Boeing 787

[Clinton Huxley]

I believe the original centre of the Universe was France, which is why all the rest of the Universe rushed away from it the first chance it got.

[Clinton Huxley]

I believe the original centre of the Universe was France, which is why all the rest of the Universe rushed away from it the first chance it got.

[JimC]

Certainly, I still believe that Geelong is the centre of the known universe...

Well actually any point in the universe will appear to be the centre of the universe when measurements are taken from that point - from which we can hypothesize that the centre of the universe was at one time non-dimensional which makes life rather difficult for the professor at his chalkboard.

You are so fucking behind the time!

Whiteboard at the least, or interactive SmartBoard if I'm lucky...

[Jason]

Certainly, I still believe that Geelong is the centre of the known universe...

Well actually any point in the universe will appear to be the centre of the universe when measurements are taken from that point - from which we can hypothesize that the centre of the universe was at one time non-dimensional which makes life rather difficult for the professor at his chalkboard.

You are so fucking behind the time!

Whiteboard at the least, or interactive SmartBoard if I'm lucky...

I blame all society's woes on the fall of the chalkboard. I suppose they don't even issue wooden pointers any longer?

The foundations of civilization.

[JimC]

Chalkboards had their advantages...

One could hurl the stub of a piece of chalk at a student who had fallen asleep at a crucial stage of one's explanation of quadratic equations...

[Jason]

Quadratics are fun, but the real joy comes when you start solving quartics. After quintics the world opens up and you know you can solve any polynomial. You should move up a year.

[JimC]

Quadratics are fun, but the real joy comes when you start solving quartics. After quintics the world opens up and you know you can solve any polynomial. You should move up a year.

Unfortunately, quintics and beyond (except for special cases) are intrinsically insolvable by algebraic methods, as Abel proved all those years ago...

But give me a depressed quartic, and the world's my oyster!

[Svartalf]

Paging Coito.

What a way to interruptus a thread...

You could be more reservatus about your opinions

[Jason]

Quadratics are fun, but the real joy comes when you start solving quartics. After quintics the world opens up and you know you can solve any polynomial. You should move up a year.

Unfortunately, quintics and beyond (except for special cases) are intrinsically insolvable by algebraic methods, as Abel proved all those years ago...

But give me a depressed quartic, and the world's my oyster!

You don't get far without being able to solve quintics. I'm guessing that's not a high school subject in Oz.

[JimC]

Quadratics are fun, but the real joy comes when you start solving quartics. After quintics the world opens up and you know you can solve any polynomial. You should move up a year.

Unfortunately, quintics and beyond (except for special cases) are intrinsically insolvable by algebraic methods, as Abel proved all those years ago...

But give me a depressed quartic, and the world's my oyster!

You don't get far without being able to solve quintics. I'm guessing that's not a high school subject in Oz.

One can solve them by a variety of methods, to whatever level of accuracy is required, but not by the application of algebraic methods:

Solving linear, quadratic, cubic and quartic equations by factorization into radicals is fairly straightforward, no matter whether the roots are rational or irrational, real or complex; there are also formulae that yield the required solutions. However, there is no formula for general quintic equations over the rationals in terms of radicals; this is known as the Abel–Ruffini theorem, first published in 1824, which was one of the first applications of group theory in algebra. This result also holds for equations of higher degrees.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quintic_function

[Jason]

I take it you're not overly enamoured with them. Cubics are fun.

[JimC]

I take it you're not overly enamoured with them. Cubics are fun.

I solve cubics for breakfast!

But seriously, I love watching the best of my senior maths students come to grips with this stuff, and realise they can do it easy...

Nothing beats it, I seriously love teaching senior secondary maths to kids that love maths....

[Tero]

Continued problems. Here is the main chemistry, and just above that.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_io ... ectrolytes

[Jason]

It's clearly an issue of the decompisition of the electron bonds within the ethylene carbonates which, when used as an electrolyte, become solvent and volatile at high voltages - which is why the failures occured pre-takeoff when the batteries where at full charge.

Elementary chemistry.

[Cormac]

"Chalkboard"?

What is a "chalkboard"?