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My thoughts on and your responses to interesting topics in the Physical Sciences

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Category: Statistical Mechanics

Three pieces – and some puzzles

Posted on September 9, 2019October 22, 2020 By Simply Curious No Comments on Three pieces – and some puzzles
Statistical Mechanics

I just finished a bit of summer reading – in particular, three books with very similar scope. The first is by a well-known physical chemist and author – it is called “Four Laws that drive the Universe“. The second is by a well-known quantum information expert, and called “Decoding reality: The universe as quantum information“. … Read More “Three pieces – and some puzzles” »

The Normal Distribution is AbNormal

Posted on September 15, 2017September 15, 2017 By Simply Curious No Comments on The Normal Distribution is AbNormal
The Normal Distribution is AbNormal
Science in Daily Life, Statistical Mechanics

I gave a talk on this topic exactly two years ago at my undergraduate institution, the Indian Institute of Technology, in Chennai (India). The speech is here, with the powerpoint presentation accompanying it The Normal Distribution is Abnormal And Other Oddities. The general import of the speech was that the Normal Distribution, which is a … Read More “The Normal Distribution is AbNormal” »

Master Traders and Bayes’ theorem

Posted on August 13, 2017August 14, 2017 By Simply Curious 1 Comment on Master Traders and Bayes’ theorem
Master Traders and Bayes’ theorem
Finance, Quantum Mechanics, Statistical Mechanics

Imagine you were walking around in Manhattan and you chanced upon an interesting game going on at the side of the road. By the way, when you see these games going on, a safe strategy is to walk on, since they usually reduce to methods of separating a lot of money from you in various … Read More “Master Traders and Bayes’ theorem” »

A simple connection between Entropy and Information

Posted on July 20, 2017October 29, 2017 By Simply Curious No Comments on A simple connection between Entropy and Information
A simple connection between Entropy and Information
Statistical Mechanics

This article follows a simple example laid out by Jaynes (1996). Jaynes’ example is one that shows how one’s computation of the change in entropy in a physical / chemical process depends on the precise variables that one uses to label the macro state. If you use different variables (say you are insensitive to properties … Read More “A simple connection between Entropy and Information” »

A young Einstein at his desk, contemplating the world with his mind!

My Recent Posts

  • A story of commutators October 21, 2020
  • Schrodinger’s Cat Lives again! November 27, 2019
  • Three pieces – and some puzzles September 9, 2019
  • Tales of Karatsuba May 14, 2019
  • Error Correcting Codes and the Quantum version February 6, 2019
  • Modulo arithmetic & cards November 13, 2018
  • Gauge invariance, Global and Local Symmetry October 17, 2018
  • Binary/Ternary codes and card tricks October 14, 2018
  • p-‘s and q-‘s redux October 14, 2018
  • Minding your p-‘s and q-‘s October 13, 2018
  • Math, Rhythmic patterns & A Card Trick September 30, 2018
  • Of Baby Hummers and clock arithmetic with Aryabhata and Archimedes September 15, 2018
  • Gedankenexperiments #1 August 8, 2018
  • The Indian musical drums June 24, 2018
  • The Rule of 72 – and what does the Swiss National Bank have to do with it June 21, 2018

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