Guardian of the Non Sequitur

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Math Entertainer Answers No. 1

I recently proffered the first quiz from Mr. Heafford’s book.

As I suspected, it scared everyone away. Except for the mathematician that I know reads the blog. He offered up his answers. The 9 of the 20 he answered were all the same answers offered by the author.

Many of the numbers give more of a glimpse of how the world has changed in the last 50 years. Since calculators became widely used in the 60s and 70s, and then computers in the 80s, we rarely “handle” these numbers directly. Number of centimeters in an inch, sure, but the square root of 2? No.

Answers after the jump:

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August 5th, 2008 Posted by bshirley | literature, random | 3 comments

The Math Entertainer No. 1: Quickies

I obtained a book a few years back from Crazy Mike’s Crazy Emporium, that was once located at what is now Sig’s Lagoon.

This 1959 book was written by Philip Heafford, Department of Education, University of Oxford: The Math Entertainer. His goal, from his introduction seems extremely optimistic. To entertain enjoyers of mathematics, but also to interest those who think they don’t like math.

(As a side note, this book was a gift to someone from Aunt Thelma and Uncle Nolen in 1974.)

The book contains 50 quizzes. And here, throwing copyright to the wind (that discussion for another day - and if the author would like me to remove this post, he need only ask), is the first quiz.

How many can you get? (feel free to post a reply) I got maybe half of them, maybe less.

Quiz No. 1: Quickies

Do these numbers ring a bell? For instance, the number 365 would mean only one thing to me, and that is the number of days a year. Ask someone to test you with this quiz. Six seconds for each question. How many can you get right in the time limit of two minutes for all the questions?

  1. 1,760
  2. 2,000
  3. 4,840
  4. 640
  5. 1.732
  6. 2.54
  7. 3.1416 . . .
  8. 366
  9. .3010
  10. 1492
  11. .4771
  12. .4971
  13. 1.6
  14. 1.414
  15. 1,728
  16. 3-4-5
  17. 6,080
  18. 62½
  19. 90
  20. 88

The answers, who got them, and my thoughts will follow (at some point).

July 21st, 2008 Posted by bshirley | literature, random | 2 comments

19-0: The Historic Championship Season of New England’s Unbeatable Patriots

Unbeaten

A few of you may have been watching TV yesterday and may know otherwise.

February 4th, 2008 Posted by bshirley | corporations, literature, television, web | no comments

Three Long Tales

Seems I’ve gotten myself into several long series of books all by the same author. It started one day when I was just looking for something interesting and the book cover and back cover description made me pick up Orson Scott Card’s Seventh Son.

It’s the first of The Tales of Alvin Maker series, which I’m several books into. It’s set in an alternate history of early America and centers around the life of a boy/man who will make a difference in the outcome of that continent.

Then I became aware of the Homecoming Saga, so picked up the first book in that series: The Memory of Earth. This series is about humans escaping the savage past of Earth, with some guiding assistance, now having to guide themselves when that experiment is breaking down. Interesting in that some of the characters and main plot points are borrowed from the Book of Mormon. Not so much that it’s worn on its sleeve.

And now I’ve added the first book from his best known series, and one that’s won some awards. The Ender’s Game series I haven’t yet started, only just now getting the first book. It was not written and released in chronological order, and apparently fans are torn over in which order they should be read.

4 down, 16 to go…

  1. Seventh Son
  2. Red Prophet
  3. Prentice Alvin
  4. Alvin Journeyman
  5. Heartfire
  6. The Crystal City
  7. Master Alvin (forthcoming)
  1. The Memory of Earth
  2. The Call of Earth
  3. The Ships of Earth
  4. Earthfall
  5. Earthborn
  1. Ender’s Game
  2. Speaker for the Dead
  3. Xenocide
  4. Children of the Mind
  5. Ender’s Shadow
  6. Shadow of the Hegemon
  7. Shadow Puppets
  8. Shadow of the Giant

[Edit: I’m crossing them off as I go, italicizing as I procure. -Aug 08]

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October 1st, 2007 Posted by bshirley | literature | no comments

Adjectivisitude

Alice RooseveltAn impressively adjective-laden sentence:

Some say that some of Scarlett’s plotting and scheming aspects might have been drawn from Martha Bulloch Roosevelt’s beautiful and vivacious, independently wealthy and grandparent-spoiled, rebellious and attention-seeking granddaughter, Alice Roosevelt Longworth.

Thanks to Wikipedia’s Scarlet O’Hara entry.

And the phrase “some say that some”, to boot!

August 21st, 2007 Posted by bshirley | language, literature, web | no comments

15 Geek Novels

Dwight is more likely to be handing out back-handed compliments to Apple or forcing a nice word about Microsoft, but here he decided to do something quite interesting: 15 Geek Novels to Read Before You Die.

So, here’s my rundown of them… (more…)

July 31st, 2007 Posted by bshirley | literature, web | one comment

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