Althouse: I've got 5 TikToks to amuse you on this Saturday midday. No corn, just animals, hair, Mahler, and physics. Let me know what you like.

August 27, 2022

I've got 5 TikToks to amuse you on this Saturday midday. No corn, just animals, hair, Mahler, and physics. Let me know what you like.

1. Geese are weird and terrifying (and I think it's real, and not some sort of animation).

2. Name that animal.

3. When is long hair a rebellion?

4. A harmonic reduction of Mahler's Symphony #2.

5. What is the formula for momentum?

61 comments:

Ron Snyder said...: You can drive thru the geese, though it is messy.; 8/27/22, 11:32 AM
Blackbeard said...: Number 5 is exactly why I dropped out of physics and did engineering instead. As a result I had a happy and successful career. Don't do physics.; 8/27/22, 11:40 AM
RoseAnne said...: At first, my favorite was the guy who could name the animals (he was REALLY good), but then I got into the one on momentum.

At about 4 minutes in, I thought it might be the best TikTok you ever posted. Then he went a different direction.

The high school teacher asked "what was the formula for momentum?" When he answered, she praised him as did many others in his life. As a result, he exceled at his studies and enthusiastically went off to study at university. (which is an example of the formula for momentum in a positive sense).

At university he runs into other definitions and is told he is unlearned and made fun of - which causes him to get frustrated and drop out. (which is an example of the formula for momentum in a negative sense)

I expected the TikTok person to make the point about negative and positive, but then he went a different way with the Avwngers and I got lost.

But it is still my favorite TikTok because it was thought provoking.; 8/27/22, 11:41 AM
Blackbeard said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/27/22, 11:43 AM
loudogblog said...: The one about physics does a good job of demonstrating how complex math can get. In the movie, Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970 - starring Eric Braeden) the government puts an artificial intelligence, named Colossus, in charge of all the nuclear weapons. Colossus soon discovers that the Russians have a similar system called Guardian. Colossus and Guardian begin to communicate using math. Soon, the math gets so complicated that no one can understand it.; 8/27/22, 11:47 AM
Lem the artificially intelligent said...: A geese galaxy with a white Honda for a black hole.; 8/27/22, 11:53 AM
Unknown said...: They make the best "watch dogs" plus they will drive off anyone who shows the least fear.; 8/27/22, 11:55 AM
n.n said...: Goslings, no relation to Gosnell.
A horse, of course.
Every other generation for males. Pretty much never for females.
Beep. Beep, beep... honk.
Diversified braying in cute hats.; 8/27/22, 12:10 PM
Lash LaRue said...: A gold star for number five.; 8/27/22, 12:14 PM
rhhardin said...: Take momentum as the conjugate coordinate to position and you'll do okay.; 8/27/22, 12:19 PM
Bender said...: Fell asleep (literally) watching 5.
4 Mahler did nothing for me.
1 was meh too.
2 The animal guy was impressive, but many of the animals were gross.

3 Long hair lady is the winner. More women need to go long...or at least not go to the overly short old lady hair look.; 8/27/22, 12:23 PM
JustSomeOldDude said...: Momentum!

Having barely passed Physics 101, I am so glad to not have ever strived to become a scientist of any sort.; 8/27/22, 12:23 PM
Clark said...: Mahler 2: There are no words for how great this music is. If you are not familiar with this piece, it would be weird to just drop into this very short, high energy segment. Like suddenly finding yourself going 120 mph without gradually accelerating to get there.

I sang in a performance of this piece with the NY Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein conducting, Jessye Norman one of the soloists. It was a big chorus, but there were only two of us basses who could sing the low, low Bb.; 8/27/22, 12:45 PM
Roger Sweeny said...: As a former high school physics teacher,

there are two things wrong with video 5. The worst thing is the bait and switch. Regular momentum ("linear momentum") and angular momentum are different things. So of course, they have different formulas. Two, even angular momentum doesn't need a tensor if you just worry about magnitude (the amount without caring about the direction). You have a pretty simple two variable formula for that.

On the other hand, there are lots of ways to do physics, some of which are deeper. We don't do them in high school physics because the math is harder--some times much, much harder.; 8/27/22, 12:50 PM
mezzrow said...: re: Mahler - you can see the changes scale up the cliff chromatically (so much tension!) then leap through the good old comfy V/I to the happy home of Eb, ahhh... He's only been setting this up for a couple of hours. No, Mahler's not for everybody.

Being in the middle of all that is a really special feeling, though. He was pushing the available mechanical technology and human ability to the limits of what people could do at the end of the 19th century.; 8/27/22, 12:50 PM
Mid-Life Lawyer said...: I like Long Hair Rebellion lady who could be Diane Keaton's cousin. The Momentum guy is dryly interesting and entertaining. Very dry.; 8/27/22, 12:56 PM
Curious George said...: Name that animal guesser needs to get in the gym.; 8/27/22, 1:27 PM
catter said...: I loved all of them so very hard to rank:
2
5
1
3
4
Long haired lady highlights the challenge of being a rebel about such matters: defining the norm against which one is rebelling.; 8/27/22, 1:28 PM
Original Mike said...: Yeah, physics can be like that. You need to suppress your ego if you want to enjoy it.

As it happens, I am brushing up on phase space and generalized coordinates just today, on the road to appreciating a new treatment of "the arrow of time" problem. I started out trying, yet again, to understand how time emerges in Boltzmann's formulation of entropy. And I've reached a conclusion on that; it's ridiculous bullshit. But on the way I ran across the work of the Russian scientist Ilya Prigogine and his ideas on how time emerges from nonequilibrium thermodynamics. Great way to spend a rainy afternoon.; 8/27/22, 1:29 PM
Original Mike said...: "The worst thing is the bait and switch. Regular momentum ("linear momentum") and angular momentum are different things."

Yeah, he could have done better at that spot.; 8/27/22, 1:32 PM
Breezy said...: The long haired rebel reminds me of my late mother-in-law. Her hair was just like that, often in a gorgeous thick braid…. This woman is rebellious in her dress too, so she has her own style through and through. I’d love to do that sometime but can’t bring myself to store all the extra stuff. Rebelliousness has several costs.; 8/27/22, 1:38 PM
Sebastian said...: "Felt like going to Heaven. I think that was the vibe he was going for"

Mahler gets as close as anyone.; 8/27/22, 1:47 PM
gilbar said...: #5 rather adequately described gilbar's 1st attempt at college.
Change momentum to differential equations and it adequately describes gilbar's 2nd and 3rd attempts.
Replace ANY Interest in physics or engineering with Not Give A Shit, I'll just learn Com Sci
and it Perfectly describes gilbar's 4th (and successful) attempt at college.; 8/27/22, 1:49 PM
gilbar said...: gilbar literally spent Far more time/money/effort taking (and failing) physics and engineering mechanics courses than All that he spent getting a Com Sci degree; 8/27/22, 1:52 PM
tim maguire said...: Didn’t like long hair lady. Sure, lots of elderly women have shorter hair, but not once in my life have I witnessed any being pressured to have short hair. Seems a basic requirement for rebellion, no? She just has long hair.

I couldn’t make it through #5–too long for tik tok, but it probably would have been my favourite if it weren’t so long. Geese was pretty cool, but so much less effort than the others, just good timing, that it’s hard to give it the nod.; 8/27/22, 1:59 PM
Amadeus 48 said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/27/22, 2:04 PM
Howard said...: I liked the silly one; 8/27/22, 2:07 PM
FullMoon said...: Geese following each other round and round, just like Govt/MSM circle jerk.

Nyt says trump a russian. FBE says NYT says trump a russian, might be true. NYT says FBI says, etc. all the way down to Inga says, Readering says, Cook says..; 8/27/22, 2:19 PM
Mea Sententia said...: So p = mv is disinformation? Who knew.; 8/27/22, 2:22 PM
Josephbleau said...: On the Physics thing. If you are going to understand something, you need to learn the prerequisites. You have to learn scales and chords before you can play Mozart. In undergrad Physics, Take linear algebra and the second math analysis course before you take higher Physics, then you can do the work. Most people reach an upper limit in math and physics, however high. A few reach the boundary of current knowledge and are prepared to push that boundary.; 8/27/22, 2:24 PM
JK Brown said...: A geodesy joke

When I was in elementary school I was told the earth was round. In middle school, they said, no, the earth is a ball. In high school, they said, no, the earth is a sphere. When in college, I felt I would finally learn the truth when I was told that the earth was not a sphere exactly but a geoid. After class, I rushed to the library to look up, geoid only to learn that geoid means "earth shaped".

Not exact but it's been 30+ years.; 8/27/22, 2:59 PM
Smilin' Jack said...: The professor in #5 is a woman, so you can’t expect her to ask the question she actually wants an answer to. She wanted angular momentum, but got the correct answer to the question she actually asked, “What is momentum?” Then she blames the the man for not answering the question she should have asked.

Anyway, angular momentum is not a tensor, but results from the sum of a vector (rotational angular momentum) and a Dirac spinor (intrinsic angular momentum).; 8/27/22, 3:07 PM
JK Brown said...: What I learned to despise as I proceeded in life after by Physic undergrad was that they never tell you that they are simplifying it. So when you think about a situation where it doesn't work, you, after more than a decade of "right answer" training think that you "got it wrong" when in reality you've ventured into an area where the simple doesn't work anymore.

"[G]etting educated is getting an inkling of the immensity of our ignorance."
---Karl Popper (1969)

They do it in electrical/electronics. Zoom right over that wires have resistance, as well as capacitance and inductance. After all, it is negligible in the common scope. But resistance in the wires and connections becomes critical when, say troubleshooting a car in the salt belt. Voltage drop matters.

Here's a real world example of a non-college, self taught working class knowing what the college-educated miss unless they too have real world experience. The "error" was headed for $5000 and no fix situation compared to a $20 part and one hour diagnosis fee

https://youtu.be/8CFZcO4NDhI; 8/27/22, 3:09 PM
Balfegor said...: Mahler's second might be my favourite overall, followed by nine. The others have great moments (e.g. the slow movement in six, the one with the cowbell), but those two are the ones I enjoy most consistently all the way through.; 8/27/22, 3:12 PM
FleetUSA said...: At her age, she's spending an awful amount of time on her hair and it looks sloppy IMHO.; 8/27/22, 3:22 PM
Robert Marshall said...: Geese ordinarily have a 'leader' who they follow. I wonder if what happened with the car is that the leader started out circling it, and upon completing the first time around, caught up with the tail end of the flock, and forgot that he was in the lead. At that point, the flock became leaderless, and there was no way to stop circling the car.

Besides being mean and full of goose poop, geese are also pretty stupid.; 8/27/22, 3:27 PM
Nancy said...: Thank you Ann!; 8/27/22, 3:35 PM
MadisonMan said...: Name that animal was pretty impressive.
Long-haired lady has very nice hair, and nice hair looks good long (is it dyed? I don't think so). If she had grey hair that was unkempt, well,....; 8/27/22, 3:44 PM
MadisonMan said...: Gilbar, I misread ComSci as CornSci, and was I wondering if corn-eating was part of the curricumulum. How come no one has taught Corn Boy the proper way to eat corn?; 8/27/22, 3:53 PM
Mark Nielsen said...: I really wanted Mahler to be my favorite, and it was until I watched the Physics entry.

But Mahler is more "lastingly good", and even though the video is simple, it's impressive to see the chord progression spelled out that way. Mahler is genius.; 8/27/22, 4:13 PM
Bob Boyd said...: #5 is about an aspiring physics student who loses his momentum and switches to a journalism major then goes to work at the NYT writing about things his editor noticed on Twitter.; 8/27/22, 4:29 PM
dbp said...: I loved physics in high school because it seemed so straightforward and agreed with my intuitive sense of how things work. Later, in university-level classes, it seemed as if they were saying the same things in an unnecessarily more complicated way, so I enjoyed physics a lot less after that.

I liked how the old woman dressed and looked with her long hair, but she seemed a little too pleased by her rebelliousness--It's not as if she would have faced anything more serious than innuendo that she wasn't acting her age. There would never have been an, "I am Spartacus" moment.

On geese, this video has been going around and I half-expected it to be the tik-tok:

https://youtu.be/n0N82QbYkug

A Canada Goose refuses to be intimidated by hostile cows.; 8/27/22, 4:50 PM
Susan in Seattle said...: The woman with the long hair has beautiful hair; not lank and stringy, so she can carry it off. She also has a pleasant speaking voice. Really liked the physics video too.; 8/27/22, 5:17 PM
gilbar said...: Madisonman..
Everybody doesn't have to like corn, for it to be best.
And everybody can eat it in their own way
Corn don't care. Corn likes you no matter what; 8/27/22, 5:59 PM
gilbar said...: It DOES look like cornsci..
Sorry!
I've smoked pot with more than enough agronomy majors to know that I'd NEVER make it in cornsci :); 8/27/22, 6:07 PM
Baceseras said...: Mahler for me.

I had a comment about the Animal Namer but Autocorrect going crazy here I cannot 1st t y pe a ducking 27th ing.; 8/27/22, 6:28 PM
Bob Boyd said...: I bet they have Corn Law profs in Iowa; 8/27/22, 6:40 PM
BUMBLE BEE said...: Momentum??? Easy!
If you push something hard enough, it will fall over. Fudd's first law of opposition.; 8/27/22, 6:46 PM
lgv said...: Oh my. I loved "name that animal". I got six, which I thought was pretty good, but I now live in fear of a Tardigrade attack. I had to look it up. Luckily it is only .5mm full size. I feel safer now. But they are still way bigger than dust mites.

Oh, and the physics one is pretty awesome, too.; 8/27/22, 7:02 PM
gilbar said...: Bob Boyd said...
I bet they have Corn Law profs in Iowa
there's 3 offices of them, right up the street from me (across from the court house)
But while gilbar's family is Proud owners of a (more than) century farm; we let Hertz farm management take care of all the details; my mom just cashes the checks; 8/27/22, 7:21 PM
R C Belaire said...: Physics! Doubleplus good.; 8/27/22, 7:23 PM
EAB said...: Enjoyed the physics one. Seemed to be demonstrating how when one advances in any kind of study, the questions and answers get far more complex. Early on, a subject is straightforward, but the more you know and study, the more nuance and variables come into okay.

Am I a rebel if I haven’t had long hair since high school?

Also enjoyed the animals quiz - impressive. He did less well in a more general knowledge one, which was interesting.; 8/27/22, 7:45 PM
h said...: Long hair in women: Among the people that I know, without exception, women cut their hair short at a point in their lives when they were done with child bearing. I think they knew (perhaps unconsciously) that their husbands found them more sexually attractive with long hair, so cutting their hair to less than shoulder length was a way of subtly discouraging sexual interest from their partners.; 8/27/22, 7:49 PM
gilbar said...: My dad's two laws of engineering (he was a mechanical engineer from 1955-2003

1) f = ma
2) you can't push a rope; 8/27/22, 7:50 PM
cf said...: The animal naming guy is gay tease turn on.

i loved how much the guy caught Mahler, have no understanding what he's talking about, but am smarter now to know the end of No. 2 is worth it.

physics was fun, i understand it better than ever now.

favorite? the sincere excitement in the Mahler guy.; 8/27/22, 11:16 PM
Rosalyn C. said...: Loved the Mahler video best. I loved the expression in the guy's eyes.

Had to chuckle at the theory that women cut their hair when they get older because they are supposed to and that long hair is an act of rebellion or because older women want to discourage sexual interest from their partners, lol!!!

Imagine saying older men tend to keep their hair trimmed out of a desire to discourage sexual interest from their partners, or that if an older man has long hair it's an act of rebellion. More likely, if he has long hair it's because he still has hair and a job. That's all.; 8/27/22, 11:32 PM
effinayright said...: FleetUSA said...
At her age, she's spending an awful amount of time on her hair and it looks sloppy IMHO.
**********

Me too. I bet she macramés her armpit hair as well.; 8/28/22, 12:48 AM
Ann Althouse said...: There are 2 main reasons women keep their hair short when they get older:

1. They have heard that long hair makes your face look older. The theory is: It drags your face down. Somehow the hair being lower causes people to look at the bottom of your hair and because their eyes go down, the look of your face goes down. I've heard this theory all my life.

2. Their hair becomes too thin or breakable to grow long and look healthy and full. Look at the comments on the video I put up. Lots of women say things like: You hair is so lush and thick and healthy/I wish I could grow my hair like that.

If you think women cut their hair because they don't want men to find them attractive... you don't understand women's problems and you're making an inference that reveals what's in your head. You think it's all a message toward men and if they aren't attractive it's because they don't want to be. Ironically, that's not attractive.

If theory #1 were true, then on days when I wear my long hair up, people would exclaim about how young I look (and keep quiet when I wear it down).; 8/28/22, 5:48 AM
Howard said...: It's a mistake to speculation regarding woman's motivational drives esp wrt hair. It's not only never what you think, it's usually so convoluted and specific to the individual that whatever you say will be wrong and the drill bit instructor will just beat you harder. It's best to always compliment whatever hairdos they sport on any given day.; 8/28/22, 7:23 AM
William said...: The long haired lady was pleasant and attractive. I bet in her youth, many found her to be a show stopper. It's all very well to be pleasant and attractive, but it's not like being a show stopper. Linear momentum is easy to understand. Angular momentum takes a lot more effort. She no longer has linear momentum.; 8/28/22, 9:36 AM
fizzymagic said...: I'm a real-life physicist. The one about physics embodies a very common mistake people make about physics: confusing the math used to describe something with the thing itself. It's an understandable mistake, since many physics concepts (such as momentum) arise from the math. For example, angular momentum and momentum are not the same thing at all -- angular momentum got its name because it behaves in a momentum-like way in many contexts, but that doesn't make it the same. Likewise, quantum-mechanical descriptions of momentum are probabilistic because everything is, not because the definition of "momentum" changed.

But I do get the (amusing) point.; 8/28/22, 4:54 PM