Appreciation

Polar Decorations

I’ve been working a lot with polar coordinates lately, which means holiday decorations like this

put me in mind of polar curves like $r=5 sin(5 \theta)$

By patrick honner, 14 yearsDecember 21, 2011 ago

For the fashion-conscious and number-conscious, we have this stylish silver necklace made from the first hundred of so digits of pi. If you have any mathemagicians on your holiday shopping list, you’re welcome. Unfortunately I didn’t have much luck ordering one, as my Japanese is pretty rusty.

I’m actually considering the question “Find a circle whose circumference is pi” for an upcoming exam, just so I could show this as the answer.

Oddly enough, this isn’t even my favorite pi-themed necklace!

By patrick honner, 14 yearsDecember 20, 2011 ago

Appreciation Numbers

12102011

It’s been a fun few months for calendar math. Today is another Permutation Day: the month and day can be rearranged to form the year!

It certainly isn’t as exciting as the recent palindrome day, but it does make writing the date a little more fun!

By patrick honner, 14 yearsDecember 10, 2011 ago

Appreciation

Pythagorean Pridefulness

I needed to purchase a small storage bin to hold my loose assortment of biking paraphernalia. Since most of the stuff is small–patches, wrenches, portable lights, and the like–the only potentially problematic piece was my portable bike pump. Whatever box I bought would have to be able to hold this long, thin cylinder.

I briefly considered planning ahead by taking some measurements before my trip to Target. “It isn’t necessary,” I thought to myself. “I’m very familiar with the Pythagorean Theorem. I should easily be able to identify and purchase a prism whose longest diagonal more than meets my needs.”