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posted by
cmn32480
on Sunday May 08 2016, @11:49PM
from the I-can't-solve-DiffEq-with-a-computer dept.
from the I-can't-solve-DiffEq-with-a-computer dept.
This just in from the front lines of the War on the Unusual:
University of Pennsylvania economics professor Guido Menzio was solving a set of differential equations on a plane departing the Philadelphia airport when the woman next to him surreptitiously passed a note to a flight attendant telling them she thought he was a terrorist because of the strange things he was writing on a pad of paper. The plane returned to the gate where he was questioned. At least this time the pilot had enough sense not to kick him off the flight.
Remember folks, if you see something say something!
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UPenn Professor Solving DiffEQ on Scratchpad Causes Plane to Return to Gate
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But what can you do with it?
-- ubiquitous cry from Linux-user partner
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Monday May 09 2016, @10:37AM
The actual reality is at the same time a bit better than that and a bit worse... There are differential equation models. They are in wide use. But the simplifying assumptions needed to make them tractable also reduce them to the role of illustrations...
In other words, the model only works for spherical investors in a vacuum.
2-3 Decades ago a multi millionaire ($1M was a lot of money back then) in Oz made millions by saying he was thinking about using his group of companies to buy some other company out. Couple of weeks later he made some more millions by publicly changing his mind. A small number of major investors makes using statistics difficult.
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.