Take That Chemistry

Take that chemistry! You think you're so tough, what with your chemicals, and your acids, but in reality you've got nothing. You pale in comparison to the pure might of physics and math. You try to act cool by throwing in some math in your balancing of equations, but you are in reality, a hard science wannabe.

So I say, do your worst, give me the worst midterms, the worst exams, the hardest questions. I'll ace them all, just like I probably did this one. So I say again, I shall win over you. You will not be victorious. When all the dust settles, and only one emerges in a cloud of pride and knowledge, it will be me.

For all your initial trouble you gave me, you were really nothing.

Until next time...

Pseudorandom Numbers

I have just engaged in a particularly pointless debate with one of my friends, on the relative randomness of varying small numbers, picked from the natural set. The debate primarily consisted of us attempting to determine what truly made a number more or less random.

Obviously, larger numbers seem more random, when taking into consideration the vastness of infinity, but in the end, when looking towards the end of infinity, one billion seems just as far away from it as one does. This is where my assertion comes in that some numbers 'seem' more random than other.

I maintain the following points:

1. Odd numbers seem more random than even ones.
2. Prime numbers seem more random than composite.
3. There should not be an abundance of any particular digit.
4. There should be a odd:even digit ratio of slightly over one.
5. And finally, it should have that ring of just having been pulled out of thin air.

These to me, are the five tenets of what makes a number random.

This of course is a load of malarkey, as truly random numbers cannot be generated, due to humans having bias, and computers not being able to produce anything but pseudorandom numbers.

For those that do not believe that they cannot produce random numbers, I challenge you to do the following: Begin saying random digits; at some point a pattern will form, or you will favour certain digits. While of course those pseudorandom numbers are sufficient, they are not ideal.

Pseudorandom numbers usually have all the characteristics of a random number, but it still begs the question, of how one would truly acheive a random value.

Until next time...

End of Semester

I have come to the end of my second semester, and done fairly well, at least considering the one previous. I am proud of my marks, and while I feel that I may have been able to do better in physics, that my calculus mark truly represents my best work I could have done.

Calculus mark: A-
Physics mark: C+

As of current, my education mark is still a mystery, but it should be up sometime in summer school.

As for summer school, I will be taking Scientific Computing Tools, Chemistry 1, Chemistry 2, and Calculus 2. I feel that I should do all right in all of these. I cannot wait until I finish this year altogether.

Until next time...