May 11
When I woke up I nuzzled Meghan until she woke up too and then I kissed her on the forehead and said that I was going to go flying 'cause I was nervous about the test coming up and she hugged me and wished me good luck, and then I quietly let myself out because Amy was still asleep.
I kept the grumpy man's words in mind when I asked for my flight clearance, and I stayed low over Kalamazoo until I was west of town, across the 131 Highway. Then I got permission to fly higher and did some peaks and troughs until I was a little bit tired, so I hovered at my last peak, told the airplane directors that I was going to go down again, and then did a big dive and pulled out into a glide and made it most of the way back to campus hardly flapping my wings at all.
Professor Doctor Sir Banerjee introduced us to fractals, and he started off by explaining how all the geometric shapes we studied were the idealized shapes, and that reminded me of Plato and his forms.
He explained how functions for curved lines were idealized lines, and if you looked really closely at the line it was actually straight there, and I raised my hoof and said that ancient pegasi had considered a circle to be a polygon with a hundred forty-four sides and that was how they approximated the circumference and volume of it, and he said that humans had done something similar before they’d discovered pi.
A man named Benoit Mandelbrot had discovered the fractal nature of things when he discussed measuring the coastline of England, which is an island, and his discovery was that the shorter a measuring stick you used, the longer the perimeter got, because you were measuring smaller and smaller variations. Islands and coastlines are very bumpy and irregular. I don’t know why he wanted to measure it, because it’s how big it is, but humans like making measurements of things, so I guess that was important to him. And so it turned out that the coastline of England is infinitely long, if you use a small enough measuring stick, yet it encloses a finite area.
By the extension of this principle, you could imagine drawing a big, ideal rectangle around England, and of course you would know the area of that rectangle, But then inside that would be England with its infinite coastline, and you would therefore have an infinite line contained inside a non-infinite space.
I kinda ate a light lunch, because I was worried about my anthropology test. It was funny; Peggy worried about math tests but they were less stressful to me because the rules of math were really straightforward and there was a right answer and a wrong answer and that was that. But in classes like Anthropology there wasn't a clear right or wrong, and so you sort of had to guess at what was the best answer.
I suppose poetry is like that, too, but Conrad seems more interested in what the poem says to us rather than what the poet meant to say.
Like she'd done with some of her other assignments, the test was about a made-up tribe of people, and we had to use the observations that she had given us and come to conclusions from that. And some of the stuff was really hard to figure out, because she hadn't given us any definite answers. I guess that's what it would be like in real life: if you were just watching you might not know for sure.
I was pretty frazzled by the end of class. I'd had to read over the information she'd given us several times to sort of tease out the information I wanted, and I wasn't sure by the end of it that I was right. But I thought she'd be happier with an honest attempt, so when I wasn't certain about something, I'd decided that I would offer other observations which might help to get at the root of the matter, because that seemed like something that she would be in favor of.
I talked to Rachel a little bit after class was over. She'd found the test really difficult, too, and she said that when she'd gone into Anthropology she'd thought it would be an easy class but that it had turned out not to be at all. So I asked her what she meant by that and she said that in order to graduate students had to take certain classes which were outside of their majors and minors and a lot of people picked classes which they thought would be easy if it was a subject that they weren't that interested in.
Well, my first reaction was that that was silly; what was the point in being required to take a class that you weren't interested in? But then I got to thinking about it more and I wondered if maybe that wasn't smart after all because it would make people learn something that they might not have wanted to but which might be useful just the same. I know when I was a filly I didn't want to go to school at all because I could have been pushing clouds instead of going to class, but now that I was older and wiser, I knew that the mares that hadn't couldn't get beyond local supervisor because no matter how much they might know about the local weather from hooves-on work, they didn't understand the big picture.
And sometimes you didn't know the big picture right away, and you just had to trust that the ponies in charge were wiser than you. I hadn't known how difficult me flying made it for the airplane directors—I hadn't seen what they saw; I hadn't known that I didn't show up on their screens like all the other airplanes so they had to guess where I was and to be safe they had to make sure to keep airplanes away from where I might be, and some of them were cheerful about it and some of them were resentful for the extra work that I made.
But now that I knew better, I could make sure to make it easier for them.
So maybe there was stuff that would matter later but didn't matter now. Maybe Rachel would go on to look at life with slightly new eyes because she understood better how not everybody was the same. Different cultures and different tribes had different ways of looking at the world, and maybe it wasn't always the best way but it was the way that they knew and so we had to understand that before we could decide if they were right or wrong.
I was thinking about that a little bit as I studied more of my radio book. It was hard getting through some of it because it kept nagging at the back of my mind that I didn't need to know it, but then I thought that maybe somehow it might later on, so I studied and took the practice test and took notes and studied some more and took it again and I wasn't satisfied until I took it three times in a row and got a perfect score each time. And it wasn't because I remembered what the answers were, either; the computer kept changing the questions.
It felt like I had made some important discovery so I was in a pretty good mood when I went to dinner, and on my way out I stopped by the mail hut and got my mail. There was a letter from Gusty—I'd thought that she would have sent one back on the computer, but she hadn't. So back at my room I opened it and the first thing I saw was a newspaper clipping and it was a review of their play, and it had a very nice picture of her.
In the letter she said that the second weekend had gone very well and they had been sold out every show thanks to the review in the Chicago Tribune. And she thanked me for coming to see it and also said that they were going to be going to Stratford Ontario, not England but maybe if they did really well in Ontario they could go to England.
She said that the only downside had been that on Sunday after she had gone to check her computer mail she had gotten all kinds of invitations from other theatres and that she had been planning to go to California but now she wasn't so sure if that was the right choice.
So I showed the letter to Peggy and the newspaper clipping, too, and then I wrote her a letter back saying that I was proud of her and that she shouldn't make a decision right away but look into her heart and see what felt right to her.
Then I started my computer and sent a letter on it to Mister Salvatore to tell him that I was ready to take the radio test and then I made a couple of more dreamcatchers and read some more of the Bible and I probably should have started reading the book about World War One as well but I was starting to get sleepy, so I flew off to Aric's house instead with one of my new dreamcatchers for him.
Firstly, it's mandatory someone post this:
Now that that's out of the way, I do love seeing Silver think through things. There's an air of friendship lesson about it, writing down an insight about life that expands the writer's horizons and understanding. That being said, "we had to understand that before we could decide if they were right or wrong" probably isn't the best way she could've phrased the nature of anthropology. Especially not after saying how there isn't a strict right or wrong earlier in the entry.
Yes, you probably don't want to read that just before you go to bed, it would give you nightmare's and with no Luna to keep them away. I could see that resulting in you sharing someone else's bed.
Ah yes, the right or wrong dilemma in the social sciences. Guess it's especially hard for the SG, since she is so analytical and relies heavily on referencing what she's been taught is right or wrong, no matter the subject.
Somebody should tell her that she can discern right or wrong in anthropology: you can chose the wrong methodology for the setting or get your appropriate methodology wrong, be it confirmation bias, tarmac bias (yep, that's a thing in areas where there are no roads and it becomes more and more difficult to collect data the further you go from easy ways of access) or setting a randomized data collection up in a way that it only looks randomized... You can also get the statistics wrong. Very wrong at that. Or you can fall into the trap of trying to prove your own preconceived notions instead of testing your hypothesis.
Your conclusions can of course be right or wrong, but that goes for nearly every branch of science. That's why you need to set the study up in a way that can be replicated, something else you can get wrong. She's out of her comfort zone because her only reference to what is the right or wrong result is her reliance on getting the method right (that she has to chose herself without a clearcut frame of reference) in combination with her own reflections and logical reasoning. That is precisely the one extremely valuable thing about taking a course in a social science, analyzing complex ('wicked' as they are called) problems and finding a working, replicable way of approaching them. Every problem relating to sustainability falls into that category, and most of those have social science components.
Hello, weather manager on earth.
7379716
She always does that anyway.
Typo
Raising her radar signature is probably futile (even wrapped in tinfoil, she's still a little pony) but maybe she could carry a transponder?
Heeeere we go
known
We do it because we love you.
That is what I think iss the whole point of education; opening yourself to new ideas and way of thinking, building yourself tools for the future.
At my college, I asked around for an easy class to meet the art requirement. It turned out to be a drama class, with easy multiple choice exams for the midterm and final, and one paper comparing and contrasting the two plays put on by the theater company over the term.
Sadly, the company didn't have a unicorn actor.
I see Silver Glow has been having a bit of fun with clouds:
i.imgur.com/2jY8Gmx.jpg
(Borderline NSFW, but only if you squint)
How can you tell? As Tank and Rainbow Dash proved, motion doesn't exist.
7380094
Imgur are a bunch of wankers. But not nearly as bad as Pinterest. Ebaum-level douchebags, those guys.
7380222
Ugh, I forgot the referrer-block thing. It's circumventable with Firefox, but more convenient to just copy-paste the URL.
Is it possible for her to carry a transponder so that she'll show up on the modern air traffic control systems? I mean, if she's already carrying a radio and a light, a transponder should not be that big of a deal. Remember, in the show, a Pegasus can carry a whole cart.
I know that feel.
My Anthropology course was the laid back easy kind. The course that Silver took sounds more engaging though. My mind is very literal though. If asked those questions on the test, I do not think that I would have thought to give info on what more is needed to pin down the answers more. It is probably why I was a Engineering major.
Silver should learn about flying on flight plans even though she doesn't need to. That would also make grumpy's job easier and let Silver explore the city. That or just do it when the other flight operators are on duty.
I wonder if one of the abilities of pegasi would be to actually detect if they are getting enough oxygen. Humans can only detect CO2 concentrations and not O2. If we walked into a room with just nitrogen, we would feel just fine for a couple of seconds then drop like a sack of potatoes. Pegasi flying at altitude would not have the CO2 problem but the O2 would be very much so.
I am curious about Aric's response to the dream catcher. I think he will like it, but everyone has different, interesting ways of showing appreciation towards others.
To quote Wilson Wilson, knowledge is never useless.
Silver Glow's voluntarily taking on additional studies while apparently carrying a full college credit load... That's impressive.
I had enough trouble when I went back to college after the layoffs happened, and got 100 credits in two years with a GPA of 3.99--those two years nearly burned me out. It took almost a year after graduating before I could bring myself to read for enjoyment again.
Anyway, with that in mind, *Tosses a friendly and respectful salute to Silver Glow* Bravo.
to be fair, even with pi, it's an approximation if you give a numerical answer. Pi is irrational so you have to round.
yay, mathematical bullshit. Yes it makes sense and is provable but it's still bullshit.
Engineering actually goes back to no one answer as well.
i'm ok with most GE classes (most were fairly interesting), but there are a few that I strongly feel were a waste of my time (although I blame the system for two of them). I totally get taking easy ones as well. When you're mixing them into engineering courses, easy is good.
The BBC since program Horizon did a very interesting documentary on this (and measurement in general) called "How Long Is A Piece Of String". It's worth checking out if you're interesting in an explanation of this (well, more then one competing explanation actually). You can find it online if you do a search for it.
7379709
Are you sure it isn't... Mandeltory?
7379709
That's an important thing about college, I think. At least it was in my experience. There was a lot I'd never been exposed to growing up in a small town in Michigan--if nothing else, it made me step back and ask why I thought what I did.
Yeah, that might not have been the best phrasing. But in societies, there is a culture shift over time where what we knew was right becomes wrong as time goes on.
7379716
Maybe that would be a good alternate way to lure Silver Glow into your bed: have her read something horrible, and then offer to sleep with her. Probably a mean way, but it would work.
7379744
That's always going to be a big problem with pony psychology, IMHO. To use just one example, here on earth we have ministers arguing over the canon of the Bible, whereas in Equestria you can just ask Celestia. (I realize that's not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison, but it's good enough.)
I would think that this is probably the biggest problem. If you make an honest attempt but have a bad experiment, that's one thing; proving your preconceived notions is straight-up dishonest.
IIRC, that's one of the most important fundamentals of modern science: that whatever your method, it can be replicated, and so can your results (or not, if your study is actually BS).
I've had this debate with several friends and co-workers about several modern social issues. They generally are of the mind-set that there is a 'right' and a 'wrong' answer (not surprisingly, often along party lines), and I answer a lot of questions with 'I don't know,' because I don't know of any reliable studies that have been done that provide an answer or at least a best guess.
And, as you say, Silver Glow is approaching this from a very different perspective than a modern American would.
7379862
There are literally a dozen or so of her friends that she hasn't slept with yet.
That would work; they also make radar reflection increasers for sailboats. From some rudimentary googling, there aren't any portable transponders, because of the power requirements, and because of the antenna output (which I guess is powerful enough [and continuous] that having it right next to your body is a Bad Idea).
7379900
Not yet, but soon.
7379963
I agree. If you learn nothing else from college, learn that.
7380084
At my college, I asked around for an easy class to meet the art requirement.
I took an art class which introduced me to some really cool stuff (Koyaanisqatsi) and also infuriated me occasionally (the Egyptians built the pyramids like they did because it was visually interesting).
7380129
Because math says so.
7380619
It's possible, but it would have to be custom-built, use very good batteries, and the transmitting antenna would ideally be some distance from her body for her own safety. From what I found during fairly quick googling, the reason that there aren't any portable transponders is because they continuously transmit at fairly high power.
7381584
See, and I'm the opposite; I can BS my way through an essay, but math is a problem.
7381657
Mine was actually pretty easy, too. But it helped that it's a subject I'm interested in (then and now).
I'm imagining her visually flying toward the VOR towers. "Oh, there's AZO."
Actually, if you didn't know, there's a set of concrete arrows across the western US showing the way for mail planes. They used to have lighted towers, too.
It would almost have to be, if they fly high enough.
7381733
Who wouldn't like a dream catcher made with actual pegasus feathers?
7381963
Agreed.
7381976
Curiosity killed the pony, but satisfaction brought her back.
See, I started to really dislike poetry in college because of my awful senior seminar professor, and it's only now that I'm beginning to re-enjoy it.
7382349
That's true. But for our purposes, it's usually close enough.
Here's some more: the sum of all natural numbers is (by one proof) -1/12.
Hmm, that's interesting. I'd think that there would be some definite answers, but I suppose that there is more than one way to skin a cat.
Yeah, while you could certainly get some bad classes, I didn't regret very many of the ones I took.
7383185
I'll check that out--it sounds interesting.
7389122
7379868 7379910
Corrected; thank you!
I don't mind. Celestia knows a fair number of typos sneak through.
7389882
I can't write an essay to save my life. As you can imagine, this has put a significant damper on my educational career.
7389932
Honestly? Any time I see a typo I blame it on Silver's language skills.
I really love this growth in Silver, because while she's not really impulsive, one gets the sense that she goes with her first choice/instinct a lot and I feel like the whole experience on Earth, but this one in particular, is teaching her the weight and value of choices in a way that goes beyond just her job. She's learning more about the social and personal decisions she has to make and I love that she acknowledged that and how her choices affect other people. I also like this theme in regards to her choices with Aric and Meghan.
I like to believe that ponies are intelligent enough to use the 1 true CircleCostant τ (Tau):
τ = c / r ≈ 6.28318530717959
t Tau
7442833
I think that's a very important thing to learn, and it's something that I think a lot of people on Earth don't really grasp. A lot of times there's a reason behind a rule, and even if you don't know the reason, doesn't make it any less valid. In this case, Silver Glow doesn't really understand how fast airplanes go, and how invisible she is to them, even with her blinking light and vest, so the air traffic controllers have no choice but to give her a big block of airspace whenever she wants to go flying.
7474709
I think they probably would, because I think that the unicorns especially when they see a new thing that's better than the old thing quickly adopt it.
7477089
Didn't I see in a story somewhere (probably Princess Celestia Sleeps In) where Twilight brought up a point, that they use a different number system?
She said something about thirds terminating in their system, yet quarters would just keep going.
I think what I'm trying to say is, could they use a different constant for circles? Like one that does terminate?
7772293
In CSI/OPP, they use base 12, and Luna mentions that ponies used to use base 4, and in that system, thirds and quarters would both terminate; I'm not sure what fifths or sevenths would do.
I think that pi is irrational in any base. The only way I could see that maybe not being the case would be if your 'whole' numbers were fractions, and what would the point of that be? There's some discussion of that HERE, which may be of interest.
7382349
Pi may be technically irrational, but at 50 digits you can have a circle bigger than the known universe down to a level of specificity such that the laws of physics can't tell the difference; under saner parameters and error margins, you'll never really need more than a dozen.
11004912
There’s a lot of practical applications where you can be close enough, TBH. Like, if I’m painting a circle, let’s say, I’ll just use 3 for pi, calculate out how much paint I need, and then have some extra (or if I want to make sure I have enough, maybe use 3.5 for pi).
There’s always a point in the real world where ‘close enough’ works, although there’s also always the quest in mathematics to find all the digits, or at least as many as possible given the tech of the time.