ivan77

Are taylor expansions similiar to those used to find natural logs ie: e^2 for example.

I have been wondering how this is worked out without just plugging it into the calculator, is it possible to do it on paper or does it take a long time to work out? I feel i should already know this but i have never learned it in school or in my maths course. Its obviously not a ratio as: 9^1.5=27 but 9^2= 81.

I have been thinking for a while now about what will happen in a few decades when we can effectively automate many of the tasks that make up the bulk of workforces in the world. Things like: stacking shelves, driving buses, checkout clerks, call centres, security, cleaning, waiters, fast food industry, factory work etc could all become jobs of the past, only creative positions would remain and people could have exceptionally short working weeks while still keeping the economy booming. Here are some of the question to think about: How would this impact on peoples perception of money? What would people do? Would goods become so cheap to make that we could have things without even working for them? Would people receive money just because they are there? Could the world end up as a communist utopia that actually works?

Thanks for the help matt, i knew it would be something simple.

I am having trouble with this question even though i have guessed the answer which is correct btw. I want to know how i should solve such a question if it were ever more difficult than just guessing. Here goes:Q The sum of the first 6 terms of a geometrical progression is 9 times the sum of the first 3. Find r. (r being the ratio). If anybody could help i would be grateful, thanks.

I have tried this myself and it works great but i was just wondering EXACTLY how it works, i have googled but cant find any good info on it, if somebody with a physics background could give some insight into this phenomena it would be great. Heres the link: http://www.americanantigravity.com/bushman.shtml

I was thinking today about the way humans (generally speaking) view themselves as a seperate entity to nature. I mean we refer to things like artificial and man made but really we are a product of nature so everything we think about or create etc is a reflection of nature. What i am trying to get at is, is the universe in some way self understanding or using seemingly intelligent beings to self regulate as (theoretically speaking) we could one day alter large parts of the universe. U could also argue that global warming (which is attributed to man) is really what the earth is doing to itself as we have evolved due to the thing which we are now destroying. I know it is a very difficult thing to contemplate but i would like to read peoples ideas and theories on this subject.

Would u care to elaborate on that point, why is entropy only allowed to decrease in local regions of space?

I am slightly confused by this issue, as i understand just before the big bang there was a state of very low entropy which over time to the present day increased (because of the bang). My question is how can there be ordered structures like galaxies ,planets and humans if entropy is supposed to increase over time. I know that its obvious gravity is responsible for matter coming together in stars etc but i dont know the full reason for the argument of entropy increasing with time.