math
Good Thing We Know Nothing is Less than 99 Cents
A lower price bound is always interesting (taken on my commute) UPDATE: I got this email from a friend: So since the store exists we assume that the set of items in the store with prices is non-empty. The sign provides a lower bound. Thus in the real numbers we are guaranteed to have an infimum, but […]
Another Letter to the Editor
http://sundial.csun.edu/2010/09/letter-to-the-editor-3/ I speak out when I feel the need to. However, I’ve never had a letter to the editor published which did not contain (and not by my hand) a typo, grammatical mistake, or just a cut of the core of my argument. Play ‘spot the glaring grammatical error game!’ (answer is in the comment […]
Signature Dining Measurements
A lot has changed in hospital care over the years. At UCLA Medical Center, one doesn’t just get a hospital tray, one has a ‘Signature Dining’ Menu (delivered by a Nutritional Care Assistant). When I was a kid my teachers in school kept insisting our country would and should be metric by the time we […]
46th Mersenne Prime Discovered
Congrats UCLA! You found a prime number with more than ten million digits and got yourself a cash prize as well. These are the people who found it. Mersenne primes are of the form 2^p -1, where p is also prime.(Simple example: let p=2 then 2 squared =4 -1 =3, which is prime, and so […]
The Hypotenuse?
I use a G5 (Mac). I’m amazed by its stability but my background was web programming so I maintain (for sport) other boxes on my little home network; I have linux and windows machines as well. John gave Isa an IBook for school this year (his old one). It’s a decent thing, but it clearly […]
Mr. Universe
Question from my fifth grade son’s math book: When Arnold Schwarzenegger was named Mr. Universe, he had a chest measurement of 56 7/8 inches and a waist measurement of 32 1/4 inches. How much larger was his chest than his waist?(Next to the answer, in the smallest possible writing, he wrote “why do we care?”)
Timeshare Math Problem
In a hypothetical timeshare presentation which she in fact studiously avoided, Bernie is offered an amazing opportunity: to purchase a timeshare in the resort in which she is currently staying. For about forty grand, she can have it all, a week in the sun in paradise, or, she can go elsewhere and trade in her […]
Keno in Reno
I don’t care for gambling that much, but when I do gamble I’m well aware of the odds of the games, and I certainly don’t have any “lucky feelings” come over me when I’m trying to roll a hard six. Last month, we were in Reno sitting at a cafe, and Isa wanted to pick […]
Simplify This
(a+x)(b-x)(c+x)(d-x) … (z-x) “Simplify” means that the solution can be written using fewer characters than the problem itself uses.
factor this
x^4 – 11x^2 + 1 First prize is an Amazon gift certificate for one hundred dollars, decreasing in value by one dollar for each minute the problem remains unsolved. If it takes more than one hour forty minutes, you owe me money.
Jack Silbert, curator