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<div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">I agree about the second part being of a nonscientific interest. But nonetheless, of some interest, I think. (Not to our group for meeting purposes, of course.)</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">The first part is interesting from a technology point of view. The engineers in our group are always talking about doing "back of the envelope" estimates of stuff, and that's exactly what this segment was about. As with all such estimates, certain assumptions had to be made.</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">I was curious about why the idea of the Universe being 10^93 meters across (based on Cosmic Inflation, not the farthest that light has ever traveled) was rejected out of hand. That would have made the estimate orders of magnitude bigger. But the use of the Planck Distance does seem reasonable, because below that size the fabric of space-time seems not to be measurable as a distance.</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">Interestingly enough, at least a couple of sets of their assumptions led to the same result, but that might have been confirmation bias. </div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">Too bad this isn't a video, because that would make it more useful for a meeting. But maybe someone in the group who is much better at math than I am might try to develop a slide show based on these estimates, and explain where some of the assumptions may have come from. </div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">-- Bob Primak </div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div><br></div>
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On Saturday, December 28, 2024 at 09:05:16 PM EST, Peter Albin via LCTG <lctg@lists.toku.us> wrote:
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<div><div dir="ltr">Listen to the first half of this Radiolab podcast (~30 min) to answer <br></div><div dir="ltr">the question:<br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">"First, after graduating from high school, without a clear plan for what <br></div><div dir="ltr">to do next, Laura Andrews started asking herself a lot of questions. A <br></div><div dir="ltr">spiral of big philosophical thoughts that led her to sit down and write <br></div><div dir="ltr">to us with a question that was… oddly mathematical. What is the most <br></div><div dir="ltr">average size thing, if you take into account everything in the universe. <br></div><div dir="ltr">So, along with mathematician Steven Strogatz, we decided to see if we <br></div><div dir="ltr">could sit down and, in a friendly throwdown of guesstimates and quick <br></div><div dir="ltr">calculations, rough out an answer. "<br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr"><a href="http://www.wnycstudios.org/story/average-show/" target="_blank">http://www.wnycstudios.org/story/average-show/</a><br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">If you are curious, the second segment ( specific moment in history when <br></div><div dir="ltr">the world tried to find the "average" human body) is also interesting, <br></div><div dir="ltr">though, less scientific!<br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">Peter<br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">===============================================<br></div><div dir="ltr">::The Lexington Computer and Technology Group Mailing List::<br></div><div dir="ltr">Reply goes to sender only; Reply All to send to list.<br></div><div dir="ltr">Send to the list: <a ymailto="mailto:LCTG@lists.toku.us" href="mailto:LCTG@lists.toku.us">LCTG@lists.toku.us</a> Message archives: <a href="http://lists.toku.us/pipermail/lctg-toku.us/" target="_blank">http://lists.toku.us/pipermail/lctg-toku.us/</a><br></div><div dir="ltr">To subscribe: email <a ymailto="mailto:lctg-subscribe@toku.us" href="mailto:lctg-subscribe@toku.us">lctg-subscribe@toku.us</a> To unsubscribe: email <a ymailto="mailto:lctg-unsubscribe@toku.us" href="mailto:lctg-unsubscribe@toku.us">lctg-unsubscribe@toku.us</a><br></div><div dir="ltr">Future and Past meeting information: <a href="http://LCTG.toku.us" target="_blank">http://LCTG.toku.us</a><br></div><div dir="ltr">List information: <a href="http://lists.toku.us/listinfo.cgi/lctg-toku.us" target="_blank">http://lists.toku.us/listinfo.cgi/lctg-toku.us</a><br></div><div dir="ltr">This message was sent to <a ymailto="mailto:bobprimak@yahoo.com." href="mailto:bobprimak@yahoo.com.">bobprimak@yahoo.com.</a><br></div><div dir="ltr">Set your list options: <a href="http://lists.toku.us/options.cgi/lctg-toku.us/bobprimak@yahoo.com" target="_blank">http://lists.toku.us/options.cgi/lctg-toku.us/bobprimak@yahoo.com</a><br></div></div>
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