Distraction Thread

  • Imagine you are sipping tea or coffee while discussing various issues with a broad and diverse network of students, colleagues, and friends brought together by the common bond of physics, graduate school, and the physics GRE.

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YellowXDart
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Distraction Thread

Post by YellowXDart » Mon Feb 01, 2010 2:28 pm

So, I figured that in between obsessively checking our emails, thegradcafe.com, and the acceptance threads for admissions results, we could maybe take a few minutes to introduce ourselves as a distraction.

Where were you born?:
What is your favorite band or musician?:
If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?:
How old are you?:
What non-science related activities do you enjoy?:
Do you collect anything?:
Stephen Hawking or Kip Thorne?:
What is your favorite beer?:


Feel free to add questions and start discussions. I know we could all use a bit of a distraction.

pqortic
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Re: Distraction Thread

Post by pqortic » Mon Feb 01, 2010 2:29 pm

do you want to date someone??

kroner
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Re: Distraction Thread

Post by kroner » Mon Feb 01, 2010 9:02 pm

Despite what my mom told me about not talking to strangers on the internet I need to be distracted so here goes:

Where were you born?: New York City
What is your favorite band or musician?: Radiohead
If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?: I don't know. Most places in the world I have never lived, so it doesn't feel right to judge them.
How old are you?: 24
What non-science related activities do you enjoy?: Does math count as non-science related? Probably not. I guess I'm kind of a politics junky. I like video games (who doesn't?) and drawing.
Do you collect anything?: no
Stephen Hawking or Kip Thorne?: um... I guess I'll go with Hawking because I don't really know anything about Thorne.
What is your favorite beer?: I don't really drink much beer. Wow, that's a lot of cop out answers.

Now I expect other people to answer these or else I'm going to look dumb.

geshi
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Re: Distraction Thread

Post by geshi » Tue Feb 02, 2010 2:19 am

zombies!
Last edited by geshi on Wed May 19, 2010 11:43 am, edited 1 time in total.

kroner
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Re: Distraction Thread

Post by kroner » Tue Feb 02, 2010 2:18 pm

You should post the random ass bands that no one has ever heard of. We need to break the stereotype that physics people can't be hipsters. :D

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YellowXDart
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Re: Distraction Thread

Post by YellowXDart » Tue Feb 02, 2010 11:51 pm

Alright, alright. I thought I'd give other the opportunity before making a fool of myself.

Where were you born?: Colorado Springs (BORING)
What is your favorite band or musician?: Muse is a pretty good answer, but I'll identify myself as an aspiring hipster by adding MGMT and Passion Pit to the mix
If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?: Tokyo I think because the Japanese are totally weird and I love it
How old are you?: 23, and as a sign of my nerddom, it really bothers me to be an age that's a prime number
What non-science related activities do you enjoy?: I paint my nails obsessively
Do you collect anything?: vinyl toys, yay
Stephen Hawking or Kip Thorne?: I'm gonna say Kip Thorne on this one because I really liked Black Holes and Time Warps, and his facial hair is impressive
What is your favorite beer?: New Castle Brown Ale, although Colorado does have some good microbrews, like Flat Tire or Beehive

kroner
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Re: Distraction Thread

Post by kroner » Wed Feb 03, 2010 3:15 am

I'll do my part retroactively by saying that my most recent favorite band/musician is Fever Ray.

MGMT's album is pretty great. But I don't know what you have against prime numbers considering they're the best numbers.

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YellowXDart
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Re: Distraction Thread

Post by YellowXDart » Wed Feb 03, 2010 11:27 am

Personally I don't like prime numbers. I like nice numbers like 24 which can be divided by 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, and 12. It's beautiful. Haha, talk about nerdy.

kroner
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Re: Distraction Thread

Post by kroner » Wed Feb 03, 2010 6:24 pm

It's like they say: Mo' factors, mo' problems.

When you mod out by an ideal that's not prime all those factors are going to be zero divisors and zero divisors are gross. You can't even make a finite field with 24. Useless.

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grae313
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Re: Distraction Thread

Post by grae313 » Wed Feb 03, 2010 6:46 pm

NERD FIGHT!!!!!

Image

kroner
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Re: Distraction Thread

Post by kroner » Wed Feb 03, 2010 10:41 pm

I will nerd fight you all!

BRING IT!!

kroner
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Re: Distraction Thread

Post by kroner » Wed Feb 03, 2010 10:42 pm

I really need to find something constructive to do with this time... :oops:

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YellowXDart
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Re: Distraction Thread

Post by YellowXDart » Thu Feb 04, 2010 12:07 am

I'm crocheting little animals to sit on my TV because it keeps me from obsessively checking my email.

As another distraction:

A department store has 2 escalators moving at the same rate in opposite directions. If two men walk down the escalators at a rate of 1 step per second, it takes one man 24 steps and the other 120 to reach the bottom. How many steps would they have taken if the escalators were not moving?

I don't actually know the answer btw.

kroner
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Re: Distraction Thread

Post by kroner » Thu Feb 04, 2010 12:57 am

Should be the harmonic mean.

Now I need to learn how to crochet. That sounds like a good thing to be doing.

kroner
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Re: Distraction Thread

Post by kroner » Thu Feb 04, 2010 1:57 am

Am I supposed to add a question now? How about umm...

What is the radius of a sphere inscribed in a regular tetrahedron with edge length 1?

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YellowXDart
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Re: Distraction Thread

Post by YellowXDart » Thu Feb 04, 2010 11:13 am

Haha, well your question is a LOT harder than mine, and I finally figured out the answer this morning. It's 40. I became a physics major so I could ignore the finer points of math and just wave my hands.

theoretical_phys
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Re: Distraction Thread

Post by theoretical_phys » Thu Feb 04, 2010 7:09 pm

Where were you born?: Southern Indiana (in the middle of nowhere...)

What is your favorite band or musician?: Right now? The Fratellis. But I love blues, dixieland jazz, and the oldies.

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?: Probably Iceland. Because it is awesome.

How old are you?: 22 years old. However, people always ask me when I'm going to graduate high school AND I am constantly asked for my ID when watching rated R movies.

What non-science related activities do you enjoy?: Baking, decorating my apartment, listening to music, playing the dulcimer, wandering around new places, loafing.

Do you collect anything?: Cameos, skeleton keys, vintage dresses.

Stephen Hawking or Kip Thorne?: Kip Thorne, oh yeah.

What is your favorite beer?: Abita Amber. (New Orleans beer!) I don't drink beer often, I prefer Jameson whiskey or Pimm's No 1 (spiced English gin)

kroner
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Re: Distraction Thread

Post by kroner » Thu Feb 04, 2010 10:56 pm

Wow, the dulcimer. I had to wikipedia that. How does one decide to take up the dulcimer?

theoretical_phys
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Re: Distraction Thread

Post by theoretical_phys » Fri Feb 05, 2010 2:00 pm

I am originally from Southern Indiana, and the instrument is fairly popular in many folk groups. Personally, I play the Appalachian dulcimer, which was created in America by Irish and Scottish immigrants in the Appalachian Mountains. Just started playing when I was about 10 years old, and I really liked it. :)

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YellowXDart
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Re: Distraction Thread

Post by YellowXDart » Fri Feb 05, 2010 7:53 pm

There's a dulcimer store in my city, and I used to hang out there a lot when I was in high school. It's a very neat instrument!



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