Difference between revisions of "Talk:2207: Math Work"

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:::Compare the graph at [https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=World+natural+gas+production] with that at [https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=World+wind+power+production]. When will the latter overtake the former? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.142.221|172.68.142.221]] 19:19, 27 September 2019 (UTC)
 
:::Compare the graph at [https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=World+natural+gas+production] with that at [https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=World+wind+power+production]. When will the latter overtake the former? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.142.221|172.68.142.221]] 19:19, 27 September 2019 (UTC)
 
::::Soon one may hope, but that has nothing to do with the drawings on the blackboard...? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:07, 27 September 2019 (UTC)
 
::::Soon one may hope, but that has nothing to do with the drawings on the blackboard...? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:07, 27 September 2019 (UTC)
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:::::"Soon" lacks mathematical precision. How do you feel about {{w|distributed constraint optimization}}? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.142.83|172.68.142.83]] 22:56, 27 September 2019 (UTC)
  
 
Does [https://www.wolframalpha.com/ Wolfram Alpha] constitute such a problem solver? Cause both Randall and this site has used it on several occasions. But I have not ever really used such things, and do not know if Wolfram can be used as Cueball thinks about in the comic. But if it could, it could be worth mentioning as a method sometimes used by Randall. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:43, 27 September 2019 (UTC)
 
Does [https://www.wolframalpha.com/ Wolfram Alpha] constitute such a problem solver? Cause both Randall and this site has used it on several occasions. But I have not ever really used such things, and do not know if Wolfram can be used as Cueball thinks about in the comic. But if it could, it could be worth mentioning as a method sometimes used by Randall. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:43, 27 September 2019 (UTC)

Revision as of 22:56, 27 September 2019


This makes me think of my profession (software engineer) - Normie: "Oh wow, that looks complicated!" Me: wires two pre-existing libraries together and calls it a day Baldrickk (talk) 09:39, 26 September 2019 (UTC)

Image of Blackboard

I was looking at the blackboard and was wondering if there were any Easter eggs on it. Here is the result of my badly cropped photoshopping skills. [1] idk if it would help to sharpen the image. --DarkAndromeda31 (talk) 01:25, 26 September 2019 (UTC)

The only thing that really jumps out at me are the wedges, as portions of pie charts where radius also controls area, evoking the climate stabilization wedge game from Princeton where the total area of the disk needing to be mitigated is something like 38 gigatons of atmospheric carbon, and the various mitigation solutions have angles representing potential and radius indicating uptake, the proportion of which represents gigatons mitigated as the wedge area. We can offer that game as an example of a bivariate optimization problem which might not have to be manually solved by anyone, if we assume that the local market for surplus potable water, carbon-neutral liquid transportation fuel, and carbon-negative composite lumber for centuries-to-millenia scale sequestration along with wood timber displacement for reforestation represents locally satisfiable economic demand for N shipping containers of Project Foghorn plants and M shipping containers of power-to-gas upgrades for natural gas power plants. That's an example of how a locally market-driven system can solve a bivariate optimization without anyone doing the actual math work in a spreadsheet or otherwise. The economic solution is not necessarily optimal, because even as powerful as the free market can be, it isn't necessarily going to find the bivariate optimums for every point on the planet (although it will likely converge asymptotically in some sense) and defectors such as fossil fuel producers are interested in delaying the optimum solution.
Is that nontangential enough? 172.68.143.18 20:49, 26 September 2019 (UTC)
Yes that was far out :-) I'm sure there is nothing interesting hidden in the image. --Kynde (talk) 08:36, 27 September 2019 (UTC)
Compare the graph at [2] with that at [3]. When will the latter overtake the former? 172.68.142.221 19:19, 27 September 2019 (UTC)
Soon one may hope, but that has nothing to do with the drawings on the blackboard...? --Kynde (talk) 21:07, 27 September 2019 (UTC)
"Soon" lacks mathematical precision. How do you feel about distributed constraint optimization? 172.68.142.83 22:56, 27 September 2019 (UTC)

Does Wolfram Alpha constitute such a problem solver? Cause both Randall and this site has used it on several occasions. But I have not ever really used such things, and do not know if Wolfram can be used as Cueball thinks about in the comic. But if it could, it could be worth mentioning as a method sometimes used by Randall. --Kynde (talk) 08:43, 27 September 2019 (UTC)

[4] is the first bivariate system of equations example. 172.69.22.134 17:51, 27 September 2019 (UTC)
Is that then a yes to my question? ;-) --Kynde (talk) 21:07, 27 September 2019 (UTC)

I only just now noticed that Randall always puts the crossbars on the I in the word "I" and not otherwise. Looking back, he has nearly always done this, even since the first few comics. That's quite a principled yet subtle stance on letterforms. (There are some exceptions, however, such as comic #87, and a period that goes at least from comic #128 to comic #180. I wonder if it would be too typography-nerdy to put them all in a category.) 198.41.231.85 14:47, 27 September 2019 (UTC)

Those "crossbars" would be serifs, whereas he normally uses a sans serif font. A sans serif would be quicker/easier to write by hand, but he probably realized early on (perhaps subconsciously) that an I by itself without serifs looks too much like a random line or a numeral 1 so he treats the solo I like a special letter, with serifs. -boB (talk) 15:16, 27 September 2019 (UTC)
Yes so not something for a category! But funny detail. I have no idea where to put this? Maybe in some part of the format of xkcd? --Kynde (talk) 21:07, 27 September 2019 (UTC)

Thank you, person who sees beauty in grammar (Jkrstrt). I thought something looked off when I said "often site the beauty they see" but I didn't catch it until you sighted the error and made it cite instead. -boB (talk) 15:10, 27 September 2019 (UTC)