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Author Topic: Random Stuff Part III  (Read 650520 times)

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Ichimaru Gin

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Re: Random Stuff Part III
« Reply #225 on: February 15, 2016, 07:24:50 pm »
0

Any tips for someone going away to university for the first time?
It'll be my first time living on my own and all.

pacovf

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Re: Random Stuff Part III
« Reply #226 on: February 15, 2016, 07:32:31 pm »
0

Will you be living in a residence?
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Ichimaru Gin

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Re: Random Stuff Part III
« Reply #227 on: February 15, 2016, 07:33:37 pm »
0

Will you be living in a residence?
Yeah. I'll be living on campus.

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Re: Random Stuff Part III
« Reply #228 on: February 15, 2016, 08:07:05 pm »
0

Does anyone even really use Fahrenheit nowadays? I know the conversion from Celsius to Farenheit is F = 9C/5 + 32 (and vice versa) but... I couldn't tell you how hot something like 70F or 50F or whatever was intuitively, I'd need to actually shove it into the formula to get it in a quantity that I understand and that people actually use.
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...spin-offs are still better for all of the previously cited reasons.
But not strictly better, because the spinoff can have a different cost than the expansion.

liopoil

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Re: Random Stuff Part III
« Reply #229 on: February 15, 2016, 08:12:29 pm »
0

Does anyone even really use Fahrenheit nowadays? I know the conversion from Celsius to Farenheit is F = 9C/5 + 32 (and vice versa) but... I couldn't tell you how hot something like 70F or 50F or whatever was intuitively, I'd need to actually shove it into the formula to get it in a quantity that I understand and that people actually use.
Yes, in America I only had intuition for Farenheit until recently. Now I've done the conversion enough times that I have a decent intuition for Celsius too, but all the weather stations etc. are in Farenheit here.
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Re: Random Stuff Part III
« Reply #230 on: February 15, 2016, 08:18:38 pm »
+2

Does anyone even really use Fahrenheit nowadays? I know the conversion from Celsius to Farenheit is F = 9C/5 + 32 (and vice versa) but... I couldn't tell you how hot something like 70F or 50F or whatever was intuitively, I'd need to actually shove it into the formula to get it in a quantity that I understand and that people actually use.

Come visit the United States, though check your vaccinations first and be prepared for a stay in a third-world backward country.
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Witherweaver

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Re: Random Stuff Part III
« Reply #231 on: February 15, 2016, 08:20:51 pm »
0

Fahrenheit is awful, as are all imperial systems.

That being said, the guy in the xkcd comic should definitely use Fahrenheit in that case, using Celsius accomplishes nothing if everyone around you is used to Fahrenheit, it's not like you're going to change the world by being a douche.

You an make the world a cleaner place.
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pacovf

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Re: Random Stuff Part III
« Reply #232 on: February 15, 2016, 08:21:51 pm »
+1

Will you be living in a residence?
Yeah. I'll be living on campus.

You'll be fine. Socialize with the people on your floor, get into a club/association or two, try new things, know your limits with alcohol, don't overspend, don't forget to talk to your parents from time to time, enjoy the best years of your life, etc., etc.
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LastFootnote

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Re: Random Stuff Part III
« Reply #233 on: February 15, 2016, 11:22:41 pm »
+1

Fahrenheit is awful, as are all imperial systems.

I think a very persuasive argument can be made that most imperial systems are way worse than the corresponding metric systems. Not so much for temperature. The real metric system there would be to report all temperatures in Kelvin. But that's not as useful for the range temperatures that we actually experience in day-to-day life. Celsius is better for that, but so is Fahrenheit. It's way easier to convert between Kelvin and Celsius than it is to convert between Kelvin and Fahrenheit, but that doesn't matter at all if you're not doing that conversion.
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Kirian

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Re: Random Stuff Part III
« Reply #234 on: February 15, 2016, 11:33:08 pm »
+4

Will you be living in a residence?
Yeah. I'll be living on campus.

You'll be fine. Socialize with the people on your floor, get into a club/association or two, try new things, know your limits with alcohol, don't overspend, don't forget to talk to your parents from time to time, enjoy the best years of your life, etc., etc.

Just make sure to use the prevailing temperature system for your country/region.
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iguanaiguana

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Re: Random Stuff Part III
« Reply #235 on: February 15, 2016, 11:36:54 pm »
0

Will you be living in a residence?
Yeah. I'll be living on campus.

You'll be fine. Socialize with the people on your floor, get into a club/association or two, try new things, know your limits with alcohol, don't overspend, don't forget to talk to your parents from time to time, enjoy the best years of your life, etc., etc.

Just make sure to use the prevailing temperature system for your country/region.

fuck celsiums!
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Ichimaru Gin

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Re: Random Stuff Part III
« Reply #236 on: February 15, 2016, 11:48:43 pm »
0

Will you be living in a residence?
Yeah. I'll be living on campus.

You'll be fine. Socialize with the people on your floor, get into a club/association or two, try new things, know your limits with alcohol, don't overspend, don't forget to talk to your parents from time to time, enjoy the best years of your life, etc., etc.

Just make sure to use the prevailing temperature system for your country/region.
I'm in the US, but I had chem last semester. SI units are sooooooooo much nicer to use for dimensional analysis.

liopoil

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Re: Random Stuff Part III
« Reply #237 on: February 15, 2016, 11:54:53 pm »
0

The real metric system there would be to report all temperatures in Kelvin. But that's not as useful for the range temperatures that we actually experience in day-to-day life. Celsius is better for that, but so is Fahrenheit.
I get that Kelvin is more fundamental scientifically because its 0 actually means something, but I don't see why it would be the 'real metric system'. Celsius has a better argument to make for the whole base-10 thing because of 0 and 100, and well the properties of water at one atmosphere of pressure are relevant for every day life. It's not like the meter or kilogram are special scientifically either, the thing which makes them better is the easy conversion by changing the exponent of 10.
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scott_pilgrim

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Re: Random Stuff Part III
« Reply #238 on: February 16, 2016, 12:04:36 am »
+7

Any tips for someone going away to university for the first time?
It'll be my first time living on my own and all.

1. The most important thing, I think, is to remember that you're there to learn.  You're not there to get grades, or get a degree, or make friends, or do fun stuff.  You should do those things too, but that's not why you're going to university.  So you should take classes in areas that you like, even if they're hard, or if you hate the professor.  One of my biggest regrets in college was dropping an analysis class in the first week because some people said it was the hardest class in the school.  Another one of my biggest regrets was giving up on learning abstract algebra because I (and everyone else) hated the professor.  I don't regret it because I did badly in the class, but because I still had access to textbooks and classmates that could have helped me to learn the material better, and I didn't take advantage of that to learn something that I really love.  So even if you can't improve your grades, if you like the subject content in the class, take advantage of your university's resources to learn that material as best you can.

Sort of along with this point, you should find opportunities to build skills related to your major outside of classes.  There was a math club at my school that I never participated in, because I thought, I'm majoring in math, why would I make myself do more math.  But now I wish that I had done so, because a. it gives you opportunities to learn things or solve problems you would never get to do in class, b. it gives you chances to meet people with similar interests, and c. leading into my next point, it might give you opportunities to make good impressions on a professor.

2. Try to pick one or two professors that you get along with, and/or whose class(es) you know you're doing well in, and make an effort to make sure they know who you are (by asking lots of questions/giving lots of answers/contributing to discussions in class, and/or by speaking to them outside of class).  That way, when you're applying for jobs and/or grad school, you have someone you know will write you a strong recommendation.  It may sound hard if you're shy (like me), but if you're shy, it'll be harder to approach professors who don't know you and ask for recommendations.  (That being said, if you don't take this advice, don't feel discouraged about asking professors for recommendations later if you need them.)

3. Make some friends, and spend time studying with them and hanging out with them.  You don't have to make a lot of friends.  Personally I think a few really close friends is better than a lot of distant friends, but this is sort of an introvert vs. extrovert thing I think.  Studying with friends is a really good habit to get into.  It's more fun than studying by yourself, and both you and the friend(s) you're studying with will learn more than when you study by yourself, AND you'll finish whatever you're working on faster.

Okay so how do you make friends?  For me, I joined a few clubs and made almost all of my friends through those.  That was easy because my school had an insane amount of clubs and organizations (in the 200's I think), so pretty much anything you could be interested in (like board games and Smash Bros.), my school had a club for it.  It's easy to make friends who share common interests.  But outside of clubs, you can also make friends just by hanging out somewhere and doing things you enjoy.  Just go play Dominion online in a public place, and if someone else who likes Dominion sees you, they'll stop and talk to you about it.  For some reason my experience is that college students are friendlier and easier to get along with than other people.  I was playing sporcle before class one time and some guy behind me I'd never met before just started whispering answers to me.  I'm not sure why I brought up that example, I just thought it was funny.

4. Don't go into college expecting to meet your dream girl (or guy if you're homosexual, but girl again if you're a girl, but guy if you're a straight girl, or either one if you're bisexual, I think I've covered all my bases).  You might, a lot of people do, and if you do that's great.  But it's not necessary for having a good time in college, and it's bad to have a perspective of "I need a girl/boyfriend to be happy".

I don't drink or party in general, so it's not really fair for me to say this, but I think that aspect of college is overrated.  If you spend time with friends doing stuff you love, college will be the best time of your life.

I'm just going to reiterate my first point because I think it's really important.  You're not at school to get good grades or get a degree.  Those are just formalities that tell potential hirers or grad schools that you've learned what you say you've learned.  You're there to learn new stuff.  Having this perspective should help to relieve you from some of the stress that comes with difficult classes and tough workload, while also helping you to learn more efficiently (because you'll be studying for the sake of learning, and not for the sake of passing a test).
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Ichimaru Gin

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Re: Random Stuff Part III
« Reply #239 on: February 16, 2016, 12:23:52 am »
+3

Wow. Thanks for the great advice! I've actually never drank before...and I'm not really planning on it I guess? I agree that it seems like a hugely overrated part of college life, though of course I've never experienced it myself. I'm straight (thanks for covering all those bases though  ;D), and I appreciate the admonition about the expectations of meeting a possible life partner in school--as I definitely have/had that expectation. I must admit, I'd probably be a bit sad if I was finished with college without meeting someone "special" or whatever. I'm not a terribly outgoing person, and it seems like it's difficult to meet people once you're out of school? Or so it seems to me at least.

Up to this point in my academic career, I have been really focused on my GPA. I really appreciate your take on the true purpose of education, as I sometimes do feel a bit cynical about things and have almost certainly avoided some courses in order to protect my grades. I do feel really passionate about my major though (computer science). It took me a while in community college to really settle on what felt right for me, but I find the subject matter incredibly engaging, so that's a positive.

Kirian

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Re: Random Stuff Part III
« Reply #240 on: February 16, 2016, 01:16:36 am »
+4

Dammit, I just realized I'm supposed to be the high school teacher giving out life advice.  Falling down on the job here.  Tomorrow, perhaps, though scott_pilgrim said a lot of good things already.
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enfynet

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Re: Random Stuff Part III
« Reply #241 on: February 16, 2016, 02:12:26 am »
0

Once, somebody mentioned that where they were from it was zero degrees, and I asked whether it was Fahrenheit or Celsius.  Zero degrees makes so much more sense to be Celsius, so that's why I asked, even though I'm in America.  Everybody was like, "What?!?  That doesn't even make sense!"  Somebody even got kind of mad at me for "showing off how much I know".

0F is a significant cutoff for talking about extreme temperatures in Winter.  (It's arbitrary, but still notable because of 0 as a number itself.) Reaching negative Fahrenheit is pretty cold, so it's of note when it happens.  Hitting 0C is much more common unless you're fairly far south (in the US).
I like to think -40° is quite significant too. But you've got to travel pretty far north for that.
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Teproc

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Re: Random Stuff Part III
« Reply #242 on: February 16, 2016, 04:57:33 am »
0

Fahrenheit is awful, as are all imperial systems.

I think a very persuasive argument can be made that most imperial systems are way worse than the corresponding metric systems. Not so much for temperature. The real metric system there would be to report all temperatures in Kelvin. But that's not as useful for the range temperatures that we actually experience in day-to-day life. Celsius is better for that, but so is Fahrenheit. It's way easier to convert between Kelvin and Celsius than it is to convert between Kelvin and Fahrenheit, but that doesn't matter at all if you're not doing that conversion.

I almost concluded that post by saying Kelvin was the best anyway, Celsius simply being the more convenient in everyday life version of Kelvin.
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Re: Random Stuff Part III
« Reply #243 on: February 16, 2016, 08:05:16 am »
+4

The real metric system there would be to report all temperatures in Kelvin. But that's not as useful for the range temperatures that we actually experience in day-to-day life. Celsius is better for that, but so is Fahrenheit.
I get that Kelvin is more fundamental scientifically because its 0 actually means something, but I don't see why it would be the 'real metric system'. Celsius has a better argument to make for the whole base-10 thing because of 0 and 100, and well the properties of water at one atmosphere of pressure are relevant for every day life. It's not like the meter or kilogram are special scientifically either, the thing which makes them better is the easy conversion by changing the exponent of 10.

In metric systems, correct me if I'm wrong, but multiplying something always means you that multiple amount of it. Double 10 metres and you're travelling twice as far. Triple 10 kilograms and you have something three times as massive. Double 10 degrees Celsius and you don't get something twice as hot. But if you multiply 30 Kelvin by 3, you do get something three times as hot. So that's a pretty reasonable argument for using Kelvin as the standard unit.
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Witherweaver

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Re: Random Stuff Part III
« Reply #244 on: February 16, 2016, 09:29:31 am »
+1

(snip)

Very important.  Learning is really all that matters.
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Witherweaver

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Re: Random Stuff Part III
« Reply #245 on: February 16, 2016, 09:30:59 am »
0

Once, somebody mentioned that where they were from it was zero degrees, and I asked whether it was Fahrenheit or Celsius.  Zero degrees makes so much more sense to be Celsius, so that's why I asked, even though I'm in America.  Everybody was like, "What?!?  That doesn't even make sense!"  Somebody even got kind of mad at me for "showing off how much I know".

0F is a significant cutoff for talking about extreme temperatures in Winter.  (It's arbitrary, but still notable because of 0 as a number itself.) Reaching negative Fahrenheit is pretty cold, so it's of note when it happens.  Hitting 0C is much more common unless you're fairly far south (in the US).
I like to think -40° is quite significant too. But you've got to travel pretty far north for that.

It is, but it doesn't happen much in most of America.
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silverspawn

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Re: Random Stuff Part III
« Reply #246 on: February 16, 2016, 09:31:18 am »
+2

Probably the most interesting thing I read about for university was a differentiation of the existing type of scales. I don't know the english terms, but...

type 0 - distribute things to other things (e.g. persons to their nationality)
type 1 - also have a defined order (e.g. ranks after a tournament)
type 2 - also have sensible distances (e.g. degree celsius)
type 3 - also have zero be the real zero, which gives you sensible proportions (e.g. other metric units, degree Kelvin)
type 4 - also have your number be the real number rather than a measure (e.g. # of people in a region)

The book also said that school grades (at least in Germany) are only type 1, making it mathematically nonsensical to calculate their mean. Instead, they suggest you add up points of all tests during the year and then map their sum onto a grade.

so yeah, celsius is inferior to kelvin in that way.

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Re: Random Stuff Part III
« Reply #247 on: February 16, 2016, 09:33:40 am »
+4

Wow. Thanks for the great advice! I've actually never drank before...and I'm not really planning on it I guess? I agree that it seems like a hugely overrated part of college life, though of course I've never experienced it myself. I'm straight (thanks for covering all those bases though  ;D), and I appreciate the admonition about the expectations of meeting a possible life partner in school--as I definitely have/had that expectation. I must admit, I'd probably be a bit sad if I was finished with college without meeting someone "special" or whatever. I'm not a terribly outgoing person, and it seems like it's difficult to meet people once you're out of school? Or so it seems to me at least.

Up to this point in my academic career, I have been really focused on my GPA. I really appreciate your take on the true purpose of education, as I sometimes do feel a bit cynical about things and have almost certainly avoided some courses in order to protect my grades. I do feel really passionate about my major though (computer science). It took me a while in community college to really settle on what felt right for me, but I find the subject matter incredibly engaging, so that's a positive.

I never drank until I was 29, almost 30.  It has helped a lot for dating (well, maybe).. a little bit for other social life.  Otherwise, it's highly overrated.

If you do decide to start drinking, do so for actual taste and not just for the sake of drinking alcohol.  Avoid people that want to 'get drunk'.  At least, that's my advice. 
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Kuildeous

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Re: Random Stuff Part III
« Reply #248 on: February 16, 2016, 09:48:38 am »
0

And if you're sensitive to the taste of alcohol like I am, then you won't be in much mood to drink much anyway.

So I generally don't drink for the taste, though I confess a pretty high tolerance for White Russians and Amaretto Sours. Most drinks I can taste the alcohol, which ruins it for me. If I do go for the alcohol, I just do shots. Might as well get that bad taste all over with in a quick gulp.

But I agree that it's not necessary to get drunk just to get drunk. Yeah, it can feel good and loosen you up, but one shouldn't have to rely on it. Everybody handles stress differently. My wife likes to drink a margarita after a rough day at work. I guess I'm perfectly content chilling in front of the computer and playing a game to unwind.
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iguanaiguana

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Re: Random Stuff Part III
« Reply #249 on: February 16, 2016, 09:50:09 am »
+1

Wow. Thanks for the great advice! I've actually never drank before...and I'm not really planning on it I guess? I agree that it seems like a hugely overrated part of college life, though of course I've never experienced it myself. I'm straight (thanks for covering all those bases though  ;D), and I appreciate the admonition about the expectations of meeting a possible life partner in school--as I definitely have/had that expectation. I must admit, I'd probably be a bit sad if I was finished with college without meeting someone "special" or whatever. I'm not a terribly outgoing person, and it seems like it's difficult to meet people once you're out of school? Or so it seems to me at least.

Up to this point in my academic career, I have been really focused on my GPA. I really appreciate your take on the true purpose of education, as I sometimes do feel a bit cynical about things and have almost certainly avoided some courses in order to protect my grades. I do feel really passionate about my major though (computer science). It took me a while in community college to really settle on what felt right for me, but I find the subject matter incredibly engaging, so that's a positive.

If your university has a climbing wall, go climbing!!!
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