Soil mechanics is a branch of engineering that focuses on the behavior of soil under various conditions and its interactions with structures that are built on or within it. It combines principles of physics, engineering, and material science to understand the mechanical properties and behavior of soil. Key concepts in soil mechanics include: 1. **Soil Properties**: Understanding the physical and chemical characteristics of soil, such as grain size distribution, plasticity, density, and permeability.
Continuous-time quantum Monte Carlo (CT-QMC) is a numerical method used to study quantum many-body systems at finite temperatures. It is particularly useful for simulating strongly correlated electron systems, quantum spins, and other complex quantum systems. CT-QMC methods are valuable because they can efficiently use random sampling techniques to explore the configuration space of such systems without the typical restrictions seen in other methods, like discrete time steps or lattice approximations.
The VEGAS algorithm is a Monte Carlo method used for numerical integration, particularly well-suited for high-dimensional integrals. It stands for "Variably Dimensional, Efficient, Generalized Adaptive Sampling" and was developed to improve the efficiency of numerical integration in scenarios where the integrand is complicated or varies significantly across different dimensions.
The Monte Carlo method is a statistical technique used to approximate solutions to quantitative problems that might be deterministic in nature but are complex enough to make exact calculations infeasible. It relies on random sampling and statistical modeling to estimate numerical outcomes. The method is named after the Monte Carlo Casino in Monaco, reflecting its inherent randomness similar to games of chance.
The muffin-tin approximation is a method used in solid-state physics and materials science to simplify the calculations of electronic structure in crystalline solids. It is particularly relevant in the study of the electronic properties of metals and semiconductors. In the muffin-tin approximation, the potential energy landscape of a solid is modeled in such a way that the crystal is divided into different regions.
Pinned article: Introduction to the OurBigBook Project
Welcome to the OurBigBook Project! Our goal is to create the perfect publishing platform for STEM subjects, and get university-level students to write the best free STEM tutorials ever.
Everyone is welcome to create an account and play with the site: ourbigbook.com/go/register. We belive that students themselves can write amazing tutorials, but teachers are welcome too. You can write about anything you want, it doesn't have to be STEM or even educational. Silly test content is very welcome and you won't be penalized in any way. Just keep it legal!
Intro to OurBigBook
. Source. We have two killer features:
- topics: topics group articles by different users with the same title, e.g. here is the topic for the "Fundamental Theorem of Calculus" ourbigbook.com/go/topic/fundamental-theorem-of-calculusArticles of different users are sorted by upvote within each article page. This feature is a bit like:
- a Wikipedia where each user can have their own version of each article
- a Q&A website like Stack Overflow, where multiple people can give their views on a given topic, and the best ones are sorted by upvote. Except you don't need to wait for someone to ask first, and any topic goes, no matter how narrow or broad
This feature makes it possible for readers to find better explanations of any topic created by other writers. And it allows writers to create an explanation in a place that readers might actually find it.
Figure 1. Screenshot of the "Derivative" topic page. View it live at: ourbigbook.com/go/topic/derivativeVideo 2. OurBigBook Web topics demo. Source. - local editing: you can store all your personal knowledge base content locally in a plaintext markup format that can be edited locally and published either:This way you can be sure that even if OurBigBook.com were to go down one day (which we have no plans to do as it is quite cheap to host!), your content will still be perfectly readable as a static site.
- to OurBigBook.com to get awesome multi-user features like topics and likes
- as HTML files to a static website, which you can host yourself for free on many external providers like GitHub Pages, and remain in full control
Figure 3. Visual Studio Code extension installation.
Figure 4. Visual Studio Code extension tree navigation.
Figure 5. Web editor. You can also edit articles on the Web editor without installing anything locally.Video 3. Edit locally and publish demo. Source. This shows editing OurBigBook Markup and publishing it using the Visual Studio Code extension.Video 4. OurBigBook Visual Studio Code extension editing and navigation demo. Source. 
- Infinitely deep tables of contents:
All our software is open source and hosted at: github.com/ourbigbook/ourbigbook
Further documentation can be found at: docs.ourbigbook.com
Feel free to reach our to us for any help or suggestions: docs.ourbigbook.com/#contact