Murder(ous) Game
posted on Thursday, October 30, 2003 @ 5:31 pm
There are three animals running continuously on a circular racetrack: a cheetah, a rabbit and a tortoise.
They start at a different (or same) starting point, and run at a different speed. However, the cheetah always runs faster than the rabbit, and the rabbit always runs faster than the tortoise.
If the rabbit catches up with the tortoise, it will stop and wait for the cheetah. If they start at the same starting point, the rabbit will not move.
If the cheetah catches up with the rabbit, a murder occurs and the game is over. If they start at the same point, the game is over immediately.
Write a C++ program to compute the time required for the murder to take place. Your program should compute the time required for the cheetah to catch up with the rabbit. Then you should output the time and position of the murder.
Anyone? Please? 
Biochem Test Tomorrow
posted on Sunday, October 26, 2003 @ 5:45 pm
Glycine alanine valine leucine isoleucine proline phenylalanine tryptophan tyrosine serine threonine cysteine methionine asparagine glutamine lysine arginine histidine aspartate glutamate.
Glycine alanine valine leucine isoleucine proline phenylalanine tryptophan tyrosine serine threonine cysteine methionine asparagine glutamine lysine arginine histidine aspartate glutamate.
Glycine alanine valine leucine isoleucine proline phenylalanine tryptophan tyrosine serine threonine cysteine methionine asparagine glutamine lysine arginine histidine aspartate glutamate glycine alanine valine leucine isoleucine proline phenylalanine tryptophan tyrosine serine threonine cysteine methionine asparagine glutamine lysine arginine histidine aspartate glutamate glycine alanine valine leucine isoleucine proline phenylalanine tryptophan tyrosine serine threonine cysteine methionine asparagine glutamine lysine arginine histidine aspartate glutamate glycine alanine valine leucine isoleucine proline phenylalanine tryptophan tyrosine serine threonine cysteine methionine asparagine glutamine lysine arginine histidine aspartate glutamate glycine alanine valine leucine isoleucine proline phenylalanine tryptophan tyrosine serine threonine cysteine methionine asparagine glutamine lysine arginine histidine aspartate glutamate.
Nuclear Fear-sics
posted on Wednesday, June 25, 2003 @ 4:16 pm
Listen to me, people!
There are two types of hadron: baryons (including protons and neutrons) with a baryon number of 1, and mesons with a baryon number of 0. During hadron reactions, electrical charge, baryon number and strangeness are all conserved. The properties and reactions of hadrons can be explained if hadrons consist of smaller particles called quarks. In the basic quark model there are three flavours of quark: up, down, and strange, plus the corresponding antiquarks. Baryons consist of three quarks which may be the same flavour or different flavours; antibaryons consist of three antiquarks. Mesons consist of quark+antiquark pairs which may be the same flavour or different flavours. Separate quarks are never observed; they are always found confined in hadrons. Attempts to separate quarks may result in the creation of new quark+antiquark pairs which both have the same flavour. In hadron collisions, quarks may be exchanged between hadrons and/or new quark+antiquark pairs may be created. Quarks may be ’seen’ inside hadrons using beams of high-energy electrons which have sufficiently small effective (de Broglie) wavelength. Theory suggests, and observation confirms, that there are three further flavours of quark: charm, bottom and top. Quarks may be truly fundamental particles.
Leptons are fundamental particles which are not affected by the strong force. Electrons, muons, and tau-minus particles are leptons which have a negative electrical charge; their antiparticles positrons, mu-plus particles and tau-plus particles have a positive electrical charge. There is a neutral particle called a neutrino associated with each charged lepton; because these particles have no electrical charge, and have little or no mass, they hardly interact at all with matter. Reactions between hadrons and some hadron decays are due to the strong force. Other hadron decays involve quarks changing their flavour. Changes of flavour are due to another fundamental force called the weak interaction. When some unstable atomic nuclei decay, they emit beta particles; this can be either a beta-minus particle (an electron) or a beta-plus particle (a positron). Protons are the least massive type of baryon, so ‘free’ protons and protons in stable nuclei do not decay by strong or weak interactions. Protons are, however, probably not completely stable: scientists think that free protons have a half-life of the order of 1032 years.
Didn’t understand what I was saying? Me neither. So in other words…
HEEELLLLPPPPP!!!
Biology Madness
posted on Sunday, June 8, 2003 @ 2:53 pm
I think I’m going mad.
When I woke up this morning, I heard a plane. Instead of reminding me of my ex-girlfriend leaving Hong Kong before I go back, it immediately made me think of my ears.
Sound waves are transmitted through the middle ear into the fluid of the cochlea. The vibrations cause vibrations of the hair cell. The hair cells maintain a resting potential (negative) across their plasma membranes with sodium-potassium pumps. When the cells vibrate, they are depolarised. This cause them to release neurotransmitter, which causes depolarisation of the endings of nerve cells in the cochlear nerve. This generates action potentials which are carried into the brain. (Sense Organ and Reception of Stimuli, Module 2805, 5.9.5)
It was a bit late already, so I went to the dining hall for compulsory ‘formal’ lunch. As I stepped out of the house, I saw green leaves.
Green leaves carry out mainly photosynthesis under the sun. Two sets of reactions are involved. These are the light-dependent reactions and the light-independent reactions. In the light-dependent reactions, light energy is trapped by photosynthetic pigments (chlorophyll a, b, beta-carotene and/or xanthophyll). These reactions include the synthesis of ATP in photophosphorylation and the splitting of water by photolysis to give hydrogen ions. The ions combine with NADP to make reduced NADP. ATP and reduced NADP are passed from the light-dependent reactions to the light-independent reactions. (Photosynthesis, Module 2804, 5.4.2)
I was never interested in plants, so I stopped thinking about it by the time I got to the dining hall. We said grace, then went for our barbecue chicken meal. I had two drumsticks; one was bigger than the other.
It’s good to have variations, I thought to myself, as when the selection pressure changes, at least some individuals will survive and reproduce. (Classification, Selection and Evolution, Module 2804, 5.4.5)
It wasn’t very soon until the meat was ingested, masticated, rolled with the help of my tongue into a bolus, and swallowed. It travelled down my oesophagus by peristalsis and entered my stomach. I wonder how cows feel like to have four chambers in the stomach, reticulum, rumen, omasum and abomasum. I tried not to think about the cow regurgitating and finished my meal. (Mammalian Nutrition, Module 2805, 5.9.1)
I went back to the boarding house to revise Biology, then realised that I had alredy been revising all along. My cerebrum helped me think, talk, plan and remember, my hypothalamus controlled my endocrine glands for all the digestion and hormones, my cerebellum helped me walk, and my medulla oblongata controlled my breathing movements, heart rate, action of smooth muscle in the alimentary canal! (The Nervous System, Module 2805, 5.9.4)
So I might as well put my legs up with the help of actin and myosin in my muscles, close my eyes so the cone cells are no longer stimulated, forget about Darwin and Skinner, and have a really good relaxation of my nervous system.
I told you I’m going nuts.
