On Purity

Posted on 11 June 2008 by rpg

Just because I’m in a maths and stats department

Of course, statistics is a part of all of these subjects, so we get to choose how pure we want to be.
Oh, I should also point out that our department is in a building called Exactum. The physicists are in Physicum (Hey I didn’t think up the names), and are most upset at the implication that they are imprecise.
When it gets dull around here, we pop over to have lunch in the meteorologists’ building, Dynamicum. Never a dull moment there.

About rpg

Scientist, poet, gadfly
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6 Responses to On Purity

  1. Henry Gee says:
    11 June 2008 at 10:01

    I’m always amused by the title of the undergraduate course offered (or used to be) in Cambridge as part of the Natural Sciences Tripos, called ‘Elementary Mathematics For Biologists’.

  2. Bob O'Hara says:
    11 June 2008 at 10:07

    Hmmm. “If you have two carbon atoms and one oxygen atom, and you add six hydrogen atoms, what do you get?”

  3. Raf Aerts says:
    11 June 2008 at 10:29

    Mixed with Hordeum vulgare and Humulus lupulus, I would say beer.

  4. Sabine Hossenfelder says:
    11 June 2008 at 14:05

    Haha. Just as a remark – not that I think you aren’t aware of it – but what people often seem to overlook in that chain of reasoning is that one can’t always draw conclusions about the larger system just from examining its constituents, emergent phenomena, complexity and all. Examples are plenty.

  5. Bob O'Hara says:
    11 June 2008 at 14:13

    I’m sure most biologists would be please to be able to disassociate themselves from sociologists in that was. Most probably agree too.
    We’ll leave it to the poor psychologists in the middle to explain why.

  6. Sabine Hossenfelder says:
    11 June 2008 at 16:39

    I’m sure most biologists would be please to be able to disassociate themselves from sociologists in that was. Most probably agree too.
    I guess this was meant to be humorous, so please excuse if I take it seriously: What makes you sure about this? In the absence of psychologists, feel free to speculate on the why.

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