Together, we shall turn back the tide of math haters, and force Microsoft to put a Cartesian plane module in the next version of Word! (Or Excel. I'm not picky.)
Excel has done x-y plotting for well over a decade. It's simply an interpretation that the x axis is real numbers and the y axis is the product of real numbers and the square root of -1.
y=mx+b! ax[sup]2[/sup] + by[sup]2[/sup] = r[sup]2[/sup]!
So what's up with this b factorial and r{sup]2[/sup] factorial?
3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751058209749445923078164062862089986280348253421170679
8214808651328230664709384460955058223172535940812848111745028410270193852110555964462294895493038196!!!!
(My lifetime goal is Pi to 1,000,000,000,000,001 places.
No doubt there's some computer program that calculates it to that many places, perhaps even within out lifetimes. I've seen one that calculates it to thousands of places on and old-fashioned 80386-powered PC.
When I was about 12 I memorized this much of the decimal expansion of pi:
3.14159 265 358 979 323
After the first five digits, I separated them into three's, and notice those last two sets were palindromes.
Optimal pi is taken to 314 places.)
And of course, as an engineer, I realize that pi to ten places is enough to define the circumference of the Earth to the accuracy of the size of one atom. But I agree math should never be limited to practical uses.
What if I write about math? Huh?
And you should write about physics, too. Math is often called "the language of science."
"Use the Product of Mass and Acceleration, Luke."
I love
(x + y)(x + y) = x[sup]2[/sup] + 2xy + z[sup]2[/sup]
So, ahem, <speaking as as one of those shaming schoolteachers Roger Waters wrote about in "The Wall"> where did that z come from? Huh??? Did it come out of your nether regions?
You're not from the USA, are you? Because physics is physics worldwide, but math (short for mathematics) is math in the USA, regardless of how many subfields of study it has.
Circles are awesome perfect. Grrrrrr.
Hell is a place where Pi is 3, and where Prime Numbers are all even.
Also, this Burtlepartholomew person is no-doubt an ignoramus.
Hell? There's a Bible verse describing a well or something two cubits across and six cubits around. As they say, "do the math."
I liked math just fine and I was an absolute genius at geometry, but then hit a wall. I failed trigonometry flat. It was like I was suddenly on another planet.
It was very sad.
I would like to take some math courses for refresher. Math was good for my brain and I loved writing proofs.
Proofs are actually from logic, and geometry is just the framework used to teach it.
I think trigonometry is easier once you see the sine and cosine functions as pistons in an engine with cranks for the pistons set 90 degrees apart (of course the sine isn't the exact function for crankrod-and-piston displacement, but it's the general idea we're after). Learn about an internal combustion engine and then go back to trig, it'll be easy. "The crankshaft is at sixty degrees. Where are the Sine and Cosine Pistons?"
I don't think I knew you were a math guy, Bart. Our son is also a math guy, and he demanded I read what he called a "math novel." I was reluctant, especially when I saw the size, but I thought was great, too. (Although I would not have labeled it that. I'd have called it an adventure novel, or a war novel, or a computer novel, or a spy novel...)
I recommend you seek out Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, which does indeed have a lot of math in it but is an excellent novel nevertheless. Buy it in paperback, because you won't read it in the library's check-out time frame. It's massive. Enjoy!
I haven't read that, but Rudy Rucker's books, both his SF novels and the non-fiction things (there's one about five math ideas, though I already knew them), have been interesting reading.
I'm reading Greg Bear's Eon, in which there is a device that "measures the local value of pi" to about 10 places. Overall it's good hard SF like I haven't read in a long time.
Maryn, who'd like to read something short for a change but isn't
Oh, an there's Larry Niven's short story "Convergent Series" from his book (a compilation of short stories) of the same title, a story that ingeniously combines math (the idea of a geometric series) and the supernatural. Highly recommended.
