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Saturday, May 23, 2026

Escape Velocity Calculator

Escape velocity is the minimum speed an object needs to break free from a body's gravitational pull without any further propulsion. The formula is simple: v = √(2GM/r), where G is the gravitational constant, M is the mass of the body, and r is the distance from its center. The result tells you how fast something must be launched to escape that gravity well entirely with no engines required after the initial push.

It can be surprising as to how much this number varies.  Earth's escape velocity is about 11.2 km/s. Jupiter's is over 59 km/s. The Sun's surface escape velocity is around 617 km/s. And for a neutron star, it can be a significant fraction of the speed of light. Use the calculator below to explore escape velocities for planets, stars, galaxies, and any custom body you wish.

Escape Velocity Calculator


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Friday, May 22, 2026

Movies I watched in the theater in 2017

I am not sure where I saw most theatrically released movies in 2017. This list is put together from memory. One fact I remember is that the only reason I saw Star Wars: The Last Jedi was because The Disaster Artist was sold out when I arrived at the theater. I think this may have been the point where I stopped doing walk-ups and started to regularly buy my seats ahead of time.

Movies I saw in the theater in 2017:




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Tuesday, May 19, 2026

Many Paths of the Collatz Conjecture

The Collatz Conjecture is one of mathematics' strange unsolved problems. The rule is deceptively simple: take any positive integer, and if it's even divide it by 2, if it's odd multiply by 3 and add 1. Repeat this process and the sequence seems to always eventually reach 1. Always. This is true for every number ever tested! Even still, no one has ever been able to prove it, though some attempts have got close.

The sequences themselves are practically unpredictable. For example, the number 27 takes 111 steps while rocketing up to 9,232 before finally collapsing to 1. Nearby numbers can reach 1 in just a handful of steps, while others take hundreds of chaotic steps before converging. Use the interactive math tool below to explore and compare up to 5 numbers at once.


Collatz Conjecture Visualizer

Pick any positive integer. If it's even, divide by 2. If it's odd, multiply by 3 and add 1. Repeat. No matter what number you start with, the sequence always seems to reach 1, but nobody has ever proved why. Enter up to 5 numbers to compare their paths.

Enter Numbers to Compare

About the Collatz Conjecture: Mathematician Paul Erdős said: “Mathematics is not yet ready for such problems.”

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Monday, May 18, 2026

Movies I watched at the theater in 2018

2018 was likely the year I really started using my AMC membership. At some point that year I joined the AMC Stubs program and later upgraded to AMC A-List. Before then, I had never used an elevated membership to go to the movies. I think I had the equivalent of the free Insider level since 2016 or 2017, but I was not using it regularly during those years. Since 2018, I have watched most of my movies at AMC, though not all. For example, I saw Mandy at an independent theater.

Here's the list of movies I was in 2018:




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Saturday, May 16, 2026

Movies I watched at the theater in 2021

There were not as many movies to watch in the theaters in 2021, but more than 2020.  Even still, I did get a chance to watch more than one per month.    




2018 - 2019 - 2020 - 2021 - 2022 - 2023 - 2024 - 2025 - 2026

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Friday, May 15, 2026

Movies I watched in the theater in 2019

The year was 2019. This was arguably the peak year for going to the theater to see movies. Even still, I saw a surprising 33 movies. That's more than one movie every two weeks!  I was definitely using my AMC A-List membership to its fullest. This was a great year for quality of  movies too. I don't remember trying hard to justify my membership by seeing a bunch of movies just because I could see them for free. There was simply a lot of movies I wanted to see at the theater!

Here is the list of what I watched at the movie theater in 2019:







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