So Don Knuth is also an artist and errator [my term for someone who makes errors but it turns out that "errator" is Latin for "wanderer", which applies to Knuth and the curve he describes.]
Monday, January 5, 2015
Saturday, September 24, 2011
A New Chuck Norris Fact
Time slows down the closer you get to the center of a black hole because that is where Chuck Norris Hangs out.
[ I made up this one, 2011-09-22]
When I told it to my son, he said: "Time would just run away."
To which I replied: "Nothing can escape Chuck Norris."
Sunday, May 1, 2011
The Math and Logic of Yogi Berra
Math
[Various online sources, including YogiBerra.com's Yogi-isms and Retrogalaxy.com's Yogi-Berra]
- You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I'm not hungry enough to eat six.
- A nickel ain't worth a dime anymore.
- Baseball is ninety percent mental and the other half is physical.
- Another variation: Ninety percent of this game is half mental.
- Half the lies they tell about me aren't true.
- You have to give 100 percent in the first half of the game. If that isn't enough, in the second half, you have to give what is left.
- The future ain't what it used to be.
- I really didn't say everything I said.
- I usually take a two hour nap from one to four.
- Never answer an anonymous letter.
- In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.
- Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded.
- On why NY lost the 1960 series to Pittsburgh: We made too many wrong mistakes.
- It gets late early out here.
- If you don't know where you're going, you'll wind up somewhere else.
- If I didn't wake up I'd still be sleeping.
- Our similarities are different.
[said by Dale Berra, Yogi's son, according to Retrogalaxy.com's Yogi-Berra.]
- I always thought that record would stand until it was broken.
- We have a good time together, even when we're not together [talking about his wife Carmen].
- Asked if first baseman Don Mattingly had exceeded expectations, Yogi said "I'd say he's done more than that!"
[Various online sources, including YogiBerra.com's Yogi-isms and Retrogalaxy.com's Yogi-Berra]
Monday, April 25, 2011
Have You Conside that ...? (Thinking differently)
Fact: Most people have more than the average number of legs.
[Source: Joke #25, "31 Jokes for Nerds", YouTube Video, posted by Vlogbrothers]
(This observation is correct for all parts of the body.)
[Source: Joke #25, "31 Jokes for Nerds", YouTube Video, posted by Vlogbrothers]
(This observation is correct for all parts of the body.)
Friday, October 22, 2010
One One One and One One
One One One was one racehorse,
One One was one too.
One One One won one race,
One One won one too.
One One was one too.
One One One won one race,
One One won one too.
Saturday, August 7, 2010
More Is Not Always…
Q: What’s worse than getting a flat tire?
A: Getting two flat tires.
Q: What’s worse than finding a worm in your apple?
A: Finding half a worm in your apple
A: Getting two flat tires.
Q: What’s worse than finding a worm in your apple?
A: Finding half a worm in your apple
Friday, March 26, 2010
Math Is the Science of Patterns, Including This One
Patterns come in all sizes and shapes, delighting our senses. Here is one pattern that entertains the ear, the eye and the sense of rhythm.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
When 15 > 25?
A customer walked into our auto-parts store looking for a flat washer. "That'll be 15 cents," I said.
"Fifteen cents for a washer? Are you crazy?" he yelled. "I'll drill a hole in a quarter and make my own."
[Source: Reader's Digest, August 2009, @Work (p. 67)]
"Fifteen cents for a washer? Are you crazy?" he yelled. "I'll drill a hole in a quarter and make my own."
Jack Reeves
[Source: Reader's Digest, August 2009, @Work (p. 67)]
Monday, February 22, 2010
Amelia's Dance = the Body as a Math Visual Aid
In her YouTube video, Amelia entertains us by turning her body with dance into a mathematical visual aid. She also demonstrate the endless ways one can present mathematical concepts.
Driving Math with the Math of Driving
Driving is a serious matter but this is funny.
Visiting family in Kentucky is a heart-stopping experience if only because my brother-in-law drives in the middle of the road, straddling the double yellow lines that separate traffic. My sister-in-law does little to ease my fears. Seeing the horror in my eyes, she once said, "Don't worry. Everyone around here drives in the middles of the road."
[Source: Reader's Digest, June 2009, Life (p. 198)]
Visiting family in Kentucky is a heart-stopping experience if only because my brother-in-law drives in the middle of the road, straddling the double yellow lines that separate traffic. My sister-in-law does little to ease my fears. Seeing the horror in my eyes, she once said, "Don't worry. Everyone around here drives in the middles of the road."
Lisa Walters, Ypsilanti, Michigan
[Source: Reader's Digest, June 2009, Life (p. 198)]
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
10,000 Left Shoes
Who would ever want to have 10,000 left shoes?
Well, here is a story that has stuck in my head for many years. I may be off on the specifics but I believe the just of it is true. And, if not, it could have happened or, in storytelling parlance, it’s plausible.
As I recall, in the mid 1960’s in Israel I read in the paper that a shipment of 10,000 left shoes had arrived in the port of Haifa from Italy. At the time, custom duty rates in Israel were extremely high, especially on such luxury imports. So the importer did not claim the shoes. Besides, what would he do with 10,000 left shoes? Stuck with this load, the custom office did what most custom agencies do with abandoned stuff, it auctioned it off. But no one had any use for 10,000 left shoes so no one made any bid. Well, eventually the original importer made a very low bid and the custom office was happy to get rid of the shoes that took space in its warehouse. So the importer got his 10,000 left shoes practically paying no duty.
A month or two later a shipment of 10,000 right shoes arrived in the port of Haifa and the same importer did not claim them because he did not want to pay the duty…
Surely, you have figured out by now the rest of the story.
Where is the math in this story?
It has to do with sets and how sets can be split, added up and rearranged. A pair of shoes is a set, a very useful set. It can be sold. 10,000 pairs is a set of 10,000 such useful sets. Splitting these pairs into 10,000 left shoes and 10,000 right shoes generates 2 sets containing 10,000 of useless shoes, which no one wants to buy. But then, whoever has both sets can recombine them to form the original 10,000 sets of sellable pairs of shoes.
Well, here is a story that has stuck in my head for many years. I may be off on the specifics but I believe the just of it is true. And, if not, it could have happened or, in storytelling parlance, it’s plausible.
As I recall, in the mid 1960’s in Israel I read in the paper that a shipment of 10,000 left shoes had arrived in the port of Haifa from Italy. At the time, custom duty rates in Israel were extremely high, especially on such luxury imports. So the importer did not claim the shoes. Besides, what would he do with 10,000 left shoes? Stuck with this load, the custom office did what most custom agencies do with abandoned stuff, it auctioned it off. But no one had any use for 10,000 left shoes so no one made any bid. Well, eventually the original importer made a very low bid and the custom office was happy to get rid of the shoes that took space in its warehouse. So the importer got his 10,000 left shoes practically paying no duty.
A month or two later a shipment of 10,000 right shoes arrived in the port of Haifa and the same importer did not claim them because he did not want to pay the duty…
Surely, you have figured out by now the rest of the story.
Where is the math in this story?
It has to do with sets and how sets can be split, added up and rearranged. A pair of shoes is a set, a very useful set. It can be sold. 10,000 pairs is a set of 10,000 such useful sets. Splitting these pairs into 10,000 left shoes and 10,000 right shoes generates 2 sets containing 10,000 of useless shoes, which no one wants to buy. But then, whoever has both sets can recombine them to form the original 10,000 sets of sellable pairs of shoes.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Right on Time
A student returned home from a date at 3 AM. Her parents were very upset, "You're late! You said you'd be home by 11:45!"
"Actually," the girl replied, "I'm right on time. I said I'd be home by 1/4 of 12."
[Origin: unknown; several variations of this joke appear on various web; a version of this joke, submitted by Zhang Wenyi, was published in Reader's Digest, July 2009, "Laugh!:)", p. 27]
"Actually," the girl replied, "I'm right on time. I said I'd be home by 1/4 of 12."
[Origin: unknown; several variations of this joke appear on various web; a version of this joke, submitted by Zhang Wenyi, was published in Reader's Digest, July 2009, "Laugh!:)", p. 27]
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Mathematical Chuck Norris Facts
For the unfamiliar, there is a class of jokes about how awesome Chuck Norris is. Here I will post those with mathematical twist.
• Chuck Norris counted to infinity, twice.
[www.chucknorrisfacts.com, as of 2009-02-22]
• Chuck Norris knows the last digit of pi.
[www.chucknorrisfacts.com/page8.html, as of 2009-02-22]
• Chuck Norris can divide by zero.
[www.chucknorrisfacts.com/page2.html, as of 2009-02-22]
• If you have five dollars and Chuck Norris has five dollars, Chuck Norris has more money than you.
[www.chucknorrisfacts.com, as of 2009-02-22]
• The square-root of -1 is not imaginary. It's just hiding from Chuck Norris.
[Ben, 2009-02-22]
• The shortest distance between two points is Chuck Norris.
[org.]
• The square root of 2 is rational number for Chuck Norris.
[org.]
• Chuck Norris can square the circle, double the cube and trisect an angle using only his fingers for a compass and his arm for a straight edge.
[org.]
• Chuck Norris counted to infinity, twice.
[www.chucknorrisfacts.com, as of 2009-02-22]
• Chuck Norris knows the last digit of pi.
[www.chucknorrisfacts.com/page8.html, as of 2009-02-22]
• Chuck Norris can divide by zero.
[www.chucknorrisfacts.com/page2.html, as of 2009-02-22]
• If you have five dollars and Chuck Norris has five dollars, Chuck Norris has more money than you.
[www.chucknorrisfacts.com, as of 2009-02-22]
• The square-root of -1 is not imaginary. It's just hiding from Chuck Norris.
[Ben, 2009-02-22]
• The shortest distance between two points is Chuck Norris.
[org.]
• The square root of 2 is rational number for Chuck Norris.
[org.]
• Chuck Norris can square the circle, double the cube and trisect an angle using only his fingers for a compass and his arm for a straight edge.
[org.]
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Monday, February 9, 2009
Testing Probability
Flummoxed by his true-false final exam, a student decides to toss a coin up in the air. Heads means true; tails, false. Thirty minutes later, he is done, well before the rest of the class. But then the student startsd flipping the coin again. And soon he's swearing and sweating over each question.
"What's wrong?" asks the concern teacher.
"I'm rechecking my answers," says the student.
[Comic Wendell Potter, Laugh!:), Reader Digest, March 2009, p. 81]
Uri's Comment: It is interesting to note that the student can change any answer that is not confirmed without affecting the probable grade of the test. Of course, for this to be true, the number of questions should be as large as possible. Considering that (a) it took the students 30 min. to finish the test and (b) it takes under 6 seconds to toss a coin and jot down the result, the test could have consisted of 150-300 questions (no need to spend time on reading each question). This test consists of a sufficient number of questions for probability to determine the overall grade.
"What's wrong?" asks the concern teacher.
"I'm rechecking my answers," says the student.
[Comic Wendell Potter, Laugh!:), Reader Digest, March 2009, p. 81]
Uri's Comment: It is interesting to note that the student can change any answer that is not confirmed without affecting the probable grade of the test. Of course, for this to be true, the number of questions should be as large as possible. Considering that (a) it took the students 30 min. to finish the test and (b) it takes under 6 seconds to toss a coin and jot down the result, the test could have consisted of 150-300 questions (no need to spend time on reading each question). This test consists of a sufficient number of questions for probability to determine the overall grade.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Theo Jansen Invent Artificial Life and a New Wheel
Having the modest goal to create artificial life, Theo Jansen not only invented a new wheel, a better wheel, and employed math, geometry and science to new extremes but also successfully accomplished his goal.
Theo Jansen: The art of creating creatures |
Visual Statistics - a Powerful Mathematical View of the World
Hans Rosling: Watch the end of poverty |
With the right mathematical tools, starting with numerical data and using visual representation, Hans Rosling, a Swedish statistician, present an alternative view of the geopolitical world.
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