For those math geeks ready to party hearty, Square Root day is back. These days come only nine times each century and March 3, 2009 is one such day. (3/3/09 or the square root of nine). Citizens should be cautious as pocket-protector and pencil laden math fiends hit the streets across America looking for some crazy fun with calculators and multiplication tables. It is the one day that you can party like it is the 1999 Math Game.
Square Root Day comes with contests in Redwood, California. The prize is a date with an actual non-inflatable person. Ok, I lied, it is $339.
The last Square Root day was five years ago, Feb. 2, 2004, which happened to coincide with Groundhog Day.
Women named Leslie are particularly at risk because geeks can spell their names on calculators. (That is how I won over my wife). Women or men named Leslie may want to go by Lisa or Larry until after midnight when the mathophiles return to their lairs.
For those who find themselves cornered by math geeks seeking a good time, here is a couple of tips.
First, do not fall for the suggestion of “coming up stairs for some long division” or to “look at my scribblings.”
Second, if asked by math toughs what you think about Archimedes, Euclid, Sir Isaac Newton, Pythagoras, Blaise Pascal, Carl Gauss, Aryabhatta, Ramanujam, just say that you like them all and keep walking.
Third, if you are surrounded, throw out a difficult but intriguing math problem like Pierre de Fermat’s mind teaser: propose that xn + yn = zn has no non-zero integer solutions for x, y and z when n > 2. That took 350 years to solve. As they debate it, walk away quietly.
Albert (Love is all relative) Einstein once said that “Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas.” Yet, it was on Square Root Day that he got really frisky as shown on this fetching beach shot:
He would often prowl the beaches on Square Root Day, looking for acute girls with perfect linear equations.
For those math geeks heading out to try to conjugate, there are a couple of math pick up line sites that can help here and here. Some are a bit risky like “I wish I was your derivative so I could lie tangent to your curves.” One of my favorites is “Honey, you’re sweeter than pi.” It is enough to make the strongest math major swoon.
Go forth Math Geeks and multiply.
For the full story, click here
here is actual equation and a link:
“No integral values of x, y, z can be found to satisfy the equation x**n+y**n = z**n (dbl * meaning raised to power of n); if n be an integer greater than 2. This proposition has acquired extraordinary celebrity from the fact that no general demonstration of it has been given, but there is no reason to doubt that it is true.
Probably Fermat discovered its truth first for the case n = 3, and then for the case n = 4. His proof for the former of these cases is lost, but that for the latter is extant, and a similar proof for the case of n = 3 was given by Euler. These proofs depend on shewing that, if three integral values of x, y, z can be found which satisfy the equation, then it will be possible to find three other and smaller integers which also satisfy it: in this way, finally, we shew that the equation must be satisfied by three values which obviously do not satisfy it. Thus no integral solution is possible. It would seem that this method is inapplicable to any cases except those of n = 3 and n = 4.”
here is link:
http://www.maths.tcd.ie/pub/HistMath/People/Fermat/RouseBall/RB_Fermat.html
“propose that xn + yn = zn has no non-zero integer solutions for x, y and z when n > 2. That took 350 years to solve.”
I must be missing something, because that seems to be easily false. (For example, let n = 3. A solution would be x=3, y=3, z=6.)
Every grade school bully knows that ‘pie r round’ and ‘cakes r square’, thereby soundly refuting the mathematical equation:
Pi * r^2
Buddha:
I dont know, 2 Chinese Col. penned a paper about asymmetrical warfare against the US and 2 of the things I remeber were using planes as missles and disrupting wall st. Bin Laden did both on 9/11.
Call me a little conspiracy nut but…………
Bron,
“an example of Chinese asymmetrical warfare against the US?”
lol
The possibility occurred to me, but that might be too subtle even for the Chinese! If so, it would be the slickest military move of all recorded history and I’d have to give them a standing ovation.
Bron
I, for one, enjoyed the bike joke.
Have any of you ever partied with engineers?
no I thought not or you would not be so insensative. We used to put law students under the table.
Hey, is anyone else old enough to remember learning how to “extract a square root” right after learning long division?
Raise your hand.
We are working on this, _/576-_/49.
Gnome:
Enough of your intelligent banter. You’re scaring the trolls! Shall I bring the Chex Mix? And btw I’m leaving that swinging crowd at midnight, I can promise you that.
FFLEO,
Genius and fashion sense hardly ever go hand in hand.
Shirley, I mean surely, those pumps Ally is a’warin’ were photoshopped into the photo. Please tell me they were even if that is a white lie.
Buddha:
an example of Chinese asymmetrical warfare against the US?
Party at the math club tonite from _/81 PM to _/144 PM.
Math. It’s not just for geeks. Criminals like it too.
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/17-03/wp_quant?currentPage=all
I’m glad it’s square root day. I’ve been waiting for an excuse to share that link. Further example that a tool is only as good as the tool user.
mespo,
I’ll have to say your reaction to the solution for Fermat was similar to mine. “He must have had huge margins!”
This is a glorius day! And this just a week or so after Engineers Week, my god its too much for a geek to contemplate.
Thanks to Prof. Turley for recognizing the mathematically inclined!
Engineer joke:
2 engineering students are walking on campus and one says to the other “where did you get that great bike?” “Well, I was walking to class the other day and this very cute coed threw her bike down, stripped and said take what you want, so I took the bike”. The other says “yes, very good choice the clothes would not have fit”
I just heard one teacher’s celebratory idea–taking root vegetables and cutting them into squares! GROAN, but sounds fun!!!
de Feramt’s not so hard: n=5;x=3;y=4;z=7. I suppose it would be harder if the the “n”‘s were powers rather than multipliers, but that’s cheating. Of course you know, de Fermat was both lawyer and mathematician and conveniently omitted his proof in the margin of his paper claiming the margin was too small. A Princeton Professor solved it centuries later and it only took 200 pages.
Yikes – I don’t think most women would wear those shoes, mespo!
JT:
I can deal with many things which shock the psyche, but Einstein a cross-dresser? Yeesh! Where did those beach shoes come from? If he’s looking for beach bunnies, I suggest a change of footwear. Ok they do match the outfit.