(no subject)

[odditycollector]

Quick House question, for those who watched this last one...

Does anyone remember what equations House was scribling, in the scene where he's trying to diagnose the universe on a glass wall? I recall glimpsing Q's, S's and V's, so I'm thinking they're regarding thermodynamics. This would please me.

Yes, yes. I'm sure there were other interesting mysteries to be found in the episode. But we all have to fixate on *something*.

Comments

[jarodrussell.livejournal.com]

No promises, but I'll try to BitTorrent it when I get home, and grab a screen for you. If I had to guess, I think he was writing the fat man's symptoms down.

[odditycollector.livejournal.com]

If you did so, sir, I would send a smilie at you, like so!  :D

If I had to guess, I think he was writing the fat man's symptoms down.
I'm pretty sure it was equations, unless *I* was hallucinating. There were plus signs! Patients very rarely have addition as a symptom, I have noticed.

(Unlike, say, multiplication...)

[the-wanlorn.livejournal.com]

I'm waiting for it to download, but I think that the current theory is that it was just giberish, like how supposedly you can't read in a dream.

[odditycollector.livejournal.com]

*nods* I suppose that would also make sense.

Let me know your interpretation, when you finally watch it? *g*

[hannahrorlove.livejournal.com]

Huh. I've never had the problem of not being able to read in dreams; the trouble comes from forgetting what I've read when I wake up.

[the-wanlorn.livejournal.com]

Same here, but apparently that's the old wives tale, or something.

Last dream I had, I was reading this AWESOME book, and I was unbelievably upset when I woke up because I couldn't remember any of it.

But it was a best seller. Believe you me.

[hannahrorlove.livejournal.com]

I do, I do. A lot of the books I've read have been fabulous. It's worse when it's a picture book because I can't draw or paint.

[baked-goldfish.livejournal.com]

From what I saw, I think he wrote:

≡ P + Q + S (I'm fairly certain this is the entire first line, based on arm movements and camera shots)
K ⊃ Ta + Va + Ya (or possibly gamma*a)
Td + Vd + Yd (pretty sure this is the whole line)
→ P ∩ S (based on arm movements and image on screen)
Thus: → S (and more stuff? Couldn't tell)
Thus: 0

There may have been another line after P ∩ S. I'd take screencaps, but I'm currently only getting Black Caps of Doom.

[jarodrussell.livejournal.com]

So he's trying to see what symptoms fit into what diseases, and what those symptoms could add up to?

[baked-goldfish.livejournal.com]

Keeping in mind that it's been years since I've even seen half these symbols, much less had to use them, I think he's doing a proof. K is apparently a superset of Ta + Va + Ya, and P intersects S.

What I really think is happening, given that he states it doesn't make sense after he's finished writing, is he's trying to do the differential in his hallucination and realizing that, because what he's written doesn't make sense (it's a mathematical proof instead of a listing of actual symptoms), he must be hallucinating.

[imaginarycircus.livejournal.com]

That was pretty much they way I took it too. Who cares if P intersects Q if P and Q don't contain anything or represent anything.

[odditycollector.livejournal.com]

Wow, I'm impressed. I barely managed to get "those symbols look familiar" from the show.

Hmm. Logic. Not *quite* as much fun as thermodynamics would have been... but I guess it makes more sense for the character. And he ends up with the empty set! That's *interesting*. (Even if I do not believe his logic at all, but that's dreams/House for you.)

I wonder if the writers meant the symbols to mean anything in particular. Maybe S is entropy after all. ;)

[jarodrussell.livejournal.com]

Here's an 8mb clip of that scene. (http://profnano.org/andy/misc/House_board.wmv) Sorry if it's a bit squished.

:D <-- Smilie as promised!

[odditycollector.livejournal.com]

Yay, thanks!

Hmm. The symbols continue to make me have flashbacks to Physical Chem, but in the end I have to agree with baked_goldfish that it's math or logic. (There isn't much difference, after all, and I have an easier time seeing House do Logic than Math. Semantics, I guess.)

Although I still think incorrect thermodynamic equations would have won. So tell us, House, what's the diagnosis for negative entropy?

Doctors have to take thermodynamics, after all.