Pictures

I have finally had time to add a few more pictures. The new pictures that I added are from camp and a few from home. They were the only ones I had in .jpg format. I will try to get more.

Relatives & Absolutes

Recently I entered into a discussion with a fellow math tutor here at school, as to the effect of relatives and absolutes. Her position was that in this world everything is relative (she seems to believe this absolutely). One of her main points was that the world is in a state of chaos, and as an example she stated the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. This being the case, lets take a look at the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle to see which side it really promotes. First, the word "principle" which in this case, according to the dictionary means, "A rule or law concerning the functioning of natural phenomena or mechanical processes(1)." This sounds pretty absolute to me but, I'll give her the benefit of the doubt, maybe it was misnamed. Let us look at the principle itself, "The more precisely the position is determined, the less precisely the momentum is known in this instant, and vice versa(2)." This also sounds very definite, I don't hear any maybe or could be, it is an absolute statement. Now if it were proof that everything is relative wouldn't it say something more like, "If we could precisely determine a position,considering that there were a position, we probably would have a hard time finding the precise momentum , but who's to say."

I'm not saying that there are no relatives, there are relatives and absolutes just as there are relative and absolute concepts, and thus relative and absolute statements. If I were to say that Salina is close to Kansas City, I would have made a relative statement. From the standpoint of someone in Russia, Salina does seem close to Kansas City. However from the standpoint of someone on a suburb of Kansas City, Salina would seem to be very far away. Now, if I were to say right now that I am in Kansas I would be making an absolute statement that is either true or false. True and false themselves are absolute concepts. If they are relative, then why was Hitler wrong, how could he be wrong. He believed himself to be right. Without absolutes there would be no need for law. If there were no absolutes, how could there be absolute concepts, and if there were no absolute concepts how could there be absolute statements?

Not only does this pattern appear in language but it also appears in math. Though there are variables which can be said to be relative there are also constants which would appear to be parallels with absolutes. Considering that the units and bases are the same, 3=3, It always has and, God willing, always will. The mathematical statement 1+2=3 is also an absolute statement, it says that one plus two absolutely equals three. If the statement were relative it would say one plus two is about three, not equal to it. The equal sign represents an absolute relationship. The equal sign makes math possible and functions solvable. Without the absolutes there would be no study of math. If everything is relative, who's to say that there is such a thing as math.

To measure anything to its exact and perfect dimensions would take an infinite amount of knowledge, something which only God possesses. In the end, relative statements say nothing at all. They are merely a means of conveying absolute and infinite ideas by finite creatures. Being imperfect expressions, they often fail in this respect.

If there were no absolutes there would be no absolute zero, no way to measure anything, no ideas, no right and no wrong. In the end, If there were no absolutes life would not be enjoyable, in fact, there most likely would be no life, but then again, if everything is relative, who's to say?




1: http://www.answers.com/principle&r=67
2: http://www.aip.org/history/heisenberg/p08.htm
If I am wrong please show me where.
James has some good comments on this in the comments below.

Ancient Rome and Modern America

In my Ancient Roman History class I have been rather surprised how similar ancient Rome was to the United States. Both countries have had revolutions where they kicked out their kings, both originally had republics which turned into bureaucracies, and both have had large national deficits. Let us imagine for a while what a conversation that may have taken place in ancient Rome between two Roman men who we'll call Flavius and Quintus in ..Oh .. lets say 188B.C. ,George Burns would have still been alive then and Dick Clark would have only been a little kid. The conversation would most likely have started out some what like this, except in Latin instead of English.

"Hey Flavious, how's it going?"
"Not too bad Quintus, the weather has been a little bit disturbing though."
" Yeah, I know what you mean, we needed the moisture but this is a little bit too much."
(This was probably how they started their discussion.)
"Well Quintus, I'm still gratefull for it."
"Yes, I am too but it would sure be nice if it come slowly, I mean my weekend plans are ruined."
" Well, how's your son doing?"
"Not to bad Flavius, he seems to like college life and his grades are pretty good, or so he tells me."
" Now where's he going again?"
" He's attending Auger Community College."
" Is he going to be a priest then, or what's he gonna do with that?"
" He doesn't know yet but he went there because he likes to play with the sacred chickens. How about your son, Flavious, where's he going?"
" Yeah, Junior decided to go to U.T. He thought about Athens but the tuition was too high and they say Tarentum is just as good anyways, I mean, they're all Greek."
"What are his plans then?"
" Oh, he's majoring in business so he can take over the family business, that is if there will be any business left by the time he graduated."
" Things are that bad then, huh?"
" Yah, they say its cheaper to import things than it is to by our products. You can't hardly find products that say made in Italy, Its all made in Africa, or Greece, or Spain."
" I know what you mean why I heard Paul Harvey on the radio yesterday.."
( All right, maybe the radio is a little much. Paul probably had to announce the news and "Rest of the Story" in the public square where it was further spread by word of mouth. I'll try again.)
" I know what you mean, someone told me that they heard Paul Harvey say that our nation is so far in debt that if you piled all the money up that is required to pay off the national debt that I would completely cover the senate building."
"Yes, and all the government programs are destroying the family farmers and replacing them with those big commercial outfits, those latifundia."
" Times are getting bad Quintus. All kids want do anymore is stare at game boards and a watch this new reality stuff they've got over at the stadium."
"I know exactly what you mean Flavious, look at how people just out right disobey the sumptuary laws and at the influx of cold-footers we have crossing aover the Alps illegally into Italy, its just terible but the government wont do anything about it."
" Exactly, and in times like these we need to be particularly carefull about who we let in, I mean just today I heard that suicide burner over in Asia Minor started four people on fire by hugging them before he finally burned to death."
" Well Flavious, all I know is we'd just better win this war on terror or we'll be in trouble."
" Yes Quintus, and they say those Syrians are developing anthrax from a stock pile of dead animals, you know what that would do to Rome?"
" It would decimate us."
"Well you bet it would, but not everyone wants to go to war because we 'don't have a coalition', what do they mean we don't have a coalition, We've got the Aechean league and Rhodes with us not to mention Macedonia."
Well now they've got the Aetolians who we armed, I never liked those guys and now they're fighting against us with our own weapons."
"Well I better go. My wife is making pizza tonight and I don't want to miss it."
" Yeah, I better go too. See you later Quintus."

As you can see life back then greatly resembled ours and though today we have a few more modern conveniances and things move faster the old adage still aplies, "The more things change the more they stay the same."

Quote for 2/9/2005

"The youth of America is her oldest tradition. It has been going on now for three hundred years."
Oscar Wilde,
Lady Windermere's Fan [1892]

Replying

Derek pointed out that he couldn't reply to my posts so I have changed the settings so that anyone can reply.

The Dew Father

In reply to Dereks post, we did not admire him because of his amazing ability to chug Mt. Dew as much we admired him for his ability to handle it. As I recall, after only one case Potter was completely unable to walk and almost unable to talk. Many of the others were not far behind. Sadly, because I had to drive home the next morning I drank none so as to be able to fall asleep when I went to bed at four. After seeing James the next morning I was pretty glad I did. I can handle alcohol but I've never tried large amounts of caffeine and its probably a good thing.

Quote for 2/8/2005

"Many a good hanging prevented a bad marriage."
Wm. Shakespeare
Twelfth Night

Just starting

Well, I've decided to try this bloging thing so over the next few weeks if you can't get to sleep, just come here and I'll have you bored to slumber in no time(unintentionally of course).