Skip to content
  • Home Home Home, current page.
  • Moments Moments Moments, current page.

Saved searches

  • Remove
  • In this conversation
    Verified accountProtected Tweets @
Suggested users
  • Verified accountProtected Tweets @
  • Verified accountProtected Tweets @
  • Language: English
    • Bahasa Indonesia
    • Bahasa Melayu
    • Català
    • Čeština
    • Dansk
    • Deutsch
    • English UK
    • Español
    • Filipino
    • Français
    • Hrvatski
    • Italiano
    • Magyar
    • Nederlands
    • Norsk
    • Polski
    • Português
    • Română
    • Slovenčina
    • Suomi
    • Svenska
    • Tiếng Việt
    • Türkçe
    • Ελληνικά
    • Български език
    • Русский
    • Српски
    • Українська мова
    • עִבְרִית
    • العربية
    • فارسی
    • मराठी
    • हिन्दी
    • বাংলা
    • ગુજરાતી
    • தமிழ்
    • ಕನ್ನಡ
    • ภาษาไทย
    • 한국어
    • 日本語
    • 简体中文
    • 繁體中文
  • Have an account? Log in
    Have an account?
    · Forgot password?

    New to Twitter?
    Sign up
arthur_affect's profile
Arthur Chu
Arthur Chu
Arthur Chu
Verified account
@arthur_affect

Tweets

Arthur ChuVerified account

@arthur_affect

Mad genius, comedian, actor, and freelance voiceover artist broadcasting from the distant shores of Lake Erie (he/him)

Broadview Heights, Ohio
arthur-chu.com
Joined August 2009

Tweets

  • © 2021 Twitter
  • About
  • Help Center
  • Terms
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies
  • Ads info
Dismiss
Previous
Next

Go to a person's profile

Saved searches

  • Remove
  • In this conversation
    Verified accountProtected Tweets @
Suggested users
  • Verified accountProtected Tweets @
  • Verified accountProtected Tweets @

Promote this Tweet

Block

  • Tweet with a location

    You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more

    Your lists

    Create a new list


    Under 100 characters, optional

    Privacy

    Copy link to Tweet

    Embed this Tweet

    Embed this Video

    Add this Tweet to your website by copying the code below. Learn more

    Add this video to your website by copying the code below. Learn more

    Hmm, there was a problem reaching the server.

    By embedding Twitter content in your website or app, you are agreeing to the Twitter Developer Agreement and Developer Policy.

    Preview

    Why you're seeing this ad

    Log in to Twitter

    · Forgot password?
    Don't have an account? Sign up »

    Sign up for Twitter

    Not on Twitter? Sign up, tune into the things you care about, and get updates as they happen.

    Sign up
    Have an account? Log in »

    Two-way (sending and receiving) short codes:

    Country Code For customers of
    United States 40404 (any)
    Canada 21212 (any)
    United Kingdom 86444 Vodafone, Orange, 3, O2
    Brazil 40404 Nextel, TIM
    Haiti 40404 Digicel, Voila
    Ireland 51210 Vodafone, O2
    India 53000 Bharti Airtel, Videocon, Reliance
    Indonesia 89887 AXIS, 3, Telkomsel, Indosat, XL Axiata
    Italy 4880804 Wind
    3424486444 Vodafone
    » See SMS short codes for other countries

    Confirmation

     

    Welcome home!

    This timeline is where you’ll spend most of your time, getting instant updates about what matters to you.

    Tweets not working for you?

    Hover over the profile pic and click the Following button to unfollow any account.

    Say a lot with a little

    When you see a Tweet you love, tap the heart — it lets the person who wrote it know you shared the love.

    Spread the word

    The fastest way to share someone else’s Tweet with your followers is with a Retweet. Tap the icon to send it instantly.

    Join the conversation

    Add your thoughts about any Tweet with a Reply. Find a topic you’re passionate about, and jump right in.

    Learn the latest

    Get instant insight into what people are talking about now.

    Get more of what you love

    Follow more accounts to get instant updates about topics you care about.

    Find what's happening

    See the latest conversations about any topic instantly.

    Never miss a Moment

    Catch up instantly on the best stories happening as they unfold.

    1. Arthur Chu‏Verified account @arthur_affect 7 Aug 2020

      It doesn't map onto the real world in a familiar way very well, at all But it wasn't meant to Counting things up infinitely isn't something you can do in the real world AT ALL either, remember?

      1 reply 0 retweets 10 likes
      Show this thread
    2. Arthur Chu‏Verified account @arthur_affect 7 Aug 2020

      And yet, bizarrely, this result is meaningful in an applied context It comes up in quantum physics, where the real physical world gets extremely weird and we need to use weird math to talk about it

      3 replies 1 retweet 11 likes
      Show this thread
    3. Arthur Chu‏Verified account @arthur_affect 7 Aug 2020

      It's part of the mathematical description of the Casimir effect, which has been experimentally verifiedhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casimir_effect …

      1 reply 1 retweet 9 likes
      Show this thread
    4. Arthur Chu‏Verified account @arthur_affect 7 Aug 2020

      The extremely broad metaphor the guy gives us for trying to imagine this is -- the actual positive numbers that we add up in 1+2+3+4... can't give us a real sum The number keeps getting bigger, it leads us only toward ∞, and ∞ isn't a number, so the sum just doesn't exist

      1 reply 0 retweets 8 likes
      Show this thread
    5. Arthur Chu‏Verified account @arthur_affect 7 Aug 2020

      Analytic continuation is about saying "Okay, so if you take out everything that you're not allowed to do that absolutely by the rules cannot give you an answer, can you find something about it that *does* give you an answer"

      2 replies 0 retweets 11 likes
      Show this thread
    6. Arthur Chu‏Verified account @arthur_affect 7 Aug 2020

      Paradoxical Zen koan shit Like Death in Discworld saying that the universe by definition is everything that exists and everywhere is inside it so you can't be outside it and standing outside it is a contradiction in terms But if you could, then from the outside it'd be blue

      1 reply 1 retweet 19 likes
      Show this thread
    7. Arthur Chu‏Verified account @arthur_affect 7 Aug 2020

      -1/12 is a "residue", it's a "leftover piece" of 1+2+3+4..., the one bit that can be made to act like a number

      1 reply 1 retweet 7 likes
      Show this thread
    8. Arthur Chu‏Verified account @arthur_affect 7 Aug 2020

      And that, in its way, is connected to the paradoxical thing the Casimir effect is, this thing where in a total vacuum where nothing should be exerting any force on anything, two metal plates very close together will attract each other

      2 replies 1 retweet 9 likes
      Show this thread
    9. Arthur Chu‏Verified account @arthur_affect 7 Aug 2020

      I.e. -- getting really sloppy and vague from my layman's POV again, in real life in quantum physics a "vacuum" is actually filled with "virtual particles", which kinda almost do exist but then don't

      3 replies 1 retweet 9 likes
      Show this thread
    10. Arthur Chu‏Verified account @arthur_affect 7 Aug 2020

      The vacuum energy is adding up all the particles that *could* be interacting with those metal plates, an *infinite number* of ways those plates could be pushing against each other and exerting force via an electromagnetic field

      1 reply 1 retweet 5 likes
      Show this thread
      Arthur Chu‏Verified account @arthur_affect 7 Aug 2020

      But infinite force can't exist, doesn't mean anything, and what this actually adds up to instead is the "residue", the -1/12, i.e. a very small negative number -- a force that goes the opposite direction and attracts things together, but only at a very small distance

      4:20 AM - 7 Aug 2020
      • 4 Likes
      • Victor Von Doomscroll Cheshire Daimon David Ratna Vapor Weyve
      1 reply 0 retweets 4 likes
        1. New conversation
        2. Arthur Chu‏Verified account @arthur_affect 7 Aug 2020

          Yes, actual physicists, I don't know what I'm talking about The point here is just me dreaming of one of the many things in heaven and earth I hadn't previously had in my philosophy

          1 reply 0 retweets 9 likes
          Show this thread
        3. Arthur Chu‏Verified account @arthur_affect 7 Aug 2020

          The knowledge that a summation of 1+2+3+4...=-1/12 exists doesn't affect my life -- if I am ever asked to add up all of the natural numbers I will probably stop at 1+2+3=6, honestly -- nor is the proof that they gave the real, final proof

          2 replies 0 retweets 4 likes
          Show this thread
        4. Arthur Chu‏Verified account @arthur_affect 7 Aug 2020

          But damn if it isn't a beautiful, powerful demonstration that you can fuck around with seemingly simple things and open a Pandora's Box of wonders

          1 reply 0 retweets 10 likes
          Show this thread
        5. Arthur Chu‏Verified account @arthur_affect 7 Aug 2020

          Like the motto of Stephen Fry's show QI, "If you can't be right, be interesting" At every step along this process someone could have, like Dostoyevsky's coxcomb, blocked the path and waved their arms and said "No you can't do that turn back"

          1 reply 0 retweets 10 likes
          Show this thread
        6. Arthur Chu‏Verified account @arthur_affect 7 Aug 2020

          (Hell, the ancient Greeks, who believed you could not in fact do that, were still pretty lax traffic cops and didn't *enforce* not doing that because they didn't have the rigor, which is why Archimedes was allowed to discover a limit-based method for approximating pi)

          1 reply 0 retweets 8 likes
          Show this thread
        7. Arthur Chu‏Verified account @arthur_affect 7 Aug 2020

          But it's always more interesting to just ignore him and keep walking anyway I mean what's the worst that can happen? You try to say something makes sense but everyone just looks at it a while and goes "Nah this is stupid" and moves on? You gotta at least try

          2 replies 0 retweets 15 likes
          Show this thread
        8. End of conversation

      Loading seems to be taking a while.

      Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.

        Promoted Tweet

        false

        • © 2021 Twitter
        • About
        • Help Center
        • Terms
        • Privacy policy
        • Cookies
        • Ads info