Bass Coast Sojourn

cecht
cecht
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Mike Hewson wrote:I'm back

Mike Hewson wrote:

I'm back at work, alas. But I've just seen some really big numbers from the recent publication of E@H work to cheer me up :

"The total number of templates that we searched with Einstein@Home is 7.9 × 1017. The search is split into work units (WUs) sized to keep the average Einstein@Home volunteer computer busy for about 8 CPU hours. A total of 8 million WUs are necessary to cover the entire parameter space, representing of order 10,000 CPU years of computing.

Each WU searches 9.8 × 1010 templates, and covers 50 mHz, the entire spin-down range and a portion of the sky. Out of the detection statistic values computed for the 9.8 × 1010 templates, the WU-search returns to the Einstein@Home server only the information of the highest 7500 ${\hat{\beta }}_{{\rm{S}}/\mathrm{GLtL}}$ results."

What a boggle ! But all the more so when one considers the entire multidimensional parameter space. How great  is that ? It's been fifteen years and I'm just as passionate about the project as when I started, more so really ..... :-)) 

Cheers, Mike.

Dang. Truly impressive numbers indeed! As is your passion Mike! Thank you for keeping us crunchers occupied and off the streets.

Ideas are not fixed, nor should they be; we live in model-dependent reality.

Mike Hewson
Mike Hewson
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Jim1348 wrote:Are we done

Jim1348 wrote:
Are we done with this batch?  Does that mean we have more work to do on it (as we await the next one)?  

Well this particular all sky survey is complete but we still have to await the more targeted searches on O2MDxxx WU results to be fully assessed and published. AFAIK we haven't touched any O3 data yet. Considering all the 50+ GW detections/discoveries with that data set it seems to be even more sensitive than O2. I think it is very exciting. 

Cecht wrote:
Thank you for keeping us crunchers occupied and off the streets.

LOL ! My friends say it keeps me out of the pub ... ;-) 

Cheers, Mike.

I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...

... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal

Gary Roberts
Gary Roberts
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Mike Hewson wrote:... it

Mike Hewson wrote:
... it keeps me out of the pub ... ;-)

Nah ... I'm sure SWMBO took care of that a long time ago! :-)

Cheers,
Gary.

Mike Hewson
Mike Hewson
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What kept me out of the pub

What kept me out of the pub this week is a tremendous set of video lectures by Brian Greene on the subject of Special Relativity. I fell over this while browsing YouTube & I've just finished watching the eleven or so hours of the course, which I later found out comes from World Science University. Brian Greene is a co-founder of the World Science Festival, and this is a tremendous free resource which hosts alot more stuff that I will investigate ....

As for Special Relativity he gives a very accessible viewpoint upon this jewel of physics in a superior format and style than I was originally taught over half a lifetime ago. The math he uses is basic algebra, some square roots from Pythagorus and a light touch of calculus at the very end to derive the famous E = mc2. Most of it is the careful thinking through of the consequences of the constancy of light speed in a way that has been carefully crafted to be understood at many levels. Through some great visual presentations he pulls no punches, especially with the explanation of the so-called paradoxes of Special Relativity. I'm going to watch it again, maybe this time by enrolling to do the course properly. The summary of the course is apt :

"Einstein’s Special Relativity upended our understanding of space, time and energy. While the ideas are subtle, they only require high school algebra, so join this math-based introduction with acclaimed physicist and author, Brian Greene"

So I highly recommend that you check it out, and don't worry if you're not really into maths, just keep watching and it will click. Even Einstein had his troubles when mathematically expressing his theories. The great mathematician Bernhard Riemann had anticipated much of what Einstein needed for General Relativity. The Nobel laureate physicist Eugene Wigner spoke of the “unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in the natural sciences.” Touche !

Cheers, Mike.

I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...

... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal

Gary Roberts
Gary Roberts
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Mike Hewson wrote:What kept

Mike Hewson wrote:
What kept me out of the pub this week is a tremendous set of video lectures by Brian Greene on the subject of Special Relativity. I fell over this while browsing YouTube & I've just finished watching the eleven or so hours of the course, which I later found out comes from World Science University. Brian Greene is a co-founder of the World Science Festival, and this is a tremendous free resource which hosts alot more stuff that I will investigate ....

I'm surprised you haven't run across this really wonderful resource before.  I ran across Brian Greene's work quite a while ago and think he has a particular skill in the way he presents stuff.

Have you come across a presentation called "Light Falls" yet?  I call it "Einstein - the Musical" because it's a really marvellous presentation of key moments in Einstein's life and career, with actors, music and graphics effects really enhancing the narration by Greene.  It's movie length but well worth the effort of watching it all the way through.  It's on YouTube here.

Cheers,
Gary.

Kavanagh
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There is also Leonard

There is also Leonard Susskind's course from Stanford. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toGH5BdgRZ4

Ten roughly two hour lectures.

Richard

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