{"id":4849,"date":"2010-07-14T15:29:12","date_gmt":"2010-07-14T15:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scienceblogs.com\/principles\/2010\/07\/14\/i-write-like-a-random-selectio\/"},"modified":"2010-07-14T15:29:12","modified_gmt":"2010-07-14T15:29:12","slug":"i-write-like-a-random-selectio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/2010\/07\/14\/i-write-like-a-random-selectio\/","title":{"rendered":"I Write Like a Random Selection of Famous People"},"content":{"rendered":"

Via Crooked Timber<\/a>, there’s a silly web site<\/a> that lets you put in a chunk of text, and does some sort of statistical analysis of it to determine what famous writer’s prose it most closely resembles. It turns out, I’m kind of hard to categorize.<\/p>\n

For instance, when I’m writing about Holy Grails<\/a>, I apparently sound like Dan Brown. When the subject turns to the size of the proton<\/a>, though, I sound like Douglas Adams<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Maybe it’s just that the random variety of topics on the blog throws it off, though. I have, after all, written an entire book explaining quantum mechanics through conversations with my dog<\/a>, which ought to be consistent. So, what does it make of How to Teach Physics to Your Dog<\/cite>?<\/p>\n

The dog dialogue that goes with chapter 5, on the Quantum Zeno Effect<\/a> evidently sounds like Mark Twain. The start of the serious explanation in that chapter, describing the historical paradox proposed by Zeno of Elea, is reminiscent of Vladimir Nabokov. Moving a little later in the book, the Bunnies Made of Cheese<\/a> dialogue in which I talk to Emmy about quantum electro-dynamics bears a striking resemblance to Arthur Conan Doyle (I’m not sure which of us is Holmes). And, finally, the opening section of that chapter in which I explain the energy-time uncertainty relation is apparently hard to tell apart from the work of H.P. Lovecraft. That’s probably my favorite result of the lot, given that the section in question is a breezy discussion of time and frequency illustrated by discussions of dogs wagging their tails.<\/p>\n

I wonder if it would be possible to get those names on the cover of the paperback edition? “If you like Mark Twain, Arthur Conan Doyle, Vladimir Nabokov, or H. P. Lovecraft, you’re sure to like at least part of How to Teach Physics to Your Dog<\/cite>…”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Via Crooked Timber, there’s a silly web site that lets you put in a chunk of text, and does some sort of statistical analysis of it to determine what famous writer’s prose it most closely resembles. It turns out, I’m kind of hard to categorize. For instance, when I’m writing about Holy Grails, I apparently… Continue reading I Write Like a Random Selection of Famous People<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,18,142,37,132,11,24,82],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book_writing","category-books","category-how-to-teach","category-pop_culture","category-publicity","category-science","category-silliness","category-socialscience","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4849\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}