Dem mathematical phenomenon

Imagine the equation
1-1+1-1+1-1+1-1+1-1+1-1+1-1+1-1+1-1+1-1+1-1+1-1+1...
going on infinitely.

And solve it.

Wat do?

Depending on where you place the parentheses to solve this equation, you get different answers. And yes, there is an answer, because infinity does have an end, while not having an end, at two minutes. Don't ask me to explain that because idk. It has something to do with the string theory. But anyway. Parentheses options:

(1-1) + (1-1) + (1-1) ... = 0 + 0 + 0 = 0.
1 + (-1+1) + (-1+1) + (-1+1) = 1 + 0 + 0 + 0 = 1.

So what's the correct answer?

Why, it's none other than 0.5, because at the end, magical girl metaphysics takes over and the last number is simultaneously a 1 and a 0, and so we take the average of the two options and get 0.5 out of adding one to zero.

Ain't that a doozie.

See, Kyuu, not everything I post is mindless.

did you know that the hagfish oozes slime to defend itself from predators

That's interesting. XI

I'mma make this a fun fact thread. I'll focus on mainly physics and magical girl metaphysics.

Wormholes are pretty much completely identical to black holes. A black hole is nothing more than a singularity, while a wormhole is nothing more than a spinning singularity. So how does it work?

Long story short, the faster you're going, the more mass you have. The more mass you have, the more you disrupt space and time.

If you toss a marble onto a spinning record disk (I just pulled this example out of my arse, my apologies if it doesn't make sense), the marble will stall for a second before its course will be diverted and it will be thrown (accelerated) off the disk in a direction tangential to the spin of the disk (meaning at a right angle from the center of the record).

The same properties apply to a wormhole. If you fly a spaceship right beside the edge of a wormhole, assuming you have powerful enough engines that resist the gravitational pull just long enough so that you don't get eaten, you will be accelerated in a direction tangential to the spin and thrown out of the wormhole's grasp; however, since you're so close to a singularity, your velocity is infinite and therefore your mass is infinite and therefore your bending of space and time is infinite [conjecture starts here] and therefore you are a singularity, and upon being propelled out of the wormhole's gravitational pull you will retain that velocity for a while and be thrown off into hell knows where at speeds faster than light [conjecture ends here] because your speed breaks down the very properties of physics. Eventually, your ship will slow down and you'll have achieved faster than light travel [conjecture ends]. If you don't go very far, you may even be able to see yourself fly into the wormhole (this won't break the universe). However, there is no material capable of withstanding speeds even remotely close to that at which a wormhole would propel you, so it's rather doubtful that wormhole travel will ever be used successfully.

The common media representation of wormholes being tunnels is complete BS.

No one would ever be stupid enough to do this anyway though even if a strong enough material was discovered, because if you so much as touch the sphere of nothingness that is a black hole/wormhole, then it's over. You're pulled in, and trying to fly back out will just get you obliterated even faster than just doing nothing. That's not even conjecture.

It's 1:12 as I'm writing this first line so I should go to bed but my roomie is out somewhere at some nerd mellophone party and he'll just wake me up when he gets back so... :\ *posts more*

I'll make this a short one. My roomie confronted me about this earlier because I'm majoring in electrical engineering (that has nothing to do with electricians) so it's already on my mind.

Contrary to popular belief, electrons do not travel at the speed of light. Their speed is more comparable to that of "dripping honey." So why do things like light bulbs and other electron powered devices turn on almost instantly when their switch is flipped?

Because electrical circuits are like train tracks, except every square inch of the track is occupied by a car, so when one car moves, it pushes all of them. So when one electron is "excited" it moves forward and shoves the next electron forward and then it's just the domino effect, but really fast.

Haven't learned anything useful this year though, so far. :\ That's old info for me.

Thanks Kyuu for not making a limit to how many consecutive posts there can be. ilu <3

Now let's talk about MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

So what is an electrical engineer?

Electrical engineering is pretty similar to computer engineering, so we're often called ECE (electrical/computer engineers). But we aren't goddamn electricians. Calling us that is just insulting.

ECEs focus on the manipulation of electrons. Computer engineers focus on its use for, well, duh, computers. Mostly programming and computer parts. Electrical engineers manipulate electrons that aren't related to computers per se but are often controlled by computers; i.e. lasers and radar fall into electrical engineering. Magnets also fall under our jurisdiction. They're an example of electron manipulation that doesn't need a computer. Robots also fall under our jurisdiction, but only partially. Mechanical engineering also plays a big part in it.

Some ECEs do in fact design and fabricate electrical pathways, but we are by no means limited to something so simple, like an electrician is. Any dumbass can plug a wire into things.

Nothing is set in stone though, I may later decide to make the easy switch into a mechanical or even aerospace engineering.

I for one am interested in an ongoing project that a couple companies like Honda are looking into. Some call it a REx, others the RLB. They mean, respectively, Robotic Exosuit and Robotic Leg Braces. As the latter name implies, they are braces that you slip around your legs and probably hold them up with a belt around the waist or something. With good enough electrical, computer, mechanical, and systems engineering, they can essentially allow disabled people to walk again. Power is transmitted to the legs via a backpack that must be worn while using them (for now) and the current couple working prototypes are limited to perfectly flat ground only. I feel that if I could get on a good enough team we could improve the design a lot to make a backpack unnecessary and allow for use on rough terrain. It would really help the world for old people and war vets. Also, if someone found a way to intercept brain signals that pointlessly tell disabled legs to move and divert those signals into microprocessors in the legs, that could greatly reduce the cost of production because it would eliminate a lot of the need for computer engineers and the backpack generator as well, if the mechanical engineer made the materials light enough to move with ease.

But it's not limited to that use. There's also another prototype out there that allows the user to carry extremely heavy things with ease because it exploits physics. They're a lot more complicated because the legs need to be tough and a physics engineer needs to be on the team but it's capable of diverting all the weight on a person's back and shoulders straight to the ground, bypassing the need to use your muscles. You could essentially carry a steel beam, if the ground below you could hold it up. One use for this is for firefighters who have to run around with heavy things like 100ft of fire hose. It could be used for soldiers as well, if they ever feel the need to carry more than they already do for some reason.

I've been told I don't share enough on multiple occasions. So. Yeah. I shared. :B

It was an unspoken rule up until now. B|

"oo8. do not double post unless in your tracker."

OH COME ON! How many other unspoken rules are there!?

Kyuu stop making up stupid rules this thread is cool. XI

They aren't 'stupid' rules. They are rules you will find on any other roleplay forum. Unspoken rules are the rules everyone should know because of roleplay that I either didn't feel like putting down at the time or forgot to do. I really just forgot to put down the double posting rule.

It's a stupid rule here because there's like six members and you know that none of us are idiots soooooo.

Kyuu, I'll continue to post whateverstuff in Chat Chat a lot, but I'll always stay at least a couple posts less than the top poster, alright? u_u

Boy, just start roleplaying. You already have a character, and you don't need to roleplay out the SA characters arriving on Chronos. Just pretend that already happened and go back to it later. It'll give you something to do other than idly ramble on the chat board. :I

yea lets RP

I'm not rambling! D:

Kyuu why do you despise information? XI Or is it just that this is something that might generate fun and that scares you????

Also, I want to give you guys a heads up on something. This really surprised me, because I thought it was something I could always rely on.

Remember how to write an essay? You know, the header

Name

Date

Class

Teacher

thing that took up a lot of space, plus the double spacing that increased it even more? It made reaching page limits quite a bit easier... Well, that format isn't used in college. Instead of double spacing, it's 1.15 spacing (hardly different from normal) and the header is nothing more than a little one-liner. Sorry guys. :( Enjoy those space wasters while you still can.

Don't forget size twelve Times New Roman! That font is smaaaaaaall. or did they change the font requirements?

KYUU, DUN MESS WITH FLINT'S RAMBLES. 8'I I'M LEARNING THINGS.

Oh yeah it has that API or whatever in college.

To be technical, all my paper called for was 12 pt font. It didn't specify an exact font type but I went with Times New Roman anyway. :B So font isn't changed, tankfully.

I enjoy teaching. :3

There's still a question I've had for a very, very, very long time that no one's ever been able to answer, and that just bugs the absolute crap out of me. It deals with language. You see,

English: Hello.
Spanish: Hola.
German: Hallo.
French: Bonjour.
Croatian: Ahoj.
Danish: Hej.
Italian: Ciao.
Russian: привет (Privjet)
Polish: Halo.
Latvian: Sveiki (Svayakee)
Arabic: Some crazy BS

Yet.

English: 1
Spanish: 1
German: 1
French: 1
Croatian: 1
Danish: 1
Italian: 1
Russian: 1
Polish: 1
Latvian: 1
Arabic: 1

Why are numbers the same in almost all languages while words are not?

Hmm...

probably bc math is like a universal law. i think i read somewhere that even an alien from the other side of the universe if advanced enough would have the same mathematical concepts, albeit derived differently. math is special
like u :3

But it would still be different symbols representing the numbers, just like Privjet is a different representation of hello. But instead they're the exact same.

And holy hell, English class is so incredibly retarded. I keep having to read and write about the stupidest, most pointless, most petty topic ever: an argument about the precise definition of a community, written in the dryest and most boring context possible.

Damn that's so stupid. There are so many more pressing and more interesting topics to discuss, like reverse-engineering the brain or making alchemy economical, but no, I have to focus on something like that. Just... dafuq. :I

have u reverse engineered that plot yet

and with a globalized economy and all it makes sense to have the same symbols for numbers, which have to be universal. in the past lik everyone had different symbols for 1

It also makes sense to have the same symbols for letters, ya? And the same pronunciations? Or at least the same left-to-right writing?