51

(3 replies, posted in Art & Literature)

The word “coldly” is, of course, literal as well as figurative.

Of course I was reading into the word the meaning you adduce, which is obvious, but making the point that the Bard had used the word cleverly, like the portmanteau words that appeared in Alice. Wasn't it Tweedledee or Tweedledum who said it? Please correct me if you remember.

52

(3 replies, posted in Art & Literature)

This is an extract from a column in today's Sunday Telegraph. While the article is highly political, and I don't intend to push the argument, I was struck by how this extract demonstrates the Bard's extraordinary facility with the language.

"The funeral bak'd meats did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables," raged Hamlet about the mortifyingly brief gap between burying his father and his mother's wedding.

How much action and passion the Bard gets into such a short and simple sentence. The word "coldly" itself implies the cold-blooded intent of his father-in-law.

I always thought "funeral baked meats", said by Mr Polly, originated with HG Wells; I didn't realise it was another Shakespearian quotation. The History of Mr Polly was one of our GCE English Lit texts. I don't think we did Hamlet in any year.

53

(2 replies, posted in PagePlus)

Someone else may step in and be more precise, but I think you need to do Save Default (from toolbar)

54

(9 replies, posted in General Discussion)

Living in London previously, and for the last nearly 6 decades in a South Coast town, I have had few nights when more than a few major constellations were visible.
One of the things that I have loved when on holiday in low populated farm country in rural France is the chance to see the stars through an unpolluted sky.
I find words cannot sufficiently express the emotions on seeing the blaze of lights in the heavens.
As for the wonder of telescope derived pictures of features like the nebulae and galaxies, stupendous would be an understatement.

I came across this interesting and maybe useful video about the calculator app that comes with Windows.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK5WQqN3_44

I use Windows 10, and I don't know if this fully functional app is there in other versions of Windows.

I didn't realise how many things the app does. It calculates in all the obvious ways, including many data functions, it graphs, and is a fairly universal units converter (it even includes US and UK teaspoons).

56

(15 replies, posted in Mathematics & Science)

If you are interested in the order of processes in an arithmetic "chain", try this 14 minute video. At least stick with the first half.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVRJLD0HJcE

At the end of the video, there is a most surprising conclusion. Worth a knowing chuckle!

57

(15 replies, posted in Mathematics & Science)

Come on William. You introduced the topic, and I have spent some time on it, as you can see.
Have you no comments?

58

(15 replies, posted in Mathematics & Science)

BTW, another relationship, given
(P-Q)/2 =  n, and
P-Q/2 = n!
is:
n!/n = (n-1)! =
(P-Q/2)/(P/2-Q/2)
= (2P-Q)/(P-Q) = P/(P-Q)+(P-Q)/(P-Q)
=P/(P-Q) +1
So if n were 5, (5-1)! = 4! = 24,
and given the original expression, P=230, Q=220, and P/(P-Q) = 230/(230-220) =23, and adding the  +1, = 24
QED

59

(15 replies, posted in Mathematics & Science)

William, let's look at your maths in your last post.

We agree that, using normal nomenclature:
P-Q/2=n!. . . .(1)
P/2 -Q/2 = n. . . (2)
From which:
P=2(n!-n) . . .. (3) and
Q=2(n!-2n). . . (4)

You have tabulated several values of P and Q derived using those equations..

You have gone on to show that in each example, the end result is what you expected.

Let's look at it another way.
P-Q/2 = 2(n!-n) -2(n!-2n)/2 = 2n!-2n-n!+2n = n!
and
P/2-Q/2 = 2(n!-n)/2 -2(n!-2n)/2 = n!-n -n! +2n = n

Great result, except that is where you started from. You have merely proved your arithmetic has been faultless, so the results are not interesting!

If n = an integer value of x, and if there are no exceptions to the process, the two results for (1) and (2) are always x! and x, respectively.

E&OE

60

(15 replies, posted in Mathematics & Science)

William wrote:

...... evaluated in the other way, which is usually regarded as incorrect but I think is how it would be evaluated in the MUMPS (also known as M) database language, is 5

This is quite irrelevant.

The clear intention of the original designer of the problem (I assume not the OP in this forum) was for readers who obeyed the standard process ("*/" then "+-") to evaluate the LHS, and be initially shocked by the statement that it was equal to a clearly incorrect number, not noticing the  "meta" addition of the factorial indicator. That is why I referred to the problem as being somewhat of a philosophical problem, a hybrid of text and maths.

I would like to introduce an analogy.
The adept mathematician understands how f', f'' etc. are used to represent dy/dx, d2y/d2x (you know what I mean- I don't know how to show superscript in this forum). This is an accepted shorthand, and no one would adapt or modify it. It has a meaning, which is universally understood.

I think, in the same way, the standard notation implies a process which is universally understood, where that notation is used. So if I write an expression using that notation, that is what I intend. If I meant to evaluate a "+-" function before a "*/" function, I would parse the expression in accordance.

The expansion of the expression in its correct and incorrect  formats may be interesting; a quick glance at the working shows interesting relationships - but it is an ephemera, a castle built on clay. It has nothing to do with the clever joke implied by the original maths expression in its text matrix.

61

(15 replies, posted in Mathematics & Science)

(p - q) x 0.5 = y

This is not called up by the original expression, and is a misreading of the convention. Effectively, you have introduced it as a red herring. Of course, the rhs in the given expression would become:
(230-220)/2 = 5.
This solution is a non-starter, except for an eccentric.

The accepted general convention is as the second:

p - (q x 0.5) = y

,
so the rhs becomes:
230 - (220/2) = 230-110 = 120, which is 5!

p.s. As this is a "nice" forum, it might be y's to mind our p's and q's!

62

(19 replies, posted in General Discussion)

I have made some progress with this. Please discuss.

Why?

Why, by command? I don't want to, so there!

63

(19 replies, posted in General Discussion)

I have made some progress with this. Please discuss.

Why?

64

(19 replies, posted in General Discussion)

Maybe you need to borrow a pair of glasses from the emoji !

Can't see we need a discussion, though.

65

(15 replies, posted in Mathematics & Science)

I've only just noticed this thread - I think my machine was non compos mentis when it was posted.

I got quite indignant at first, until I noticed the twist. Very clever, bringing the mathematically knowledgeable down a peg.

Interesting philosophical point here, mixing maths and text!

BTW, if you know Liverpool St Station, you may know the now gone Broad  St Station just to the west of it.
There used to be an electric train service up to Dalston, and then turning west to terminate at Richmond.

As I remember, lines from Liverpool St St went some distance at a low level, while those from Broad St St were at a high level. They crossed Old St near it's Shoreditch junction. My school, the Central Foundation Boys' School was just off the Old St and City Rd crossing, now a huge roundabout. The school is still there in Cowper St, near the Inmarsat Building.

Yes, you are correct, Liverpool St Station is in the City; its postal code is EC2.
As a Londoner until I was married at 22, living in Stoke Newington (N16), and often travelling to Shepherds Bush (W12), I thought of Liverpool St Station as being on the East side of London - after all, it is close to Bethnal Green and Shoreditch, which I thought of as really East End places.

Dirty Dick's was, as I remember, and I suppose is, located across the road from the SE entrance to the station, so we certainly are talking about the same place. The station was convenient for both Metropolitan and Central Line undergrounds (Can't call the Met a tube line, as it was mainly cut and cover). And, with stations in Shepherds Bush, each end of the green triangle in Shepherds Bush.

As a youngster, on occasion, I would go down to Shoreditch to buy a bottle of "Best Button Polish" which my cabinet maker father would use to finish off a piece of furniture. Although he was described as a Journeyman, he really was a craftsman.  I have a bedroom suite made by him for himself and his new wife back in about 1935. There is a huge drawer in a chest of drawers, full of blankets, which I used to be able to push in  by pressing on one corner of the drawer, with my little finger. I can't do it now, not because the drawer has stuck, but because my little finger is weak.

I and my new wife moved away from London, to begin a new life out of town in Harlow, Essex, eventually gravitating to our present home on the South Coast.

Another remarkable video, slightly amusing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfXNjuoqt0Q

A simulation of the effects of different gravity values on how a car would drive in vastly different gravity environments.  Quite surprising, ranging from calmly to smasharoonies.

The author uses a simulation package with the ability to calculate effects with different gravity settings.

I came across this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1py70uyGtA

Have you ever had one of these fortune telling fish?

When I was a kid, I had one, not a fish, but the image of a innkeeper(or publican) with premises right opposite Liverpool St railway terminus, in Bishopsgate, East London. This publican, as I remember, had his wife leave him, and at least one room, if not the whole premises, was left to get filthy - hence his nickname "Dirty Dick". The pub was called "Dirty Dick's" I believe, right up to when I left London in the 50's.

He was celebrated by the current owner with a fortune telling "fish", with the usual instructions as to how to tell the user's character.

I expect some, probably older, readers will provide further examples of the genre.

70

(5 replies, posted in General Discussion)

The alternative question is:

If you ask any guard, "is the truth telling guard standing in front of the door that leads to freedom?", if he says no you always go to the opposite door. If he says yes you simply go through that door.

BTW, about one of the problems assailing me mentioned in the last posts, swapping control cards between otherwise identical HDs doesn't work in my case. Sadly, looks like lotsa dosh needed to recover data!

71

(5 replies, posted in General Discussion)

I've forgotten it, so I shall have to look it up again.
Sorry.

I've had a lot of bother lately. First my desktop wouldn't turn on - due to blown electrolytics. Substituted older psu - nominally same spec, but terrible tendency to not come on or to cut out. Had to power hard drives from ancient straight transformer rectifier psu. Computer guru swapped old psu for modern more powerful version- done the trick. Also, my main data storage drive wasn't seen by the pc, and it turns out to have a blown chip. Thank goodness, the control card is joined to the HD body by a set of pressure contacts, and my computer guru says that I can put in a card from an identical HD, buying on line, no soldering required. That might do the trick. Otherwise, its off to a data retrieval firm. Cost!!!

Simultaneously, my household CH & HW system gave up, and that nice plumber had to come round for several days. He had to replace the pipe runall the way through the house from the cold water header tank in the loft to the downstairs HW cylinder, and later we had to change the motor head on the HW-boiler-to-cylinder cut off valve, and then we found the pump impeller had frozen. He couldn't get to old pump body out - threads really immoveable. But as it was the same make and model pump he was able to swap the motor impeller head. All lovely now.

The pre-meal kiddush, blessing, on Festivals like the coming New Year, replaces bread with a sprinkling of  salt by bread and apple with honey.

The prayer for the Royal Family said during every Morning service on Sabbaths (Saturday) and on festivals has of course been revised; it will seem strange to be saying "..our Sovereign Lord, King Charles,..." instead of "...Our Sovereign Lady, Queen Elizabeth.." as in the last many decades.

I actually had the honour to be introduced to the Duke of Edinburgh at a function at St. James Palace, a few years back, to celebrate 350 years since Cromwell let the Jews back into England.  He worked my side of the room, while the Queen worked the other. I could see just when she started talking to the first person in line there, her face lit up with such a smile that the staunchest republican would be instantly won over. (Perhaps)

73

(5 replies, posted in General Discussion)

This is also well known  in this version:

You’re in a room with two doors. There’s a guard at each door. One door is the exit, but behind the other door is something that will kill you. You’re told that one guard always tells the truth and the other guard always lies. You don’t know which guard is which. You are allowed to ask one question to either of the guards to determine which door is the exit.

What question should you ask?

There are two solutions to this problem, and the second is so different and is not normally given that I will post it in a few days if no-one tells it first.

74

(5 replies, posted in General Discussion)

Would your answer to this question be "no"?

(I'm remembering the question which I found in a book last night. I think I've got it right.

Tip: try both answers "yes" and "no"

Greetings to all whom it may concern.
Erev Rosh Hashana is Sunday 25, when we welcome in the New Year 5783.

May you all have a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year
L'sha Tova Tikatavu.