What is the general level of math knowledge on these forums?

[Sroge4]

Yeah The teacher asked "How can we construct an angle's bisector?" I thought "Just fold it..."

[HankSimon]

If you practice folding a square in thirds, and how to fold an angle into thirds, as well as understanding the general proofs, your teacher might be intrigued if you demonstrated it after class.....

[joshuaorigami]

i'm terrible at math. Except Geometry, i'm like the only one in my class who gets it... Everything else i'm rubbish

[Razzmatazz]

Seeing as I am in grade 11, I think I am doing pretty good doing highest level math with 100% in the course. I use my father and brothers' textbooks from university to learn university calculus and university level linear algebra with matrices and such. It's pretty fun. I also read Kawasaki's book with the math section, and I often concentrate on learning the complex math in origami rather than the really complex models.

[the modern einstein]

I'm more of a science person - Considering I study such things as the behaviour of Baryons/Antibaryons, other forms of antimatter, and quarks, as well as the other fundamental particles of the universe there must be some understanding of maths in my head. A fair knowledge of college maths/calculus is needed for the intimate study of such subjects, but I'm not sure if I can say I'm a maths wiz.

[Sroge4]

So are you the type of person who goes around the school telling people neutrinos travel faster than light?

[HankSimon]

It depends.... Which kind, and how much does it weigh?

[Razzmatazz]

So are you the type of person who goes around the school telling people neutrinos travel faster than light?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherenkov_radiation
^-^

[HankSimon]

Neutrinos may travel FTL in a vacuum. Cherenkov is due to any particle traveling through any medium, usually water, FTL. Not the same as traveling faster than c.

[Razzmatazz]

Errrm Cherenkov does travel faster than c, occassionally. Or am I mis-lead?

[HankSimon]

Mis-led. It goes faster than light can go in the same medium, resulting in an 'optical sonic boom'. But, light goes less than c through air, and even more slowly through water (hence, refraction!).... In fact, near 0 K, in an Einstein Condensate (Google it), the speed of light is nearly zero, b/c of the density of the material.

At the moment, I think that nothing can go faster than c, the speed of light in a vacuum. Tachyons are theoretical. However, I haven't read the recent research on neutrinos going faster than c !!! That is a game changer..... No reason why Einstein was right, any more than Newton

[the modern einstein]

light is the fastest thing in the universe. according to the law of relativity, it is impossible for everything to go faster. neutrinos moving faster than light in a vacuum would undermine the whole basis of our understanding of physics today, and they don't, so it doesn't matter. this event occurring would mean that even quantum theory is drastically wrong. a particle going faster than light is even less likely, considering there are many phenomena in the universe that prove that Einstein is right. The phenomena Known as Einstein rings, is where light from a distant galaxy is bent from a foreground object, and, from our view, is in the shape of a ring. There are also several images that show light from a quasar being bent by a large galaxy, so that we see four images of it. just these two occurrences alone are proof of his theory's.

[redheadorigami]

While those comments have valid points, I propose a question...
if you break the sound barrier, you achieve a sonic boom, correct?
What would happen if someone broke the light barrier?

[the modern einstein]

It's impossible, so why care. under the pressure, any neutrons/protons/electrons would be broken up into sub particles, called quarks, which are extremely energetic. once these slow down, the strong nuclear force binds them back together again, to form the particles we are all familiar with.

[HankSimon]

Be careful before you assert that so definitively

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/23/science/23speed.html
http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2011/10/ne ... ly-rewind/

Cerenkov radiation is what happens when a particle breaks the light barrier in water. At the moment, researchers are being careful to interpret and verify similar results about neutrinos ... in a vacuum. One complication is that I don't think the mass of a neutrino was well-defined. Researchers are fully aware of the implications of 'over-turning' Relativity. In reality, there won't be an earth-shattering noise if the speed of light is not a constant, anymore than when Relativity overturned Newtonian physics ... Apples still fall from trees. The result will be a change in our understand of Quantum, Relativity, and an increase in knowledge...