h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hello everyone, and especially Bossel. Glad you joined in.

Pimms was right, putting sex in somewhere gets entries noticed. I was beginning to think there was no interest in this one.

To the points Bossel makes:-

I'll fix the typo's shortly.

How can I get the plain skin view? Following a bug discovered by Pimms with table titles, I previewed it in all skins possible (that is the Alabaster I use, Classic Goo and Brunel), checking that and that equations do not break across lines. Plain skin is not an option given for preview, so how would I check in it?

I agree with your sentiment about the abrupt end, but would very much disagree with the suggested cure. Yes, my example would be a straight line on logarithmic scales, but that may not be known. The interpolation that is done by the method given is quite different from determination of the coefficients needed to fit data following a known law. I'll try to find something to round off which is more suitable to general interpolation (and probably restate that polynomial interpolation is useful for non-polynomial data).

Thank you for your contributions so far, please keep them coming (sex again).

Hello everyone.

Typo's fixed. New end still in progress. Any help on plain skin?

Umm, I notice that 'quadratic' isn't a word. Make that 'square' please.

'plain' is one of the options I get in the 'Preferences' screen -- although I seem to remember there was a bug to the effect that in order to have the option, you have to be in plain skin already . Anyway, you can get there by simply replacing the /classic or /brunel with /plain in your browser's navigation bar.


Bossel

Hello everyone.

I've now added a summary, to finish the entry more elegantly. I must confess to finding this somewhat difficult, so please comment. I have tried to include Bossel's idea about series, but from a quite different point of view.

I must agree to differ about "quadratic" being a word - my dictionary (Chambers) defines it both as an adjective and a noun. However, if I have used quadratic somewhere when "square" would be preferable, I'll change it.

I can see only a partial solution to the problem of the big table in plain skin. I could trim the title of the Approximation column to just Approx, to shrink that, and maybe lop of a decimal place (or even two) in the Intensity and Error columns, but otherwise - short of splitting the thing in two - I cannot see what to do. Is this a major problem? I don't know if the plain skin is used much, and it has a very quaint style for numbers.

Hi OH,

The 'square' vs Denglish 'quadratic' referred to my posting above, i.e. I corrected myself, not your entry

Re: plain skin - I don't see this as too much a problem. If the entry is readable in the default Brunel skin then it should be okay. Users of other skins should be experienced enough to know how to adjust the browser's display.


As to the summary - you might safely discard my suggestion now! You've put it much more precise and fit it into the *whole* context

Excellent work, oh master of the art!


*bows respectfully*


Bossel

Hello All.

Thank you Bossel. Just made a final tweak. Fixed all the formulae to italicise only the variable names and not the numbers or operators. Also added an apology before the final table, to justify its length.

Then if everyone is happy, let's wait for a passing scout.

Thank you all for your helpful suggestions.

Sorry I gave up on this entry for so long. I must admit I still don't find the subject very accessible, though I reckon that is the nature of the subject rather than your fine exposition .

I think I follow the explanation, but glaze over when the tabulated examples appear, which do nothing to clarify my understanding.

2 notes:
>you are aware of course that your table titles are invisible in Brunel skin unless you attempt to highlight the text - I'm not sure whether a footnote would be useful, since a fix of the skin seems unlikely
>I may be wrong, (and it is pretty trivial nit-picking) but I think 'programme' would be better replaced with 'program' in the section on practical considerations.

Pimmsaloonie

Hello everyone, and welcome back Pimms.

I can (since we found the problem) fix the tables, avoiding the use of CAPTION. This is tedious, but I have done it in every later creation than this one. The tables are there as a poor substitute for graphs, which if you could imagine the graph that the tables represent, would perhaps be rather illuminating. That is the intention.

If I take out the tables, it is rather difficult to see that the various approximations developed in the text are in fact improving approximations, but each with certain unpleasant features, which I also point out. The only alternative that I can see is to summarise the tables, with minima and maxima of errors given (I would have to go away and compute these, as the function I use is rather awkward in that rspect.) Have you another idea I could use instead?


It may be controversial, just my ego, or the fact that I am English rather than American, but I absolutely refuse to remove me from programme.

It may just be me (and the dictionaries do seem to accept either variant) but I tend to use 'programme' for "A listing of the order of events and other pertinent information for a public presentation, or a scheduled radio or television show",
but 'program' for "A set of coded instructions that enables a machine, especially a computer, to perform a desired sequence of operations."

Pimms
(PS by no means an American)

Hello again.

Well Pimms, it looks like the h2g2 community agree with you (I just asked them), so I'll go and make it program in the right places.

Your Guide Entry has just been picked from Peer Review by one of our Scouts, and is now heading off into the Editorial Process, which ends with publication in the Edited Guide. We've therefore moved this Review Conversation out of Peer Review and to the entry itself.

If you'd like to know what happens now, check out the page on 'What Happens after your Entry has been Recommended?' at EditedGuide-Process. We hope this explains everything.

Thanks for contributing to the Edited Guide!

hoorah for OH

Pimms

Thank you Pimms. Hope you are recovering well, and wish you a Happy New Year.