The Thought Experiment
By Scott V. Burger
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Podcast Description
Thought Experiments are described as devices of the imagination used to investigate the nature of things. Everything from the nature of philosophy, mathematics and physics and the construction of ideas applies to Thought Experiments.
| Name | Description | Released | Price | ||
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1 |
First New Show | The first episode of the new joint podcast, "Questioning the Cosmos" is online. Check it out and stuff! | 8/8/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 2 | Shedding Light on Dark Matter (supplement) | Shedding Light on Dark Matter Powerpoint I've added as supplementary material here, my actual printed powerpoint presentation slides for the 4-part 50-minute lecture. Although the incredible animation effects that went into the Barry Bonds segment aren't alive on the .pdf document, the images provide backup to all those times that I say, "search this or that." It may also be helpful to scroll through it while listening. Also, I may as well attach my paper, Dark Matter Versus Modified Newtonian Dynamics, for those who are interested in my segment in the series that covered it. I went over the topic briskly and may have skipped some things, so the paper is also in this post for everyone to gawk over. | 8/30/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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3 |
Shedding Light on Dark Matter (part 4) | Shedding Light on Dark Matter (part 4) In the fall I'm giving a lecture series on topics ranging from the history of the universe to time travel. Dark Matter is one of those topics. In this final part of the series, we go over a very brief history of Dark Matter and some of its competitor theories, such as Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) and Massive Compact Halo Objects (MACHOs). | 8/29/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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4 |
Shedding Light on Dark Matter (part 3) | Shedding Light on Dark Matter (part 3) In the fall I'm giving a lecture series on topics ranging from the history of the universe to time travel. Dark Matter is one of those topics. In this third of 4 part series, we go over candidates for dark matter particles and detection techniques. Next installment goes over the history of Dark Matter and its competitors. | 8/21/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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5 |
Shedding Light on Dark Matter (part 2) | Shedding Light on Dark Matter (part 2) In the fall I'm giving a lecture series on topics ranging from the history of the universe to time travel. Dark Matter is one of those topics. In this second of 4 part series, I do a thought experiment involving Barry Bonds and detail the origin and nature of matter. Next installment deals with detecting candidates of Dark Matter. | 8/14/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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6 |
Shedding Light on Dark Matter (part 1) | Shedding Light on Dark Matter (part 1) In the fall I'm giving a lecture series on topics ranging from the history of the universe to time travel. Dark Matter is one of those topics. In this first of 4 part series, I give a brief introduction and go over distinguishing Dark Matter from what isn't Dark Matter. Next installment deals with properties of matter and Dark Matter and how they apply to baseball. | 8/8/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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7 |
Intro to Quantum Mechanics | Intro to Quantum Mechanics Ironically, the delay for this week's quantum mechanics podcast was brought on by quantum mechanics homework. In any case, this week I delve into the beginnings of what quantum mechanics is, opening up the playing field into the zany world of the small. | 2/13/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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8 |
Borel's Infinite Monkeys | Borel's Infinite Monkeys Returning triumphant for a second season of thought experimenting, we continue on our history of thought experiments into the later 1920s with Borel's mathematical analysis of what happens when you get a ton of monkeys in a room with a ton of typewriters. A Borel of monkeys for sure! Baxiden is by Liquid Tension Experiment | 1/15/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
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9 |
Q&A With Brian Greene | Q&A With Brian Greene Last week string theorist and physicist at Columbia University, Brian Greene came to my university as a part of a lecture series featuring distinguished lecturers. He did a question and answer session for a small group of us (about 20 or so people), as well as a planned lecture event. This week is the Q&A session. Theme music by Liquid Tension Experiment | 10/21/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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10 |
Heisenburg's Uncertainty Principle | Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle What can a retired basketball player and a cannon full of paintballs teach us about quantum uncertainty? A lot, actually. Have a listen in on why we can't tell where a proton is at the same time when we know its momentum: the quintessential uncertainty principle. For a link to the blog post I mouth off about, see the exposé on Ramtha and What the Bleep Were They Thinking? New and permenant theme music: Baxiden by Liquid Tension Experiment | 9/12/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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11 |
The Banach-Tarski Paradox | The Banach-Tarski Paradox A mouthful no doubt! This week we go over just how a mathematical universe differs from a physical one on the basis of the Axiom of Choice. More interestingly, if we exploit this paradox, we can clone anything we want with the exact same properties as the original. As per Andrew's note, you can see an example of a fractal here. Really amazing stuff to say the least. Barbarian Horde is by Hans Zimmer | 9/3/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 12 | Kent Hovind's Last Debate | Kent Hovind's Last Debate Well, this week we had originally planned to go over Maxwell's Demon, but a screwup in the recording prompted us to ditch the file. Perhaps it was for the better, given that it is the 1 year anniversary of our debate with famed creationist Kent Hovind. Perhaps one of our few PDFcasts, the debate is about 20 some odd pages in length, but filled with comedic gold. As a toast to the convicted tax evasionist and 'scientist', we are putting up for free download a transcript from our debate with an intro included. The feed has now been updated. Hopefully it should work at this point. If any other podcasts are not up and running, please alert me and I'll fix 'em. | 7/23/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
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13 |
Mach's Machine | Mach's Machine Courtesy of Stanford Ersnt Mach proposed that perpetual motion machines went against common sense. In this solitary episode, I talk about various claims of pseudo-scientific energy companies and talk about why their murky science is, at best, flawed. From tachyon theory of gravity to consciousness-energy, a short list of problems is noted. White Army, Black Baron is by the Soviet National Choir | 7/13/07 | Free | View In iTunes |
| Total: 13 Episodes |
Customer Reviews
Get it together guys! Bad audio!
I was really glad to find all this content and to read the reviews, I was anticipating the best. Well, first of all the Brian Greene podcast is so distorted you can't hear it. It gets worse! The other programs have this goofy, inane, inappropriate music at 0 db level (painfully loud) and then the voice at like -30 db, when all of a sudden at some random point in the middle of some talk, on comes the dumb music again (as if it is some kind of interlude?) and blows your ears out. Lose the idiotic music, get a good microphone, learn how to record a podcast, listen to it before submitting it, and get your levels set. All your work is wasted if you don't get the audio right. I think I will just delete all the ones I downloaded.
The weight of my world is on your shoulders!
I go here for all my scientific knowledge. You boys are my conduit to the outside world!
Awesome improvement!
The TPD Podcast has really grown up. Great job!
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