University of Colorado at Colorado Springs Math Video Archive

http://www.uccs.edu/~math/vidarchive.html

Spring Semester 2010
Math 448- Mathematical Modeling - Dr. Radu Cascaval

Spring Semester 2009
Math 443- Ordinary Differential Equations - Dr. Radu Cascaval

Fall Semester 2008
Math 447- Applied Mathematics - Dr. Radu Cascaval

Summer Semester 2008
Math 442 - Optimization - Dr. Radu Cascaval

Fall Semester 2007
Math 414 - Modern Algebra - Dr. Gene Abrams
Math 533 - Real Analysis - Dr. Rinaldo Schinazi

Summer Semester 2007
Math 425 - Chaotic Dynamical Systems - Dr. Greg Morrow

Spring Semester 2007
Math 432 - Modern Analysis II - Dr. Bob Carlson

Fall Semester 2006
Math 431 - Modern Analysis I - Dr. Rinaldo Schinazi

Summer Semester 2006
Math 483 - Linear Statistical Models - Dr. Greg Morrow

Spring Semester 2006
Math 535 - Applied Functional Analysis - Dr. Greg Morrow

ICTP Diploma Programs in Math & Physics

High Energy Physics

Relativistic Quantum Mechanics

Quantum Electrodynamics

Quantum Field Theory

Lie Groups and Lie Algebras

Introduction to Particle Physics

General Relativity

The Standard Model

Susy Field Theory

String Theory

Condensed Matter Physics

Advanced Statistical Mechanics

Advanced Quantum Mechanics

Many Body Physics

Solid State Physics

Graduate Mathematics

Partial Differential Equations

Topology

Algebraic Topology

Abstract Algebra

Complex Analysis

Real Analysis I and Real Analysis II

Functional Analysis I and Functional Analysis II

Differential Equations and Dynamical Systems

Ergodic Theory

Differential Geometry

Algebraic Geometry

Probability Theory

Online Physics Video Courses

Everybody knows about MIT OCW and Stanford on iTunes, but here are a few less well known video lectures on advanced physics topics.

Classical Mechanics at McGill University

Computational Physics at Oregon State University

Foundations of Theoretical Physics at USC

General Relativity at McGill University

Quantum Physics A, B & C at UCSD

Mathematical Physics I & II at University of New Mexico

Quantum Mechanics I & II at University of New Mexico

Quantum Field Theory I & II at University of New Mexico

Here's someone else who shouldn't be trying to do math

http://www.thebigquestions.com/2010/12/22/a-big-answer-2/




The correct answer is 1/2.  In statistical notation, he is asking us to calculate E[G]/E[B+G], the expected proportion of females in the total population.  However, he turns it into the different question E[G/(B+G)], the expected proportion of females in an average family, which is not generally equal to the first expression (since families are of different sizes) and which in this case gives the incorrect answer of 30.6%.  The guy is impervious to all the good arguments that have been posted to his blog pointing out his error.

His argument is exactly the same as if I headed down to the roulette tables in Vegas and placed bets on black, just making sure that at each session I stop when black hits.  According to his "math", that strategy should provide a 69.4% win rate (slightly less once we account for 0 and 00, but still well above 50%).  A sure-fire way to beat the house!

String Theory Tested, Fails Black Hole Predictions

Back in 2006 there was a lot of talk of testing String Theory. Well, today CERN released a statement for the Compact Muon Solenoid Experiment. The short of it is simply that as far as they could tell, 'No experimental evidence for microscopic black holes has been found.' The long statement indicates that since the highly precise CMS detector found no spray of sub-atomic particles of normal matter while LHC smashed particles together, the hypothesis by string theory that micro black holes would be formed and quickly evaporated in this experiment was incorrect. These tests have given the team confidence to say that they can exclude a 'variety of theoretical models' for the cases of black holes with a mass of 3.5-4.5 TeV. While you may not be able to run around claiming that string theory is dead and disproved, evidently there are some adjustments that need to be made.  (Source: Slashdot)

2010 Nobel in Physics

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2010/
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2010 was awarded jointly to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov "for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene."

World's Worst Physicist?

University of Central Florida physics professor Costas Efthimiou's work debunks pseudoscientific ideas, such as vampires and zombies, in an attempt to enhance public literacy.  Legend has it that vampires feed on human blood and once bitten a person turns into a vampire and starts feasting on the blood of others.   Efthimiou's debunking logic: On Jan 1, 1600, the human population was 536,870,911. If the first vampire came into existence that day and bit one person a month, there would have been two vampires by Feb. 1, 1600. A month later there would have been four, and so on. In just two-and-a-half years the original human population would all have become vampires with nobody left to feed on.  If mortality rates were taken into consideration, the population would disappear much faster. Even an unrealistically high reproduction rate couldn't counteract this effect.

Wow!  Leaving aside that his work debunking pseudoscience is NOT what we as a society expect our well-paid physicists to be working on, let's look at his own pseudoscientific work...

536,870,911 - really?  and he knows this how?  Has he ever heard of significant digits?

"once bitten a person turns into a vampire" - false; anybody with even a passing understanding of the vampire myth knows this to be wrong; dude needed to do some basic research

He's essentially assuming (a) vampires are immortal and (b) vampires must feed at least once a month on a human.  These assumptions are mutually contradictory.  If vampires were immortal then they would not have to feed every month to stay alive.  If they must feed every month to stay alive then the well-known predator-prey model (based on the Lotka-Volterra differential equation) can predict all sorts of end-states, including extinction of humans, extinction of vampires, equilibrium, oscillation, or chaotic swings in the vampire and human populations, depending on the various parameters that can be used in the equations.  Seriously, what on earth was this guy thinking when he tackled this problem?  I wonder how long he worked on his "solution"?  I've seen better thought-out logic on freshman physics papers.

Actually, on second thought, maybe it's better that this guy isn't doing physics.  That could be dangerous!

Peer review

Breakthroughs from the second tier
Peer review isn't perfect - meet 5 high-impact papers that should have ended up in bigger journals.
by the Scientist staff

I hate your paper
Many say the peer review system is broken. Here's how some journals are trying to fix it.
by Jef Akst

Peer review and the age of aquarius
It's time to reinvent the system that validates scientific discovery.
by Sarah Greene

Peer pressure
What should we do with peer review? Tell us in our new poll.
by Richard Grant

Chess & Physics

My nominee for the decade's worst scientific reporting

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/04/05/freaky-physics-proves-parallel-universes/?test=faces

Wolf says that time - at least in quantum mechanics - doesn't move straight like an arrow. It zig-zags, and he thinks it may be possible to build a machine that lets you bend time. Consider Sergei Krikalev, the Russian astronaut who flew six space missions. Richard Gott, a physicist at Princeton University, says Krikalev aged 1/48th of a second less than the rest of us because he orbited at very high speeds. And to age less than someone means you've jumped into the future - you did not experience the same present. In a sense, he says, Krikalev time-traveled to the future - and back again!

1) Writer switches from QM to relativity in a completely unwarranted manner.
2) The "time travel to the future and back again" idea is completely idiotic. I find it hard to believe that Richard Gott actually said that. My bet is the reporter got it wrong. (If not, then shame on Richard Gott.)
3) None of this has anything to do with the actual discovery, which is that researchers at UCSB appear to have found a macro-system that exhibits quantum superposition.
4) The headline is that this proves parallel universes exist. I'm still trying to figure out wtf that even means in the context of this story.

LHC breaks record

The world's biggest atom smasher - the $10 billion Large Hadron Collider that straddles the Swiss-French border - set another record today by colliding protons at three times the previous record for energy created.

Get your geek on!

For those (like myself) who wanted to play with Mathematica but couldn't justify the price ... there's now Mathematica Home Edition!!

http://www.wolfram.com/products/mathematicahomeedition/qa.html

(The functionality is exactly the same as in the full edition; it's just the licensing that is more restricted.)

One of my favorite comics

(From the college geometry class I took over 20 years ago - God I'm old!)