User talk:Paul Wormer

Tasks: start a new article • add basic, wanted or requested articles • add definitions • add metadata • edit new pages

Welcome to the Citizendium! We hope you will contribute boldly and well. Here are pointers for a quick start, and see Getting Started for other helpful "startup" links, our help system and CZ:Home for the top menu of community pages. You can test out editing in the sandbox if you'd like. If you need help to get going, the forum is one option. That's also where we discuss policy and proposals. You can ask any user or the editors for help, too. Just put a note on their "talk" page. Again, welcome and have fun! Aleksander Stos 12:32, 16 August 2007 (CDT)

Hydrogen bond

Hi Paul. Welcome to Citizendium and I am happy to make your acquaintance. I would be delighted to take a look at your comments on the hydrogen bond, however, as an Analytical Chemist, I'm not much of an authority on the subject. Early on in the Citizendium project, it was designed to be a "fork" of Wikipedia -- and as such ALL of the content on Wikipedia at that moment was copied under the GNU License and placed on the Citizendium servers. The thought was that CZ would simply take a different direction from WP from a certain point. Soon afterward, I joined the project and was included as an editor for the Chemistry workgroup. As part of the initial organization, I took some time to surf the WP/CZ pages on the topic of chemistry and placed the Chemistry workgroup tag on them (200+ articles) in an attempt to get an idea of the scope of the work ahead.

Sometime after that, the CZ organizers chose not to "fork" the WP content, but to primarily start from scratch. In the process of "un-forking", pages that were modified "significantly" since their copy from WP were retained and all others were deleted. Hydrogen bond was one of those pages that survived the massive clean-up and my initial edit survived in the history as well.

I am not familiar with the latest "semi-automated" process for joining CZ as an editor however you clearly qualify. I would love to have you join the Chemistry Workgroup as an editor as well. I hope this has not been too long winded. Please let me know if I can help. Best regards, --William Weaver 13:04, 17 August 2007 (CDT)

I've made Dr. Wormer a Chemistry Editor. Thanks to you, Dr. Weaver, for showing up here again as well! --Larry Sanger 02:36, 18 August 2007 (CDT)

align

I don't know but a workaround might be necessary... See this post. Aleksander Stos 07:21, 18 August 2007 (CDT)

I was about to propose \choose -- but I see you found it yourself. Sorry, it took too long to answer (weekend :-)). Anyway, feel free to contact me if you have further problems. Jitse Niesen is IMHO our best LaTeX expert. Aleksander Stos 06:08, 19 August 2007 (CDT)

There are plenty of automagical phenomenons in this world ;-) Normally the system works well, though. Aleksander Stos 07:21, 19 August 2007 (CDT)

Meneer Wormer (of Paul, op het internet schijnt iedereen elkaar met de voornaam aan te spreken), aangenaam kennis te maken. [For people that don't understand Dutch, this sentence basically means "hello".]

I just stumbled on this talk page (I was looking who could possibly help me with Noether's theorem). I don't understand why align doesn't work here, but I'll see what I can do. -- Jitse Niesen 09:25, 20 August 2007 (CDT)

svg format

Yes, it is supposed to work, see CZ:Notice_Board#June 24, 2007. If however there was a problem, we can always try conversion to png (please let me know if interested)... Aleksander Stos 11:16, 20 August 2007 (CDT)

Medelander

Ja, wp is niet te harden meestal. Ik heb mijn wachtlijst al geheel opgedoekt, en kom daar alleen nog maar om mijn eigen pagina's in de gaten te houden, en om mijn admin rechten niet te verliezen want wie weet wat er nog gaat gebeuren. Maar goed, ik weet niet wat er met CZ gaat gebeuren, tot nu toe is de activiteit erg minimaal, en de kwaliteit meestal niet erg hoog. Kim van der Linde 10:11, 13 September 2007 (CDT)

approval

Paul,

als een 4e editor een approval ondersteunt is het instantaan. een 1-editor approval is ook mogelijk. Makkelijk is het om dan de approval-datum te zetten op 2 of 3 dagen in de toekomst. Verwijdert geen enkele geautoriseerde editor het approval dan moeten de constables deze approval doorvoeren. Als phys-chem gepromoveerd op macromoleculaire chemie heb ik getracht het artikel zo leesbaar en begrijpelijk mogelijk te houden voor zelfs de grootste leek. Ik ben verantwoordelijk voor de vorm en 95% van de inhoud, andere editors hebben toegevoegd vanuit hun individuele disciplines (medicijnen/biologie). groet, Rob. Robert Tito |  Talk 

Hydrogen

For a moment I put the category on the article. You should see the article on worgroups' lists.

I suppose you thought that it was enough to put it in the checklist. Well, the system needed a double work: the category both in the checklist and the article. Now, it's changing -- within the new subpages system (cf. CZ:Subpages) everything is put on a "metadata page". The good news is that thanks to Jitse's bot any page will be automatically converted to the new system. And here is a link how to start an article with subpages. You may also consult CZ:Using the Subpages template. We are in transition phase and working hard to make it really simple (semi-automatic). I'm sorry if it's not very clear, I'm writing (too) fast. Maybe the best thing is to look and click around one good example, e.g. the Biology or New York City article. Click e.g. yellow "M" button on right near the top. Anyway, we may continue to work as before (I'll be doing so until better tools arrive). Aleksander Stos 10:14, 1 October 2007 (CDT)

Edit my Ideal gas law page?

Given your work on the van der Waals equation, I think you are a great choice for editing or contributing to the Ideal gas law page that I started. Any thoughts? David E. Volk 14:47, 3 October 2007 (CDT)

Macromolecular chemistry

Congratulations on your first Approval!! Matt Innis (Talk) 19:23, 9 October 2007 (CDT)

Two urgent requests

First one: as "Oxygen" is about to become "New Article of the Week" tomorrow, could you please check it over. In particular, I am puzzled that SiO2 is called silicium oxide. I know sand as silicon dioxide, and presumed that silicium oxide is perhaps SiO3? In which case, the article has an error in the first paragraph. If it is correct, then perhaps you could explain the difference between the two names.

Second request: could you please activate your email by CZ form, so that people can email you using the link in the toolbox on the left. You can change all your personal settings in "my preferences" at the top of every page, after you have logged in.

Many thanks. --Martin Baldwin-Edwards 15:50, 17 October 2007 (CDT)

Thanks for your reply. Two chemists already got to it, from a circular I sent out to Editors in case you didnt read yours. For the email settings, go to My Preferences,then User Profile and under the heading Email at the bottom of the page there are boxes to be ticked. Tick Enable e-mail from other users and then we can contact you by email from the wiki. --Martin Baldwin-Edwards 03:05, 18 October 2007 (CDT)

The circular email was on the emailing list for Editors. There are several emailing lists, which you have to subscribe to. Actually, I was discussing this a week ago with Larry, and we didnt sort it out. There needs to be a page of instructions on these things. I also was not subscribed. THe various lists and forums and blogs can be found on the link Communication in the left panel. you might want just editors, or also the Citizendium-L . Hope this helps! --Martin Baldwin-Edwards 04:07, 18 October 2007 (CDT)

For ANcient Greek symbols, when you edit go to the bottom of the edit page, where there are visible symbols, and after modern Greek is a link -- Polytonic. Click that and you have the Ancient Greek set.

I just checked, and discovered that the Polytonic set is misssing. At the moment, therefore, we cannot use the tones for Ancient Greek. Sorry about that: I will ask someone if it can be added soon. --Martin Baldwin-Edwards 13:17, 18 October 2007 (CDT)

Talk:Oxygen

Paul, that is weird. I can tell you that I did not intentionally remove any comments, but that doesn't mean that the software didn't do something weird, especially since I was adding the subpages templates that do tend to mess up every once in awhile. I suppose we could have both hit the save at the same time? But I don't remember that I got an edit conflict. These things always confound me when they happen. If you figure it out, let me know. --Matt Innis (Talk) 08:00, 19 October 2007 (CDT)

Editing templates

Hoi Paul,

Ok, zover ik begreep, de definitie was van van der Waals zelf, maar het maakt me niet uit hie en wat. Achter elke definitie heb je twee kleine tekentjes, en de [e] brengt je naar de template definitie (Template:Def_van_der_Waals_force) die je zoals elke andere pagina kan editen. Ik hoop dat dit helpt! Kim van der Linde 08:13, 19 October 2007 (CDT)

English

That sentence needs a little rewrite, and I will have to check the exact amount of O2 in the air. It is correct or very close. I'm currently thinking about the negative nuclear spin, which isn't really true. It only indicates a negative gyromagnetic ratio, but for NMR, it is handly to think of them as opposite of normal.

David E. Volk 13:52, 19 October 2007 (CDT)

Negative nuclear spin explained

Paul, here is what I added. Does this answer your question well enough?

NOTE: All nuclear spins are positive. Negative spin values shown below indicate that the gyromagnetic ratio has a negative value, which means that the atomic magnetic moment and the nuclear spin are aligned antiparallel to each other. For nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopists designing complex excitation schemes, it is convenient to think of such atoms as having negative nuclear spins because, compared to atoms with positive gyromagnetic ratios, the nuclei align in the opposite direction and therefore also precess (rotate) about the magnetic field in the opposite direction.

David E. Volk 14:20, 19 October 2007 (CDT)

Spin talk

Paul, I'm not quite sure, but here's what I think. The total magnetic moment of the atom comes from the electron spins, the rotation of the nucleus as a whole unit, and the spin of the individual nucleons. Orbital symmetry is likely very important (both electrons and nucleons). In any event, for the negative gyromagnetic ratio elements, the spin of the nucleus opposes the total spin. So, when the whole atom aligns with the magnetic field, the nuclear spin is aligned in the opposite direction. I need to dig up some good sources for this before writing the real NMR article. David E. Volk 11:19, 21 October 2007 (CDT)

check chemistry page

Paul, could you look at the electron orbitals in the Chemistry article. They seem incorrect (3d and/or 4f) to me. It has been nominated for Article of the Week, so we should ensure that the orbital pix are correct. David E. Volk 09:42, 27 October 2007 (CDT)

Hi David, I gave answer on the talk page of Chemistry--Paul Wormer 10:21, 27 October 2007 (CDT)

Version 1.1 of Chemistry

Hi Paul, I replied at Talk:Chemistry/Draft#Please_explain_draft_principle. Stephen Ewen 03:29, 29 October 2007 (CDT)

See User_talk:Stephen_Ewen#Question. Stephen Ewen

refs

http://scitation.aip.org/getabs/servlet/GetabsServlet?prog=normal&id=JCPSA6000127000015154518000001&idtype=cvips&gifs=yes http://www.lsbu.ac.uk/water/hbond.html http://www.iapws.org/relguide/Ice.pdf

P.M. These reference pertain to water close to absolute zero. They were put here by Robert Tito.--Paul Wormer 03:37, 9 November 2007 (CST)

Cauchy

I apologise if my comment made you feel the need to explain/justify your work. This is excellent stuff and I do minor tweaks. After all this is a wiki [actually I was hesitating to put a smile in the comment as it was intended to be funny; finally I stayed dead serious and now I regret :) ]. Cheers Aleksander Stos 03:25, 31 October 2007 (CDT)

Cauchy

See User_talk:Stephen_Ewen#Picture_Cauchy. Stephen Ewen 22:16, 31 October 2007 (CDT)

Subpages

I think there was an error in one of the subpages you created for Carbon, which is why it all went horribly wrong. Fixed now. The 'Metadata' template for each article has to be correctly filled out, otherwise the pages end up ridden with junk. Have you tried creating articles via 'start article with subpages'? This automatically brings up the right metadata form for you to fill in. See the one for Carbon - you can click 'M' at the top of the Talk page to do the same. Don't put metadata information anywhere else, otherwise it'll mess up.

If all else fails, simply start an article without subpages. The subpagination bot will do it for you if you fill out an article checklist on the Talk page. John Stephenson 03:34, 9 November 2007 (CST)

Netherlands

Hi Paul. Did you mean to delete a paragraph in this edit of yours to Netherlands? You marked it as a "minor edit" ... Jitse Niesen 11:48, 10 November 2007 (CST)

Your article on energy

Paul: Regarding your article on Energy, in your example of Galileo converting potential energy to kinetic energy, you write:

"This dropping of mass off the tower of Pisa is a good example of conversion of energy: potential energy is converted in kinetic energy. We will prove that energy is conserved, that is, the sum of kinetic and potential energy is constant in time."

You might consider further exemplifying the First Law by considering what actually happens when the potential energy of the mass reaches zero, viz., at the point it hits the ground, where Galileo picked it up before climbing the tower and imparting it with potential energy. Clearly, as the mass falls, there is a theoretical height x=0 where potential energy is zero and kinetic energy is maximal, the sum of potential and kinetic energy remaining constant equal to its value everywhere else in the falling trajectory. But in reality, at x=0, the mass hits the earth, whereupon the kinetic energy becomes zero, as does the potential energy, in which case energy has not been conserved as constancy of potential and kinetic energy. Some readers trying to understand the law of conservation of energy may think that way, and find it confusing.

You have already told them in the introduction that one has to take heat energy loss or gain into the balance sheet for energy conversions. The reader might find it helpful if you added that when the mass actually hits the earth and loses both it potential and kinetic energy, that the conservation balance sheet must take into consideration the heating of the moist soil of the earth at impact. You would have to do that even in a vacuum.

As an aside, would a heavier mass, M1, compared to a lighter mass, M2, sink farther into the earth at impact, so that kinetic energy becomes zero at x<0? If so, what considerations must go into the energy balance sheet to meet the First Law for both impacts?

I have no claim to expertise in physics, so it would not surprise me if you revealed my physics here incorrect. --Anthony.Sebastian (Talk) 16:31, 15 November 2007 (CST)

Paul: Thanks for the background information on your initiating the article on Energy. I like the additions you've made, and it seems the article is shaping up to exemplary academic status. Your English is quite good, nothing to worry about there. The article may be a little difficult for many readers, even with university education, especially mathophobes. But there is always the possibility later for a "student version" as a 'subpage'. Personally, I never worry about trying to reach the least educated audience, as even experts don't mind hearing the fundamentals again, so long as the substance is there too. You are right that writing on 'energy' is challenging. I expect to learn a lot from the article, and find stimulation from it, as I already have.

Incidentally, I've just started reading Peter Atkin's new book, "Four Laws That Drive the Universe", 2007, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-923236-9. I'll let you know what I think. --Anthony.Sebastian (Talk) 13:46, 16 November 2007 (CST)

Ptolemy

Many thanks for your note. Always happy to polish some English. That was quite some 'stub', I have to say - Ro Thorpe 12:36, 25 November 2007 (CST)

Dirac's delta et al.

I referred to this. I'll look at your article. Cheers, Aleksander Stos 08:50, 1 December 2007 (CST)

Distribution is correct as a stub - but, of course, one is tempted to work on it. Regarding allotropy it seems that you can move the page (as long as the redir page wasn't edited, but just created). So please do, if you like -- it'd be a clean solution. Let me know if it doesn't work. Aleksander Stos 09:53, 1 December 2007 (CST)

Sure, the description you propose would be highly desirable, IMHO. I tend to think about Dirac's delta via Gauss -- for probabilists it's initial law of the standard Brownian motion (and other processes). We may negotiate linear/quadratic normalizations ;). I mentioned "derivative of Heaviside" since, AFAIK, this is how signal theory tends to introduce it (limit of "almost-Heaviside" function). Anyway, your proposition looks excellent. BTW, regarding WP image, it's not a very good idea to give such a *bare* image (without e.g. approximations by Gauss that you proposed). I'm not very offended by the image itself --after all they make many reservations in the article-- but by the prominent label "probability density function" that easily follows from such a simplified illustration. With some more carefull approach and with some approximations showed, the image could be more than useful. Aleksander Stos 08:07, 5 December 2007 (CST)