5 ms·

More detail but less beauty. I'll take a second whack at it. Ignore the details, consider the premise. The university library was under renovation. He wound up

by tacos 10y ago

More detail but less beauty. I'll take a second whack at it. Ignore the details, consider the premise. The university library was under renovation. He wound up in charge of safekeeping a pile of journals. So he stacked them neatly by year and decade: - The 1900s Physics Journals: 1" tall - The 1910s stack: 2" tall - The 1920s stack: 4" tall - The 1930s stack: 8" tall ... I'm reminded of Feynman's tale of the Bell Labs scientists who had a view of suspension bridge construction. Marked the progress week by week on the glass, watching the cable slowly fall into parabolic shape.

thaumasiotes 10y ago
This contradicts the earlier description of "growing in a logarithmic curve" -- it's an exponential curve. A logarithmic curve would look like this: - The 1900s stack: 1" tall - The 1910s stack: 2" tall - The 1930s stack: 3" tall - The 1970s stack: 4" tall - The 2050s stack: 5" tall ...
- tacos 10y ago
  "Ignore the details, consider the premise." :) Have an upvote and go read the guy's Wiki article. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derek_J._de_Solla_Price https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derek_J._de_Solla_Price
  - acqq 10y ago
    The "logarihmic" premise was false from the start, that's why the people (I too) couldn't understand what you initially wrote.
    - tacos 10y ago
      If you stack books horizontally on shelves by year it would form the textbook exponential curve. If you stack them vertically on the floor it makes the textbook log curve. It's a visual metaphor. Apparently not a very good one. http://science.larouchepac.com/gauss/ceres/InterimII/Arithmetic/Primes/Log_Exp_inverts.jpg http://science.larouchepac.com/gauss/ceres/InterimII/Arithme... http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-47zv3839-6U/UP37FwkfOhI/AAAAAAAACUE/suc684kYcxE/s1600/logvsexpon.png http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-47zv3839-6U/UP37FwkfOhI/AAAAAAAACU... EDIT: Wow, this is still ongoing? You can mount a hockey stick horizontally or vertically on a wall, guys. Think about it.
      - acqq 10y ago
        So there are 10 magazines from 1910s, 20 from 1920s and 40 from 1930s. How would you arrange them so that I can recognize the log curve?
      - dragonwriter 10y ago
        > If you stack books horizontally on shelves by year it would form the textbook exponential curve. If you stack them vertically on the floor it makes the textbook log curve. It seems to me you have that exactly backwards: If you stack books horizontally on shelves, which each shelf corresponding to a same-size range of years (e.g., a shelf per decade), with earlier periods on lower shelves, it would form a quantized approximation of the textbook logarithmic curve. If you stack books vertically on the floor in similar periods with earlier periods on the left, it would form a quantized approximation of the textbook exponential curve.

by tacos 10y ago

thaumasiotes 10y ago

This contradicts the earlier description of "growing in a logarithmic curve" -- it's an exponential curve. A logarithmic curve would look like this: - The 1900s stack: 1" tall - The 1910s stack: 2" tall - The 1930s stack: 3" tall - The 1970s stack: 4" tall - The 2050s stack: 5" tall ...

tacos 10y ago
"Ignore the details, consider the premise." :) Have an upvote and go read the guy's Wiki article. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derek_J._de_Solla_Price https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derek_J._de_Solla_Price
- acqq 10y ago
  The "logarihmic" premise was false from the start, that's why the people (I too) couldn't understand what you initially wrote.
  - tacos 10y ago
    If you stack books horizontally on shelves by year it would form the textbook exponential curve. If you stack them vertically on the floor it makes the textbook log curve. It's a visual metaphor. Apparently not a very good one. http://science.larouchepac.com/gauss/ceres/InterimII/Arithmetic/Primes/Log_Exp_inverts.jpg http://science.larouchepac.com/gauss/ceres/InterimII/Arithme... http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-47zv3839-6U/UP37FwkfOhI/AAAAAAAACUE/suc684kYcxE/s1600/logvsexpon.png http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-47zv3839-6U/UP37FwkfOhI/AAAAAAAACU... EDIT: Wow, this is still ongoing? You can mount a hockey stick horizontally or vertically on a wall, guys. Think about it.
    - acqq 10y ago
      So there are 10 magazines from 1910s, 20 from 1920s and 40 from 1930s. How would you arrange them so that I can recognize the log curve?
    - dragonwriter 10y ago
      > If you stack books horizontally on shelves by year it would form the textbook exponential curve. If you stack them vertically on the floor it makes the textbook log curve. It seems to me you have that exactly backwards: If you stack books horizontally on shelves, which each shelf corresponding to a same-size range of years (e.g., a shelf per decade), with earlier periods on lower shelves, it would form a quantized approximation of the textbook logarithmic curve. If you stack books vertically on the floor in similar periods with earlier periods on the left, it would form a quantized approximation of the textbook exponential curve.