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| Eagle1Division
Eagle1Division
βοΈ
[16834371]
[2011-03-08 05:17:26 +0000 UTC]
"Physics pupil of many interests"
(United States)
# Statistics
Favourites: 8124; Deviations: 284; Watchers: 517
Watching: 455; Pageviews: 73500; Comments Made: 6417; Friends: 455
# Interests
Favorite visual artist: Profiles here: Mark Karvon, Equestria-Prevails, PetirepFavorite movies: Interstellar, Gravity, Ender's Game, Rio, Star Trek: Into Darkness, How to Train Your Dragon, Lion King
Favorite TV shows: MLP:FiM, Dr. Who, Star Trek: Next Generation
Favorite bands / musical artists: Makkon, Gustav Holst!!! (The Planets Suite), the classics, Daniel Ingram, Immediate Music, Two Steps From Hell, Hans Zimmer, Ratatat, Martin O'donnel+Micheal Salvatori (Halo OST's)
Favorite books: The Pearl of Great Price, Mere Christianity (C.S. Lewis), The Fabric of the Cosmos (Brian Greene), The Particle at the End of the Universe, The 5,000 Year Leap, Warriors series, Redwall series...
Favorite writers: C.S. Lewis, Brian Greene and Orson Scott Card
Favorite games: Terraria, Kerbal Space Program (Realism Overhaul mods), Homeworld 1&2, Starcraft I&II.
Favorite gaming platform: PC
Tools of the Trade: My head, Paper and Pencil, Ponyscape and Open Office.
Other Interests: Learning, reading, Hot coco, smores, quiet evenings, being cozy, snuggling my plushy, deviantart, vectoring, writing and designing things.
# About me
Hello!I'm Matthew, an (a) honest Mormon (aka, member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (also abbreviated "LDS")), RM (Returned Missionary), an (b) insatiably curious physics student, lover of all things good and praiseworthy, (c) space exploration enthusiast, hobbyist writer, artist, musician and (d) professional physics student, specializing in the field of general relativity. Also, it's probably pretty obvious by this page that I'm rather fond of these "little ponies."
If it's about spacetime, cosmology, quantum mechanics, or aerospace technology, then "TL;DR" does not exist for me! Feel free to comment below if you want to strike up a conversation about it. I won't pretend to know everything, but I do know quite a lot in those topics.
If you're familiar with the Myer-Briggs Type Indicators (MBTIs), my type is INTJ: www.16personalities.com/intj-pβ¦
(a) On that topic, I do believe in Jesus Christ "and all that". Reality is an odd thing, and while most people would accuse theists of being closed-minded, I think it's quite the opposite. What's more close-minded than assuming that because you don't understand every detail of something, it cannot be true? Science doesn't yet understand everything - if it did, then I wouldn't have much of a career looking forward to in answering current questions in modern physics. From this lack of understanding, we would expect to find things we do not understand in an entire truth. As Sir Arthur C. Clarke put it, "Any sufficiently advanced [science] is indistinguishable from magic."
And as Albert Einstein put it, "I prefer an attitude of humility." His "parable" of a child in a library is perhaps one of my favorite quotes of all time;
"The human mind, no matter how highly trained, cannot grasp the universe. We are in the position of a little child, entering a huge library whose walls are covered to the ceiling with books in many different tongues. The child knows that someone must have written those books. It does not know who or how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child notes a definite plan in the arrangement of the books, a mysterious order, which it does not comprehend, but only dimly suspects. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of the human mind, even the greatest and most cultured, toward God. We see a universe marvelously arranged, obeying certain laws, but we understand the laws only dimly." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religiouβ¦
(b) As limited as our minds are, we've still managed to invent the internet and land on the moon, and as we ask questions, we can only learn more in the long run. I love physics!
(c) I used to aim to be an aerospace engineer, but a number of factors led me to pursue physics, instead. A different lifestyle and the promise of being able to never cease learning about spacetime and be able to press onward the boundary of human knowledge, and even pursue questions like, "can you curve spacetime in such a way to allow for propulsively advantageous* faster-than-light travel?" ultimately led me to physics instead.
That being said, I didn't spend years of my life studying and obsessing over aerospace/astronautical engineering ("rocket science") for lack of interest or love. I'm thrilled to see where SpaceX will go.
I'm a huge proponent of the colonization of space, as well. To say that we need to stay on Earth to solve our problems here, is to say we are too wounded to get medical care.
The Neanderthals were more intelligent, but we explored, and so we survived, and they didn't. I believe the universe is populated with single-planet ruins of civilizations that didn't bother with the 1% chance that each decade would end them if they didn't go to space - they just did the "smart," economic, easy thing of staying home and arguing about every problem they had there.
But over a few centuries, that 1% built up, and they died to a supervirus, nuclear war, or most likely, they dwindled - their economies and morality slowly declined until their cities were in ruins, not from a war, but from neglect and poverty. Eventually, they died off, or retreated to a small husk of what they once were, and stayed that way until a disaster came along and ended them.
These species are discovered, cataloged, and studied by the other species who made the irrational decision to leave their world and colonize the stars. Maybe their home planet is in shambles now, but that's no matter, their robotic colonies kept their species, and their civilization, alive, and they owe everything to their ancestors who thought ahead of their lifetime alone, and decided to take a step into the unknown. To leave certain decay, withering, slow decline and death behind, and venture into the unknown that awaited them in the heavens.
(d) I'm currently and undergraduate studying physics. I aim to become a professor, enjoy talking about my interests and explaining them to others, and I love to investigate and answer questions like the asteriske'd one above, by making an appeal to physics and math.
Oh, and my favorite pony is Twilight Sparkle, no doubt. Kind, reasonable, cute, shared passions involving math and science - she's pretty awesome.
And remember that asterisk above? * Skip this paragraph if you're not interested in some gritty details on the topic, but, global faster-than-light travel is already possible within current theoretical frameworks. In fact, because light slows down in a gravitational well (as per the Schwarzchild solution), somewhere in the universe, there's a light ray inching along next to a black hole's horizon at less than a billionth of a meter per second. You're going about a billion times faster at a brisk walk. So, "can curved spacetime allow for faster-than-light travel?" is an already answered, "yes!" The question is; can it be used to propulsive advantage - ie, a "warp drive"? That question isn't quite settled yet, though there's strong arguments on both sides.
"
You're often found diving into a book or spending hours working on that project of yours. It's important that you put in as much of an effort learning as possible so your knowledge will someday come in handy. Because of this, you may sometimes be skeptical of things that you don't have any proof of.
While you tend to be booksmart as opposed to streetsmart, you also tend to be a tad socially awkward, not always sure how well you fit in with your friends or maybe not even having a lot of them in the first place, but you're still a solid friend when it comes down to it and would be there to help any of them with their problems.
Even though you may be talented, you're the total opposite of a showoff, shying away from bragging or even talking about your talents. You don't want the world to think you're a braggart, after all. You're quite humble and modest, but you're also looking for acceptance and praise for your talents.
"
# Comments
Comments: 759
Hah, awesome. Also, I'm Cirrus Light from Derpibooru in case ya didn't catch that.
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anyway do you take requests?
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Sorta-not-really?
I'm rather busy with ATG at the moment, but you can always suggest something. I probably won't take it, though
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Yeah I know that
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Your MLP vectors are great. By the way, do you take requests?
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Not at the moment, sorry, unless it's a really neat idea I happen to like
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Kinda? I go there for college for more than half the year, but sometimes return to my home-state of Alabama. In Alabama right now, recovering from a pretty darn terrible surgery (had some nasty mass /non-cancerous tumor removed from my gut).
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Hi! Remember me? I just randomly thought of you today! How've you been?
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I think? EFY? Facebook?
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Lol I messaged you on here last year
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Ayy lmao, guess who's been meeting with missionaries?
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Well this sounds interesting!
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Yesterday, they actually asked if I'd like to get baptized at this point. Didn't expect that this early on (third appointment, forth if you count church).
Had to decline. I like you guys, don't get me wrong, but I also like being Protestant. Unless I could somehow be both, which I highly doubt would fly around here.
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Dear Sir,
As a fellow space/astronomical enthusiast, I feel that it is my moral obligation to exhort you to go see a most excellent piece of Realistic Science Fiction entitled "Interstellar". As it's name already implies, it is 'stellar'. It features the most realistic representation of a black hole in movie history and the sound track is EPIC. I write to you, sir, because there is a disturbing lack of commentary upon said piece throughout your various social media sites...
Addendum
Dear Sir,
I have just checked your various social media sites and have found that you have indeed seen the movie in question. As this is the case, I now make a formal request for your thoughts, feelings, and views upon said piece. As you are the foremost expert in all things Astronomical within my current sphere of existence, I hold your views to be more relevant over those of other, less educated persons. I await your response with great anticipation and the mentally stimulating conversation/s that is/are sure to follow.
--Sincerely,
Maddog10-20
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I could rant on and on about how amazing it is, but I think a single word will sum up quite nicely how accurate it is: "Flawless."
There are even a few things that someone with a high-school physics-course level of knowledge would think is wrong, but were actually correct because said thing was a direct result of General Relativistic descriptions (which are more accurate to reality) that Newtonian (classical) gravity lacks (such as orbits that spiral inward to the parent body. Impossible in Newton's formulation of gravity, but they do happen IRL near black holes due to General Relativity).
There were so many things in that movie that you'll have to be a bit more precise, though! 
Endurance was beautiful. I loved the Rangers. The worlds were awesome. Kip Thorne, one of the best experts in General Relativity alive, was a co-producer and scientific consultant, so, yeah. Most questionable thing had to be the ice clouds, but those were only questionable. Would take some real in-depth analysis to see if they're actually impossible.
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I just can't stop listening to the soundtrack. Also, I thought that the robots had one of the coolest, most functional designs that I'd ever seen. Here's a question: how do you think Pony cryosleep would work? Magic based? A spell of some sort? How would you keep its integrity up after many years?
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Oh yeah, the soundtrack is awesome. Simple, but very, very awesome. Also yes - at first the robots seem really awkward, but once TARS goes to save Dr. Brand - you instantly see how awesome the design is!
Pony cryosleep? In my own fic idea, I'm imagining that magic doesn't work far beyond Earth. For reasons (magic field! asksciencepony.tumblr.com/ ). Otherwise, yeah, their magic would probably be how they'd do it, since their tech is a lot further behind than even ours, and we're a long ways from cryosleep at the moment.
As for integrity of it - I dunno. Could just be a spell that lasts that long.
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Hehe, thanks. What in specific are you referring to, just out of curiosity?
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Hey, look, I found your thread.Β boards.4chan.org/mlp/thread/20β¦
Anyway, I was mostly speaking in general. Your journals are analytical and in-depth on a level that makes me pretty jelly of your writing skills. I can usually whip up a decent essay in two hours, but you do it almost routinely by the looks of it.
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Heh, thanks. It just comes when it does, uninvited, really, and doesn't come when I call. So I usually wasn't planning on it when it happens (though sometimes I guess I am), but I can't always make it happen.
Heh, believe it or not, I have a really, really hard time with essays in college
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Heh, if you scroll up a bit, someone posted my picture there:Β eagle1division.deviantart.com/β¦
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Wanna join my theology group? =3Β ecclesia-theologica.deviantartβ¦
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Sure. I've been meaning to become more active here
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I miss you.Β
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Aww. You do? Well, I've only kinda been gone. You can always pop in and say "hi"
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Well, are you busy, and have you seen my gallery recently?Β
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Well, I've kinda been in and out of the hospital. I'm hoping I'm out for good this time, though.
Yeah, I've given it a look recently.
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Oh dear, hope you get well soon.Β
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I have an idea for a pic (if you like it):
twilight sparkle (in a spacesuit) captured by aΒ xenomorph
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Eh. I go more for realistic than cinematic (It's really kinda my style), and those are very hollywood-esque, not to mention they kill, don't capture. And It'd be hard to sell me on the idea of a crossover
But mostly, if you take a look at my journal you'll see I'm already booked on vectors for a good while.Β eagle1division.deviantart.com/β¦
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Yay another Twilight Mega-Fan/Christian! :3 *brohoof* /)
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