Built on Facts

An exploration of physics, and the search to understand our universe

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Entries from July 2008

The Insurance Lottery

July 2nd, 2008 · 6 Comments

Physics is intimately bound up with probability and statistics for two main reasons. First, both thermodynamics and quantum mechanics are intrinsically probabilistic theories. So are some others, but those two in particular really embody the statistical concepts central to modern physics. Second, much of experimental physics is done at the bleeding edge [...]

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Tags: About Physics · Miscellaneous

Pushing Things in Space

July 1st, 2008 · 9 Comments

Note: The comments/permalink issue on this post has been fixed. I have no idea exactly what happened, but it’s not happening anymore which is good enough for me!
I saw Pixar’s Wall-E on opening night. Since even the most mediocre Pixar films are usually among the best in the business, I figured it would be [...]

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Tags: Physical Concepts