Biochemist Updated 2025-07-16
Injective function Updated 2025-07-16
Mnemonic: in means into. So we are going into a codomain that is large enough so that we can have a different image for every input.
Surjective function Updated 2025-07-16
Mnemonic: sur means over. So we are going over the codomain, and covering it entirely.
Cosmic microwave background Updated 2025-07-16
If you point a light detector to any empty area of the sky, you will still get some light.
The existence of this is quite mind blowing, since "there is nothing there emitting that light".
To make sense of how it is possible to see this light, you can think of the universe as the expanding raisin bread model, but it expands faster than light (thus the existence of the cosmological event horizon), so we are still receiving light form the middle, not the borders.
CMB is basically perfectly black-body radiation at 2.725 48 K, but it has small variations with variations of the order of 200 microKelvin: cosmic microwave background anisotropy.
Change of basis Updated 2025-07-16
where:
Autothroph Updated 2025-07-16
Heterotroph Updated 2025-07-16
Isomers suggest that atoms exist Updated 2025-07-16
Subtle is the Lord by Abraham Pais (1982) page 85:
However, it became increasingly difficult in chemical circles to deny the reality of molecules after 1874, the year in which Jacobus Henricus van't Hoff and Joseph Achille Le Bel independently explained the isomerism of certain organic substances in terms of stereochemical properties of carbon compounds.
so it is quite cool to see that organic chemistry is one of the things that pushed atomic theory forward. Because when you start to observe that isomers has different characteristics, despite identical proportions of atoms, this is really hard to explain without talking about the relative positions of the atoms within molecules!
TODO: is there anything even more precise that points to atoms in stereoisomers besides just the "two isomers with different properties" thing?
Brownian motion Updated 2025-07-16
Small microscopic visible particles move randomly around in water.
If water were continuous, this shouldn't happen. Therefore this serves as one important evidence of atomic theory.
The amount it moves also quantitatively matches with the expected properties of water and the floating particles, was was settled in 1905 by Einstein at: investigations on the theory of the Brownian movement by Einstein (1905).
This suggestion that Brownian motion comes from the movement of atoms had been made much before Einstein however, and passed tortuous discussions. Subtle is the Lord by Abraham Pais (1982) page 93 explains it well. There had already been infinite discussion on possible causes of those movements besides atomic theory, and many ideas were rejected as incompatible with observations:
Further investigations eliminated such causes as temperature gradients, mechanical disturbances, capillary actions, irradiation of the liquid (as long as the resulting temperature increase can be neglected), and the presence of convection currents within the liquid.
The first suggestions of atomic theory were from the 1860s.
Tiny uniform plastic beads called "microbeads" are the preferred 2019 modern method of doing this: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microbead
Original well known observation in 1827 by Brown, with further experiments and interpretation in 1908 by Jean Baptiste Perrin. Possible precursor observation in 1785 by Jan Ingenhousz, not sure why he wasn't credited better.
Video 1.
Observing Brownian motion of micro beads by Forrest Charnock (2016)
Source.
Terrorism Updated 2025-07-16
Big Dipper Updated 2025-07-16
This notation is designed to be relatively easy to write. This is achieved by not drawing ultra complex ASCII art boxes of every component. It would be slightly more readable if we did that, but prioritizing the writer here.
Two wires are only joined if + is given. E.g. the following two wires are not joined:
  |
--|--
  |
but the following are:
  |
--+--
  |
Simple symmetric components:
Asymmetric components have multiple letters indicating different ports. The capital letter indicates the device, and lower case letters the ports. The wires then go into the ports:
  • D: diode
    • a: anode (where electrons can come in from)
    • c: cathode
    Sample usage in a circuit:
    --aDc--
    Can also be used vertically like aany other circuit:
    |
    a
    D
    c
    |
    We can also change the port order, the device is still the same due to capital D:
    --cDa--
    
     |
    Dac--
    
     |
    Dca--
    
       |
    --caD
  • DC DC source. Ports:
    • p: positive
    • n: negative
    E.g. a 10 V source with a 10 Ohm resistor would be:
    +---pDC_10_n---+
    |              |
    +----R_10------+
    If only one side is given, the other is assumed to be at a the ground G. We can also omit p and m in that case and assume that p is the one used, e.g. the above would be equivalent to:
    DC_10---R_10---G
    If the voltage is not given, it is assumed to be a variable voltage power supply.
  • LED: same as diode
  • I: electric current source. Ports:
  • P: potentiometer source. Ports:
    • 1: one of the sides
    • 2: the middle
    • 3: the other side
  • T: transistor. The ports are sgTd:
    • s: source
    • g: gate
    • d: gate
    Sample usage in a circuit:
    ---+
       |
    --sgTd--
    All the following are also equivalent:
       |
       g
    --sTd--
    
        |
    --Tsgd--
       |
  • V: Voltmeter. Ports:
    • p: positive
    • n: negative
    If we don't need to specify explicit positive and negative sides, we can just use:
    ---V---
    without any ports. This is notably often the case for AC circuits.
    Optionally, we can also add the sides as in:
  • ports can also be separated by double underscores from the component names to increase readability. Single underscores can also be used to increase readability of longer multi-word component names e.g.:
    RPI_PICO_W__1gp0__3gnd
                |       |
                R_2k    |
                |       |
                +-aLEDc-+
    which is the same as:
    RPI_PICO_W
    1gp0  3gnd
    |       |
    R_2k    |
    |       |
    +-aLEDc-+
    represents a circuit linking port 1 of a Raspberry Pi Pico W, which is GPIO pin 0, through a resistor and an LED, back to pin 3 of the board, which is ground.
Numbers characterizing components are put just next to each component with an underscore. When there is only one parameter, standard units are assumed, e.g.:
+-----+
|     |
C_1p  R_2k
|     |
+-----+
means:
Micro is denoted as u.
Wires can just freely come in and out of specs of a component, they are then just connected to the component, e.g.:
DC_10---R_10---G
means applying a voltage of 10 V across a 10 Ohm resistor, which would lead to a current of 1 A
If a component has more than two parameters, units are used to distinguish them when possible, e.g.:
AC_1kV_2MHz
means an AC source with:
Precession Updated 2025-07-16

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