Tuesday 19 July 2022

A solution to the world's energy problems

 ... and also the issue of, errr, removing plastics from the ocean.

Yes, fortunate we are that the genius who is Terrence Howard is alive at this time of peril, with his novel solution to the Grand Unified Field theory.  It has lots of beneficial outworkings, which he is now offering to the good people of Uganda.  To solve many of their most pressing problems.  Of course.

The Gruaniad, (home of George Moonbat), describes this as "impenetrable batshit" - but what do they know?  Bunch of racists.

Anyhow, pour yourself a cool drink and enjoy his presentations, starting with this gem.  Then graduate to his lengthier expositions.  Don't let the sun get to you: it can lead to hallucinating ...

ND  

18 comments:

Don Cox said...

Don't mock the lad. I had lots of wild ideas like this when I was half way through studying my Science A levels.

A little knowledge plus a lot of imagination leads to plenty of fantasy, especially if you read SF books too.

Don

Nick Drew said...

e to the i.pi = minus 1

(I could prove it once)

if that isn't a Grand Unifying Equation, I don't know what is

Anonymous said...

I'm no Corbyn fan, but the Forde Inquiry shows that senior Labour people deliberately sabotaged the 2017 campaign. Surely Starmer must resign and JC be reinstated?

(One of the few pleasures of the Starmer reign is that I no longer hear Wes Streeting bleating. That guy is a despicable careerist, alway was since NUS days)

dearieme said...

@ND: best thing in school maths. When we were shown it I burst into applause. (Ah to be sixteen again.)

Nick Drew said...

dearieme - I was always very suspicious of the impossibility of trisecting the angle (which I was told about in primary school) and squaring the circle

only learned the proofs when I was about 20!

Anonymous said...

Totally OT, but did you know that Azerbijan invaded Armenia last year and still holds a (pretty small) chunk of Armenian territory?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021%E2%80%932022_Armenia%E2%80%93Azerbaijan_border_crisis

"Azerbaijan has not withdrawn its troops from internationally recognised Armenian territory despite calls to do so by the European Parliament, United States and France – two of three Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group."

I can't understand why we're not training 10,000 Armenian troops and sending them all the weapons we've got. Can't understand how our news organs don't seem to have reported it either.

dearieme said...

When I found the proof that sqrt2 is irrational (a footnote in Russell's History of Western Philosophy) I was outraged that we'd not been shown it at school. Fifteen does outrage pretty well.

The trisecting thing: I was most impressed when I learnt that secretaries ignore the impossibility and folded letters into three equal parts very neatly.

Nick Drew said...

Euclid's proof of 'no highest prime number' is a school-maths gem: a nice intro to the style of reasoning in formal logic

andrew said...



I did topology at college because the syllabus had the "ham sandwich theorem" in it.

Three of the best things in life: maths, food and most of the others in the class were girls.

dearieme said...

But did the girls have an attractive topology, andrew?

@ND: Google turns up this -

"Assume there are a finite number, n, of primes, the largest being p(n)." He means 'is' but carry on.

"Consider the number that is the product of these, plus one: N = p(1) x p(2) x ... x p(n) + 1.
By construction, N is not divisible by any of the p(i)."
TRUE

"Hence it is either prime itself, or ..."

Surely some mistake? N must be even so it can't be a prime. What is he on about?

It comes to something when a codger who's not thought about primes since time out of mind can spot an error like that.

dearieme said...

Sod it I'm wrong because 2 is a prime. Could I save the day by saying that I'll define a prime* as being any prime except 2?

I suppose there must be a literature on prime*s.

Back to work: if we use primes all our products are even because they have 2 as a factor. So N is odd and, not being 2, is a candidate for being a prime. The rest follows.

I have no memory of seeing that before but perhaps that's the fault of my memory not my (excellent) maths teacher.

Nick Drew said...

always good to give the old grey cells a bit of exercise!

a bit of personal history: when I first went into business, I barely needed any maths - confident numeracy was quite sufficient, plus a basic grasp of Linear Programming: nothing much beyond 'O' level, really

then, out of the blue, Enron transformed the energy business: and it was extremely helpful to have the wherewithal & confidence to dive into (the shallower waters of) Option Pricing Theory and stochastic simulation. Many a contemporary of mine gave up the ghost at that point and opted for quieter pastures. I was jolly grateful to have some of the more advanced stuff I could dust off, even if only to be a knowledgeable spectator as the true practitioners got their awards for exciting & original maths

(you should always have a man to do these things for you, eh wot?)

Don Cox said...

The Dover Books edition of Euclid (in three volumes) is excellent.

Don

Elby the Beserk said...

Sorry small keyboard huge fingers nightmqare

history...

Blair => Brown (snigger) = > Miliband (You WHAT) => Corbyn (Say that again!) => Kneeler Starmer

Brilliant. Fantastic. Bless them

35 in Budapest. Guess 35 here is cooler than in London, no hysteria at all.

Elby the Beserk said...

Scruton on mathematics very good. Brought his wonderful Soul of the World (companion book to The Face Of God, in reality) for a re-read and his wonder at maths and the WTFness of it, and it's complete abstraction is wonderful to read.

When he went, it felt like a personal loss. I was about to write to him (we had conversed) that he had got the Grateful Dead wrong in his wonderful collection of essays, "Confessions of a Heretic". Linked them with such as the Floyd, saying they were not for dancing to. Obvs hadn't seen thousands twirling to them at stadium gigs, in a ritual celebration right up his street. But he died :-(

You went to see the Dead to as, the yanks say, dance your asses off :-)

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/355995545535493369/

lilith said...

The most excited I ever got about Maths was the 9 x table. All the answers add up to 9. Loved it! But nobody taught me logic has something to do with maths, which might have intrigued me....I remain illogical and innumerate. I do know that women don't have penises however, which is more than can be said of Penny Mordaunt.

Anonymous said...

Wot, you mean she DOES ??!!

dearieme said...

Ah, ND, I was once offered a job in OR at Shell. So you can see how far in mathitude I have sunk. Woe is me.

I can still do the sqrt2 proof, mind. I don't think I could wave a tensor any more. I tried an Integration by Parts a few days ago - it felt like work rather than joy. Woe, woe, and thrice woe.

Still, I tell myself to rejoice - I shall never again have anything to do with conic sections or spherical trig.