Noisy-channel coding theorem Updated +Created
Setting: you are sending bits through a communication channel, each bit has a random probability of getting flipped, and so you use some error correction code to achieve some minimal error, at the expense of longer messages.
This theorem sets an upper bound on how efficient you can be in your encoding, for any encoding.
The next big question, which the theorem does not cover is how to construct codes that reach or approach the limit. Important such codes include:
But besides this, there is also the practical consideration of if you can encode/decode fast enough to keep up with the coded bandwidth given your hardware capabilities.
news.mit.edu/2010/gallager-codes-0121 explains how turbo codes were first reached without a very good mathematical proof behind them, but were still revolutionary in experimental performance, e.g. turbo codes were used in 3G/4G.
But this motivated researchers to find other such algorithms that they would be able to prove things about, and so they rediscovered the much earlier low-density parity-check code, which had been published in the 60's but was forgotten, partially because it was computationally expensive.
Mathematical formulation of quantum mechanics Updated +Created
These are the key mathematical ideas to understand!!
There are actually a few formulations out there. By far the dominant one as of 2020 has been the Schrödinger picture, which contrasts notably with the Heisenberg picture.
Another well known one is the de Broglie-Bohm theory, which is deterministic, but non-local.
Why is Git a DAG? Updated +Created
Because a Git commit can have more than 1 parent due to merge commits when you do:
git merge
It can even have more than 2, there's no limit. Although that is not so common (with good reason, 2 is already one too many): softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/314215/can-a-git-commit-have-more-than-2-parents/377903#377903
Website genre Updated +Created
Git web interface Updated +Created
Human Genome Project Updated +Created
As mentioned by Craig Venter in 100 Greatest Discoveries by the Discovery Channel (2004-2005), the main outcomes of the project were:
  • it established the ballpark number of human genes
  • showed that human genomes are very similar across individuals.
Important predecessors:
State of matter Updated +Created
Xah Lee Updated +Created
Figure 1.
Xah Lee with some weird statuettes of himself
. Source. 2019.
Let's see:
New York (state) Updated +Created
Generalized Poincaré conjecture Updated +Created
There are two cases:
  • (topological) manifolds
  • differential manifolds
Questions: are all compact manifolds / differential manifolds homotopic / diffeomorphic to the sphere in that dimension?
  • for topological manifolds: this is a generalization of the Poincaré conjecture.
    Original problem posed, for topological manifolds.
    Last to be proven, only the 4-differential manifold case missing as of 2013.
    Even the truth for all was proven in the 60's!
    Why is low dimension harder than high dimension?? Surprise!
    AKA: classification of compact 3-manifolds. The result turned out to be even simpler than compact 2-manifolds: there is only one, and it is equal to the 3-sphere.
    For dimension two, we know there are infinitely many: classification of closed surfaces
  • for differential manifolds:
    Not true in general. First counter example is . Surprise: what is special about the number 7!?
    Counter examples are called exotic spheres.
    Totally unpredictable count table:
    DimensionSmooth types
    11
    21
    31
    4?
    51
    61
    728
    82
    98
    106
    11992
    121
    133
    142
    1516256
    162
    1716
    1816
    19523264
    2024
    is an open problem, there could even be infinitely many. Again, why are things more complicated in lower dimensions??
2017 Nobel Prize in Chemistry Updated +Created
Cryogenic electron microscopy, which was developped in the 70's.
2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry Updated +Created
RE (complexity) Updated +Created
Hexagon Updated +Created
Fourier basis is complete for Updated +Created
Riesz-Fischer theorem is a norm version of it, and Carleson's theorem is stronger pointwise almost everywhere version.
Note that the Riesz-Fischer theorem is weaker because the pointwise limit could not exist just according to it: norm sequence convergence does not imply pointwise convergence.
Noether's theorem Updated +Created
For every continuous symmetry in the system (Lie group), there is a corresponding conservation law.
Furthermore, given the symmetry, we can calculate the derived conservation law, and vice versa.
As mentioned at buzzard.ups.edu/courses/2017spring/projects/schumann-lie-group-ups-434-2017.pdf, what the symmetry (Lie group) acts on (obviously?!) are the Lagrangian generalized coordinates. And from that, we immediately guess that manifolds are going to be important, because the generalized variables of the Lagrangian can trivially be Non-Euclidean geometry, e.g. the pendulum lives on an infinite cylinder.
Video 1.
The most beautiful idea in physics - Noether's Theorem by Looking Glass Universe (2015)
Source. One sentence stands out: the generated quantities are called the generators of the transforms.
Video 2.
The Biggest Ideas in the Universe | 15. Gauge Theory by Sean Carroll (2020)
Source. This attempts a one hour hand wave explanation of it. It is a noble attempt and gives some key ideas, but it falls a bit short of Ciro's desires (as would anything that fit into one hour?)
Video 3.
The Symmetries of the universe by ScienceClic English (2021)
Source. youtu.be/hF_uHfSoOGA?t=144 explains intuitively why symmetry implies consevation!
An LC circuit is analogous to a spring-mass system Updated +Created
In the LC circuit:
You can kickstart motion in either of those systems in two ways:
Average number of steps until reaching a state of a Markov chain Updated +Created
TODO how to calculate
Matrix multiplication Updated +Created
Since a matrix can be seen as a linear map , the product of two matrices can be seen as the composition of two linear maps:
One cool thing about linear functions is that we can easily pre-calculate this product only once to obtain a new matrix, and so we don't have to do both multiplications separately each time.

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