Author Archives: The Physicist

Q: Is there a formula to find the Nth term in the Fibonacci sequence?

Posted on April 8, 2011 by The Physicist

Physicist: Hells yes! It’s , where the “≈” is close enough that you can round to the nearest integer. Astute readers will notice that is the golden ratio, and may wonder if this is a coincidence. Yes. Everything after this … Continue reading →

Posted in -- By the Physicist, Equations, Math | 22 Comments

Q: Why is the integral/antiderivative the area under a function?

Posted on April 4, 2011 by The Physicist

Physicist: If you’ve taken calculus, then at some point you learned that to find the area under a function (generally written ) you need to find the anti-derivative of that function. The most natural response to these types of theorems … Continue reading →

Posted in -- By the Physicist, Equations, Math | 59 Comments

Thank you!

Posted on April 2, 2011 by The Physicist

Dear reader, we are excited to announce that, for the first time in the history of the universe, AskAMathematician.com has broken 100,000 page views in a single month! This is significant because it is approximately the number of fingers that … Continue reading →

Posted in -- By the Mathematician, -- By the Physicist | 8 Comments

Mathematical proof of the existence of God.

Posted on April 1, 2011 by The Physicist

Physicist: This derivation isn’t particularly easy, but bear with me. It’s essentially a re-phrasing of a joint work by Descartes, Godel, and Hawking. Beginning with the unitarity of quantum probability you find the non-vanishing deism coefficient manifest. The set of … Continue reading →

Posted in -- By the Physicist, April Fools | 50 Comments

Q: What is going on in a nuclear reactor, and what happens during a meltdown?

Posted on March 23, 2011 by The Physicist

Physicist: Nuclear reactors are very 19th century in a way. The nuclear fuel is basically a bunch of very hot metal, and the more of it you get together in one place, the hotter it gets. That heat is used … Continue reading →

Posted in -- By the Physicist, Engineering, Particle Physics, Physics | 10 Comments

Q: Are all atoms radioactive?

Posted on March 13, 2011 by The Physicist

The original question was: Some elementary particles spontaneously break apart at a given rate. Can the same be said about normally stable atoms and molecules? That is, even though they are stable, does their natural internal activity lead to a … Continue reading →