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π Ski rental problem
In computer science, the ski rental problem is a name given to a class of problems in which there is a choice between continuing to pay a repeating cost or paying a one-time cost which eliminates or reduces the repeating cost.
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- "Ski rental problem" | 2014-02-21 | 11 Upvotes 3 Comments
π Unsafe at Any Speed
Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile is a non-fiction book by consumer advocate Ralph Nader, first published in 1965. Its central theme is that car manufacturers resisted the introduction of safety features (such as seat belts), and that they were generally reluctant to spend money on improving safety. This work contains substantial references and material from industry insiders. It was a best seller in non-fiction in 1966.
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- "Unsafe at Any Speed" | 2021-11-11 | 83 Upvotes 78 Comments
π Magdeburg Hemispheres
The Magdeburg hemispheres are a pair of large copper hemispheres, with mating rims. They were used to demonstrate the power of atmospheric pressure. When the rims were sealed with grease and the air was pumped out, the sphere contained a vacuum and could not be pulled apart by teams of horses. The Magdeburg hemispheres were invented by German scientist and mayor of Magdeburg, Otto von Guericke, to demonstrate the air pump that he had invented, and the concept of atmospheric pressure. The first artificial vacuum had been produced a few years earlier by Evangelista Torricelli, and had inspired Guericke to design the world's first vacuum pump, which consisted of a piston and cylinder with one-way flap valves. The hemispheres became popular in physics lectures as an illustration of the strength of air pressure, and are still used in education. A pair of the original hemispheres are preserved in the Deutsches Museum in Munich.
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- "Magdeburg Hemispheres" | 2018-12-28 | 49 Upvotes 18 Comments
π Communication with Submarines
Communication with submarines is a field within military communications that presents technical challenges and requires specialized technology. Because radio waves do not travel well through good electrical conductors like salt water, submerged submarines are cut off from radio communication with their command authorities at ordinary radio frequencies. Submarines can surface and raise an antenna above the sea level, then use ordinary radio transmissions, however this makes them vulnerable to detection by anti-submarine warfare forces. Early submarines during World War II mostly traveled on the surface because of their limited underwater speed and endurance; they dove mainly to evade immediate threats. During the Cold War, however, nuclear-powered submarines were developed that could stay submerged for months. Transmitting messages to these submarines is an active area of research. Very low frequency (VLF) radio waves can penetrate seawater a few hundred feet, and many navies use powerful VLF transmitters for submarine communications. A few nations have built transmitters which use extremely low frequency (ELF) radio waves, which can penetrate seawater to reach submarines at operating depths, but these require huge antennas. Other techniques that have been used include sonar and blue lasers.
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- "Communication with Submarines" | 2016-12-26 | 10 Upvotes 1 Comments
- "Communication with submarines" | 2009-06-05 | 19 Upvotes 5 Comments
π Problem of Time
In theoretical physics, the problem of time is a conceptual conflict between general relativity and quantum mechanics in that quantum mechanics regards the flow of time as universal and absolute, whereas general relativity regards the flow of time as malleable and relative. This problem raises the question of what time really is in a physical sense and whether it is truly a real, distinct phenomenon. It also involves the related question of why time seems to flow in a single direction, despite the fact that no known physical laws seem to require a single direction.
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- "Problem of Time" | 2020-04-05 | 63 Upvotes 49 Comments
π Neuroevolution of augmenting topologies (NEAT algorithm)
NeuroEvolution of Augmenting Topologies (NEAT) is a genetic algorithm (GA) for the generation of evolving artificial neural networks (a neuroevolution technique) developed by Kenneth Stanley and Risto Miikkulainen in 2002 while at The University of Texas at Austin. It alters both the weighting parameters and structures of networks, attempting to find a balance between the fitness of evolved solutions and their diversity. It is based on applying three key techniques: tracking genes with history markers to allow crossover among topologies, applying speciation (the evolution of species) to preserve innovations, and developing topologies incrementally from simple initial structures ("complexifying").
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- "Neuroevolution of augmenting topologies (NEAT algorithm)" | 2024-12-02 | 91 Upvotes 33 Comments
π Prophetic Perfect Tense
The prophetic perfect tense is a literary technique used in the Bible that describes future events that are so certain to happen that they are referred to in the past tense as if they had already happened.
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- "Prophetic Perfect Tense" | 2023-09-28 | 154 Upvotes 96 Comments
π List of Animals by Number of Neurons
The following are two lists of animals ordered by the size of their nervous system. The first list shows number of neurons in their entire nervous system, indicating their overall neural complexity. The second list shows the number of neurons in the structure that has been found to be representative of animal intelligence. The human brain contains 86 billion neurons, with 16 billion neurons in the cerebral cortex.
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- "List of Animals by Number of Neurons" | 2020-05-25 | 12 Upvotes 1 Comments
π Forestiere Underground Gardens
The Forestiere Underground Gardens in Fresno, California are a series of subterranean structures built by Baldassare Forestiere, an immigrant from Sicily, over a period of 40 years from 1906 to his death in 1946. The gardens are operated by members of the Forestiere family through the Forestiere Historical Center, and can be considered an unconventional example of vernacular architecture.
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- "Forestiere Underground Gardens" | 2026-07-01 | 101 Upvotes 26 Comments
π Two capacitor paradox
The two capacitor paradox or capacitor paradox is a paradox, or counterintuitive thought experiment, in electric circuit theory. The thought experiment is usually described as follows: Two identical capacitors are connected in parallel with an open switch between them. One of the capacitors is charged with a voltage of , the other is uncharged. When the switch is closed, some of the charge on the first capacitor flows into the second, reducing the voltage on the first and increasing the voltage on the second. When a steady state is reached and the current goes to zero, the voltage on the two capacitors must be equal since they are connected together. Since they both have the same capacitance the charge will be divided equally between the capacitors so each capacitor will have a charge of and a voltage of . At the beginning of the experiment the total initial energy in the circuit is the energy stored in the charged capacitor:
- .
At the end of the experiment the final energy is equal to the sum of the energy in the two capacitors
Thus the final energy is equal to half of the initial energy . Where did the other half of the initial energy go?
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- "Two capacitor paradox" | 2020-05-25 | 438 Upvotes 169 Comments