Thursday, June 2, 2011

Prompt for June 2: One strong belief you possess that isn’t shared by your closest friends or family

I have a strong belief that mathematics is important in our daily lives. Not the mundane we couldn't build bridges sort of math, no, the recreational kind. I'm the only person I know who buys the Mathematics Calendar by Theoni Pappas. It features a math puzzle for each day of the year with the answer being the number of that day.

Some are really simple like what's the smallest odd prime?

Others are a tad more difficult and require one to pull up some geometry, algebra, or logic. An example would read like this: In a circle with a radius of 5 centered on the origin, construct a perpendicular upwards from the positive x axis at the point where the height generated from the axis to the circle is of length 4, dividing that radius into two parts. What is the product of the lengths of the two parts? Actually it would just be a picture of a circle with labels of 4, 5, a, and b at appropriate places with the question "What is a*b?".

Now why isn't everyone driven to figure that out?

In that spirit I offer an Alien KenKen. It's in an unknown base with unknown symbols. Solve it using the smallest integral base.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Prompt for June 1: Describe today using only one sentence

One sentence? I can do it in one word:
Wonderful!

I got up this morning to find that my yellow iris are in bloom. I'm the third generation to have these plants. Living in a condo has limited my ability to provide them the proper environment - my deck is too dry, hot, cold, shady, and about anything else that could crush their chances to grow. It has been a losing battle for the last decade as fewer and fewer make it to each new season. But this year they are doing beautifully.

Then I didn't have to cover the late shift for a coworker who had called in sick. She made it in only a bit late.

Finally, a friend sent me this link to a comic strip called Pants are Overrated. The strips for May 10th and 12th actually had me in tears. Robert Krulwich has a great write-up about it. I agree with almost everything he says, only I think they should do more strips. It was like catching up with every old forgotten friend all at once.