The fascination of Maths thread

[Sylar]

Did you know that the anagram:

twelve plus one = eleven plus two?

Of course you did. But threaded knows several more of these in Latin, ancient Greek, and Navaho. He is looking them up right now.

[BrilloPad]

Sasguru - the book you recommended arrived. I am dipping into it as and when I get time. You are right - it is a riveting read. I am a

[AtW]

I was pretty good in Maths back in skool.

HTH

[sasguru]

Sasguru - the book you recommended arrived. I am dipping into it as and when I get time. You are right - it is a riveting read. I am a

The second part was slow going as I had to stop to refresh my maths several times. But the first part is very interesting.

[Troll]

The second part was slow going .

Not enough pictures in it?

[sasguru]

Not enough pictures in it?

Isn't there a playgroup you can join, loser?

[Troll]

Isn't there a playgroup you can join,

how many times did you have to 're-read' it to fully understand?

[Chantho]

I thought I'd start this as we seem to have hijacked another thread.
Strange and counterintuitive ideas in Maths to be posted here.
My favourite is the fact that the it takes just 23 random people for the odds of two sharing the same birthday to be 0.5. And if you have just 40 people those odds rise to 0.9.

I tried to apply this to roulette, the idea was that if 8 or 9 different numbers (presumed out of 36) came up consecutively, then you bet on all of these on the next spin with a 50% chance ?? of winning. Sadly the logic is wrong (you have essentially moved into a non-random scenario where the probability is just 8/36 or 9/36 of winning). There is a happy ending, I (once and probably never again) tried this in real life at the casino and won when one of the numbers came up so I got £175 for my £40 bet of 8 x £5.

[ASB]

I tried to apply this to roulette, the idea was that if 8 or 9 different numbers (presumed out of 36) came up consecutively, then you bet on all of these on the next spin with a 50% chance ?? of winning. Sadly the logic is wrong (you have essentially moved into a non-random scenario where the probability is just 8/36 or 9/36 of winning). There is a happy ending, I (once and probably never again) tried this in real life at the casino and won when one of the numbers came up so I got £175 for my £40 bet of 8 x £5.

Well, this involes a laser scanner, a roulette wheel, and I imagine some very fascinating calculations to judge relative speeds and likely rebounds based on angles, deceleration etc.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4069629.stm

It certainly improves your chances. Both of winning and going to jail.

[oracleslave]

Well, this involes a laser scanner, a roulette wheel, and I imagine some very fascinating calculations to judge relative speeds and likely rebounds based on angles, deceleration etc.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4069629.stm

It certainly improves your chances. Both of winning and going to jail.

Flip me. The got away with it too!