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jonathanbyrd.bsky.social
Preacher’s kid, Gulf War vet, songwriter, teacher, physics student
170 posts 355 followers 219 following
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My son took this from our driveway. He calls it “Orion’s kilt”

submitted 130 days ago • 2 comments

When the recipe says add 1 teaspoon of vanilla

submitted 134 days ago • 0 comments

“Disability is a family you can join at any point in your life.” — Judith Heumann

submitted 137 days ago • 0 comments

ChatGPT, DeepSeek, and Gemini are all pretty good at physics and calculus, ymmv. However, they are all terrible at differential equations. Can any smart people weigh in as to why?

submitted 138 days ago • 1 comment

When she says, “Find the parametric equations of the line tangent to the spacecurve at t=1”

submitted 140 days ago • 1 comment

When Plato says art can be used for the good of the State, I just think, Wow. Those were different times.

submitted 142 days ago • 0 comments

I had a differential equations problem today, and the only way I found to solve it was to create an excel spreadsheet and iterate for 16,000 rows, the whole time thinking about those NASA ladies doing that by hand for the space program, but also I HAVE OTHER THINGS TO DO PROFESSOR

submitted 142 days ago • 0 comments

My son did this last night in our backyard. I’m kind of flabbergasted.

submitted 143 days ago • 1 comment

Women casually make magic.

submitted 143 days ago • 0 comments

Sometimes the timeline is a magic eight-ball of wisdom.

submitted 146 days ago • 0 comments

What I really think about rubies.

submitted 150 days ago • 0 comments

Government scientists & employees: I'm a freelance journalist who writes for NYT, Science, SciAm, Nature, etc. If you want to securely discuss disruptions to your work, I'm available on Signal at mgreshko.01. Use a personal device on a trusted network. 🧪

submitted 151 days ago • 0 comments

Mom, reality’s here. Something about a check.

submitted 152 days ago • 0 comments

Wait professors have to be the enemy now too?! They’re going to have to drop some board meetings

submitted 153 days ago • 0 comments

Cowboy up.

submitted 153 days ago • 1 comment

We did Jack’s DNA and turns out he’s 100% good boy

submitted 154 days ago • 1 comment

Struggling today with applying calculus. Wouldn’t it be strange if I memorized a bunch of chess games but didn’t know how to use a bishop? Stranger still if I made As in Chess I & II! That’s how it feels. I know how to integrate but not why. Just venting.

submitted 156 days ago • 3 comments

I’m in Calculus III right now and LOSING MY FRIGGIN MIND! This is wizard school!

submitted 157 days ago • 1 comment

submitted 158 days ago • 0 comments

It’s a pancake morning.

submitted 158 days ago • 0 comments

A proper snow.

submitted 158 days ago • 0 comments

Painters: I started with five pigments and recently started playing with two others: 1) Burnt umber 2) French ultramarine 3) pyrrole rubine 4) cadmium yellow 5) titanium white Then 6) ivory black 7) yellow ochre Honestly not finding the black very useful. Yellow ochre, maybe? What about you?

submitted 158 days ago • 0 comments

I had my own, private swearing-in ceremony.

submitted 160 days ago • 0 comments

Assume a spherical bird

submitted 160 days ago • 0 comments

“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.” — George Orwell, Animal Farm

submitted 161 days ago • 0 comments

Just had a sample of the Eaton Fire ash that is in my driveway run on the department XRF. Is there titanium (new house paint)? Yup. Lead (old house paint)? You betcha. Heavy metals? Check. Treat that ash like it's toxic folks (because it is)

submitted 162 days ago • 119 comments

I used ChatGPT a lot for Physics I because the instruction was pretty chaotic. The LLM was about as good as fellow students, which was perfect for studying. I made a 98 in the class and 105 on the in-person final.

submitted 163 days ago • 1 comment

The bookshelf above my desk. The positive x-axis points upwards.

submitted 163 days ago • 1 comment