Thursday, November 18, 2004
Still more science
I finished up my rewrite of my mechanics section. This later section deals with gravitation and relativity, and I copied a few formulas into my growing "handbook" that will be useful when I pick up astronomy again.
I haven't been able to leave chemistry entirely alone, but I have started up some work on chemical reactions that should better organize what I have and what I expect to be working on. Several of the entries are rather sketchy. Since, as I have mentioned before, the number of possible reactions to consider is a matter of combinatorics, (nCr; combinations of n substances taken r at a time, with r being 1, 2, or 3 reactants), the number of reactions to consider grows much faster than n itself; and the number of possible substances is itself growing much faster than the number of elements involved. It's not practical to consider them all at once, so I have started taking one reaction in a given class, with hopes of elaborating on it in future versions.
I did manage to move past astronomy into Earth science. I've been reviewing minerals, with am emphasis on the major rock forming minerals, and types of rock. It shouldn't take me too long to work through geology.
As far as moving beyond science, I took a crack at breaking down material culture and manmade objects a little more. Since my study program has resisted practical application for some time, any progress at all here is encouraging.
I haven't been able to leave chemistry entirely alone, but I have started up some work on chemical reactions that should better organize what I have and what I expect to be working on. Several of the entries are rather sketchy. Since, as I have mentioned before, the number of possible reactions to consider is a matter of combinatorics, (nCr; combinations of n substances taken r at a time, with r being 1, 2, or 3 reactants), the number of reactions to consider grows much faster than n itself; and the number of possible substances is itself growing much faster than the number of elements involved. It's not practical to consider them all at once, so I have started taking one reaction in a given class, with hopes of elaborating on it in future versions.
I did manage to move past astronomy into Earth science. I've been reviewing minerals, with am emphasis on the major rock forming minerals, and types of rock. It shouldn't take me too long to work through geology.
As far as moving beyond science, I took a crack at breaking down material culture and manmade objects a little more. Since my study program has resisted practical application for some time, any progress at all here is encouraging.
