lead to Putin attacking neighbouring countries with nuclear weapons 'What would be the worst effects?'

@berkeman replied. "We all die and only alligators and cockroaches survive, thanks for the uplifting post.
Thread closed have a nice day."

Only the survivors of the 'im really worried about the situation in Ukraine' thread, can appreciate the reply I think.
 
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  • #328
A wishy washy existential post regarding the Universe. 'Nothing matters, we are just a spec, the universe will die in a heat death,' kind of a thing.

Phinds replied, 'Yes and your point is?'

OP. "Why does it matter if I tell you whether I have a point or not?"

@russ_watters replied, 'It matters for whether or not the thread has value to PF.
Thread closed thus disproving the thesis.'
 
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  • #329
pinball1970 said:
@berkeman replied. "We all die and only alligators and cockroaches survive, thanks for the uplifting post.
Thread closed have a nice day."
Even threads die in a nuclear war.
 
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  • #330
Perhaps it doesn't matter that it all doesn't matter in the end. It's still important now.
 
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  • #331
PeroK said:
Perhaps it doesn't matter that it all doesn't matter in the end. It's still important now.

Don van Vliet (a.k.a. Captain Beefheart) said:
The stars are matter
We are matter
But it doesn't matter
 
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  • #332
Conundrum.

Where do you honor a a Great One-liner that is created in the
"Great one-liners from PF members" thread?

PeroK said:
Perhaps it doesn't matter that it all doesn't matter in the end. It's still important now.
 
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  • #333
robphy said:
In short,
a first year physics course doesn't have space and time
for a good treatment of spacetime.
 
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  • #334
Vanadium 50 said:
This is kind of like having a blind man paint your house with paintballs. I mean, sure, eventually the job will get done, but it may not be the most efficient way.
 
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  • #335
Thadriel said:
I’m sure that when a star is in the process of becoming a black hole, there must therefore be one inside it at some point during the process (correct me if I’m wrong on that). But if so, how long does that take? Could there exist a supergiant star that has a black hole inside it for a long period of time, say, thousands of years, before fully collapsing?

Is it possible for a black hole to be in a star with long term stability, with the star just not collapsing entirely? Like maybe it spins so fast that the outside can stay away from the event horizon?

Orodruin said:
No.
 
  • #336
Yes I learned a great deal from that incredibly educational post, and even more so from the further mockery of a non-physicist daring to not already have a complete physics education.
 
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  • #337
Thadriel said:
Yes I learned a great deal from that incredibly educational post, and even more so from the further mockery of a non-physicist daring to not already have a complete physics education.
Apologies. Check your PM
 
  • #338
All good friendo. I expect that sort of attitude towards those weirdos who think they’re here to disprove all of science. If I came across that way, that was unintentional.
 
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  • #339
Thadriel said:
All good friendo. I expect that sort of attitude towards those weirdos who think they’re here to disprove all of science. If I came across that way, that was unintentional.
I just looked at your thread on black holes and you seemed to get some serious answers. Am I missing something?
 
  • #340
PeroK said:
I just looked at your thread on black holes and you seemed to get some serious answers. Am I missing something?
It was my quote from Orodruin above that amused me. Just some harmless leg pulling till I remembered a post that made me want to smash my tablet not that long ago so I put myself in Thadriels shoes.
All is good now.
 
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  • #341
PeroK said:
I just looked at your thread on black holes and you seemed to get some serious answers. Am I missing something?
Yes I got plenty of great answers.
 
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  • #342
collinsmark said:
(I really wish, for fun, somebody would have put T/F "The eigenvalues of a Hermitian operator are always real," on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory [MMPI] exam.)
I took the MMPI a number of times (unescorted access in commercial nuclear power units). Unless you have seen the MMPI you probably don't realize how funny @collinsmark is.
 
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  • #343
From a thread about the Big Bang posted in the Cosmology forum:

Vanadium 50 said:
It's always a "paradox". Never "something I don't understand"

BTW, is anybody keeping track of which member is quoted the most in this thread? I'm guessing V50 is near the top of that list... :smile:
 
  • #344
Thadriel said:
All good friendo. I expect that sort of attitude towards those weirdos who think they’re here to disprove all of science. If I came across that way, that was unintentional.
Huh. Just now I got a letter from an old friend in which he disproves Bell's Theorem because "scientists got the math wrong." He wants my comments. I'm tempted to tell him it's a work of genius, but might stick with "very interesting."
 
  • #345
berkeman said:
I'm guessing V50 is near the top of that list...
Yes, that's paradox.
 
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  • #346
From a string of posts complaining about corporate re-configuring of their work computers.

https://www.physicsforums.com/posts/6657655/
"... but it's academia, we are getting paid for producing results, not for how, when and with which system settings we do that."
 
  • #347
Tom.G said:
From a string of posts complaining about corporate re-configuring of their work computers.

https://www.physicsforums.com/posts/6657655/
"... but it's academia, we are getting paid for producing results, not for how, when and with which system settings we do that."
I am not upvoting that. I work very hard and get paid for not producing results.
We all make our contributions.
 
  • #348
pinball1970 said:
I work very hard and get paid for not producing results.
Quality Assurance?
 
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  • #349
Ibix said:
Quality Assurance?
Not all techs work in QA you know.

I mean I do but you get my point.
 
  • #350
pinball1970 said:
I work very hard and get paid for not producing results.

Ibix said:
Quality Assurance?

I was in a rad protection training class at a power plant. They showed us a little video skit of 4 or 5 guys pretending to work on a valve. They were dressed out in anti-C's and respirators, etc. We (in the class) were asked "what are these guys doing wrong?" The very first answer (shouted out) was, "QC never hands the wrench to the mechanic."

Sure enough, the guy in the back with the clipboard could be seen passing over a wrench.
 
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