Do internet climate scientists know what computers are?
I have been having a discussion with an "internet" climate scientist who denies that differential equations have use in understanding the behavior of dynamical systems like climate.
His latest bit of wisdom was : "Why would I have wasted so much time doing something the long winded way when I have a computer to do it all for me?". He was saying that rather than writing out diffwerential equations he would ask his computer what the answer was.
Are not internet climate scientists aware that the way to have a computer solve it would be to set up the differential equationas and then give the differential equations to the compter to be solved. At the very leasdt, if the problem qwas close enough to other treated problems there might be a program to do it, but the program was designed by someone who set up differential equations for the computer.
Do you need any sort of science training to become an internet climate scientist? Or can you become one by just repeating "According to peer review..."
"don't think there is such an animal as an internet climate scientist."
Internet climate scientists are people who hanf around on the internet and who act scholarly and blabber about "peer review"... but have no clue about actual scientific concepts like differential equations. I'm actually arguing with someone who insists differential equations are not relevant for climate science.
So Malcolm with the "PHD" [sic], if you want a computer to determine the behavior of a dynamical system like climate, differential equations are irrelevant? BTW, I doubt there are any real PhDs who think the "h" is capitalized.
Hey Dook "Trevor is a real scientist. 5 minutes of perusal through past Qs and As would make that clear to anyone with a good basic layman's understanding of science. As a non-scientist I was spared differential equations."
Yeah, it is "obvious" to you who is not a scientist that Trevor is a scientist. But it is obvious to me who actually IS a scientist that he is not.
Hey Dook "but it also seems clear to me that by crunching gazillions of numbers per micro second, computers can figure out math solutions by trial and error that would otherwise have only been possible by applying mathematical techniques such as differential equations.
"
What is clear to you is wrong. The way computers predict the behavior of dynamic systems is by numerically integrating differential equations. Why are you discussing things you do not understand?
Internet Climate Scientist: "Given that I have explained what the calculation was for and how I did it could you please show me how you would apply differential equations."
OK, here is the jist of it.
The incoming power from the Sun is R(t) f(w(t)) where R is the solar power output, and w(t) is the concentration of water vapor--the water vapor leads to cloud cover. The fubction f is not trivial. No doubt I am oversinmplifying. The outgoing energy is g( c1(t), c2(t) ...i(t)) T^4 where c1(t) etc are the concentrations various greenhouse gassesand i(t) is the degree of ice cover and T is the temperrature. The various c(t) functions are functions of the unnnatural output by Man as well as feedback effects such as ocean water warming leading to it holding less CO2. A differential equation needs to be written out for them, and it is not trivial. Likwise a non-trivial differentuial equation needs to be written for i(t). The net energy added to the Eartyh is the icoming mi
Pegminer: "Some people are more mathematically oriented than others, and climate scientists come in large varieties"
I am not discounting the possibility that he holds some title with the words "climate scientist". I am saying that he lacks scientific aptitude and knowledge. And while some branches of climatology might not require much involvement with differential equations, anyone with an undergraduate science degree should understand that climatology is solely governed by those types of equations.