The curves that lie where the ocean breaks, mirror curves the cracking snowfall makes.
Appreciation
A Classic Math Rant
This is a classic confrontation between an attentive customer and some mathematically challenged customer service reps.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MShv_74FNWU
The customer has a hard time convincing Verizon that the price he was quoted, .002 cents per kilobyte, is quite different than the price he is being charged, .002 dollars per kilobyte. “Those are two completely different numbers,” a dejected, overcharged customer says. “They’re 100-fold different.”
The customer’s attempt to use the Socratic method to illuminate the misunderstanding was admirable, if unsuccessful.
Application Statistics
Statistically Predicting the Oscars
Nate Silver, of 538 fame, made his name using advanced statistical modeling techniques to analyze and project political elections. Apparently, one of his side projects is developing similar strategies for predicting Oscar winners.
http://carpetbagger.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/24/4-rules-to-win-your-oscar-pool/
Silver aggregates the results of other awards, intra-Oscar award correlation, anti-comedy bias , and, perhaps, a touch of gut feeling to make his predictions.
We’ll see if The King’s Speech does as well as he thinks!
Appreciation Numbers
Belts and Number Systems
I recent bought a bunch of different belts, and I was surprised at how my different choices reminded me of different number systems.
The belt in the middle is the integer belt. The holes are far apart and evenly spaced out, kind of like the integers 1, 2, 3, 4, … .
The belt on top is the rational number belt. The criss-cross pattern means there are lots more holes to choose from, and they are closer together.
The belt on the bottom is the real number belt. You can cinch this closed in a whole continuum of places. You basically have every length available to you, from 0 to whatever.
Belts and number systems; socks and the axiom of choice! What other math lurks in the closet?
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