DISQUS

aiusepsi.co.uk: Musings on Science, and other things

  • Josh · 1 year ago
    Still about half a season behind, shall watch after Exams.

    I am being crushed at the moment by the sheer volume of SSP to memorise. And being infuriated by some of the approximations. I spent 30 mins chasing down a lost Pi only to find out it was approximated to 3 and canceled out a constant.

    How did you find Thermo + SP btw?
  • aiusepsi · 1 year ago
    Pi is exactly 3! Sounds horrible!

    I thought it was alright, I'm fairly confident of getting a first there. You?
  • Josh · 1 year ago
    I fudged a lot of the calculations to get the answers, so I am not sure. I either did brilliantly or terribly. So, I expect 65-75% ish, but would not be surprised if it was higher or lower. I am not confident of even writing enough in some places, eg. the ocean question for the carnot cycle. It gave you the answer in the question, and thn gave you four marks for the hell of it.
  • aiusepsi · 1 year ago
    That's a point about the ocean question. If it was any other way, it just wouldn't work as a cycle! It's hard to wring 4 marks out of that.
  • Josh · 1 year ago
    I also had no idea how to get the 1/(hw) to appear in the stats question, so I just put an arrow and said that it tended to that when T tended to what ever it said in the question.

    I don't know of any question I definitely got wrong, but I know of many that I could have gotten wrong, or at least only partially right.
  • aiusepsi · 1 year ago
    Oh, I did the other stats question, so I have no idea. I thought it looked nasty!

    The sum over states is N = Sum(all r) (nBE), then when that goes to an integral, it's N = n0 + Integral nBE dr, then you have to make it into an energy integral, epsilon = hwr, so epsilon/hw = r, therefore dr = depsilon/hw, which is where the hw comes from, it's from the change of variable. Maybe add an extra step explaining you have to count the ground state separately because it has 0 energy?

    Bit late now though anyway.

    I had no idea about how to do the last part of the other stats question, so I chucked away 3 marks. Never mind!
  • Josh · 1 year ago
    I read the first part of Q5, could not remember what degeneracy was so moved on.
  • Lucy · 1 year ago
    "Pi is exactly 3"?????!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !! !!!!

    I am disappointed to say the least!
  • aiusepsi · 1 year ago
    It's a Simpsons quote :P

    Anyways, the thing about physics is you get a lot of approximation in the theoretical calculations anyways. It mostly isn't important, because as long as the approximation isn't too far out, the experimentalists won't be precise enough to notice the difference anyway.

    Making pi exactly 3 is only a 4.5% error, and a pretty good experiment has 10% error anyway.
  • Lucy · 1 year ago
    Physicists. And Americans. And the real world.

    Pfff!
  • Heather · 1 year ago
    Have you watched the new Dollhouse trailer? It does wonders for the pre-examination soul, I've found...
  • aiusepsi · 1 year ago
    It does look several kinds of awesome. Especially the proper one, where they don't steal footage from old Buffy episodes.

    Alas, it apparently won't actually be broadcast until January!

    How are your exams going, anyhow? I've got one on Wednesday... it's worrying, it is.
  • Heather · 1 year ago
    At least all that extra time will ensure its Whedon-patented-uber-awesome. That kind is blatently the best.

    I point and laugh at your worried-ness. I only have 2 SFPU tomorrow and History and Physics next Wednesday; 4-day weekend! No major flops yet I think, it's all good. Looking forward to..what was it...Thermodynamics? (I fail at the remembering of your degree modules.) The one you are a-fearing of, anyway.

    Also very excited about Viva la Vida, coming out on the 11th. It's previewed quite well!
  • aiusepsi · 1 year ago
    Hope your exams go well!

    Thermodynamics has been and gone, along with Electromagnetism and Maths, next up is Quantum Mechanics. Should be fine, hopefully.

    I'm also quite looking forward to Viva la Vida, I really liked Violet Hill, so hopefully the whole thing should be good.