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Steve-o Stonebraker

@sstoneb.bsky.social

700 followers 1.5K following 1.2K posts

Your basic child of the 80s nerd. I love #Transformers and #ITeachPhysics in Massachusetts. Posts prior to July 2023 were imported from Twitter using BlueArk's service. Mastodon: https://retro.pizza/@sstoneb

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Steve-o Stonebraker @sstoneb.bsky.social · Nov 17

A collection of my "ready for primetime" #desmos #physics graphs can be found here:
www.camphortree.net/blog/desmos/

Every graph has a brief explanation, a preview image, and a permalink that will redirect to future updates. #ITeachPhysics

Steve-o’s Desmos creations – stuff from steve stonebraker

www.camphortree.net

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Steve-o Stonebraker @sstoneb.bsky.social · 16h

Yeah I remember the supply chain disruptions during the early covid days were due in part to all the ‘just in time’ aspects of it all which are, usually, great for efficiency. But also fragile as you say.

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Steve-o Stonebraker @sstoneb.bsky.social · 19h

Reminds me of this story about how Vienna Sausage built a new factory and their hot dogs started coming out a different color than they used to be until they built a new room for the sausages to WAIT in to simulate the 30-minute trip across the old factory.
www.thisamericanlife.org/241/20-acts-...

Call in Colonel Mustard For Questioning - This American Life

Mystery and missing flavor at the hot dog plant.

www.thisamericanlife.org

Steve-o Stonebraker @sstoneb.bsky.social · 19h

Obviously efficiency has a lot of benefits! But also obviously it can tear the soul out of many experiences, as when he's talking about dining. And the friction of inefficient systems can have lots of valuable side effects that aren't obvious until after you've greased the wheels.

Steve-o Stonebraker @sstoneb.bsky.social · 19h

Listened to this @99pi.org yesterday:
99percentinvisible.org/episode/641-...
Roman's discussion at around 19:00 about how designing for efficiency can be BAD really made an impression on me.

Specifically, the bit about how (supposedly) making advertising more efficient destroyed journalism.

A screenshot of a transcript from 99 Percent Invisible, spoken by Roman Mars. The text reads:

But the one that’s sticking with me–and this is gonna be kind of abstract, and I don’t know if this is going to come off well–is the idea of the march to make things more and more efficient makes the world a worse place. And I think of that in terms of advertising. The idea that we were going to efficiently measure how effective advertising was through clicks and eyeballs and stuff erased all of the extra money that made all the journalism and all the pop culture that you cared about in the 20th century–it made it all possible. The inefficiency of the advertising system made everything good in this world. I think that the idea that you’re trying to get things to be as efficient as possible is actually a terrible world-destroying idea.

The most efficient restaurant is a ghost kitchen that has no storefront because that’s inefficient because it could be empty sometimes. And it’s a ghost’s kitchen that just ships you a thing and has an underpaid delivery person and brings it to your door and you never leave. And this is stripping away all the goodness of the world in those cities.

I think efficiency is absolute garbage, and that is the design-related hill I’m willing to die on. I feel like you should always be allowing for great deals of inefficiency to make a nice designed city–a nice designed system–and make it work. I really hate the focus on efficiency. Not only does it destroy all these good things, it takes money and gives it to the worst people–the platform creators and the tech people–instead of all the loose, empty change and tips and things. And it’s not like things are cheaper or things are better. Money is being transferred to the wrong people instead of creators and people who make the world a better place through community and creation.

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Steve-o Stonebraker @sstoneb.bsky.social · 19h

It's pretty fun to move the N slider back and forth to see the particles popping in/out and the COM shifting in response.

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Steve-o Stonebraker @sstoneb.bsky.social · 20h

I like how the prompt on a lot of these--after the setup--starts with "Tell me, whoever wishes..." and then the question itself.

Some are simple arithmetic, but q1 is dimensional analysis (might steal it) and q5 is a linear combination with three variables! #ITeachMath #MathSky

Jennifer Ouellette @jenlucpiquant.bsky.social · 20h

Can You Solve These Ten Medieval Mathematical Riddles? www.medievalists.net/2025/10/can-...

Can You Solve These Ten Medieval Mathematical Riddles? - Medievalists.net

Explore ten medieval math riddles written by Alcuin of York, the great scholar of Charlemagne’s court. These clever puzzles from the early Middle Ages reveal how medieval students learned logic, numbe...

www.medievalists.net

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Steve-o Stonebraker @sstoneb.bsky.social · 1d

#ITeachPhysics friends: "centripetal" and "radial"

Which one(s) do you use with your students?

Do you treat them as synonyms, or as very different things, or as slightly different things?

If you think they are different (even a little) what is the difference to you?

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Steve-o Stonebraker @sstoneb.bsky.social · 1d

I could not even guess how many times I have dealt with this over the last 10+ years. It's a regular occurrence in my life, like multiple times a week. I can't be the only person this happens to, right?

Steve-o Stonebraker @sstoneb.bsky.social · 1d

Then you have to hit ESC to cancel the rename and start it again.

No matter how long you think is "long enough" to wait between files, it never is, and you always get the whole name selected. If you're willing to type just one letter at a time you might be able to avoid erasing the name tho.

Steve-o Stonebraker @sstoneb.bsky.social · 1d

This morning's pet peeve: How when you need to SLIGHTLY rename a bunch of files in a cloud drive on Windows, you're in the middle of changing a name when the previous change registers and suddenly the entire filename you're working on gets selected so your next keystroke erases the entire name.

Reposted by Steve-o Stonebraker

Melina Thévenot🏳️‍⚧️ @melina-iras07572.bsky.social · 2d

Planet #Uranus 🪐 and inner moons with #JWST NIRCam 🔭 #planetsci Observation from this Monday (lol moon🌕day).

Filters: F150W2; F162M
Date: 2025-10-06 between 02:15:43 UT and 04:46:47 UT

Program: www.stsci.edu/jwst-program...

Uranus with rings and small elongated dots (tracks) around it.

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Steve-o Stonebraker @sstoneb.bsky.social · 2d

I think... I think I might like skateboarding, now??

PlayStation @playstation.com · 2d

Skate Story shreds onto PS5 Dec 8 🛹

Fresh details on its explosive combo system: play.st/3VXqCUU

Steve-o Stonebraker @sstoneb.bsky.social · 2d

I may be the last high school teacher to learn this, but just in case: I found out this week that the "Promposal" phenomenon has expanded to include Homecoming, and that Homecoming is now "HoCo".
#EduSky #teaching

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Reposted by Steve-o Stonebraker

Alan Hazelden / Draknek & Friends @draknek.bsky.social · 3d

The (un)dead are growing restless. Spooky Express is almost here... 👀

Wishlist or pre-order now on the platform of your choice to be the first to play on October 21st
spooky.express

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Steve-o Stonebraker @sstoneb.bsky.social · 3d

Our dog is very upset by people on skateboards, but not on scooters with the tall handlebar thing like a Razor. My partner likes to joke that he's worried for their safety with nothing to hang onto.

Steve-o Stonebraker @sstoneb.bsky.social · 4d

"Find the launch speed" is the exact case I had in mind when asking "which side/color would I write this on?" because some of the initial replies to me sounded like teachers had a hard rule for their students about the x/y tables. It's sounding now like nobody is actually rigid about it though.

Steve-o Stonebraker @sstoneb.bsky.social · 4d

That's the hardest question I ask. I don't do it on quizzes and I care way more about their ability to think through the strategy than to flawlessly perform all the algebra. I *do* think it develops their physics understanding though, to solve a problem which "feels" underdefined at first.

Steve-o Stonebraker @sstoneb.bsky.social · 4d

In my 11th grade class, I give them a couple problems (including a lab) where the initial speed is unknown and they determine that speed from the initial and final coordinates. This involves writing an expression for t like "x/v0*cos(theta)" or something which is subbed into a y equation.

Reposted by Steve-o Stonebraker

Sean T. Collins @seantcollins.com · 5d

CHATGPT: I understand where you're coming from. You worked really hard to get here, and now it's time to enjoy the fruit of your labors.

ISILDUR: So I should keep it? Elrond says I shouldn't

CHATGPT: The ring is precious. Sometimes friends don't have your best interests at heart.

ISILDUR: true

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Reposted by Steve-o Stonebraker

NPR @npr.org · 4d

The Nobel committee said that the laureates' work provides opportunities to develop "the next generation of quantum technology, including quantum cryptography, quantum computers, and quantum sensors."

The Nobel Prize for physics is awarded for discoveries in quantum mechanical tunneling

n.pr

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Steve-o Stonebraker @sstoneb.bsky.social · 4d

I definitely do NOT want to make doctrine. That's why I'm asking the question--the table methods feel too prescriptive to me and that's why I've never enforced it, and I'm trying to see what the limits to it are for people who use it.

Reposted by Steve-o Stonebraker

CosmicRami 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @cosmicrami.com · 5d

Ok, so the super exciting news?

Dame Prof. Jocelyn Bell Burnell is coming to Sydney!

A few of us early-career scientists will be sharing our science and the stage with her.

BUT BUT BUT ... I've been granted a one-on-one interview with her for a @spaceaustralia.com article!

What an honour!

Me and Jocelyn Bell Burnell standing in a line, smiling, and having our photo taken.

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Steve-o Stonebraker @sstoneb.bsky.social · 5d

Kind of. But what if you can't get a VALUE for the time, and have to substitute an expression instead which includes a supposedly horizontal-only number like the final x-coordinate? Doesn't that break the "rule" of never writing x things on the y side?

Steve-o Stonebraker @sstoneb.bsky.social · 5d

Right, so you are substituting the x-final coordinate into the y equation. Since you dedicate special colors to each axis... what color do you write that in?

Steve-o Stonebraker @sstoneb.bsky.social · 5d

Ahh, so you're specifically recommending "r" over "d" for position vectors then?

Over the years I've used both, as well as x (all with vector hats and even bolded when typed) and haven't personally found a dramatic difference in how well understood they are with my particular students.