1
Heat Pumps Work Miracles
[ An updated treatment of some of this material appears in Chapter 6 of the Energy and Human Ambitions on a Finite Planet (free) textbook. ]
Tom Murphy (Do the Math)
Previous posts have seized on the phrase “I don’t see why not” as a perfect—yet unintentional—admission of ignorance in response to statements involving limits or constraints. In this unusual post format, I present a bevy of haiku to explore a variety of domains in which the “I don’t see why not” mantra exposes a…
- Popular posts
- 5
- Total points
- 838
- HN comments
- 869
- Rank
- #2,717 personal
Visit dothemath.ucsd.edu → RSS feedOn Hacker News Feb 2019 – Aug 2023
Science & Space 5Math & Algorithms 4Hardware & Electronics 1
2
Fusion Foolery
Great. The fusion hype is bad enough already. Now its resurgence is going to interrupt the series of posts I’m in the middle of publishing in order for this post to be “timely.”
3
Death by hockey sticks
You may be familiar with the term “hockey stick curve,” used describe a trend that has been flat/stable for a very long time, but shoots up at the end of the series in dramatic fashion, resembling the shape of a hockey stick. Hockey can be a violent sport, and it’s easy to get hurt by even one well-aimed swing…
4
Exponential Economist Meets Finite Physicist (2012)
[ An updated treatment of some of this material appears in Chapter 2 of the Energy and Human Ambitions on a Finite Planet (free) textbook, also mirrors a 2022 article in Nature Physics . . ]
5
Galactic-Scale Energy (2011)
[ An updated treatment of this material appears in Chapter 1 of the Energy and Human Ambitions on a Finite Planet (free) textbook , and also appears as part of an article in Nature Physics in 2022.]