Page 6 of 12
Re: Nerd-arama
Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 6:19 pm
by Ironman21
Just to point this out, I have noooo idea what you guys are talking about :?
Re: Nerd-arama
Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 8:21 pm
by Sam
chaos theory is an interesting one. It basically says:
You will never be able to measure a quantity (velocity, angle etc) in a system to successfully predict the entire time line of events that will take place in that system.
heres what I mean from that, say two of us one day two people decided they wanted to predict the future (I use this example because this is what actually forced the scientific community to accept chaos). lets imaginitivly call them person A and person B.
Now the situation is both of these people are going to plug thier data into the same programme, which for all intsense and purposes can accuratly predict the weather based on the data you feed it. This programme is also super duper and some how can predict the weather based on one parameter, lets make this atmospheric pressure.
So person A is lazy and only measures his pressures to 3 dp, like 5.678.
However person B isn't as lazy and measures his pressures to 6dp, like 5.678912.
now they both plug thier data into thier simulations and initially both predict the weather really accuratly. Then person A's predictions start to get further and further away from reality whilst person B's prediction stays on target. Eventually however person B's simulation starts to deviate aswell until his simulation too bears no resemblence to the actual weather conditions.
Why did this happen? It's to do with the initial conditions. As time goes on, those tiny errors in the initial conditions start to amplify, and have a greater and greater impact on later predictions. i.e intially say person A's error was 1% whilst person Bs's error was 0.1%. However 10 steps down that line those errors become 10% and 1% respectivly. Meaning those predictions deviate more and more as the error keeps increasing.
So yeah thats why meteoroligists can't predict the weather too far down the line as chaos (among other things) screws them up.
However, this is only the tip of the iceberg and the end of my current knoledge of it

Re: Nerd-arama
Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 12:00 am
by Scott
Does the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle play a part in this? Or am I far off?
Re: Nerd-arama
Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 12:06 am
by Ironman21
I have never trusted the weather men. I only trust the weather map of conditions that are happening now, not in the future
Re: Nerd-arama
Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 5:37 am
by Sam
Scott wrote:Does the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle play a part in this? Or am I far off?
not sure, it could have an effect on other types of chaos systems but I have not heard of them. The systems would have to be purely atoms and particles as thats the only things the principle directly effects.
It would fit nicely in with the whole unpredictablility though.
Re: Nerd-arama
Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 10:08 pm
by Scott
I read more about aleph-null today. Wow is it weird...I have a hard time to comprehend the thought of different sets of infinity or what the hell that even means. I also wish I had a aleph-null simple on my keyboard cause it looks sweet.
Re: Nerd-arama
Posted: Wed Feb 03, 2010 1:35 pm
by Matthew
When I read about it it just appeared to be any set with no limit...
Oh... It's sets with no limit which each term is directly related to the last. At least I think that's what wikipedia meant. Wikipedia always makes the simple, complicated. I should find a better place.
It appears that all websites I have visited have copied each other because the descriptions are all the same or very similar.
I'll give up.
Re: Nerd-arama
Posted: Wed Feb 03, 2010 10:16 pm
by Scott
Well as long as my life is never dependent on knowing what or how aleph-null works, than I'm fine. Anyway for anyone who cares, this topic has become the most posted topic in the entire forum. In fact quite a while ago but I just noticed now...

Re: Nerd-arama
Posted: Wed Feb 03, 2010 11:26 pm
by Ironman21
yeah. And another note is it is the most complicated forum of alllll time
Re: Nerd-arama
Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 11:56 pm
by Scott
It's like the old cliché of a train wreck being terrible but attentive.
Re: Nerd-arama
Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2010 10:47 am
by Ironman21
Yep
Re: Nerd-arama
Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2010 4:47 pm
by Scott
So back on track. Any other nerdy conundrums anybody has to talk about?
Re: Nerd-arama
Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2010 5:13 pm
by Matthew
I don't call things on here nerdy. I think complex is a better word.
Re: Nerd-arama
Posted: Wed Feb 10, 2010 8:49 am
by Ironman21
So yes, it is very very nerdy
Re: Nerd-arama
Posted: Wed Feb 10, 2010 1:28 pm
by Matthew
Complicated things aren't necessarily nerdy.