My EPQ title was "The Extinction of the Dinosaurs: An Asteroid or a Different Cause?", it explored the different theories for the K-T extinction and came to a conclusion on which theory/theories are the most likely :smile:

Reply 7

ilovegoats

Original post by cattubato

Ignoramus et Ignorabimus: On the Supposed Philosophical Implications of Godel's Incompleteness Theorems

I literally have no idea what any of that means.

Reply 8

cattubato

Original post by ilovegoats

I literally have no idea what any of that means.

basically, godel proved that arithmetic (the system of maths concerned with numbers 0,1,2.., addition, multiplication, equality ect) contains true but unprovable statements. e.g. "for all x,y,z and n: x^n+y^n=z^n implies n<3 or x=y=z=0" is a true provable statement in arithmetic. but there are some statements which, while true, cannot be proven to be true. this is true no matter how many extra axioms (your starting principles) you have. for example, say you had a statement G which was true but unprovable, you might just make G an axiom. but then there always exists another statement which is true but unprovable. btw this is only true if we assume that arithmetic is consistent (it cannot prove and disprove contradictory statements) which it bloodly well ought to be. secondly, he proved that any consistent system which accounts for arithmetic (which is all the maths you do in school) can prove that it is consistent.

anyway, there are lots of supposed philosophical implications. for example, "we can never be sure of anything", "minds must be more than computers" or even "things can only be explained be something outside of it, so god exists" ect.

in my dissertation (which was waaaay to long) i go through about 20 arguments and argue against them. i.e. i dont think there are any philosophical implications.
btw the latin just means "we do not know and we will not know" which is a quote by some guy but also the main supposed implication of godels theorems. if your interested in logic, analytic philosophy or maths then look into it.

it was a bit hard going - especially the actual maths - but not as bad as it sounds.

Reply 9

nomnomnomm

i was dumb and picked something on the israel-palestine conflict and whether a two state solution would solve it orz

now i'll never sleep

Reply 10

somegirlcalledea

"Can machines ever replicate human intelligence and, if so, shoud we let them?"

Both the most interesting and time-consuming piece of work I've ever done!

Reply 11

Nayzar

Dont do the EPQ unless you think you are guaranteed A*s. Such a burden even with an interesting title

Reply 12

champ_mc99

Original post by Leviathan1741

That sounds pretty interesting.

Reply 13

sahra30013

Mine was ' Was chloroform the best anaesthetic to use in surgery during the years 1865-1918'. Something along those lines! I really liked doing this.

Reply 14

cattubato

Original post by Mathemagicien

I approve. Good man/woman/thing.

The theorem itself is quite easy to understand on an intuitive level, so it was probably a good choice, since the people marking your work (your teachers and examiners) probably won't know much about it.

im interested in your intuitive understanding. ive never heard an explanation that was the least bit intuitive. ive read the original proof (tediously going through line by line) and abridged versions by Nagel ect and other proofs using Turing enumerable computability ect, but never really got any deep intuition of WHY it was true. (especially when one considers stuff like completeness of presburger arithmetic). how did you intuitively conceptualize it?

Reply 15

cattubato

Original post by Nayzar

Dont do the EPQ unless you think you are guaranteed A*s. Such a burden even with an interesting title

not really this. at least from anecdotal evidence of the ~20 people i know who did it, most people overestimate the effort they need to put into it, and end up getting an A* which they could have got for a fraction of the effort. any more than 14 hours of work and youre being self-indulgent. of course, if youre genuinely interested in it then do as much as you want. but if you just want a letter on your application, then dont worry.

Reply 16

IzzyWatkins

'Researching and Producing Music Video'

:P

Reply 17

yoda123

Mine was a dental website, the website itself was actually quite good imo but project reviews and documenting my progress and time management plans were all just bs i made up to get the A*

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 18

espicton98

'was Abraham Lincoln's decision to issue the emancipation proclamation for humanitarian reasons, or as a military tactic to win the Civil War?'

Reply 19

Nayzar

Original post by cattubato

Haha thats wierd ive heard the complete opposite from all my friends, and I underestimated it as well! I didnt enjoy it at all and didnt even get a good grade. from what I know its not worth it. Barely anyone who did it was asked about it in their inteviews (mainly talking about medicine here) because a lot of the interviewers never heard about it. Im not a very good writer though in the first place so that probably played a role in my opinion of it. Depends on everyones situation I guess.