More randomosity. Does your computer sit, turned on all day, practically unused? Do you have a permanent internet connection? Do you want to contribute something to the scientific community and feel better about yourself without having to lift a finger? Then have I got something for you...

Some some computer science students at the University of Oxford are interested in random numbers achieved by throwing dice. If all the sides of the die are equal, and if the thing has uniform side lengths, the outcomes will be truly random. But what if those conditions aren't true? They're exploring how changing the side lengths impacts the outcome of the die roll through experiment, mathematical analysis, and "exhaustive computer simulation". But! They're counting on the generosity of people to donate their computer's unused processing time to help calculate. So! Go to the site! Download the program! Run it in the background! My PC cranks out roughly 100,000 simulations per day (which is but a tiny drop in the bucket when compared with the 4.6 billion user-submitted simulation results thus far... I'm only ranked number 105 out of 231 for the number of sims submitted...). So there you go - you, too can help further the knowledge of mankind. They will only be accepting results for another 2 weeks, though - so get on it!



In other news... I've decided to upload John's CFD results for our 315 project to YouTube. They turned out really well. The cool thing is that his code captures both the fluid velocity and the fluid temperature - both of which we were interested in for the project. Check 'em out:

Video One - near the entrance/heater

Video Two - at the exit

What was my contribution to the project? About 500 lines of matlab code to run academic simulations based on "textbook equations". CFD is like a magic genie in a bottle - you just input your system and boundary conditions and it spits out the result. I had to actually write my own simulations...

Anyway my Heat/Mass final was yesterday and that went fine. Not great...but fine. I have my second final on Saturday, so I'll be cramming for the next two days. Hooray. The guys and I are opening presents to each other Friday night... I wonder what I get this year. I'm feeling pretty mellow as of late - I'm ready for vacation, and I'm ready to get my grades.