Electron band structure in germanium, my ass (2001) • Hacker News Board

Re: Electron band structure in germanium, my ass (2001)

#131

Post by charlieyu1 » Tue, Apr 01, 2025, 5:08 PM UTC

jerf wrote: post #27

One of my Core Memories when it comes to science, science education, and education in general was in my high school physics class, where we had to do an experiment to determine the gravitational acceleration of Earth. This was done via the following mechanism: Roll a ball off of a standard classroom table. Use a 1990s wristwatch's stopwatch mechanism to start the clock when the ball rolls of the table. Stop the stopw…

I used to teach math to 5th graders about angles. I let them draw a triangle and measure the angles with a protractor, then calculate the sum. The sum is usually around 177 or 178 degrees.

Re: Electron band structure in germanium, my ass (2001)

#132

Post by morgoths_bane » Tue, Apr 01, 2025, 5:08 PM UTC

MarkusQ wrote: post #98

cratermoon wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you like watching right-wing educational propaganda, sure.

So wait, so you've decided a film by the director of An Inconvenient Truth, that was praised by everybody from Bill Gates to Oprah, has won awards and gotten a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes is "right wing propaganda"? You may want to recalibrate you sense of where the center is.

Bill Gates and Oprah are both billionaires. Billionaires in general want solutions that defend capital. Privately run schools that receive government funding, in addition to tuition, while also being able to set their own curriculum free from the state is certainly within their collective class interest.

Many seem to make the mistake of assuming that one’s allegiance to the US Democratic Party means that the individual is a leftist, that cannot be further from the truth. The most recent presidential election I hope would have dispelled such myths however I am not certain if that is the case. That said, the US Democratic Party is a right centrist party. I fail to see how a film with endorsements from Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey is convincing evidence to show that this film is not rightwing propaganda. All conversations within the Overton Window of acceptability within the US are going to be right of center inherently, including films like this one.

Re: Electron band structure in germanium, my ass (2001)

#133

Post by dvh » Tue, Apr 01, 2025, 5:10 PM UTC

sevensor wrote: post #76

I TAd a semiconductor fabrication lab class 20-odd years ago. Mostly it was about making sure the students had the absolute fear of God put into them about working with HF, but there was also a bit at the end where you actually got to do a voltage sweep and characterize your transistor. If in fact you had made a transistor rather than a needlessly complicated resistor. The other TAs and I passed this paper around and…

And then there are Etsy moms making frosted shot glass

Re: Electron band structure in germanium, my ass (2001)

#134

Post by stoneman24 » Tue, Apr 01, 2025, 5:10 PM UTC

Sesse__ wrote: post #102

jerf wrote: post #27

One of my Core Memories when it comes to science, science education, and education in general was in my high school physics class, where we had to do an experiment to determine the gravitational acceleration of Earth. This was done via the following mechanism: Roll a ball off of a standard classroom table. Use a 1990s wristwatch's stopwatch mechanism to start the clock when the ball rolls of the table. Stop the stopw…

My physics professor told us once about a lab he had to do when he was a student himself, about measuring the adiabatic gas constant of air. The workload at that point was immense, so lots of students would just write a report and give the textbook answer—and be marked wrong. It turned out the TA had sabotaged the experiment by putting alcohol in the bottom of the (dark glass) measurement bottle, so the measurement w…

In one class I took, we were examining a range of car engines for faults and the task was to get it running.

The rumour was that the previous years class had one engine where the ignition rotor arm wire had been replaced by section of coloured plastic which was covered in the usual grease and crap in the housing.

The instructor was looking for persistence and elimination of possibilities rather than actually solving it. But one team did. As long as you solved the others that was enough to complete the class.

Re: Electron band structure in germanium, my ass (2001)

#135

Post by emmelaich » Tue, Apr 01, 2025, 5:10 PM UTC

jerf wrote: post #27

One of my Core Memories when it comes to science, science education, and education in general was in my high school physics class, where we had to do an experiment to determine the gravitational acceleration of Earth. This was done via the following mechanism: Roll a ball off of a standard classroom table. Use a 1990s wristwatch's stopwatch mechanism to start the clock when the ball rolls of the table. Stop the stopw…

I had a similar experience in Physics 101 and Chemistry 101. The labs were chaotic and had limited time. If you were even a little bit unlucky it would be impossible to even finish them let alone get remotely decent results.

I'm convinced 60% of the class faked results or copied many results from previous year's students.

Re: Electron band structure in germanium, my ass (2001)

#136

Post by jerf » Tue, Apr 01, 2025, 5:13 PM UTC

Sesse__ wrote: post #102

jerf wrote: post #27

One of my Core Memories when it comes to science, science education, and education in general was in my high school physics class, where we had to do an experiment to determine the gravitational acceleration of Earth. This was done via the following mechanism: Roll a ball off of a standard classroom table. Use a 1990s wristwatch's stopwatch mechanism to start the clock when the ball rolls of the table. Stop the stopw…

My physics professor told us once about a lab he had to do when he was a student himself, about measuring the adiabatic gas constant of air. The workload at that point was immense, so lots of students would just write a report and give the textbook answer—and be marked wrong. It turned out the TA had sabotaged the experiment by putting alcohol in the bottom of the (dark glass) measurement bottle, so the measurement w…

Even as I rather vigorously grumble at the status quo, let it be noted that I celebrate those iconoclasts fighting the good fight all the more for the fact that they are going against the status quo to do so. May their tenacity and creativity ultimately prevail.

Re: Electron band structure in germanium, my ass (2001)

#137

Post by finnthehuman » Tue, Apr 01, 2025, 5:13 PM UTC

jerf wrote: post #27

One of my Core Memories when it comes to science, science education, and education in general was in my high school physics class, where we had to do an experiment to determine the gravitational acceleration of Earth. This was done via the following mechanism: Roll a ball off of a standard classroom table. Use a 1990s wristwatch's stopwatch mechanism to start the clock when the ball rolls of the table. Stop the stopw…

>The lesson is taught early and often. It often sort of baffles me when other people are baffled at how often this happens in science,

Math and some sciences have the aura of definitive right and wrong, so even though by college everyone knows the expression "give the answer the teacher wants to hear", they just think in those subjects the teacher has access to absolute answers.

The primary thing taught by our schooling system (and 2nd place isn't even close) is bureaucracy obedience. This has the obvious effects, but one of the subtler ones is deference to "science" as an authority requiring obedience rather than the process of figuring shit out.

Re: Electron band structure in germanium, my ass (2001)

#138

Post by arijo » Tue, Apr 01, 2025, 5:14 PM UTC

orlp wrote: post #99

don-code wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is, more or less, exactly what happened when I took Electronics I in college. The course was structured in such a way that you could not move on to the next lab assignment until you completed the one before it. You could complete the lab assignments at your own pace. If you failed the lab, you failed the class, regardless of your grade. The second or third lab had us characterize the response of a transistor in…

What I don't understand is why it took you 8 weeks to distinguish a timer from a transistor. That doesn't make your professor's reaction alright, I just find it puzzling.

You can create a timer with one transistor and an LC feedback loop.

Re: Electron band structure in germanium, my ass (2001)

#139

Post by morgoths_bane » Tue, Apr 01, 2025, 5:14 PM UTC

veggieroll wrote: post #53

jerf wrote: post #27

One of my Core Memories when it comes to science, science education, and education in general was in my high school physics class, where we had to do an experiment to determine the gravitational acceleration of Earth. This was done via the following mechanism: Roll a ball off of a standard classroom table. Use a 1990s wristwatch's stopwatch mechanism to start the clock when the ball rolls of the table. Stop the stopw…

I can totally relate. I had the same experience in grade school science class, where the teacher assigned an experiment with a suggested solution and an invitation to come up with your own method. I was the only person in class that chose to do my own method. And, it didn't work because I didn't account for an environmental difference between my house and the school classroom. And, he gave me a failing grade. It real…

[dead]

Re: Electron band structure in germanium, my ass (2001)

#140

Post by foven » Tue, Apr 01, 2025, 5:15 PM UTC

qwezxcrty wrote: post #25

HiPHInch wrote: post #11

I took some effort to change my research interest from computer vision to DFT calculation in quantum chemistry. Honestly, I'm kind of frustrated now, too many work is close-source in this area. The research paper will tell you everything except how to reproduce this work in minimal effort, it's like they are hiding something. They also using a `Origin` to plot and MS Word to write paper, which is also non-free licens…

I miss OriginPro in my undergrad when we had campus licenses for, before moving to matplotlib for data visualization. matplotlib is simply too disappointing for making publication quality figures. The most recently encountered problem is how to plot with a broken x-axis, which is one of the most basic need in physical science but requires a non-trivial amount of hacking to get with matplotlib. Open source tool or not…

Honestly, when it comes to hacking things together with matplotlib I outsource all of my thinking to chatgpt to do the 80% of doc hunting that is honestly not worth it since everything in matplotlib is labelled inconsistently.