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Joined 8 days ago
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Cake day: December 14th, 2024

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  • They will have a joyous time with it. And you might find eviscerated mice under your couch one day. But my two dumbass fur balls just thought they were awesome toys.

    Never figured out quite when they stopped coming in. The only really humane way to kill em is snap traps. I probably went through a couple dozen of them before they stopped showing up.

    I was against using poisoned food traps because the last thing I wanted was my cat consuming a poisoned mouse. But, since our whole neighborhood had a problem with the mice, I wouldn’t be too surprised if a neighbor did it.


  • The math is describing reality - but that’s why I highlighted that the math predicted it long before there was experimental evidence.

    From what we know about the quantum realm (my physics professor liked using that description, as if it’s a whole different existence), it appears that it’s actually the opposite: reality is obeying the math. Consider how wild that is - particle interactions are doing what they do because of how mathematics works. Something that we humans came up with to describe observations.


  • So the way I “understood” the spin-statistics theorem is that it’s basically this:

    A given particle with a given intrinsic spin has a direct relationship to a collection of the same particles as a consequence of quantum math. Yeah. Just “it’s related.”

    Proving that math is really freaking difficult and you need to use relativistic quantum field theory. I think it was Richard Feynman who said “We apologize for the fact that we cannot give you an elementary explanation.”

    Actually when I graduated there was another professor (can’t remember his name) who was discussing his frustration with how they still can’t explain it without all of QFT steps.

    Basically, this is where the shared attitude of “the more you know about quantum physics, the more confusing it becomes.”


  • It’s a lot more complicated than that even.

    Pauli Exclusion Principal is that two or more identical particles of half integer spin cannot occupy the same quantum state. So two electrons in an orbital must be made of a +1/2 and -1/2 spin. This is evidenced by observation, but the prediction was made long before that.

    This is because the total wave function for fermions is antisymmetric (bosons, like the photon, are symmetric). It’s sort of hard to describe how this works without paper and pen, but essentially there is different formula of solving a wave function. A symmetric wave function is a sum, and an antisymmetric wave function is a difference. The issue arises when you have two identical particles - symmetric functions can be any state as it results in a solution >0. If you have an assymetric function of two identical particles, the result is 0, which isn’t a valid state.

    The very uncomfortable part of physics is here: when we ask “why” the answer based on the math and the observation is quite literally “because that is the way math works.” It’s fundamental - just like x * 0 = 0.
















  • Hahaha, like the Ventricular Assist Devices.

    They bore a one-inch diameter hole in the heart, suture a BLDC impeller motor (VAD) on, then cut into the aorta or whatever, suture fancy material stuff to a tube that then redirects the blood flow through the motor. And a fancy cable that exits your abdomen and connects to the electronics.

    It was the single most disturbing thing I’ve ever had the displeasure of working with. I really wish I didn’t know how it worked.