Happy 3 4 5 6 7 8!

[Doctor Q]

Some 20th century history:

1/1/11: A photo of jazz pianist/composer Scott Joplin was taken. (Image was at highbeam.com but can't be linked, so here's a similar one.)

2/2/22: "Ulysses" by James Joyce was published.

3/3/33: Mount Rushmore was dedicated.

4/4/44: Charles de Gaulle became head of the French armed forces.

5/5/55: West Germany became a sovereign state as the United States, France, and Great Britain ended their military occupation.

6/6/66: James H. Meredith, the first African American to attend the University of Mississippi, was shot by a sniper after beginning the "March Against Fear", a lone civil rights march through the South.

Perhaps somebody would like to fill in something interesting for 7/7/77, 8/8/88, and 9/9/99.

 

[stubeeef]

Had too much to drink at a frat party on 9/9/81 (square root day).

 

[PlaceofDis]

well this makes my poetry habit seem normal

 

[Blue Velvet]

I'll play

Perhaps somebody would like to fill in something interesting for 7/7/77, 8/8/88, and 9/9/99.

7/7/77
• 12,000 police occupy the university in Mexico City.

8/8/88
• U.S. Sec. of State Shultz narrowly escapes an assassination attempt in Bolivia.
• U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar announces a cease-fire between Iran and Iraq.
• In Burma (Myanmar) the police start their killing of nearly 3,000 protesters in the streets of Rangoon.

9/9/99
• Pres. Clinton moves to cut military ties with Indonesia and the IMF suspends its lending program due to the violence in East Timor.
• In NYC it is reported that 3 people had died from mosquito-borne St. Louis encephalitis in the last few weeks. The virus was later identified as the West Nile Virus, never before reported in the Western Hemisphere.
• In Russia an explosion shatters a 9-story apartment building in Moscow and at least 14 people are killed. A natural gas leak was suspected, but a bomb was not ruled out. The death toll moved up to 90 with 249 injured and officials said it was caused by a terrorist bomb.

 

[Doctor Q]

For 10, 11, and 12, we can use some upcoming dates in the 21st century:

10/10/10 - national independence holiday in Fiji and Taiwan

11/11/11 - national independence holiday in Angola and Poland

12/12/12 - national independence holiday in Kenya

 

[jefhatfield]

man, doc q, you really come up with the interesting ones

you should take on ken jennings on jeopardy!!

 

[Doctor Q]

you should take on ken jennings on jeopardy!!

Only if he answers from memory, as on the show, and I get to use the Internet, as I did here! Or maybe I could challenge him to a programming contest, since he's a software engineer too.

Did you purposely use two exclamation points, one as part of the show name ("Jeopardy!") and one as the end of your sentence?

 

[jefhatfield]

i didn't know jeopardy had an "!" at the end of it

 

[PlaceofDis]

i didn't know jeopardy had an "!" at the end of it

haha, so were you trying to imitate those that are in the exlamation point thread? LoL

but yeah, for some odd reason Jeopardy has an "!" at the end of it, probably because its elitest

 

[wdlove]

All these is very fascinating. It puts math in a whole new light. This actually makes it very interesting.

 

[feakbeak]

A thread about numerical series and patterns... cool!

Here is one of my favorites.

1 + 3 = 4 (2^2)
1 + 3 + 5 = 9 (3^2)
1 + 3 + 5 + 7 = 16 (4^2)

In general, summing the first n odd numbers will always give you n^2. Very cool!

 

[Mechcozmo]

The SciFi club at our school has a motto: "We are not geeks"

But this thread kinda disrupts my claim to that...

 

[feakbeak]

The SciFi club at our school has a motto: "We are not geeks"

But this thread kinda disrupts my claim to that...

You are posting to a thread about numbers/math on a computer-related forum Saturday night and claiming you are not a geek? Denial!

I'll admit to being a geek... it's not so bad.

 

[Mechcozmo]

You are posting to a thread about numbers/math on a computer-related forum Saturday night and claiming you are not a geek? Denial!

I'll admit to being a geek... it's not so bad.

It was Saturday?

 

[Doctor Q]

All these is very fascinating. It puts math in a whole new light. This actually makes it very interesting.

How 'bout this beautiful pattern?

037037037037 x 03 = 111111111111
037037037037 x 06 = 222222222222
037037037037 x 09 = 333333333333
037037037037 x 12 = 444444444444
037037037037 x 15 = 555555555555
037037037037 x 18 = 666666666666
037037037037 x 21 = 777777777777
037037037037 x 24 = 888888888888
037037037037 x 27 = 999999999999

Or this one?

22 x 22
------- = 121
1+2+1

333 x 333
--------- = 12321
1+2+3+2+1

4444 x 4444
------------- = 1234321
1+2+3+4+3+2+1

55555 x 55555
----------------- = 123454321
1+2+3+4+5+4+3+2+1

666666 x 666666
--------------------- = 12345654321
1+2+3+4+5+6+5+4+3+2+1

7777777 x 7777777
------------------------- = 1234567654321
1+2+3+4+5+6+7+6+5+4+3+2+1

88888888 x 88888888
----------------------------- = 12345678654321
1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+7+6+5+4+3+2+1

999999999 x 999999999
--------------------------------- = 12345678987654321
1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+8+7+6+5+4+3+2+1

 

[feakbeak]

Or this one?

22 x 22
------- = 121
1+2+1

333 x 333
--------- = 12321
1+2+3+2+1

4444 x 4444
------------- = 1234321
1+2+3+4+3+2+1

55555 x 55555
----------------- = 123454321
1+2+3+4+5+4+3+2+1

666666 x 666666
--------------------- = 12345654321
1+2+3+4+5+6+5+4+3+2+1

7777777 x 7777777
------------------------- = 1234567654321
1+2+3+4+5+6+7+6+5+4+3+2+1

88888888 x 88888888
----------------------------- = 12345678654321
1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+7+6+5+4+3+2+1

999999999 x 999999999
--------------------------------- = 12345678987654321
1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+8+7+6+5+4+3+2+1

I really like that one. It certainly has an elegance to it. It's just interesting to see the patterns that exist within mathematics. This doesn't have to do with numbers as directly as most of these posts, but is anyone familiar with roots of unity?

Basically, it has to do with different roots of 1. If you take the square root of one, you get 1, but -1 is also a square root of 1 because -1 * -1 = 1. So there are two square roots of 1. Similarly, there are three cube roots of 1 and four quartic roots of 1, etc. Although afer the square root example, most of the roots do not fall on the real number line and instead exist on the complex plane.

These roots of unity can be plotted on the complex plane to form polygons. The three different cube roots of 1 plotted in the complex plane to form an equalateral triangle. The four quartic roots of 1 in the complex plane form a regular square, etc, etc.

In general, if you plot all of the n nth-roots of 1 in the complex plane you will always get a regular polygon of n-sides, centered around the orgin of the complex plane. All the vertices will fall on the unit circle. it is a very beautiful relationship between algebra/numerology and geometry. I wish I knew the details of how to derive some of these roots to illustrate examples, but I learned this stuff over five years ago and it's going on midnight here - not a good combination. I just remember the concept at this point. Maybe I can quickly find a link.

Yup, that was easy enough. Here is a good page describing roots of unity. It even has a cool flash animation illustrating the concept.

 

[Doctor Q]

Thanks, feakbeak. At that same site there is a page of Math Art, including animated gifs such as these ones of "whirls" created from nested polygons:

If you aren't prone to suffering motion discomfort, click here to see the Rotating Square Illusion, where a rotating pattern appears to deform or pulsate.

 

[Mechcozmo]

If you aren't prone to suffering motion discomfort, click here to see the Rotating Square Illusion, where a rotating pattern appears to deform or pulsate.

Guess I now know that I get motion discomfort... where is that barf smiley....

 

[jefhatfield]

If you aren't prone to suffering motion discomfort, click here to see the Rotating Square Illusion, where a rotating pattern appears to deform or pulsate.

i see the rotating image but no deformation or pulsation

and those magic eye books rarely work with me

am i doing something wrong?

 

[Doctor Q]

i see the rotating image but no deformation or pulsation

and those magic eye books rarely work with me

am i doing something wrong?

Do optical illusions usually have the expected effect on you? In this case, if the lines (particularly the outermost edges) don't appear to bend in as they turn, then you have the ability to see things as they really are! The rest of us are regularly fooled by our senses, and a visual perception expert could probably explain why.

 

[jefhatfield]

Do optical illusions usually have the expected effect on you? In this case, if the lines (particularly the outermost edges) don't appear to bend in as they turn, then you have the ability to see things as they really are! The rest of us are regularly fooled by our senses, and a visual perception expert could probably explain why.

there are a few cognitive things i am bad at

one are those short stories, 500 words or less, that are timed with questions concerning the text...if it's a subject i am not interested in, then i usually do bad on those types of tests...if the short story is rather long, making it a medium size story, then i do ok on them

with the magic eye, only one has fully worked with me...on some others, the image does go into 3d mode but i can't really make out the specific shape...all our brains work differently and i have met some others who don't click with the magic eye illusions

 

[Doctor Q]

Happy Pi Day to those who celebrate today's math-related holiday. Today's date of March 14 (Pi Day) should be written 3.14.

The wikipedia article mentions a related holiday I hadn't heard of before: Pi Approximation Day on July 22 (written 22/7). I'm not as interested in that holiday, since I prefer to use the more accurate 355/113 as a pi approximation using small integers.

And I'm sorry to tell you that only the unemployed get a day off work in honor of Pi Day.

 

[emw]

I myself am partial to the much lesser known Mole Day celebrating Avogadro's Number.

 

[SilentPanda]

And I'm sorry to tell you that only the unemployed get a day off work in honor of Pi Day.

And those that eat too much Pie.

 

[Doctor Q]

And those that eat too much Pie.

Enjoy!