Math Is Fun Forum

What confuses me is this: "A mil is  (1/1000), (2/1000), or (1/10,000) inch larger or smaller than the blueprint states." Which of the three is it?

Regardless, the inequalities are easy. Remember that 1/1000 is 0.001, and 1/10,000 is 0.0001. Assuming a mil is  1/1000 and not either of the other two, then an accuracy of 2 mils would be:
w: 7.998 in. < 8.002 in.
h: 4.248 in. < 4.252 in.

For the graph...urk. What a silly thing to ask for. I'm sorry you have to do it; you have my pity.

Edit: fix programming inequality comparison. I've been doing too much programming lately.

5^i = -0.0386319699339353+0.99925350682348i
i(54i-3i^3)^5 + 9i - i^i^i + 3 = 3+601692067i
Interpreted Formula: ((((UNKNOWN(((54*i)-(3*(i^3)))))^5)+(9*i))-((i^i)^i))+3
0i + 4i - 0^0 + 0^i - i^i^i^i^i^i = -1.20787957635076+4i
i/0 = NaNNaNi
i^2i^3i^4i^5i^6i^7i^8i^9i = i
i^(2i*3i*4i*5i*6i*7i*8i*9i) = 1

I have no idea if any of these are right or wrong, but it seems to handle all sorts of weird things. (The last two seem contradictory, though.)

This tutorial taught me everything I've needed to know to use LaTeX in this forum (I found it with Google, hint hint).

I'm not sure if we need to actually try and explain LaTeX syntax in a sticky because that would be quite a job, and others have already done it for us. However, we could certainly put a sticky informing about the math tag and maybe a few links to some good resources.

Actually, a "help" sticky or separate page or something that documents all the special syntax of this board would be very nice. I know there are threads scattered here and there that do it (for example, this one lists all the "smiley entities"), but it's rare the newbie that finds them all quickly.

You are far too optimistic.

Actually, tests are very hard to write. I'm not surprised that they began to fall back on "easy stumpers" towards the end. Errors also don't surprise me; tests that don't have them are about as common as those that do.

However, in the case of a standardized test, it should have to pass many reviews as will as several pilot runs before it is administered on a large scale. That's just common sense, something apparently quite lacking in American public schools.

Not continue an argument...but no it doesn't. (Ok, I didn't get the chance to read the article because the link is now broken, but I assume that it's just that someone did some math and figured out that any two random people have a common ancestor only a few thousand years back.) That wouldn't be saying everyone came from a common ancestor that lived ~5500 years ago (Noah); it would just be saying that two people have a common ancestor a few thousand years back, and two other people have a different common ancestor a different few thousand years back, etc.

I believe in the Bible--I just gotta call it like I see it.

a) This is a combination problem. Basically, you are choosing three vertices from a set of n, where order doesn't matter. So, the formula is:

This will give you the number of triangles you can make from the vertices of any regular polygon!

b) In order for this to work, no two vertices may be adjacent to another. Unfortunately, I don't have time right now to figure out that formula.

Google translation BETA says:

"God Rpkm understand Licm   Mafhmt not Nkat each Nktkm Baikhh and silly     God Vadien Maveh the Arab Nktna     Then give Nkat and how Hovo     This is one Emshiii And oh Thenen Saro three Shafto How Ilbhimin! "

Wow. I guess they've got some work to do.

I procrastinate when I have the time. I've found that in college, I don't have time to procrastinate! That's because I have to manage my time very carefully, and pretty much all of it is booked for homework/reading/class/work. If you do everything at the last minute, but only because every other minute was filled with other homework, does that count as procrastination?

Luckily, that's all done with for a few months...now I have to make myself work on web sites for money.

The fact of the matter is that sometimes, Math is boring! There's no way around it!

It's because there's so very much of it...Sometimes, you'll have to learn something that you don't care about, and it will bore you to tears. And then, when you need that something later on, you'll have to flip back through the book to refresh your memory because you never, in fact, actually learned it (you can't force your brain to learn, though you can sometimes persuade it). I know, I've been there.

The satisfaction comes when, having learned a bunch of stuff, you can approach Math like a puzzle game, and put all the little bits into play to solve a real-sounding problem. And you will feel powerful. And Math will get more interesting.

(This didn't happen for me until Calculus. Actually, it may never happen until you leave High School. Just wait until you hit Conics. Beware the general equation of the hyperbola. Bewaaaarrrreee...)

You could try a "quick and dirty" implementation of trig functions; namely, store a hash of precomputed values and interpolate between them as needed for intermediate angles. I know that many calculators do it this way. C's function may also work this way, so you may not actually gain anything by trying this (maybe you could find documentation on it?). I would hope, though, that they would have optimized the API function for accuracy more than for speed.

I used to have a few of these as a little kid. They were just toys; I didn't know they were a mathematical thingy! By the way, I haven't seen one in years. I wonder if they still make them?

Oh yeah, very well done.