What is the newest installment of 'Random Thoughts' on Physics Forums?

In summary, the conversation consists of various discussions about documentaries, the acquisition of National Geographic by Fox, a funny manual translation, cutting sandwiches, a question about the proof of the infinitude of primes, and a realization about the similarity between PF and PDG symbols. The conversation also touches on multitasking and the uniqueness of the number two as a prime number.
  • #8,121
Even Physics got me a date once. I was 19 years old and living in a cheap apartment with a friend. While sitting by the closed pool reading a physics book, a beautiful young Mexican woman who could barely speak any English, came up to me and indicated that she wanted to know what I'm reading. I said hello and showed her the page I was reading, which of course was filled with equations. She looked at me wide-eyed and said in broken English, "Ooooooh, you must be smart!" We dated for the next several months even though we could barely talk to each other. But we always managed to find something to do. LOL

Only as I found her climbing out my window one morning did I learn that she lived in our apartment complex with her boyfriend - the dangerous-looking biker dude.

Ironically, her name was Lourdes.
 
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  • #8,122
Ivan Seeking said:
Even Physics got me a date once. I was 19 years old and living in a cheap apartment with a friend. While sitting by the closed pool reading a physics book, a beautiful young Mexican woman who could barely speak any English, came up to me and indicated that she wanted to know what I'm reading. I said hello and showed her the page I was reading, which of course was filled with equations. She looked at me wide-eyed and said in broken English, "Ooooooh, you must be smart!" We dated for the next several months even though we could barely talk to each other. But we always managed to find something to do. LOL

Only as I found her climbing out my window one morning did I learn that she lived in our apartment complex with her boyfriend - the dangerous-looking biker dude.
I just like to say my name is Sydney. " And what's your last name?". Me:" Australia". Sydney Australia.
 
  • #8,123
Ivan Seeking said:
Even Physics got me a date once. I was 19 years old and living in a cheap apartment with a friend. While sitting by the closed pool reading a physics book, a beautiful young Mexican woman who could barely speak any English, came up to me and indicated that she wanted to know what I'm reading. I said hello and showed her the page I was reading, which of course was filled with equations. She looked at me wide-eyed and said in broken English, "Ooooooh, you must be smart!" We dated for the next several months even though we could barely talk to each other. But we always managed to find something to do. LOL

Only as I found her climbing out my window one morning did I learn that she lived in our apartment complex with her boyfriend - the dangerous-looking biker dude.

Ironically, her name was Lourdes.
Climbing out your window? Spider Woman?
 
  • #8,124
How I impressed this French woman. She asks me " Do you like Le Pen?". I reply " Yes, but I prefer Le Pencil".
 
  • #8,126
Astronuc said:
The actress Hedy Lamar conceived of the idea of

Frequency-hopping spread spectrum[edit]​

220px-Lamarr_patent.png

Copy of U.S. patent for "Secret Communication System"
During World War II, Lamarr learned that radio-controlled torpedoes, an emerging technology in naval war, could easily be jammed and set off course.[52] She thought of creating a frequency-hopping signal that could not be tracked or jammed. She conceived an idea and contacted her friend, composer and pianist George Antheil, to help her implement it.[4] Together they developed a device for doing that, when he succeeded by synchronizing a miniaturized player-piano mechanism with radio signals.[40] They drafted designs for the frequency-hopping system, which they patented.[53][54] Antheil recalled:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedy_Lamarr#Frequency-hopping_spread_spectrum

But I most admire Hedy for not only being the first woman to do a nude scene in a movie, but also her love of older men. :)

1632424741018.png


She once explained that she was tricked into doing the nude scene in the movie. She was told it would be a very distant shot and no one would be able to see anything but a shape, which was partly true. But she didn't know about the new technology referred to as telephoto lenses...
 
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  • #8,127

... That's "Hedly" :)
 
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  • #8,128
A nice way of showing not all quadratics have a Real solution. Let n>1. Let p be a prime. Then n(n+1)=p cannot have a solution for n>1, else n divides p, a contradiction .

Then n(n+1)=p, so that ##n^2-n-p=0 \rightarrow x^2-x-p=0## cannot have a Real solution. I mean, any integer not a product of consecutive numbers would work too, but the prime makes it cleaner.

Not an amazing argument, but seemed nice.
 
  • #8,129
gmax137 said:
... That's "Hedly" :)
Whaaaaaaaaat?

1632435539902.png
 
  • #8,130
For those unaware, there is a meme that people who pretend to be smart (/r/iamverysmart) almost always state "quantum mechanics" as an interest.

NO ONE WHO ACTUALLY STUDIES QUANTUM MECHANICS FEELS SMART STUDYING QUANTUM MECHANICS.
 
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  • #8,131
Mayhem said:
For those unaware, there is a meme that people who pretend to be smart (/r/iamverysmart) almost always state "quantum mechanics" as an interest.

NO ONE WHO ACTUALLY STUDIES QUANTUM MECHANICS FEELS SMART STUDYING QUANTUM MECHANICS.
And if you think you understand QM, you don't understand QM. - Feynman
 
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  • #8,132
Ivan Seeking said:
And if you think you understand QM, you don't understand QM. - Feynman
If your solutions seems elegant and intuitive, you definitely made a mistake.
 
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  • #8,133
Mayhem said:
If your solutions seems elegant and intuitive, you definitely made a mistake.
I remember my first senior QM course so very well. I would read the chapter and sit through the lecture and it all made perfect sense. Then when I got to the homework problems, I thought I must have studied the wrong chapter. :olduhh:
 
  • #8,134
So, what is it with the double negatives here. I don't understand it (never studied it beyond the most basic). Does that imply I actually understand it? Looks like an Abbot and Costello routine:
Abbot: I am in First Base and I don't understand QM.
Costello: No, I thinks I understands QM and I is in Second.
Ebonics Translate: You mean I be in Second and I be not understand QM?
 
  • #8,135
WWGD said:
So, what is it with the double negatives here. I don't understand it (never studied it beyond the most basic). Does that imply I actually understand it? Looks like an Abbot and Costello routine:
Abbot: I am in First Base and I don't understand QM.
Costello: No, I thinks I understands QM and I is in Second.
Ebonics Translate: You mean I be in Second and I be not understand QM?
Generally, you can no longer conceptualize the subject. It becomes purely mathematical.

That's why philosophers have been arguing about the implications for almost a century now.
 
Last edited:
  • #8,136
Mayhem said:
If your solutions seems elegant and intuitive, you definitely made a mistake.
And if they make sense when you've been drinking, they probably don't make sense.
 
  • #8,137
When you take an exam in it, if you get more than one right, that's an F --because you seemingly understood something.
 
  • #8,138
Citrin tastes like soap...or so the story goes (does to me anyway); this has been "cited" as an explanation of the "aversion" to citrin spiced cuisine among an unknown sized group of people/gourmets/gourmands. Just did a little browsing, and could find no mention of this factoid/folklore/old wive's tale/"everybody knows that" ancient common knowledge.

Was in pursuit of an explanation for the gasoline/kerosene/coal oil flavor of artificial "sweeteners."
 
  • #8,139
Ivan Seeking said:
And if you think you understand QM, you don't understand QM. - Feynman
an_i_think_i_can_safely_say_that_nobody_un_lz6oe44.jpg
 
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  • #8,140
1632534568709.png
 
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  • #8,142
1632536014132.png
 
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  • #8,143
Ivan Seeking said:
Even Physics got me a date once. I was 19 years old and living in a cheap apartment with a friend. While sitting by the closed pool reading a physics book, a beautiful young Mexican woman who could barely speak any English, came up to me and indicated that she wanted to know what I'm reading. I said hello and showed her the page I was reading, which of course was filled with equations. She looked at me wide-eyed and said in broken English, "Ooooooh, you must be smart!" We dated for the next several months even though we could barely talk to each other. But we always managed to find something to do. LOL

Only as I found her climbing out my window one morning did I learn that she lived in our apartment complex with her boyfriend - the dangerous-looking biker dude.

Ironically, her name was Lourdes.
Yes:
 
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  • #8,144
Ok, Glue on Nails. Not Gluon Nails. Now it makes sense.
 
  • #8,145
Some nails have a coating of plastic that melts from the heat generated when they are hammered in.
Its like hot glue gun glue.
 
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  • #8,146
BillTre said:
Some nails have a coating of plastic that melts from the heat generated when they are hammered in.
Its like hot glue gun glue.
Hammering and Scolding-hot glue? Yikes.
 
  • #8,147
Reminiscent of spin welding, which is used for metals as well as plastics.

Spin welding is used on the thousands of alignment pins used for many parts for commercial aircraft assemblies.
 
  • #8,148
Ok, Cost function, not Cos(t). That helps.
 
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  • #8,149
WWGD said:
Ok, Glue on Nails. Not Gluon Nails. Now it makes sense.
I was concerned when I first heard about Nuclear Visine. Radioactive eye drops didn't seem like a good idea. So you can imagine my relief when I saw an ad for New Clear Visine.
 
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  • #8,150
Ivan Seeking said:
I was concerned when I first heard about Nuclear Visine. Radioactive eye drops didn't seem like a good idea. So you can imagine my relief when I saw an ad for New Clear Visine.
It seems that some people are afraid of nuclear magnetic resonance imaging.
 
  • #8,151
Keith_McClary said:
It seems that some people are afraid of nuclear magnetic resonance imaging.
That's why they changed the name to MRI for medical scans - Magnet Resonance Imaging. I was working on NMR imaging scanners when they first came out. But they soon became MRI.
 
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  • #8,152
Ivan Seeking said:
That's why they changed the name to MRI for medical scans. I was working on NMR imagine scanners when they first came out. But they soon became MRI.
And I hear your take was glowing . Just like with Homer ;).
 
  • #8,153
The line " What are you wearing" does not seem as effective in person.
 
  • #8,154
WWGD said:
And I hear your take was glowing . Just like with Homer ;).
No but it did nearly take off my arm once. Someone had put a regular metal chair onboard that looked just like the stainless steel chairs. I slung my arm through and walked back to make an adjustment at the magnet. By the time I felt the tug of the magnetic field on the chair, I was airborne.

1632946744575.png
 
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