17 May 2010
On swashbuckling experimentalists
Chad Orzel, physicist, writes why I'd never make it as a mathematician. He calls himself a "swashbuckling experimentalist" and says that he doesn't like thinking too hard about questions of convergence and the like. This is in reference to Matt Springer's most recent Sunday function, which gives the paradox:
1 - 1/2 + 1/3 - 1/4 + ... = log 2
1 - 1/2 - 1/4 + 1/3 - 1/6 - 1/8 + ... = (log 2)/2
I find that I tend to act "like a physicist" in my more experimental work. Often I'm dealing with the coefficients of some complicated power series (usually a generating function) which I can compute (with computer assistance) and don't understand too well. Most of the time the things that "look true" are. This work is, in some ways, experimental, which is why it's tempting to act like a physicist.
Oh, yeah, I graduated today.
1 - 1/2 + 1/3 - 1/4 + ... = log 2
1 - 1/2 - 1/4 + 1/3 - 1/6 - 1/8 + ... = (log 2)/2
I find that I tend to act "like a physicist" in my more experimental work. Often I'm dealing with the coefficients of some complicated power series (usually a generating function) which I can compute (with computer assistance) and don't understand too well. Most of the time the things that "look true" are. This work is, in some ways, experimental, which is why it's tempting to act like a physicist.
Oh, yeah, I graduated today.
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5 comments:
Congratulations Michael! Looking forward to seeing what you do next :)
Congratulations!!
Congrats!
Congratulations Dr. Lugo!
The answer to the paradox can be found here: http://www.math.ku.edu/~lerner/m500f09/Rearrangements.pdf
Nice Blog BTW.
Pratik
http://pratikpoddarcse.blogspot.com
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