Who said ordinary folks don’t have fun with math?

September 16th, 2017

MathAwesomeness, Facebook

A New Chuck Norris Fact

September 24th, 2011


Time slows down the closer you get to the center of a black hole because that is where Chuck Norris Hangs out.

[ I made up this one, 2011-09-22]

When I told it to my son, he said: “Time would just run away.”


To which I replied:
“Nothing can escape Chuck Norris.”

The Math and Logic of Yogi Berra

May 1st, 2011

Math

  • You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I’m not hungry enough to eat six.
  • A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.
  • Baseball is ninety percent mental and the other half is physical.
  • Another variation: Ninety percent of this game is half mental.
  • Half the lies they tell about me aren’t true.
  • You have to give 100 percent in the first half of the game. If that isn’t enough, in the second half, you have to give what is left.

Logic

  • The future ain’t what it used to be.
  • I really didn’t say everything I said.
  • I usually take a two hour nap from one to four.
  • Never answer an anonymous letter.
  • In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.
  • Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.
  • On why NY lost the 1960 series to Pittsburgh: We made too many wrong mistakes.
  • It gets late early out here.
  • If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll wind up somewhere else.
  • If I didn’t wake up I’d still be sleeping.
  • I always thought that record would stand until it was broken.
  • We have a good time together, even when we’re not together [talking about his wife Carmen].
  • Asked if first baseman Don Mattingly had exceeded expectations, Yogi said “I’d say he’s done more than that!”

[Various online sources, including YogiBerra.com’s Yogi-isms and Retrogalaxy.com’s Yogi-Berra]


Have You Conside that …? (Thinking differently)

April 25th, 2011


Fact: Most people have more than the average number of legs.

[Source: Joke #25, “31 Jokes for Nerds”, YouTube Video, posted by Vlogbrothers]

(This observation is correct for all  parts of the body.)

One One One and One One

October 22nd, 2010

One One One was one racehorse,
One One was one too.
One One One won one race,
One One won one too.

More Is Not Always…

August 7th, 2010

Q: What’s worse than getting a flat tire?

A: Getting two flat tires.

Q: What’s worse than finding a worm in your apple?

A: Finding half a worm in your apple

Math Is the Science of Patterns, Including This One

March 26th, 2010

Patterns come in all sizes and shapes, delighting our senses. Here is one pattern that entertains the ear, the eye and the sense of rhythm.

When 15 > 25?

March 10th, 2010

A customer walked into our auto-parts store looking for a flat washer. “That’ll be 15 cents,” I said.

“Fifteen cents for a washer? Are you crazy?” he yelled. “I’ll drill a hole in a quarter and make my own.”

Jack Reeves

[Source: Reader’s Digest, August 2009, @Work (p. 67)]

Amelia’s Dance = the Body as a Math Visual Aid

February 22nd, 2010

In her YouTube video, Amelia entertains us by turning her body with dance into a mathematical visual aid. She also demonstrate the endless ways one can present mathematical concepts.

Driving Math with the Math of Driving

February 22nd, 2010

Driving is a serious matter but this is funny.

Visiting family in Kentucky is a heart-stopping experience if only because my brother-in-law drives in the middle of the road, straddling the double
yellow lines that separate traffic. My sister-in-law does little to ease my fears. Seeing the horror in my eyes, she once said, “Don’t worry. Everyone around here drives in the middles of the road.”

Lisa Walters, Ypsilanti, Michigan


[Source:
Reader’s Digest, June 2009, Life (p. 198)]

10,000 Left Shoes

October 21st, 2009

Who would ever want to have 10,000 left shoes?

Well, here is a story that has stuck in my head for many years. I may be off on the specifics but I believe the just of it is true. And, if not, it could have happened or, in storytelling parlance, it’s plausible.

As I recall, in the mid 1960’s in Israel I read in the paper that a shipment of 10,000 left shoes had arrived in the port of Haifa from Italy. At the time, custom duty rates in Israel were extremely high, especially on such luxury imports. So the importer did not claim the shoes. Besides, what would he do with 10,000 left shoes? Stuck with this load, the custom office did what most custom agencies do with abandoned stuff, it auctioned it off. But no one had any use for 10,000 left shoes so no one made any bid. Well, eventually the original importer made a very low bid and the custom office was happy to get rid of the shoes that took space in its warehouse. So the importer got his 10,000 left shoes practically paying no duty.

A month or two later a shipment of 10,000 right shoes arrived in the port of Haifa and the same importer did not claim them because he did not want to pay the duty…

Surely, you have figured out by now the rest of the story.

Where is the math in this story?

It has to do with sets and how sets can be split, added up and rearranged. A pair of shoes is a set, a very useful set. It can be sold. 10,000 pairs is a set of 10,000 such useful sets. Splitting these pairs into 10,000 left shoes and 10,000 right shoes generates 2 sets containing 10,000 of useless shoes, which no one wants to buy. But then, whoever has both sets can recombine them to form the original 10,000 sets of sellable pairs of shoes.

Is More Always Worse?

December 27th, 2007

Is it always true that if you have a good thing, then having more of it is better and, conversely, if you got something bad having more of it is worse? Case in point, consider the following situation (usually told as a joke):
“What is worse than finding a worm in the apple you are eating?”
“I don’t know… Two worms.”
“No. Half a worm!”

Shoelace Tying

December 20th, 2007

I am always amazed at the ingenuity of the human mind. I’ve always been interested in and even fascinated by knots and tying. I’ve known several ways of tying shoelaces and did not give it much thought. I considered it so simple, once it was tied, the shoelace knot is one of the most basic knots. nothing to it.

Wrong!

Several years ago, when my son was in first grade I was awed by one of his classmates, a second grader, when I saw how she tied her shoelaces in a single, fluid motion. I asked her to repeat it and she did but her fingers always moved too fast for my eyes to catch the details of her action. The result, however, was the familiar knot. She told me that this is the only way she knew to tie her laces.

Then I came across this video and I learned how to tie my shoelaces in the same way.

It’s not difficult and you can do it too and fascinate your friends.

Math Doesn’t Suck by Danica McKellar

October 28th, 2007

Math Doesn’t Suck by Danica McKellar

In her Math Doesn’t Suck: How to Survive Middle-School Math Without Losing Your Mind or Breaking a Nail, Danica McKellar writes in a language that will appeal to her target reader — middle-school girls. It is a commendable attempt to encourage girls to do well in their math studies. Danica presents middle-school math subjects in context that is relevant to the girls she addresses. I hope she is most successful.

I have found one problem with the book, a publishing problem, and I wish that Hudson Street Press, the publisher, will fix it for the next edition. The problem is this:

If a girl or someone who loves her is shopping at Borders or Barnes & Noble store, they would probably browse the Young Adult section, perhaps even the Young Adult Nonfiction shelves. Unfortunately Math Doesn’t Suck can be found only in the math section of brick and mortar or online bookstores.

I suspect that the culprit is the classification of the book as “Mathematics—Study and Teaching, Middle School” (see the back side of the title page.) Before its next edition, paperback — I’m certain it will have one — or otherwise comes out, Hudson Street Press should also list this title under something like “Young Adults, Girls Life”. I am suggesting this not because the book deserves this classification, which it does, but more importantly, girls and anyone, who cares for them, should be able to come across it without having to mistakenly wonder into the math section of the store.