Vi Hart on positive feedback driving polarization
Vi Hart’s interesting comments on the dynamics of political polarization, following the release of an innocuous video: I wonder what made those commenters think we have opposite views; surely it...
View ArticleHappy E day
E, a.k.a. Euler’s number or the base of the natural logarithm, is near and dear to dynamic modelers. It’s not just the root of exponential growth and decay; thanks to Euler’s Formula it encompasses...
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Reinforcing lies?
Hoisted from a comment by Luzi on Vi Hart on positive feedback driving polarization: Can you find the point where the many positive feedback loops can be balanced or broken? The post Reinforcing lies?...
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Clark’s Causal Calamity
My son spotted this hilarious CLD in the local coop: In this case, CLD stands for “confusing loop diagram.” Here’s how things really work: Grizzly bears lay pinecones. The cones hatch into nutcrackers....
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A Grizzly-Pine-Nutcracker CLD Rework
I spent a little time working out what Clark’s Causal Calamity might look like as a well-formed causal loop diagram. Here’s an attempt, based on little more than spending a lot of time wandering around...
View ArticleComplexity should be the default assumption
There’s been a long-running debate over whether wolf reintroduction led to a trophic cascade in Yellowstone. There’s a nice summary here: Do Wolves Change Rivers? Yesterday, June initiated an in depth...
View ArticleStabilizing an Unstable Equilibrium
In addition to cool, weird visuals of vibrating goo, this video has a nice feedback explanation of how vibrations can stabilize an unstable equilibrium in a fluid or inverted pendulum: The post...
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Feedback solves the Mars problem
Some folks apparently continue the Apollo tradition, doubting the latest Mars rover landing. Perfect timing of release into space? Perfect speed to get to Mars? Perfect angle? Well, there are actually...
View ArticleEscalator Problems
@stevenstrogatz reposts a clever, simple problem: two people climb a staircase and then climb an escalator. One person rests a minute on the staircase and the other rests a minute on the escalator, but...
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Escalator Solutions
As promised, here’s my solution to the escalator problem … several, actually. Before getting into the models, a point about simulation vs. analytic solutions. You can solve this problem on pencil and...
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