A while back I wrote about Accountants, who are baffling to other people because they not only understand math, they use it every day to make a living, because other people either don’t understand it or don’t have the time to devote to it. Mathematicians are accountants squared. And if you don’t get the joke there, you’re not a mathematician. Mathematicians see  beauty in numbers, precision, logic, and other stuff that makes our eyes glaze over. I mean really, I haven’t even balanced my checkbook in a year, so you know precision is not my forte (though honestly, that’s due more to fear than incompetence). But I admire mathematicians and their logic. God knows, the world needs more logic. Too bad mathematicians don’t normally run for office.

 
100 Movies, 100 Quotes, 100 Numbers

Movie quotes that count themselves down! Alonzo Mosley of the La-La Land Library took on quite a challenge for his first video project, a parody of “top 100 movie countdowns.” This is a treat for both movie buffs and number geeks. (via Militant Platypus)

The Mobius Dress.

Which is bigger, two 8” pizzas, or one 12” pizza? Learn geometry to eat more pizza.

Mathematics in movies.

Mathematical wedding vows.

Danica Keller, who played Winnie Cooper on The Wonder Years, has a math degree and a new book aimed at middle-school math students.

Plupon, an addictive math game. You get big points by combining three numbers to total ten or twenty. Minus points if you go over. Smaller points if you go under, and you can combine small numbers to make a bigger number. Unused numbers count against your time. (via Metafilter)

Mathematicians Pictures, a gift shop for mathematicians and math geeks. (via Grow-A-Brain)

What color hat does a mathematician wear? And why does it matter so much?

The Prediction.

This will really impress you if you think it’s about psychology. But if you think of it as a math game, it makes perfect sense.  (via Bits and Pieces)

STATISTICS

(via Bits and Pieces)
A 2006 study found that the average American walks  about 900 miles a year.

Another study found that Americans drink an average of 22 gallons of beer a year.

That means, on average, Americans get about 41 miles per gallon.

Not Bad.

LOGIC

This one has been around forever, at least since I was a kid. The internet just makes it easier to  spread around.

Three men go into a motel. The desk clerk said the room was $30, so each man paid $10 and went to the room. A while later, the desk clerk realized the room was only $25, so he sent the bellboy to the three guys' room with $5. On the way, the bellboy couldn't figure out how to split $5 evenly between three men, so he gave each man $1 and kept the other $2 for himself.

This meant that the 3 men each paid $9 for the room, which is a total of $27. Add to that the $2 the bellboy kept and the total is $29. Where is the other dollar?

If you find yourself stumped, Snopes has the explanation. 

NOAH AND THE ANIMALS

(via It Occurred to Me)
When Noah's ark had finally come to a rest on top of mount Ararat, and when the waters had receded, Noah and his family - along with all the animals - left the ark, and God told them to be fruitful and multiply upon the earth.

But after all those months under deck on an overcrowded ark, none of the animals was in the mood for sex anymore. Noah, who knew all too well what God could do in his wrath if his creatures were disobedient, got desperate.

So, he tore down one of the ark's masts, cut it into pieces, and built a table out of the logs. Then he told one of the snakes to perform a lascivious dance on top of the table and made all the other animals gather around it. After a while the snake's seductive moves showed an effect: One animal after the other started rocking in the rhythm of the snake's dance, and one after the other sneaked off with its mate to more private places... Finally, the dancing snake and her mate were all alone, and they too disappeared. And Noah was pleased that God's will would be heeded.

Q: What does this story from the book of Genesis teach us about math?
A: When you have to multiply, all you need are a log table and an adder!

Previously at Miss Cellania: other posts on Math.

Thought for today: A mathematician is a device for turning coffee into theorems.

humor jokes video funny games math mathematics numbers arithmetic mathematicians

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