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Archive for September, 2013

Billiards and Pool – the Geometry of Motion

September28

The pool table is a great battlefield for training the mind to read angles, in order to sink the balls into the appropriate pocket. There is actually a very real geometry behind billiards and pool. My Dad was a skilful billiards player as well as a good mathematician and I am sure his math was […]

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The Census Puzzle

September26

Delight yourself in some mathematical detective work to see if you can figure this problem out! A member of a census organization is going door-to-door collecting information. He comes to a house where a woman answers the door. After introducing himself, he asks her how many adults live in the house. “Just me,” she replies, […]

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Who is the famous Mathematician…

September26

…who is largely to blame for the modern game of Sudoku? (see Post Support for the answer)

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Which leads to Vectors

September25

The apparent wind direction for sailing boats can best be described by vectors. Notice how the resulting (apparent wind) direction (called “resultant”) is found by joining a line from the base of the first vector to the end of the second (source: oceansail): The lower pic is action from the America’s Cup boats from the […]

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America’s Cup by the Numbers

September25

The Formula 1 of yachting – the America’s Cup. Outstanding technology where the boats are now sailing over twice the speed of the wind. Also a victory as Oracle came from 1-8 wins behind to beat Team New Zealand 9-8. How did this ‘one of the greatest comebacks in sport’ happen? It was all down […]

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Daniel Tammet sees Maths everywhere! Book Review

September21

This review is just in from Science News: “As an autistic savant, writer Daniel Tammet approaches numbers in a brilliantly oblique way. He sees math everywhere, from the geometrical grids of city streets to the predictable patterns of his mother’s daily chores. Thinking in Numbers is his effort to draw the rest of us into seeing that […]

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Winning the Lottery – what are the chances?

September21

By the numbers (adapted from The New Zealand Herald) Lotto balls: 40 Balls needed to win Lotto: 6 Powerball balls: 10 Most common Powerball number drawn: 2 Biggest jackpots • Biggest Powerball jackpot: $34.8 million in 2011 (shared by two players). • Biggest individual Powerball prize: $28 million in 2010 (won by a single player). • […]

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Prime Numbers is the sport he loves most!

September20

Adam Spencer takes a break from his breakfast show and makes his debut at TED, sharing his Aussie roots as well as his search for the biggest Prime Number! Click this boyhood pic of Adam to watch his fun TED talk:

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Why we love equations, especially simple ones!

September19

This 50min youtube video from the BBC is a great overview of the use of equations in Mathematics and Science. Click on the image of Einstein’s famous equation below to gain a greater understanding of the exciting world of equations (PS: first half of video is probably the best):

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Angles of Depression and Elevation

September13

Angles of Depression and Angles of Elevation both relate to the view from a horizontal line. When someone is depressed they tend to look down and the same is true for an angle of depression – it is an angle looking down from an imaginary horizontal line. In the sketch below, imagine someone in the […]

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« Older Entries

Post Support

Largest number between o and 1 million which does not contain the ‘n’ is 88

 

Rotation SAT Problem: Answer: 4 (see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUHkTs-Ipfg)

 

Which number has its letters in alphabetical order? Answer: F O R T Y

Hidden Rabbit? Clue: check the trees

How long for the stadium to fill? 45 minutes.

Where are you? the North Pole

Prize Object Puzzle: If Sue does not know where the prize is in the first question, it can’t be under the square. She must have been told it is under another shape. Apply this same logic to Colin. It is then obvious that the prize cannot be under a yellow object. That helps Sue eliminate her yellow shapes. Got the idea?

Algebra Puzzle: Answer = 1

Popular Math Problems Answers: 1, 1

Number of tabs? According to Lifehacker, the ideal number of tabs you should have open is nine. Yes, a single digit. To some, this is like playing a piano and only using a fraction of the notes!

Worst Graph? Where to start. What a visual mess and even some of the lines merge and are impossible to follow. A graph is a visual display of data, with the goal to identify trends or patterns. This is a spider’s web of information which fails to show a clear pattern at all. Solution? Well, different colors would help, or why not group in two or three graphs where trends are similar?

Number of different nets to make a cube is eleven – see this link

Homework Puzzle; The total value of the counters is 486, so halve this to get 243. Now, arrange the counters to equal this amount twice.

The graph on the left (Coronavirus) is for a time period of 30 days, while the one on the right (SARS) is for 8 months! Very poor graphical comparison and hardly relevant, unless it is attempting to downplay the seriousness of the coronavirus?

10 x 9 x 8 + (7 + 6) x 5 x 4 x (3 + 2) x 1 = 2020

NCEA Level 2 Algebra Problem. Using the information given, the shaded area = 9, that is:
y(y-8) = 9 –> y.y – 8y – 9 =0
–> (y-9)(y+1) = 0, therefore y = 9 (can’t have a distance of – 1 for the other solution for y)
Using the top and bottom of the rectangle,
x = (y-8)(y+2) = (9-8)(9+2) = 11
but, the left side = (x-4) = 11-4 = 7, but rhs = y+? = 9+?, which is greater than the value of the opp. side??
[I think that the left had side was a mistake and should have read (x+4)?]

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