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gedanken
/g*-dahn'kn/ n. thought; adj. impractical; untried; untested.
'Gedanken' is a German word for 'thought'. A thought experiment is one you carry out in your head. In physics, the term 'gedanken experiment' is used to refer to an experiment that is impractical to carry out, but useful to consider because it can be reasoned about theoretically. (A classic gedanken experiment of relativity theory involves thinking about a man in an elevator accelerating through space.) Gedanken experiments are very useful in physics, but must be used with care. It's too easy to idealize away some important aspect of the real world in constructing the 'apparatus'.
Gedankenexperiment n. A thought experiment
The term Gedankenexperiment in its conventional usage is believed to originate with the Danish physicist Hans Christian Ørsted in the early 1800s, later extended by Ernst Mach. Gedankenexperiment became common during the formative years of quantum mechanics, many from Niels Bohr and his associates who formulated the 'Copenhagen Interpretation' of quantum mechanics. Perhaps the most famous gedankenexperiment was the EPR paradox, named after its authors Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen, which challenged the Copenhagen idea that quantum mechanics is a 'complete' theory.
So what does all of that have to do with this blog?
At its heart a blog is just a collection of thoughts. In the case of this particular blog, we attempt to apply those thoughts to problems at hand either by refuting another point of view or by proposing a model or solution of our own. Thus we are in a broad sense upholding the tradition of the gedankenexperiment of the golden years of physics at the turn of the 20th century.
Typically we consider three broad areas of interest: finance, politics and science. Politics is the most nebulous of the three areas - the emphasis is on national security type issues but we also take a look at political questions of the day. From the finance side we often look at bonds, commodities and derivatives and of course central banks. Equities do get a look, just less often. Finally, our science posts will usually involve astronomy or physics but just about anything is fair game here.
We also provide short mention of books we are currently reading or have recently finished - anything from why we picked the book up to a brief review. Next to this section we note any especially unusual or useful web sites we may come across.
Our posting schedule is more determined by the availability of free time as well as the determination to put pen to paper - the mental energy is sometimes just not available to put up a post of reasonable quality. Expect at most three or four posts a week, though sometimes there may only be one or none (gasp!) We would much rather skip a turn then put something up just for the sake of it.
To those coming from our previous incantation as Rant Street, we hope you enjoy the new format.
