Jeremy Côté

Bits, ink, particles, and words.

Quantities in Context

One of the differences between physics and mathematics is that mathematicians don’t tend to care about the units they are working with. In fact, they will usually consider all quantities as unitless1. This makes it easy to compare quantities, because one only has to look at the number itself. If you have two numbers, 5 and 9, you know that 9 is the larger quantity.

  1. Actually, theoretical physicists like to do this too, since everyone agrees that dealing with units can be annoying. This is why you might see physicists saying that the speed of light is c=1

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Black Boxes

Why is the area of a circle given by πr2?

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The Priority of Education

Is not learning.

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A Splash of Colour

When giving a presentation, it’s difficult to present ideas in science or mathematics without the use of equations. It’s possible, but unless you’re exploring a geometry problem, you’re probably out of luck. If you want to get a message across to your audience that is more substantive than a bunch of emphatic adjectives about science, you need to use equations.

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