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Mar 2 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Having now handwritten half a semester’s worth of general relativity lecture notes, I have determined the following ranking of the most common Greek subscript/superscript indices in order of ease of tiny-writing and overall aesthetic value A row of small handwritten lowercase Greek letters: alpha, s
IMPORTANT CORRECTION: previous version somehow tragically left out high-cuteness-value lambda. See below for definitive list. A set of small handwritten Greek lowercase letters: alpha, s
Okay this is preliminary but I believe it is correct to first order. A graph of "cuteness" vs "ease of tiny-writin
I can support the total annihilation of nu and the promotion of delta based on it being drawn in a cuter way, however the shift in epsilon and the senseless demotion of rho are an outrage

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More from @AstroKatie

Katie Mack Profile picture
Feb 17
I understand why the confusion exists but "case rates are going down" is not the same as "case rates are low" and the former should never determine policy when the latter condition is not met.
If you leap out of an airplane with no parachute, your speed will, in fact, go down at some point as you're approaching terminal velocity! That does not mean everything is going to be okay.
Argh I should have said acceleration rather than speed; your speed will get to terminal velocity, and terminal velocity will be a little slower when you're closer to the ground, but that's a smaller effect than the acceleration change (& happens at/after terminal vel is reached).
Read 4 tweets
Katie Mack Profile picture
Feb 8
[teaching general relativity this morning]

STUDENT: Isn't there some standard, accepted notation for all this?

ME: 😭😭😭
“anyway here are three OTHER symbols that might be used for the covariant derivative, good luck”
“it’s okay though, they’re all just some variation on the letter d, just like the symbols for almost every other operator, vector, one-form, and derivative we’ve discussed so far”
Read 4 tweets
Katie Mack Profile picture
Jan 31
A short Covid story:

A week ago, I spent about 90 minutes in very close quarters in a very small enclosed space with someone. We’re both vaccinated; neither wore masks.

A couple hours later I heard from them that they felt unwell and just tested positive on a rapid test. 😱
1/5
Having a positive result on a rapid test generally means you have a high viral load & are probably pretty contagious. So, essentially, I had spent 90 minutes sitting inside an infectious-SARS-COV-2 nebulizer! Not good!

But I’m vaccinated & boosted, so I hoped for the best 🤞🏼
2/5
Anyway the conclusion of the story is that I didn’t get it! I tested negative on PCR tests on Wednesday and Friday, and I’ve been negative on a bunch of rapid tests all week. I’ve been extra careful and staying away from people regardless but: the vaccine & booster worked! 💪🏼
3/5
Read 5 tweets
Katie Mack Profile picture
Dec 7, 2021
🚨 Some news from me! 🚨

I am ABSOLUTELY THRILLED to announce that, as of June 1, 2022, I will be joining the @Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics as the inaugural

Hawking Chair in Cosmology and Science Communication

(auto-CCs at YouTube link)
More about the role: I'll be working with the Cosmology group and the Centre for the Universe at @Perimeter to continue my research into dark matter and the early universe. And I'll ALSO be working with Perimeter's fantastic outreach team to bring physics to the world!
I'm super excited to start my new position at @Perimeter in the spring! I'll still be maintaining my connection with @NCState, who have been extraordinarily supportive of my research and public science work since 2018, but I'll be living in Canada full time starting in June! 🇨🇦
Read 5 tweets
Katie Mack Profile picture
Nov 19, 2021
This piece by @StartsWithABang is a nice explanation of how the mental picture most people have of the “Big Bang” is outdated and wrong (!)

❌ singularity➡️hot dense plasma➡️galaxies etc

✅ [unknown]➡️inflation (probably)➡️hot dense plasma➡️galaxies etc

bigthink.com/starts-with-a-…
I talk a little bit here about what cosmologists CURRENTLY mean when we say “the Big Bang” (a.k.a. “Hot Big Bang”) — the hot dense glowing plasma phase of the early universe. NOT a singularity. We don’t have any evidence a singularity ever happened!

vm.tiktok.com/ZM8gVuDG7/
Here, I talk about the language ambiguity around the term “the Big Bang.” It’s best to think of the Big Bang as the theory that the early universe was hotter, denser, and in some sense smaller than it is today. But a singularity isn’t part of that picture! vm.tiktok.com/ZM8gVfVxr/
Read 5 tweets
Katie Mack Profile picture
Nov 17, 2021
My googling has failed so:

This is the best belt (strong woven canvas with this cool buckle design) and I can’t for the life of me find somewhere to buy another one exactly like it. 😕 Anyone know anyone anywhere who sells these things? The original brand doesn’t anymore. A photo of the underside of a pin or peg-style belt buckle. A view of the belt with the end of the belt looped into the A view of the belt buckle in action, with the pin through a A view of the closed belt buckle from the front, looking ver
I have worn this belt nearly every day for like 20 years; I would love to find another one!
Update: Someone miraculously found exactly this model of belt on eBay! Unfortunately it was a small (32”) and mine is something like 39”. The search continues…
Read 4 tweets

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