Tootfinder

I decided it was time for another go at explaining Special Relativity.
I remain annoyed at how few people really get it, even amongst avid SF consumers, who have gotten entirely too accustomed to generations of SF writers papering over the FTL issues with technobabble, 'cause we need that galactic empire, don'tcha know.
The idea is to do this with basic geometry you knew or could have learned about in 6th grade plus a bit of algebra (up to Pythagorean Theorem, which I *d…

Capture into Apsidal Resonance and the Decimation of Planets around Inspiraling Binaries: #Tatooine planets rare? Blame general relativity: https://news.berkeley.edu/2026/01/30/why-are-tatooine-planets-rare-blame-general-relativity/

Nothing hurts my head more than reading about time. https://mastodon.social/@h4ckernews/115688679152089280

X-mas comes early this year: the ICFP 2025 talks are now on YouTube.
You can catch my talk on "Domain-specific tensor languages" below. We explore implementing tensor calculus in #Haskell, supporting both Einstein notation and Penrose diagrams to model things like General Relativity and black holes. 🕳️🚀
My talk:

Here is a note on a friend who died two weeks ago...
I will always carry the image of Joel wearing his Sherlock Holmes cap and short cape.
Joel spent many an hour explaining current cosmological theory to me. He explained general relativity at our dinner table and gave me a deep lesson in astrobiology during a trip to Aspen. I wish I had had more teachers like him.
In Memoriam: Joel Primack

In Memoriam: Joel Primack
Distinguished emeritus professor was a towering figure in theoretical physics and cosmology, a visionary educator, dedicated mentor, and passionate advocate for the role of science in society

Part 6
https://wrog.dreamwidth.org/72287.html
in which, having established what (little) math we actually need, we get to the truly fun part:
How constant acceleration works
a.k.a.
What you need to know re
Faking Gravity in Special Relativity.
It is **a** **lot*…

On the Deepest Search for #GalacticCenter Pulsars and an Examination of an Intriguing #MillisecondPulsar Candidate: #Pulsar in the Milky Way’s Center: https://news.columbia.edu/news/researchers-announce-discovery-possible-pulsar-milky-ways-center - confirming a pulsar star would enable unprecedented tests of General Relativity. Such a discovery would revolutionize physics.

New pre-print out: "Types, equations, dimensions and the Pi theorem".
We formalized the covariance principle (physical laws must be independent of units) as a homomorphism between the algebra of physical quantities and real numbers.
While the Pi Theorem from Dimensional Analysis (DA) is non-constructive, we introduce a constructive method for applying it. This could enable DA-driven program derivation where the type checker helps identify valid physical laws.
📝 Bl…

« The more important fundamental laws and facts of physical science have all been discovered, and these are now so firmly established that the possibility of their ever being supplanted in consequence of new discoveries is exceedingly remote…. Our future discoveries must be looked for in the sixth place of decimals. » Albert Michelson 1894
En 1905, Einstein published the theory of special relativity
#unknownunknown