Guardian of the Non Sequitur

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

What Are these Creatures?

Here’s your quiz of the day: what are these five things?

Answer tomorrow. (Please refrain from posting spoilers in the comments - wry hints and jabs thoroughly encouraged.)

July 10th, 2008 Posted by bshirley | random | 6 comments

Who is Bill Shirley?

Some people think that Shirley is an uncommon name. It’s not. You come across many more less common names when you’re going about your life. It’s more common than less (being in the 43rd percentile of last names in the US - it’s a bit more common in Texas)

Last time I checked the Houston phone book (which was admittedly a while ago), there were nearly thirty Shirleys and I didn’t know any of them.

Of course, William is a very common name (fifth most common in the 1990 US census).

Almost twenty years ago I met via the internet a guy named Shirley, and then his brother Will. They lived outside of London, were a few years younger than me, and were both in computer work for a living. I always hoped to visit them, but never did. I’ve lost track of them.

Bill Shirley (1921 - 1989) was an actor and singer and singing voice of Prince Philip in Sleeping Beauty (1959).

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July 7th, 2008 Posted by bshirley | random | 6 comments

Donna

So, when you receive a MySpace friend request from “Donna” who doesn’t have a picture, and lives in another state, and who’s only friend is “Tom”, what do you do?

Yes. And I was just about to delete the invitation, but I noticed some oddities. She wasn’t 18 or 21 or 26, like most MySpace spam, but 41.

And she’s in Geismar, Louisiana. That sounded vaguely familiar, so I looked it up. Suburb of Baton Rouge.

Hmm, I actually know a Donna of that age that lives in the suburbs of the Red Stick. I guess I’ll give her a day or two to put any identifying information onto her account.

But Donna, MySpace is so 2004. Where’s your FaceBook account?

June 19th, 2008 Posted by bshirley | friends, random, tech, web | no comments

Keys, Where oh Where

I had the odd and uncommon experience of not being able to find my keys Wednesday morning. I checked the two spots I normally leave them. Then checked again. Then the five expanded places I might leave them.

I tried to recall what exactly I did with them when I came home - to no avail.

I walked out to the car, peered into the ignition. No luck. Went back in the house to check again. Got as far as the dining room, and froze. I had seen something. Something in the last twenty paces.

I rewound it in my head, saw the dangling orange Texas that had been an inch above my hand when I walked back in the door.

Tuesday when I arrived home from work, a day after boardgaming in the Hill Country with friends, there was a package obstructing my door. The game I had purchased the week before. My hands being full, after I got the door unlocked and grabbed everything I kicked it open and entered.

I returned and closed the door, forgetting the keys. They spent the night.

May 29th, 2008 Posted by bshirley | games, random, weekend | one comment