Zero Divergence

TnWatchdog

Senior Member
Messages
7,099
I, uh... I took Algebra 1 once. I got a C.
I remember working out a problem in Algebra that took one or two pages to get the answer. At the time it was amazing to me but now I don't remember much of it or anything else. lol. I must have killed off too many of my brain cells.
 

TimeWizardCosmo

Senior Member
Zenith
Messages
2,936
I, uh... I took Algebra 1 once. I got a C.
I remember working out a problem in Algebra that took one or two pages to get the answer. At the time it was amazing to me but now I don't remember much of it or anything else. lol. I must have killed off too many of my brain cells.

I was too busy programming a version of Mario Bros. on my TI-83 to pay attention.
 

Earthmasque

Member
Messages
150
I, uh... I took Algebra 1 once. I got a C.
I remember working out a problem in Algebra that took one or two pages to get the answer. At the time it was amazing to me but now I don't remember much of it or anything else. lol. I must have killed off too many of my brain cells.

I was too busy programming a version of Mario Bros. on my TI-83 to pay attention.
We used slide rules. It turned out to be very difficult indeed to program one with any Nintendo code.
 

sevensixtwo

Junior Member
Messages
144
I don't think the mathematical perfection of zero divergence is attainable with a physical device because those aren't mathematically perfect.
 

IroncladMarshmallow

Active Member
Messages
578
I think my first reply to this was off. I was talking about the divergence operator, not temporal divergence. There is a parallel to this concept, though: that of system stability. To assume zero temporal divergence would be to say the system is stable, meaning it returns to its original state when perturbed. There are certainly ways to make a system inherently unstable, and even stable systems are stable only within design limits.
 
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sevensixtwo

Junior Member
Messages
144
I think divergence one might be a better choice to describe temporal stability. Time is apparently unstable. Think of a falling object that reaches terminal velocity. Once the object stops accelerating it might think it is stable but it is not.
 

IroncladMarshmallow

Active Member
Messages
578
I think divergence one might be a better choice to describe temporal stability. Time is apparently unstable. Think of a falling object that reaches terminal velocity. Once the object stops accelerating it might think it is stable but it is not.
It's easy to think that time is inherently unstable and that all events must have dramatic consequences, but that is a really big assumption. If there's anything we know about scientific processes involving time, it's that they tend to follow an exponential curve, and it can be either increasing or decreasing in magnitude. That is, a process described by

y = exp(kt)

Where t is time and k is a constant, will increase indefinitely if k > 0 and decrease if it's less than zero. There certainly exist processes where k < 0, so why should we assume that the effects of time travel are not equally varied in their outcomes? It's kind of like how your car damps some vibrations but not others.
 

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