pulkit

As I do not feel good talking of a biggest number possible, I tend to think of [MATH]\infty[/MATH] as the characteristic of a variable or a function to get greater than any number you can find.

19 / m / India

I like to associate the concept of infinity with maths. It is a concept of mathematics. Maths is an abstartct subject, nothing in maths acctualy "exsists" . You don't really talk of exsistance of "two" or "three" do you ? Hence how can you talk of "exsistance" of infinity ?These are all abstractions of the mind, which we develop / have developed to understand the natural world. Infinity is a property/ a characteristic, you can't talk of its "exsistance". We merely tend to put certain things under the set that contains elements satisfying this property. You could go on and on arguing that pi is finite, but it is no good unless you can fabricate a profof for it. I can't see how computers come into the picture.

Very true )

Someone told me that FC2 does not come with a built in player for mp3, mpeg etc because the guys didn't want any copyright issues, is that true ?

You must realize that this is a theoretical question. The compass is basically referring to the ability to draw loci at constt distances from a fixed point, it is not a physical instrument that has flaws in it. In fact there is this whole range of mathematical proofs on things you can do using a ruler and compass (over a hundred of these are attributed to a gentleman called Gauss). And even if you use a real compass for any applications, it would also give you answers to a level of accuracy greater than you can get with most other methods.(Any inaccuracy would only be due to the physical/mechanical construction of the instrument and faults in that)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrous_oxide This compound has resonance. If you look at the structure, you will see that it has an odd number of electrons involved in bonds. The resonance hybrid would have one elctron delocalized over the molecule.

Can gaussian elimination also be used to solve a set of simultaneous linear equations ?

I used that recently, very handy indeed, small 8-pin IC

I need to install linux on my home pc. I have with me installation discs for Mandrake 10.0 and Fidora Core 2 I am throughly confused as to which one I should install, any suggestions ?

I would have doubts about Al foil. Al foil absorbs IR, it heats up. As it is now hot, it also radiates out IR, not a very suitable option ! The best way to protect something from EM waves (like IR radiation) is to use a simple faraday cage........no EM waves can exsist inside those.

Because if glass were fully blocking infra red, it won't be able to get into the enclosure in the first place. What happens is that IR gets into the enclosure, loses energy, hence wavelength increases and is then unable to escape - this is what u call greenhouse effect.

I am building a software package that converts 2-d drawings into 3-d objects. In the process, I am in the need of knowing an algorithm to determine the rank of a matrix. I am dealing with a 4x3 matrix and need a method (that can be easily coded into a computer programme) which would mechanically compute the rank of such a matrix. I am unable to develop any such method so can anyone help me ? I must add that determination of rank using the definition of rank seems a bit too inefficient to code.

I am not sure of how to build the circuit for it, but I have used such a crystal in a controller circuit I made recently. I needed it to supply my micro controller with a 4MHz square wave, and saw the square wave on an oscilloscope as well, so it does work. When I say chaep, I mean less than a dollar. The component I used was called a 4MHz crystal. You have a similar crystal inside evry computer to power your micro processor, just that those run in GHz nowadays.

Piezo electric crystals tend to generate square waves of a fixed frequency. They are cheap and easily available circuit components that generally run on a few vols DC ( 9 would suffice ). Also you get them in various frequencies, they are used in all circuits that have micro controllers.

Glass does not specifically block infra red. It only blocks radiation above a certain wavelength. If glass were completely blocking infra red then there would be no green house effect.

What do you mean ? What exactly do you want this thing to do ?

Given a circle, there is no one step way to find the diameter. You can't just pick up a ruler and measure the diameter, thats not a construction, neither is it a mathematically correct or accurate method. The widest part of the circle is not sitting there for you to come and find it. That is completely incorrect Theoretical yes. That is why you need a formal answer to the question.

Thats not true in general. There are some oxides of nitrogen in which three electrons are shared. And then you have orgaincs where a whole bunch of electrons may be delocalized.

I do not look down upon the loss of any life, American or Iraqi, they are all the same, none carries a higher weightage. Neither do I place the soldiers in the category of Bush, in fact I agree with Moore and sympathise with anyone who had to lose their life in battle when Bush decided to invade Iraq. The soldiers are there only because they were ordered to be, most probably didn't even carry hostility toward Iraq to begin with. Also the fact that newbie tends to give an impression that he thinks of Iraqi soldiers as "terorrists" completely infuriates me. The fact is that Iraq did not break out war, America did. The Iraqis did not kill anyone, they only defended. In such a case you have absolutely no right to call them terorrists. He refers to them as "killers", if anyone started the killing it was America. I hate to say this but his comments appear too racial in nature ; almost as if the life of an American if far more precious than even ten Iraqis. I must once again emphasize that you can't say that Americans are being slaughtered, it is a grosse exaggeration of the truth.

A very intriguing thought. If indeed you think that way, it would certainly put a lot of physics in a very simple, beautiful unified framework. But I wonder about interconvertibility of space, time and energy. That would seem really strange.

Oh my God !! You acctualy think that the Americans are being slaughtered in Iraq. If anything they are the ones doing all the slaughtering. I don't know how Mr.Bush can sleep at night, having the blood of so many people on his hands. Secondly, anyone fighting in Iraq was not a terorrist. If suddenly some crazed maniac decided to attck your country won't you fight back ? The very fact that you label them terorrists is apphauling. If Moore sympathised with American troops it was because they are engaged in a war that should never have been. The very decision of invading Iraq was wrong. It in no way contradicts what he said earlier. Lastly, any opinion he expresses can't be right or wrong. It is just an opinion, you can't label it as "wrong".

I think its more of a mathematical problem. You don't acctualy have a real life sphere to work with !

I think that ever improving scientific research keeps discovering and inventing drugs and steroids which can't yet be detected by standard doping tests. I am not sure about this, but till a particular chemical substance is banned maybe atheletes do take these substances. For eg. When nandralone first came out I am sure ppl tilll did take it before the olympic association decided to ban it. If you keep making these chemicals, atheletes will always have a legal way to improve their performance. Plus the fact that now there are more professional athelets than ever before. Fifty or sixty years back, many athelets would have had alternative means of income and tus they were not 100% concentrated on their sport. Now there are atheletes who do nothing but sports, I am sure it does help.

Its well and good to think of saving water. But really, if you stopped going to the toilet and use the garden instead I am pretty sure not many people would be willing to visit your house in the future )