I used it a bit before that (2004-2006) but it was a great resource and then Wikipedia started really coming along. I think that now, however, it is a better resource than wikipedia when I want to double check something because of the simplicity as wikipedia articles have expanded quite a bit even on simple things.
Funny, I've been using the same sort of format for my own notes on physics [1]. Although in my graph there is no semantic meaning between graph nodes, maybe I should add that.
The svg graphs are just generated from extracting markdown links. Right now it's a bash script that writes dot code to a file, and then the dot is compiled to svg... I really need to switch that bash script to jinja or anything a little more serious.
Do you love it purely for nostalgia? Because I loved this as much as you back in the day, but this website could definitely use some improvements to make it more accessible and palatable to students today.
I'd wager all they need to do is get some proper CSS happening and they can visually change things without intrusively changing the HTML content itself. The may need to strip away some deprecated attributes for HTML elements, and add class attributes, but that's about it.
In my case, there is a definite nostalgic bias. I would have used the site near the start of my university studies in 1996. That said, I think there is a case for leaving it as-is. Many sites are designed to be accessible and palatable to students today, so there is some merit to maintaining the original style in case it addresses the needs of people who are not well served by modern sensibilities.
I was keen to explore (even if it's a bit dated) but unfortunately the combination of mobile-browser and dark mode makes a bit of a mess of things.. (making it quite a bumpy ride) I wonder if there are any 'translations' to other formats around?
"Second Law of Thermodynamics: In any cyclic process the entropy will either increase or remain the same."
I need some clarity about what is meant by 'cyclic' here. Is it perhaps to refer to feedback loops/self-sustaining phenomena?
Thanks, had a read and I think I understand approximately. I am still wondering whether biological systems should count as cyclic in this sense too? I think that they seem to, in the returning-to-the-same-state thing, at least across the generations, and even in regular metabolism in some sense - but the law doesn't (intuitively) seem to apply in the biology/evolution case.. it doesn't just diffuse, it can go on in pretty much precisely the same pattern for billions of years it seems? I guess I am probably ignoring something huge about this (like the Sun!?)
I see, thanks. I'm wondering if there might be any good examples of cyclic systems in the natural world too? Both of those devices are complicated, and you'd need to know the operation in detail to be able to connect it with the phases of a state-cycle-diagram.. but maybe something natural might make it easier to understand?
It's not "initial conditions" as in time=0. Thermodynamic state variables are path independent, so "initial conditions" in this context means the conditions of the reference point in the process from the point you start measuring.
I wanted to praise this page for the absence of tracking among the other "modern" things, but then it turns out it makes some requests to nerdydata.com. A bit disappointed, but still a great resource.
The author, Rod Nave, is old, possibly retired, and probably self-taught in HTML 3.2.
Image maps were the modern tech in the years after Fulton County started pushing internet to residents---1995 or so. I don't remember there being any alternatives at the time; CSS was mostly supported by many browsers, but div tags weren't in widespread use.
For a non-programmer, it would be a herculean effort to learn and transition existing material to a new technology, and the benefits might not be obvious to someone focusing on teaching physics to 100 undergraduates most of the year and seeing the widespread, positive impact of the current implementation.
Also, they have for other fields too:
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/chemical/chemcon....
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/geophys/geophys.h...
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/biology/biocon.ht...