EPTWhat is a PhD? - Page 28
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eonrulz
United Kingdom225 Posts
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sam!zdat
United States5559 Posts
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eonrulz
United Kingdom225 Posts
On September 20 2013 05:30 sam!zdat wrote: ^why is there something instead of nothing? That's one for the philosophy PhD dude, I think.  Though scientifically speaking, it would be because of an asymmetry between matter and anti-matter, just after the Big Bang, which caused the antimatter to decay/interact with matter, but somehow still leaving some matter behind. Hence, something existing instead of nothing.  | ||
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sam!zdat
United States5559 Posts
turtles all the way down, imo | ||
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Poffel
471 Posts
On September 20 2013 05:30 sam!zdat wrote: ^why is there something instead of nothing? Due to lack of alternatives. | ||
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eonrulz
United Kingdom225 Posts
On September 20 2013 05:43 sam!zdat wrote: why is there antimatter and matter, as opposed to not? I love it when people try to answer this question with answers involving the existence of something already! turtles all the way down, imo So you're asking how did the universe start. Welp, I can't answer that, and nobody really can, other than by taking a guess. As far as how matter first appeared, its because as the universe cooled down after the Big Bang, the most stable modes, as far as energy goes, were the elementary particles and gauge bosons. E=mc^2 and all that jazz. Hence matter! Before then, the universe was too hot and too energetic for matter or antimatter to exist. | ||
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sam!zdat
United States5559 Posts
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AnotherRandom
Canada81 Posts
Speaking of philosophy, what exactly is a PhD in Philosophy? I understand that a PhD is adding to the pool of human knowledge, but so much of philosophy is just bs subjectivist "he said she said" nonsense that I can't imagine people actually deciding that something in philosophy has added to the pool of human knowledge. | ||
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farvacola
United States18856 Posts
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DarkPlasmaBall
United States45432 Posts
On September 20 2013 05:26 eonrulz wrote: I'm just starting a PhD in Particle Physics, at a major London university. Its pretty awesome, I get to go work at CERN for a year. So yeah :D. Feel free to sling any particle physics questions my way; my PhD is experimental, so analysing live data from the LHC, but my Masters' thesis was purely theoretical (simulating black hole creation events at the LHC, looking for dependence on the number of extra dimensions), so I'm pretty keyed up on both sides of the field. So would you characterize yourself as a Sheldon Cooper? Or more of a Leonard Hofstadter? | ||
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Cascade
Australia5405 Posts
On September 20 2013 05:26 eonrulz wrote: I'm just starting a PhD in Particle Physics, at a major London university. Its pretty awesome, I get to go work at CERN for a year. So yeah :D. Feel free to sling any particle physics questions my way; my PhD is experimental, so analysing live data from the LHC, but my Masters' thesis was purely theoretical (simulating black hole creation events at the LHC, looking for dependence on the number of extra dimensions), so I'm pretty keyed up on both sides of the field. Do the neutrinos have mass? Why? | ||
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Derrida
2885 Posts
On September 20 2013 05:26 eonrulz wrote: I'm just starting a PhD in Particle Physics, at a major London university. Its pretty awesome, I get to go work at CERN for a year. So yeah :D. Feel free to sling any particle physics questions my way; my PhD is experimental, so analysing live data from the LHC, but my Masters' thesis was purely theoretical (simulating black hole creation events at the LHC, looking for dependence on the number of extra dimensions), so I'm pretty keyed up on both sides of the field. Do sun rays lose energy as they travel to earth? My 6 year old cousin asked me last week, couldnt answer  | ||
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SoSexy
Italy3725 Posts
On September 20 2013 08:50 AnotherRandom wrote: If you're looking for the philosophical answer, the reason for existence is the Axiom of Existence. Speaking of philosophy, what exactly is a PhD in Philosophy? I understand that a PhD is adding to the pool of human knowledge, but so much of philosophy is just bs subjectivist "he said she said" nonsense that I can't imagine people actually deciding that something in philosophy has added to the pool of human knowledge. I'm finishing my master degree in philosophy, so I hope my reply does make sense. I consider two possibilities for philosophy 1) More historical: i.e., writing stuff about St. Thomas. You add knowledge in the same way an historian does, adding details, interpretations, etc. 2) More 'real life style': you write stuff about things like morals, ethics, philosophy of science, etc. Don't be fooled by this: even if people believe there is no major truth in these fields, philosophy is like magma boiling under the surface. Its investigations reach all of society. Animal vivisection is on the verge of being banned for example, and this is thanks to many works in ethics (which show it's wrong) and in philosophy of science. Hope it helped you | ||
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MoltkeWarding
5195 Posts
Do sun rays lose energy as they travel to earth? My 6 year old cousin asked me last week, couldnt answer How do you think the zodiacal lights appear on those calm spring evenings? Helios' arrows are usually good for their mark, but sometimes the cosmos throws irritants in the way as a jest to mortal perplexity. | ||
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-Celestial-
United Kingdom3867 Posts
On September 20 2013 05:26 eonrulz wrote: I'm just starting a PhD in Particle Physics, at a major London university. Its pretty awesome, I get to go work at CERN for a year. So yeah :D. Feel free to sling any particle physics questions my way; my PhD is experimental, so analysing live data from the LHC, but my Masters' thesis was purely theoretical (simulating black hole creation events at the LHC, looking for dependence on the number of extra dimensions), so I'm pretty keyed up on both sides of the field. That's cool. My dad did his Particle Physics PhD out at CERN thirty years ago when the internet was being invented there. Supposed to be a nice place. Didn't take after him myself. I'm doing a Biology PhD; background in Microbiology but currently specialising in Molecular. | ||
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SecretDoves
United States8 Posts
AND THEN, once you are a pro, you have to keep winning, which means keeping up with the game, practicing every day, going to tournaments, working on new strategies, etc. The research life is analogous, although research doesn't really have "losers" since the larger process doesn't end, and so instead of battling at tournaments for survival, you go to conferences to try and find people working on the same thing as you and convince them to collaborate with you before they publish what you were going to. In then end though, you really do need that competitive fire to keep improving to pursue this kind of life. If you think that people do this because they are lost, couldn't find a job, or just wanted to stay in school a long time, you are thoroughly underestimating the amount of effort and commitment it takes to get to the point where you could "coast" along the Ph.D. track. | ||
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GhastlyUprising
198 Posts
On September 20 2013 21:19 SecretDoves wrote: Yes...and I recall that in Starcraft, the Korean pros are paid a hell of a lot less than the foreign pros...AND THEN, once you are a pro, you have to keep winning, which means keeping up with the game, practicing every day, going to tournaments, working on new strategies, etc. | ||
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Deleuze
United Kingdom2102 Posts
On September 20 2013 05:30 sam!zdat wrote: ^why is there something instead of nothing? As a Hegelian surely you should know that nothing comes only <i>after</i> something... | ||
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sam!zdat
United States5559 Posts
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Muirhead
United States556 Posts
On September 20 2013 21:19 SecretDoves wrote: As a first year grad student on a PhD track in mathematics (the PhD that no one gets) Many math students of all levels play Starcraft. I think math and starcraft attract similar personalities. | ||
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