Search found 33 matches
- Thu Apr 28, 2011 11:29 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Nationals 2011 thanks and discussion
- Replies: 88
- Views: 34934
Re: ACF Nationals 2011 thanks and discussion
In theoretical calculations, this quantity gives a direct measurement of the QCD vacuum angle. Because CP is a violated symmetry, according to the CPT theorem a nonzero measurement of this quantity would imply the existence of a corresponding time-reversal violation such that CPT is conserved. Yeah...
- Thu Apr 28, 2011 1:20 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Nationals 2011 thanks and discussion
- Replies: 88
- Views: 34934
Re: ACF Nationals 2011 thanks and discussion
However, the neutron EDM has deep physical significance: namely, if the neutron EDM is non-zero, then there exists a T-invariance violation that compensates CP violation and makes CPT a conserved symmetry. The way you've phrased this looks really problematic to me. Would you mind posting the questi...
- Tue May 18, 2010 12:07 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Writing science questions: sources and topics
- Replies: 10
- Views: 2432
Writing science questions: sources and topics
While editing the science for ACF Nationals, Susan and I noticed some fairly widespread problems with questions that were submitted, so we want to offer some suggestions. An earlier thread ( http://www.hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=8822&p=159369#p158855 ) covered some similar iss...
- Tue May 11, 2010 10:09 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: MUT 2010: General discussions and thanks
- Replies: 43
- Views: 7223
Re: General discussions and thanks
I went through an entire semester on special relativity without hearing the term "rapidity" and question its notability--there are better hard parts that test SR knowledge, not vocab. I've gone through an entire graduate career in cosmology without hearing that term. When I looked it up, ...
- Mon Mar 08, 2010 12:56 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Science
- Replies: 109
- Views: 14467
Re: Science
Assuming I'm looking in the right place, "This effect is invoked in the baryon mass prediction of the chiral bag model" is fine. But more detailed versions of it have appeared in packets in the past, and I would guess more people in quizbowl will know it from that than will know what the c...
- Sun Mar 07, 2010 11:43 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Science
- Replies: 109
- Views: 14467
Re: Science
For whatever it's worth (not much), I've never heard of the Laporte rule, though of course I know what a selection rule is. Maybe it's something chemists know more than physicists do. I'm pretty sure I could poll a random sample of 50 particle theorists under the age of 35 and find at most 10 who kn...
- Wed Jan 20, 2010 9:02 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Winter discussion
- Replies: 83
- Views: 16586
Re: ACF Winter discussion
To further derail this thread, I should point out that gluons are also massless gauge bosons (well, at least theoretically they're massless; experimentally their mass isn't as well constrained as the photon's). Yes, I hate to derail the thread, but you're probably right that the question should be ...
- Wed Jan 20, 2010 1:18 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Winter discussion
- Replies: 83
- Views: 16586
Re: ACF Winter discussion
edit: as long as I'm at it, I'd like to note that my question on the electromagnetic force mistakenly identified the photon as the only massless gauge boson. This is incorrect, as the graviton is also predicted to be massless. The text should have described it as the only massless, spinless gauge b...
- Sat Apr 29, 2006 7:42 pm
- Forum: Best of the Best
- Topic: Underwhelmed
- Replies: 141
- Views: 160090
- Tue Apr 11, 2006 3:13 pm
- Forum: Best of the Best
- Topic: Underwhelmed
- Replies: 141
- Views: 160090
- Mon Feb 06, 2006 8:29 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Regs discussion
- Replies: 66
- Views: 52100
To be slightly more clear: given a map f: X -> Y it is usual to speak of an inverse map f^{-1}: Y -> X when one exists. It is less usual to call the map f^{-1}: 2^Y -> 2^X, which always exists, an inverse, but it the notation f^{-1} is always used for it. So to this extent I would say the phrasing i...
- Mon Feb 06, 2006 8:25 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Regs discussion
- Replies: 66
- Views: 52100
- Tue Jan 24, 2006 1:39 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Penn Bowl/Sword Bowl blew ass
- Replies: 79
- Views: 58690
- Tue Jan 24, 2006 12:29 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Penn Bowl/Sword Bowl blew ass
- Replies: 79
- Views: 58690
And I negged on that question because of this. Second example: in one of the bonuses there was a question on path integrals. It said that this is a 'weighted sum of paths'. This is incorrect, it is just a sum of paths. This error is less serious, and much more easily forgiven, but is still annoying...
- Sun Dec 04, 2005 11:02 pm
- Forum: Best of the Best
- Topic: Question-writing pet peeves
- Replies: 21
- Views: 26863
Re: Question-writing pet peeves
The opening of the Adagio in this work is quoted near the end of the Largo, while the Scherzo combines both of the previous movement's themes in a coda. I know you already said that sentence needs work, but I think it's pretty contentless as written. The rest of your question looks fine to me, but ...
- Sun Dec 04, 2005 3:10 pm
- Forum: Best of the Best
- Topic: Question-writing pet peeves
- Replies: 21
- Views: 26863
Re: Question-writing pet peeves
1) Booker Prize Lit. PLEASE STOP DOING THIS. Most of the books that have won the prize are too recent for us to appraise their overall significance to the literary canon (and moreover, almost nobody on the circuit has read them). How recently are you talking about? Surely Midnight's Children or The...
- Wed Nov 23, 2005 9:48 pm
- Forum: Best of the Best
- Topic: Technophobia Discussion or Monologue, Really
- Replies: 56
- Views: 62502
- Wed Nov 23, 2005 9:22 pm
- Forum: Best of the Best
- Topic: Technophobia Discussion or Monologue, Really
- Replies: 56
- Views: 62502
- Wed Nov 23, 2005 7:43 pm
- Forum: Best of the Best
- Topic: Technophobia Discussion or Monologue, Really
- Replies: 56
- Views: 62502
This has zero chemical information in terms of mechanisms and structures. Are we even talking about the same chirality? Have you looked at what a chirality question usually involves? What are you talking about? The question is clearly asking about situations where nature prefers one chirality over ...
- Wed Nov 23, 2005 6:01 pm
- Forum: Best of the Best
- Topic: Biology in the modern QB era.
- Replies: 37
- Views: 45859
Mostly I agree with what Seth and Selene have said. Harder questions on answerable things are good, questions on completely unknown things are bad. Simple enough, in principle. But in the interests of helping to calibrate what is gettable and what is not, I have some questions. Similarly, with the A...
- Wed Nov 23, 2005 2:26 am
- Forum: Best of the Best
- Topic: Biology in the modern QB era.
- Replies: 37
- Views: 45859
- Thu Aug 25, 2005 7:17 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: Governor's Cup
- Replies: 21
- Views: 11935
- Sun Jun 05, 2005 5:51 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: Thomas Jefferson wins third straight HSNCT
- Replies: 65
- Views: 36604
- Tue May 17, 2005 6:07 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: The Definitive Greatest Players List
- Replies: 18
- Views: 27768
I get the feeling that the A. and Z. who compiled this list, whoever they may be, are somewhat out of touch with the circuit of today. I don't intend this to seem mean-spirited, but I believe a lot of these rankings are based on somewhat scanty evidence gathered hastily from select tournaments. For...
- Fri May 06, 2005 9:18 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Lab techniques in quizbowl science
- Replies: 5
- Views: 4399
I mostly second what Ryan Westbrook says. Quizbowl shouldn't reflect curriculum, as I've said a number of times. For that matter, in physics what one does in a lab for a course often bears almost no relation to what actual experimentalists are doing. (Though it might bear some relation to what they ...
- Tue Apr 26, 2005 12:57 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Recent bans
- Replies: 11
- Views: 7429
So, unless I missed something, what's the big deal? I didn't notice anything particularly offensive being posted, and somewhat offensive things are posted on this forum all the time. The only complaint I've really seen is that Pericles (or others posting under the account) annoyed people or that peo...
- Thu Apr 21, 2005 12:39 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: A blast from the past ...
- Replies: 46
- Views: 39934
- Wed Apr 06, 2005 10:55 pm
- Forum: Best of the Best
- Topic: ACF Nationals aftermath/discussion
- Replies: 50
- Views: 67601
- Wed Apr 06, 2005 10:06 pm
- Forum: Best of the Best
- Topic: ACF Nationals aftermath/discussion
- Replies: 50
- Views: 67601
- Tue Mar 08, 2005 1:37 am
- Forum: Best of the Best
- Topic: ACF Regionals Commentary
- Replies: 51
- Views: 61544
Maybe I can sum up my former posts as follows: Write good questions about interesting things. Don't write about boring things, and don't avoid writing about interesting things just because other people write shitty questions about them. I see no reason any of that should be controversial, so I think...
- Tue Mar 08, 2005 1:29 am
- Forum: Best of the Best
- Topic: ACF Regionals Commentary
- Replies: 51
- Views: 61544
I think it is easier to write a lazy, boring particle physics question (especially a bonus) than any other kind of physics question, but I am convinced that it is entirely possible to write a complete set of non-particle physics questions which are pyramidal, accessible, and start with clues physic...
- Mon Mar 07, 2005 11:06 pm
- Forum: Best of the Best
- Topic: ACF Regionals Commentary
- Replies: 51
- Views: 61544
Anyway, huzzah for real quantum mechanics, and down with particle physics. My brief dissent (I don't feel like writing a detailed discussion of what I think constitute good physics questions at the moment): Dude, particle physics is real quantum mechanics. Also, the Landau pole is both. :-) Yeah, I...
- Fri Feb 11, 2005 2:16 am
- Forum: Best of the Best
- Topic: SCT commentary
- Replies: 67
- Views: 77041
I can't say too much, since I was playing on Div 2 questions (at the Canadian SCT where there were only a handful of Div 1 teams). I didn't realize I was playing on Div 2 questions at the time, probably through my own lack of attention. As a result, I was continually surprised by what I was hearing....