Marťan alebo streetfighting physics

Pri príležitosti včerajšieho sviatku som si prečítala knihu The Martian (napísal Andy Weir). Dobré, rýchle, miestami vtipné čítanie o astronautovi, ktorého omylom nechali na Marse.

I’ve been thinking about laws on Mars. Yeah, I know, it’s a stupid thing to think about, but I have a lot of free time.

There’s an international treaty saying no country can lay claim to anything that’s not on Earth. And by another treaty, if you’re not in any country’s territory, maritime law applies. So Mars is “international waters.” NASA is an American non-military organization, and it owns the Hab. So while I’m in the Hab, American law applies. As soon as I step outside, I’m in international waters. Then when I get in the Rover, I’m back to American law.

Here’s the cool part: I will eventually go to Schiaparelli crater and commandeer the Ares 4 lander. Nobody explicitly gave me permission to do this, and they can’t until I’m aboard Ares 4 and operating the comm system. After I board Ares 4, before talking to NASA, I will take control of a craft in international waters without permission. That makes me a pirate! A Space Pirate!

Onedlho bude aj film:

Čo na tej knihe bolo najviac cool, bola všetka tá improvizácia, ktorú Mark musel robiť. Veľmi mi to pripomínalo jednu matematickú prednášku, ktorú som videla, inšpirovanú touto prácou: Street-fighting mathematics, The Art of Educated Guessing and Opportunistic Problem Solving.

In problem solving, as in street fighting, rules are for fools: do whatever works—don’t just stand there! Yet we often fear an unjustified leap even though it may land us on a correct result. Traditional mathematics teaching is largely about solving exactly stated problems exactly, yet life often hands us partly defined problems needing only moderately accurate solutions. This engaging book is an antidote to the rigor mortis brought on by too much mathematical rigor, teaching us how to guess answers without needing a proof or an exact calculation.

Ako ste Deň neprečítaných kníh oslavovali vy?

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