…positions on a Rubik’s cube — that’s 40 with 19 zeros after it. So even a super-computer that can check a trillion cube positions a second (which doesn’t exist) would require a length of time equal to the current age of the Universe in order to check every position. The plan of attack is thus to vastly reduce the number of cube positions to be checked, and then apply a very efficient algorithm. Rokicki’s algorithm, together with 8 GB of memory, a…
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…he well-known analogy between hydrodynamics and black hole thermodynamics. Can Time Unfold in the Wrong Direction? An argument that yes, it can, according to Special Relativiy. How Time Really Passes. A response to John Norton’s argument that there’s some sort of problem here. Another unexpectedly simple failure of determinism. An ill-posed initial value problem of the Norton-dome kind, constructed from a simple mass-on-a-spring system. Possible P…
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…upcoming trip to Montréal! A few facts of interest: Montréal is the second largest city in Canada. It’s slightly smaller than Phoenix, AZ and slightly larger than Marseille, Fr. Nearly 2 out of 3 people in the city are native French speakers. The weather in November is usually 28° to 50° F (-2° to 13° C) and rainy. The conference is at the Hyatt Regency in Old Montréal, which dates back to the 17th century. The nearby hill, called “Mont Royal” (he…
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…ires an ornate, often complicated conceptual apparatus on the new account, can be calculated in one line using quantum mechanics. So in what sense do the these new accounts improve our understanding? To me, how you answer Bill’s question depends on how bothered you are by the “upset-feeling” I described above. Should we provide a “more fundamental” account of quantum phenomena than quantum mechanics? If so, you might find new conceptual apparatuse…
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…y received this in the mail last year: So they decided to publish it a few days ago in Symmetry magazine, requesting that curious code-crackers take up the case. The code has now been nearly cracked by an army of random internet cryptographers. The most progress that I’ve seen has been done by this graduate student, although the Fermilab website says it had several submissions with the message decrypted. The message was composed of three paragraph…
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