Gregory's Server
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 @deilann @futurebird but not only real numbers... Physics also used imaginary numbers, to help explain the magic away  complex numbers are just a field extension of the real numbers, so are still just as dense, which is the real problem my concern is that this totally real not magic science relies on there always being a number between two numbers forever Avoided complex analysis by deferring to structure, just like a good algebraist Honestly, the craziest thing physicists do is modeling like they take this math stuff and try to make it do things and convince us it's not sorcery um, I've done some maths and it's not real life @deilann @magnesium @futurebird My best friends mum is a Theoretical Mathematician. I don't pretend to know what that entails.   @futurebird What's the blue glowing device at the end? EDIT: As @alexis wrote below, it's a mercury vapor rectifier (used for very high voltage loads. Crazy stuff). @futurebird My first thought was something radioactive due to the blue glow (typical in fusion reactors), but I have no idea what those tube thingies are :blobconfused:  @futurebird @yuki2501 it's a mercury rectifier tube! those served the same role in their day as IGBT transistor packs in a modern variable frequency drive: being able to switch a lot of current very fast without melting, in order to run big industrial motors that need three-phase power to operate @alexis @futurebird @yuki2501 They look extremely cool, this video for example: https://youtu.be/Xpq_vrdpteM?si=lCXUVoOrK9_7fy55 @alexis @futurebird @yuki2501 Bwah! Solid state rectifiers may be more reliable, but they are not a fraction as cool as this! @alexis @futurebird @yuki2501 Did not know specifically about these. Very cool. I used to use ignitrons at one job for switching high current at high voltage. Also a form of mercury tube. We used to do about 100 kA at around 5 kV with one ignitron.  @Wikisteff @alexis @futurebird @yuki2501 Was for a very short time :) Experiments that use pulsed power use a lot of esoteric technology.  @yuki2501 @futurebird it's a... uh. I've seen it before somewhere? I know it's Definitely not a magical/alchemical alembickckck for transmuting base elements though!  @yuki2501 @futurebird I'm real proud of myself on this one. I cropped out that part of the image, did a quick and dirty edit to semi-remove the text, then ran it through TinEye. This came up: https://www.motat.nz/collections-and-stories/stories/meet-motats-mercury-arc-rectifier/ It is apparently a "mercury arc rectifier." I don't understand the full details, but it seems it converts really high AC current voltages to still fairly high DC voltages by vaporizing the mercury or something.  @nazokiyoubinbou @yuki2501 @futurebird ohhh, yeah PI had one of those suckers @rotopenguin @yuki2501 @futurebird Before solid state really took off they came up with some really crazy things. I don't even know what to call a thing like this. It almost feels "steampunk" except of course it's vacuum tube tech instead. @nazokiyoubinbou @rotopenguin @yuki2501 @futurebird Tubepunk is totally steampunk! @yuki2501@hackers.town @futurebird@sauropods.win I think it's this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherenkov_radiation but I'm not positive @yuki2501@hackers.town @futurebird@sauropods.win @alexis@tilde.zone Vivian Shaw's Dr. Greta Helsing series, which I enjoyed reading, features a haunted mercury-arc rectifier. It's pretty scary, as these things go. 👻
 @futurebird https://kemptonsteam.org/collection/mercury-arc-rectifiers/ (Very obsolete now, but once fairly common - used for converting AC to DC for chunky old machinery...) @futurebird Mercury arc rectifiers - definitely *not* glowing dieselpunk space-octopuses, honest. Maybe... Plus I realise I took a photo of one of those exact ones in the page I linked - albeit when it was powered down. Part of me still wishes modern technology was built around vacuum tubes...   @futurebird love mercury arc rectifiers. I got to see a bank of them running a few years ago during Open House Melbourne down in the Russell St substation. Was the last substation in Melbourne to supply mains DC power to the oldest buildings that still ran on it. Their last DC customer disconnected in the early 2000’s  @vk2gpu @futurebird yup there’s the obvious danger of mercury being flung around inside glass using electricity, and the less obvious danger of it being high-power DC in a building that mostly deals with AC now. I also love electricity distributor’s definitions of “high” and “low” voltage: “high” voltage is 220kV, “mid” voltage is 22kV, “low” voltage is 240V mains. @jpm @vk2gpu @futurebird there's also another risk, Mercury arc light contains large amounts of UV-C light which can be pretty nasty at close proximity. @Yuki @jpm @vk2gpu @futurebird They aren't in glass tubes that block the UV?!!?!!?!!! @futurebird amazing to see them in action, the brightness of the glowing is proportional to the load. In this video the load bank is switched off, then on again.  @jpm @futurebird Now that's a *CLUNK* as it switches :-) @jpm @futurebird There are some huge ones at Cockatoo Island, that you used to be able to see, last time I went, they were behind locked doors    when testing your demon summoning device, do not replace an essential safety device with a screwdriver. Especially not while wearing denim and a cowboy hat. footnote: There's a series of Fred Saberhagen novels set in a universe in which demons are the result of an interaction between nuclear explosions and an alteration in physics that made magic possible.  @spmatich @futurebird tbf you have to be really intelligent to understand Rick & Morty @spmatich @futurebird 'you have to hold unintuitive abstract concepts in your mind' yeah of course, how else are you supposed to channel the magic? @futurebird > that circuitry schematic on the upper right is just a bridge rectifier, a common electronics component for converting AC to DC power
> i learned this from bigclivedotcom, a huge man on youtube who looks like merlin > OH SHIT  @futurebird As a physics student, I can confirm this is the irl version of studying to become a wizard.   @futurebird "Our experimental results change depending on whether we're watching them or not, but that's perfectly normal." @futurebird Screw these guys. Study CS and come to the dark Unix side instead. We worship daemons here!   @futurebird  @futurebird Sounds like dark sorcery to me, but okay.  Hopefully not ruining the joke, but that last glowing thing is a mercury arc rectifier for converting AC power to DC, and are actually really neat. Our local historical streetcar org actually still used one up until just a few years ago. Classical physics: "THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS MAGIC! ENERGY MUST BE CONSERVED!" Quantum physics: "Where'd all the antimatter from the big bang go?" @futurebird “yeah entropy is inevitable and uncontrollable and whatever, but check out this cool trick I can do with a compressor and some tubes.” @futurebird that last one is engineering. Physics doesn’t acknowledge DC. We outsource that shit - no known applications. @futurebird come study chemistry, we have unlocked the secrets of the universe in a tidy grid, it's not magic, we can create new materials never before known to exist and craft miraculous medications, but it's a real science, someone once turned vinyl gloves and vanilla into hot sauce, which is a normal science thing    @futurebird as i said before: the difference between science and magic is that with magic you find out that someone's been lying to you, when you look behind the curtain, and with science you can actually understand something
 There is only one form of fortune telling that actually (mostly) works: It's called mathematics. |
@futurebird
physics uses real numbers with all their infinite expansions just to make calculus go
so they're going to have to use some natural numbers to get me to accept it's not all theory magic