Feynman Math Puzzle

The following puzzle was sent from Richard Feynman (Nobel Prize 1965 in Physics") to his mother in a letter. The puzzle was for his father. The puzzle was not original with Feynman. He got it from an 1936 article in American Mathematical Monthly. "A" represents the same number where ever "A" appears. The dots can be any number but "A". All you need are basic math skills and understanding like addition, multiplication, long division, and subtraction. Who can get the answer first? Have fun!!

..............................................................................

Hints can be found at http://tomlinhoolyhints.blogspot.com/

Teen Email Exchange

R to I:

Dear I,

I just wanted to check in and find out how you're doing, I heard from H that you were in the hospital. I sincerely hope all is well. :)

Take care, R

I to H:

H,

I believe you can imagine the shock and surprised I felt when I received an email from R earlier today, in which she bid me to get better from my hospitalization, as she was informed by you. Not only did I believe that I was, in fact, quite ambulatory since you last saw me, but it seems that such a hospitalization would be quite inconvenient at this time. It was fairly distressing to be informed that I am bed-ridden at such short notice. However, I must thank you for allowing R to inform me of this situation, as it is quite concerning.

Blarg, I

I to R;

Thanks R. However, it seems that I might need another week for the presentation. [Due to UVA mid-terms]

I
--------------------
Ahhh. Teens.

Switching Parties

Yesterday was my "catch up on WSJ" day. In one article that discussed how close Obama and Clinton are, they assumed that Obama would get it but said that if he does he probably could not get the White House over McCain. One reason is that he is so far left. The author said that political analysts are thinking that many Democrates will vote for McCain and that it could end up being a landslide win for McCain. Interesting.

Scrabbles with Scrabble

Assumming the word Scrabble was the first word used in a game of Scrabble, how many other Scrabbles could be built? Parameters are of course the rules and number of occurrences of the letters.

Okay. You can't actally start with Scrabble but somone might put down crab, then next person s and ble. So taking that kind of approach. How many words "scrabble" could be created.

By the way, they called it scrabble on purpose and not scabble so you could not start with the word scrabble directly (8 letters).

Brain Waves from Eureka

The following was from the Eureka link under mathematics:

"The same rules of physics that govern molecules as they condense from gas to liquid, or freeze from liquid to solid, also apply to the activity patterns of neurons in the human brain. University of Chicago mathematician Jack Cowan will offer this and related insights...

“Structures built from a very large number of units can exhibit sharp transitions from one state to another state, which physicists call phase transitions,” said Cowan, a Professor in Mathematics and Neurology at Chicago. “Strange and interesting things happen in the neighborhood of a phase transition.”

When liquids undergo phase transitions, they evaporate into gas or freeze into ice. When the brain undergoes a phase transition, it moves from random to patterned activity. “The brain at rest produces random activity,” Cowan said, or what physicists call “Brownian motion.”...

These include the delta waves generated during sleep, the alpha waves of the visual brain, and the gamma waves, discovered during the last decade, which seem related to information processing. “The resting state of brain activity seems to have a statistical structure that’s characteristic of a certain kind of phase transition,” Cowan said. “The brain likes to sit there because that’s the place where information processing is optimized.”"

Isn't math great?

LOST

I was lost when I first watched LOST but this season I am really lost with LOST. In fact, I think I lost ground with LOST. And with each episode I get more and more lost. I keep hoping I will find a plot and some understanding but those are geting more and more lost too. I think I will finally lose LOST!

Feynman

As Esh and I drive to UVA we have been listening to tapes. We finished the audio tapes of the new Einstein book and it was great. We are now going through tapes that cover Feynman's letters to various people at different stages of his life. Here are some of his words:

On the contrary, it's because someone knows something about it that we can't talk about physics. It's the things that nobody knows about that we can discuss. We can talk about the weather; we can talk about social problems; we can talk about psychology; we can talk about international finance... so it's the subject that nobody knows anything about that we can all talk about!

All mass is interaction.

It doesn't seem to me that this fantastically marvelous universe, this tremendous range of time and space and different kinds of animals, and all the different planets, and all these atoms with all their motions, and so on, all this complicated thing can merely be a stage so that God can watch human beings struggle for good and evil — which is the view that religion has. The stage is too big for the drama.

To those who do not know mathematics it is difficult to get across a real feeling as to the beauty, the deepest beauty, of nature ... If you want to learn about nature, to appreciate nature, it is necessary to understand the language that she speaks in.

Vagina Monologues

"The Vagina Monologues" is a play about women, their bodies, their rights as humans.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vagina_Monologues

With the atrocities against women occurring worldwide, it is time that this violence and constant denegration stopped. Our bodies are our bodies; our minds are our minds. We should never be slaves to anyone. We should not have to ask permission to do anything as we are as much adults as men. We are as important as men and absolutley nothing short of that. We have the right to be challenged and to challenge others. Women taking charge of their lives will make families better, nations better, the world better.

What Will You Do?

What will you do with your tax rebate?

Couples get $1200 plus $300 per child, and the checks will be mailed in May.

So why is Huckabee...

...still running? He has practically NO chance of getting the nomination!

Who will be Obama's and McCain's running mates?

Wilbur

Wilbur is our family's youngest. Our vet found him and his brother on the doorstep of his office some years ago.

We think Wilbur is autistic as he shows hightened senses. He spends most of everyday under a comforter, only to come out at night for kisses and hugs. He is affectionate, polite, and has the innocence of a child and is completely domesticated. When he found himself outside one time, he was totally shocked, bolted inside and hid for 36 hours.

Cocoa

Once consumed by the Aztecs in the form of a drink called Nahuatl, chocolate is purchased and consumed in copious amounts this time of the year. What is your favorite type: white , milk or dark?

Joke

As a child, my father, who commuted on the New Haven RR every day, told me the following joke:

A passenger who commuted every day on the train noticed that toward the end of the trip each day another passenger would go to the end of the train and shred his newspaper. He would then throw the newspaper strips off of the train onto the tracks.

Finally the first passenger asked the other why he shredded his newspaper and threw it on the tracks every day.

"It is to keep the elephants away."

"There aren't any elephants around here."

"See...it is working!"

Holy Smoke

At 3:00 AM this morning I woke up with a start! I could smell a strong odor of smoke! We let the dogs out and looked around outside. It ends up that it is fom the Dinwiddie brush fires! What an awful smell.

Thumbs Up

When you place your hands together with interlaced fingers, which thumb is on top? I read somewhere (not sure if it is accurate or not) that it supposed to show brain dominance.

Tax Rebate

What is everyone planning to do with their tax rebate? We will probably put it into savings; but we might buy a new washer and dryer.

BTW for all of the anti-Bush people out there, please forward your refund check to us! We can put it to good use!

Clowns

How do all of you feel about clowns? I am not afraid of them but I don't like them. They seem fake and mean to me.

Physics Building Poster

On my way out of UVA's physics building after having used their women's facility, I noticed a poster on the bulletin board for a symposium somewhere. Although I know chaos is a mathemtical field and it can be involved in particle physics experiments, and non-linear methods is a type of math technique, the title on the poster struck me. It was titled "Reduce Your Chaos Through Non-linear Methods." So what would this mean to a non-physics person?

* TO A MOTHER OF EIGHT: Use lots of duct tape configured in mobius strips.

* TO A MAILMAN: Don't bother sorting the mail and drive any route you want!

* A PATIENT ON HOUSE: Have Lupus and don't allow them to do a lumbar puncture.

Dear Mr. Ware

Dear Mr. Ware,

As you are my state government representative, I felt the need to let you know about a situation that is happening on Interstate 64 between Richmond and Charlottesville. Apparently someone has deicded to improve the rest areas along this route. Port-O-Potties have been established outside of, and in addition to, the normal restrooms (if you can call them that). As I have traveled over the years between various east coast states, I noticed that Virginia's rest areas have much to be desired. I am not sure this new addition will help. Although they have a very refreshing bright green color giving them a cheery appearance, outside toilets just do have the same alure that inside ones do, no matter how bad (and they are sometimes vey bad) they are. As it appears these are going to remain in place for some time, please at least place "No Smoking" signs on the doors of the outside individual stalls.

Are you also aware of the new outside hand washing stands? These consist of four soap dispensers, four pedal opearated (I am not sure how these would work for handicapped individuals) spigots that recycle the water between customers. Is this sanitary? Aren't there health laws governing these things?

Anyway, please check this sistuation out and make sure that this is the best thing for Virginia. I am not sure this new "enhancement" carries quite the same effect as the the rest areas in NC with their gorgeous lnadscaping, air conditioning, huge number of stalls in each ladies room with automatic flush toilets and motion sensor sinks.

Thank you very much.

Sincerely,
October Blogger

Going Green-An Obvious Truth

Well finally the Wall Street Journal, CNN and others are giving the public the real truth. Which to me has been obvious.

CNN stated this morning that Ethanol (from corn) might be more damaging than Gasoline. In part because the corn harvesters use so much gas to harvest the corn and other reasons.

Wall Street Journal finally let people know about the Mercury vapor in those stupid "Green" light bulbs. You have to dispose of them in a special way. Mercury is VERY poisonous.

Thinking of other things. Think of electric cars. Where do people think electricity comes from? The majority is from Coal. Well that is a non renewable resource and pumps lots of crap into the atmosphere. If from Nuclear, we have nuclear waste as well as the all the energy (driven by gasoline) to dig the holes to put the waste in and trucks to drive it there. Hydroelectric is decent but certainly limited.

And I just love the Go Green concerts where thousands of people drive and fly, sucking down gas, and use tons of electricity to power their lights, guitar amplifiers, etc. What is Green about that?

Running Mates

At this point, it is difficult to estimate who will be the Democratic candidate but I think it will be Clinton. It looks like McCain will be the Republican candidate. Who do you think they will choose as running mates for the VP position?

I think McCain will choose Guiliani. I think Guiliani will allow him to get backing from Democrates in NY and CA which he will need to win.

Driving Mimics Life

Last night as Esh was driving us to B&N, I started to think about what Ian was gaining from learning how to drive. As my thinking reviewed everything, I started to realize that learning to drive is only partially about the actual learning to drive. It is more importantly about gaining independence, doing rapid problem solving, realizing you can control your own car but not others (like realizing you can control your self but not other people). You learn respect for rules. To drive successfully you must believe in yourself. Learning to drive is really about learning how to "drive" your own life. It is important to growing up and accepting responsibility for self. I wonder if that is why women are discourged from driving in many contries; so they will remain dependent and immature. Sad. Hooray for independence!

Brain Cloud

The flu has created a brain cloud inside my cranium. All I can do is blog and Sudoku and watch Monk. No math, no reading Artemis Fowl, and when I read the Macroeconomics book it reads as "markets blah blah blah free trade blah blah blah blah blah consumers.." What if the cloud begins to rain? Oh, I can't think of that one...brain cloud.

Pillsbury

Lately, we have been discovering the culinary bliss found in the blue Pillsbury round packages. This AM we had cinnamon twists......yum. What can I saw about their crescent rolls but scrumptuous. And the biscuits....oh....flaky goodness that makes it okay to play with your food by peeling each layer apart! We will all soon look like the Pillsury Dough Boy.

A day in the life of teenagers

Esh's academic team came in a wonderful third in districts today. That was really good against hard schools. Unfortunately they needed to come in first or second to go on in the state. They had a really
good time and used fake names like Shrodinger, Nietzshe, Archimedes, Heisenburg, Copernicus.

They same group of four (plus a couple of others) are now playing D&D very loudly and
having a great time traversing dungeons, casting spells, raising the dead, fighting monsters, healing
and gathering treasure. In a minute, they will be eating pizza bread.

So from 8:30 AM until 2:30 PM they bent their brains and had fun competing. Then from 3:30 PM until
8:30 PM they will role play and be their "other person".

What a healthy way to be in your teen years.

Okay...so exactly...

• when will we win the lottery?
• how long will this flu that Gravity and I have last?
• when will Esh find out about college?
• who will be running for president?
• when will the land in Charlottesville sell?
• what scholarships will Esh get?
• when will the writer's strike end?
• when will we get snow?
• ..................

Books

Books smell good. Books are fun. Books feel good in your hands...the weight of knowledge. Old and new, they have added so much to humanity. No wonder the printing press was deemed the greatest contributioon to humanity of the past millenium.

At the Library
by Nikki Grimes

I flip the pages of a book and slip inside,
Where crystal seas await and pirates hide.
I find a paradise where birds can talk,
Where children fly and trees prefer to walk.
Sometimes I end up on a city street.
I recognize the brownskin girl I meet.
She's skinny, but she’s strong, and brave, and wise.
I smile because I see me in her eyes.

Water On The Witch

Just like the witch in Wizard of Oz, Mercury is shrinking! The information came from a NASA mission and its photos.

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/01/31/2151241.htm?site=science&topic=latest

2008 Goals

It is close to the beginning of this year so what five things would you like to accomplish this year?

Zelda

To entertain me in my time of sickness, Esh is playing a Zelda game on the Wii. Then I remembered a Zelda video made by Caltech students some years ago. Pure genius.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2967926040995072267&q=caltech+zelda&total=2&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

Yuck

So I tried to find a poem about cold viruses but couldn't. But Esh remembered the following from one of his books from years ago("Lunch Money.." by Carol Shields http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780140558906&itm=1). I am not sure exactly how close we are remembering the poem but... I will update the poem when I find the book.

"I dibn't go to school today
Mom looked at me and said
No way...
I hab a terrible cold."

All I want to do today is lay in bed with my laptop and play Riven. The fate of a 55 year old woman struck down by life's small scourge.

Negative Attitudes

So it turns out in the world of math, misery does in fact love company. For example, if two negative numbers establish a long-term relationship and multiply, they will gain a much m0re positive outlook on life. However, if they just temporarily add together they will become even more negative; so it is better that, at that point, they separate and try to subtract from one another.

Poem By John Updike

Cosmic Gall

Neutrinos, they are very small.
They have no charge and have no mass
And do not interact at all.
The earth is just a silly ball
To them, through which they simply pass,
Like dustmaids down a drafty hall
Or photons through a sheet of glass.
They snub the most exquisite gas,
Ignore the most substantial wall,
Cold shoulder steel and sounding brass,
Insult the stallion in his stall,
And scorning barriers of class,
Infiltrate you and me!
Like tall and painless guillotines, they fall
Down through our heads into the grass.
At night, they enter at Nepal
And pierce the lover and his lass
From underneath the bed-you call
It wonderful; I call it crass.

- Telephone Poles and Other Poems, John Updike, Knopf, 1960

Cool Stanford Videos

I found a site with free videos of public lectures from Stanford University's physics department. All sorts of topics are covered. Enjoy!

http://www2.slac.stanford.edu/lectures/past.htm

More Leno Headlines

* "Deputies responded to a report of a gaggle of elk loitering in a public roadway creating a traffic hazard near...at 1:23 a.m. Deputies spoke with the elk and they agreed to leave the roadway and not return."

* "Election Date Information: Below are dates that most elections will be held on....3) The ninth Tuesday before the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November."

* "Voters Vote on Whether to Vote"

* "Four Week Program Offers Help To Quit Smoking in Five Days"

* "Death Is Nation's Top Killer"

* "Eating lunch at 10:30 a.m. was just too early says Superintendent Brent Orr. The revised schedule puts the first lunch at the high school at 10:40 a.m."

Help Me! I Am Locked In A Fortune Cookie Factory.

What sayings can you think of that you have either read or can think of for fortune cookies?

Dentist

Esh and I went to th dentist today. It was a good visit. No cavities for either of us. The next visit is in June. Esh has two upper wisdom teeth coming in but no lower ones are there at all. I had five wisdom teeth that had to be pulled. It is too early to tell on Esh's whether they will be okay or not.

Interesting Links

Gravity sent me some really interesting links today so I thought that I would share them.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-05/uol-ssc050307.php

http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S17/80/32S21/index.xml?section=newsreleases

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-04/uoy-ymp040207.php

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-03/miot-mrt032807.php

Isn't science great!

Ha ha...

The picture I just added of the snow bound trees is... a joke for here. Raining again. Many days lately have made it up to 70 degrees. Sad. It is mid-January.

Deadlines

When applying to college, watch those deadlines. There are deadlines for all sorts of things in addition to the application deadline -- financial aid, FAFSA deadline, acceptance deadlines, etc. As a helpful hint, once you have identified the college to which you want to apply go the the Admissions website and immediately locate the applications calendar. The calendar usually includes the financial aid deadlines; but if it doesn't locate that calendar, too. For individual scholarships, check those deadlines, too.

Good luck to all applicants on your trails through Application Land.

Einstein's Brilliance

As a part of Windows Vista on my relatively new laptop, came a Google menu bar. I have a calculator on it, a battery meter for the laptop, a digital clock, links to both Wikipedia and Google, and my favorite, "Einstein Quote of the Day". The quotes cover a wide range of topics; but the one showing today, I think encapsulates a wonderful but simple thought.

"If I give a pfennig*, you will be one pfennig richer and I'll be one pfennig poorer. But if I give you an idea, you will have a new idea, but I shall still have it, too."

* [German coin used from late 9th century until the introduction of the euro.]

Battle of the Brains

Esh's first Battle of the Brains tournament airs on TV this Saturday. The team played back in October and they won. Their next TV competition will Be on January 17 but will not air until much later.

Getting Ready

We are getting ready to go home. Some things are already in the cars, we are watching a "House", and a light haze in the air is making the sky pink, blue and lavender -- everywhere -- as the sun sets. A load of laundry leftover from kayaking is in the wash.

We just got back from kayaking in 40 degree weather. It was beautiful and very bracing out on the water. We were only about and hour and one half from high tide but the water levels were very low so we kept getting stuck. While out kayaking we talked Scrabble. Highest two letter word we could think of was "zu"; "zip" was the highest for three letters; "quiz" wins for four letters words. Other high pointers -- "quizzical", "zyzzyva", "whack"........

Tomorrow we will be home.

Water

This country has wonderful water facilities in most places. Even though the water varies from location to location, it is still typically sanitized, clean, fresh water.

We are on Ocracoke. The water public water here has always had a....different scent. We have chosen over the years to purchase battled water for coffee because it tastes better; but we have cooked in Ocarocke's public water.

Not so this trip and the second week last summer when we stayed in this house. The public utilities here on Ocracoke reached maximum capacity some years ago. This means that all new houses must get their water from some other source. Some house have water shipped in and stored in tanks. The owners of this house chose to have non-potable water.

Last summer we got used to it because the house is so spacious and nice. This trip has pretty much been the same except when I opened the dishwasher the first time we wased dishes, it all smelled like fish. Subsequently, the dishwasher broke.

Then one morning Gravity came up and asked if Ian's and my showers smelled like fish. "No, It just had the usual briny smell and soapy feel." But the day before yesterday and yesterday, my shower has had the fish smell. Esh's shower is either still okay or he has lost his sense of smell.

Last night, when doing a load of laundry, I thought I would go down and check on it in the washer. the water in the washing machine was brownish! Yuk. But....our clothes are coming out cleaner! The gray layer that used to be permanently at the bottom of Esh's socks is disappearing......Wonders never cease!

Googling

So "Ocracoke is an unusual name...When I googled for a map of Ocracoke, Google came back with "Did you mean to search for "yourock"?"

Brrrrrr.....

It is cold here and very windy. The low for tonight is predicted for 28; but right now, we have 36 degrees with a windy chill of 24 due to the wind. The wind is steady at 20 mph with gusts higher. This is a big house but it is still swaying in the wind. Wish we would get some flakes of the white stuff.

Today, we stayed here all day. We finished the puzzle that we started yesterday. We read and played Scrabble. The boys are asleep right now on the coaches and there is a fire in the fireplace, with the wind howling outside. Winter.

One Thing Not Told

Okay, so we have painted a near perfect picture of Ocracoke. We left out the bugs. The bugs here are BIG. And the roach type bugs are REALLY BIG! We went ten days with no bugs; and then I was rudely reminded. After our fabulous kayak tip, I was collecting clothes prior to showering and there, amidst my pants, was a bug. I now shake my clothes prior to putting them on.

Finished Another One

Last night, we finished another Nancy Drew puzzle game! This time we were in New Orleans and we switched from between being Nancy Drew and her friend, Bess Meyers. We had been asked to go investigate the death of an uncle of a friend of Ned's (another of Nancy's friends). We played with a pet Iguana, collected false eyes, ate gumbo, went to a secret society meeting, went far too many times through a graveyard, and found the crystal skull! Wow; another family adventure under our belt!

Low Tide Beach

Yesterday, we went out to a Sandy point that has the ocean on one side and the sound on the other. We drove out there at low tide. It was gorgeous. There were beautiful Sand pattens everywhere. There were also many beached carcasses, primarily Sand sharks and one skate. The tide comes in very quickly in this area as it is flat so I suspect that when the tide goes out many sea creatures get stuck with no water. We made sure that we did not get stuck with the tide coming in! After that, we went kayaking in yet another part of the island.

Nature's Recycling

New Year's Eve day we went kayaking to one of our favorite spots. After launching from a creek in one of the marshes, we go out into the sound. Then we go around an island and back into the marshes.

After a storm about five years ago, we found a wrecked paddle boat back on one of the creeks in the second marsh. Over the years, we have watched it slowly disintegrate. This past trip, just two days ago, a family of hermit crabs had made their home in the paddle boat. Slowly, the paddle boat is being turned back into its natural components.