CurtMonash

7 ms·

31.
by CurtMonash 2y ago
There's a simple constructive proof using high-school level thinking. ... Two different reals have different decimal expansions. Go out far enough that they differ. Since this is about intuition, let's just assume the larger one i
32.
by CurtMonash 2y ago
My first step would be to note that 13,857 is divisible by 7 if and only if 1385 is. But yes, my second step would be a lot like yours, in my case subtracting from 1400.
33.
by CurtMonash 3y ago
A standard problem with dev tools is that they're obsolete before they're ever mature. What is mean is that by the time NewTool that fills a gap doing X really well catches up with the YZ that older tools have long experience hand
34.
by CurtMonash 3y ago
And of course: What's purple and commutes? . . . . . An Abelian grape
35.
by CurtMonash 3y ago
Grafitti I saw in a university restroom: Without her, I am nothing. ME - SHE = 0 ME = SHE M = SH ---------- You can probably guess the next line if and only if you can guess the university.
36.
by CurtMonash 3y ago
A mathematican, biologist and engineer were so stoned that they struggled with the claim "All odd numbers are prime." The mathematician reasoned "3 is prime. 5 is prime. 7 is prime. 9 is ... not prime. The claim is false.&quo
37.
by CurtMonash 3y ago
A poor mathematician had a very dodgy gas stove. Indeed, it caused a small fire. So he quickly filled a pot with water and put the fire out. A few days later, it happened again. This time, there happened to be a pot filled with water, waiti
38.
by CurtMonash 3y ago
The post is from 2009, and hence shortly after the mortgage derivatives market meltdown.
39.
by CurtMonash 3y ago
Suspension of mathematical disbelief is hard to sustain seriously or at length. Accordingly, the best mathematical SF/fantasy I can think of is in short stories or novellas which are meant to be humorous. In particular, those criteria
40.
by CurtMonash 3y ago
I read the third book of the Zelazny's Amber series before I read the second, back when the series was new. I didn't do it on purpose, but I wasn't careful to avoid the risk either. That was the first time in my life I read t
41.
by CurtMonash 3y ago
And the last volume consists entirely of verbs ...
42.
by CurtMonash 8y ago
Ursula Leguin nailed the problems with "anarchist bureaucracy" in The Dispossessed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dispossessed
43.
by CurtMonash 8y ago
Tindr for books?
44.
by CurtMonash 8y ago
It sounds like they pulled the plug after as little as 2-3 months of supposed ~50% monthly increases. So the chance that the real money stolen is somewhere in the vicinity of 1/4 the apparent loss seems high. Your figure of 1/10 t
45.
by CurtMonash 9y ago
Since the article starts by citing the battle of the Teutoberger Forest (in the photo caption), I'll say this: If you can read or understand German, and you don't know the 19th Century satirical song "Als die Roemer Frech Gew
46.
by CurtMonash 9y ago
In 1976 I applied to the 4 of the 5 top grad schools in math (I let my mother decree that Berkeley was too far away from where she lived -- if that sounds weird, please realize I was 16 years old at the time). Those were Harvard, MIT, Chica
47.
by CurtMonash 9y ago
There's something odd about a website that urges you to test your security by typing in your password.
48.
by CurtMonash 9y ago
Elf = marketing Swordsman = sales Cleric = support Words © Lee Gold Tune: Walzing Matilda Once a jolly Cleric, and a magic-using Elf, And a mighty Dwarf with a sword plus three Left their native village - out to get their share of pelf. You
49.
by CurtMonash 9y ago
Similarly, Max Zorn used to ask people whether they recalled what Zorn's Lemma was introduced as a lemma to. (I haven't a clue, and I doubt most of them did either.)
50.
by CurtMonash 9y ago
I posted a few minutes ago about how chaotic privacy-related public policy is around the world. http://www.dbms2.com/2013/07/08/privacy-data-use-gap-theory/ This article is another wrinkle yet.
51.
by CurtMonash 9y ago
Who has that kind of attention to detail? :)
52.
by CurtMonash 9y ago
Thanks! It's been a while since I read the book -- I'm guessing a little less than 40 years -- so my memory is beyond foggy on the details. But even though I recall little about its specifics, that book was very influential on my
53.
by CurtMonash 9y ago
Thanks for finding that!
54.
by CurtMonash 9y ago
There's something of a connection here to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Two examples come to mind: 1. The narrator thinks it's important to have in your toolset hammers of multiple hardness, because your hammer should
55.
by CurtMonash 9y ago
Also, it gets ever harder to keep up over time, as good links either go away or deteriorate in value. Perhaps not coincidentally, both the Yahoo Directory and DMOZ have been entirely shut down.
56.
by CurtMonash 9y ago
I was taught assembler in my second year at school, It's kind of like construction work With a toothpick, for a tool ~ The Eternal Flame, by Bob Kanefsky https://genius.com/Bob-kanefsky-eternal-flame-lyrics
57.
by CurtMonash 9y ago
Ack. Error in the second step of the divide-by-19 example -- hat tip to Josh Jordan on Twitter -- and it's now too late to edit.
58.
by CurtMonash 9y ago
To be clear: This whole thing make massive use of the lemma "If prime p divides b but doesn't divide a+b, then it also doesn't divide a."
59.
by CurtMonash 9y ago
Correct. If I'm checking for any prime other than 2 or 5 -- each of which has it own quick-check anyway via the last digit only -- it's always OK to drop trailing zeros.
60.
by CurtMonash 9y ago
Thanks. I generally have formatting problem on this site, so I appreciate all the help I can get. It's fixed or at least improved now.

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