“the most painful thing about mathematics
is how far away you are from being able to use it after you have learned it.”
-james newman
Mar24
Tag Archives: math
Feb22
2.
—
“what’s wrong with being number two?”
-morrie schwartz, tuesdays with morrie (mitch albom)
—
math source credit: math shed
Jan7
smoot.
The Smoot is a unit of length, defined as the height in 1958 of Oliver R. Smoot, who later became the Chairman of the American National Standard Institute (ANSI, and then the president of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). The unit is used to measure the length of the Harvard Bridge. Originally in 1958 when Smoot was a Lambda Chi Alpha pledge at MIT (class of 1962), the bridge was measured to be 364.4 Smoots, plus or minus one ear, using Mr. Smoot himself as a ruler. At the time, Smoot was 5 feet, 7 inches, or 170cm tall. Google Earth and Calculator both include the smoot as a unit of measurement.
The Cambridge, Mass. police department adopted the convention of using Smoots to measure the locations of accidents and incidents on the bridge. When the original markings were removed or covered over during bridge maintenance, the police had to request that someone reapply the Smoot scale markings. During a major bridge rebuild, the concrete sidewalk was permanently divided into segments one Smoot in length, as opposed to the regular division of six feet.
i’d love to have measurement named after me –
how many ‘peaches’ equal the length of a subaru?
—
“measure what can be measured, and make measurable what cannot be measured.”
-galileo galilei
—
photo credits: MIT alum
Jun30
let (a few of) them eat cake!
when reading the day’s news online
there were the expected headlines/updates/graphs:
scotus decision
virus numbers updates
calls for mayor’s resignation
protest marches continue
doctors’ opinions
iran’s decision
cruise ship passengers awaiting refunds
election polls
presidential tweets
to wear a mask or not?
europe’s reopening
and then in huge letters:
COSTCO STOPS SELLING HALF-SHEET CAKES
what?
why is this a story?
why is this a bigger-font-size-worthy story?
what is the story?
here’s the story and it’s an odd logic.:
—
The past few months have been chaotic for Costco customers, with product shortages, long lines and the temporary elimination of free food samples. Now, it appears there’s another change for devoted shoppers: Costco has eliminated the iconic half-sheet cakes that are the centerpiece of graduation and birthday parties.
Costco has quietly stopped selling the $20 half-sheet cakes across its US stores for the past month, instead pointing people toward its 10-inch round cakes and other assorted baked goods.
“To help limit personal contact and create more space for social distancing, Costco has reduced service in some departments,” the company explained to outraged customers on its Facebook account.
Costco confirmed to CNN Business it’s not selling the half-sheet cakes anymore and it has “no immediate plans” to bring it back. A spokesperson added that its 10-inch round cakes “seem to be resonating with our members.”
The decision also coincides with a recommendation from several US states and health agencies to avoid or prohibit large gatherings in light of Covid-19. Half-sheet cakes feeds around 50 people, while its 10-inch round cake serves around a dozen.
—
my interpretation: apparently the thought is that if you don’t have a big cake, you will not have a big celebration, where people will gather around the big cake in a big group. if you have more pieces of cake, you will then invite more people to go with it. what if you just bought a few round cakes, couldn’t you invite the same amount of people and just cut from the round cakes, or would that discourage you from inviting more guests as you’d have to then open more than one box? what about people just deciding to socially distance themselves without the cake being the deciding factor? just wondering, or is this that devil math at play once again? does it come down to having to match ratios, person to piece, and not have any leftover cake to eat for breakfast? i knew i should have listened in school.
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“cake is happiness! If you know the way of the cake, you know the way of happiness!
If you have a cake in front of you, you should not look any further for joy!”
-c. joyBell c.
—
credits: cnn business
Jun3
pox.
—
“demon pox. there’s always demon pox.”
-cassandra clare
—
image credit: the maine renaissance faire
Feb12
the real deal.
“i am interested in mathematics only as a creative art.”
-g. h. hardy
—
chela’s restaurant and taqueria, ann arbor, mi, usa – winter 2020
Apr15
taxed.
the 10-second tax return.
in sweden, the vast majority of taxpayers just get a document from the government with all the relevant information already filled out. some even get a text message with their prepared tax information.
in the united states, the experience it is quite the opposite.
the nightmare return.
—
“the hardest thing to understand in the world is the income tax.”
-albert einstein
—
credits: theatlantic.com, google images
Feb4
the grapes of math.
after watching
all those gladiators
running around in football uniforms
during the super bowl last night
i was inspired to post this teachable moment.
—
image credit: british medieval history
Aug13
the math and science of oreos.
“researchers in the u.k. have developed
a vegetable called ‘super broccoli’
designed to fight heart disease.
not to be outdone,
researchers in america have developed
a way to stuff an oreo inside of another oreo.”
-jimmy fallon
Feb3
puzzled.
that moment when you realize
after you’ve laid out
and built the frame
of a large detailed 1,000 piece puzzle
that you may have assembled
the perfectly symmetrical framing
upside down
with no way now to turn it without breaking it
due to the limited table size dimensions
(damn math)
and might likely have to build the whole thing upside down.
—
“the art of simplicity is a puzzle of complexity.”
-douglas horton
I didn't have my glasses on.... 