h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I plead being a Swede should allow you to be able to consult sources on questions that are *very* UK/US specific! Seriously, I wouldn't have had a clue that there even was a difference in 'billion' if it hadn't been for the h2g2 conversation...

Leaving out the 'billion' points would leave me with 7 points - and I'd be quite happy with that, considering the highest level I've studied maths at was the Swedish equivalence of college, and that was - hmmm... 22 years ago! *swoons*

[ltp]

I guessed wrong on google and pi, but apart from that I did fine.

Had a phonecall from the former PL this morning. That man never ceases to amaze me. I started writing some poems last night based on a Japanese question and answer form with 5-7-7 lines, (I'll slap 'em up on Geocities when I am done with them). Not only did the wondrous and irritating man know about the form, he remembered the name (which I can't) and gave me some additional information about it. And I'm supposed to be the bloody poet!

I'll be interested to see what y'all think of the poems; it is a deceptively ambitious little mini-cycle, and I really cannot work out if I am pulling it off, or crashing and burning. I am aiming for ten and have written about 6 or 7 so far.

Ben
*worried that Archer and Aitken might be getting too portly*

9/10. Could do better if he remembered pi rather than more often.
Then again there is the movie pi which was a wonderfully wierd little b&w movie made a few years back all to do with numbers, secret agents, big corporations and jewish mysticism.

*stroke Archer and Aitken* they didn't look portly to me*

That is an amazing feet of recognition. I can't get the boat race I don't see why everyone sits down to watch intrauniversity sport. I mean Birmingham V. Aston football match doesn't get much attention.

*scribbles on list of things to abolish when I start a socialist revolution*

*adds 145th sheet of paper to list*

Ben, a journal entry on my page might help you decide

1 got 10/10 on the test, I'm rather glad, considering I took A level maths quite recently, I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed Maths..

*looks at dusty A'level maths certificate*

*coughs*

That hasn't moved in years.

Nine out of ten for me, the googol got me.

I am very glad that I knew googol and that I can recite pi up to the twelfth digit.

That said, I got a 9 out of 10. I didn't know if the UK billion was different from the US billion (though the presence of the question indicated that it was), so I just honestly put down the US answer to indicate that I didn't know.

Oh, well. There's still arithmancy for me!

n=0.999...
10n=9.999...
10n-n=9.999...-0.999...
9n=9
n=1
1=0.999...

Maybe so in a decimal system base ten don't work in feet and inches

Maybe not, but I'm not measuring distance. I'm measuring numbers.

*stands at the foot of the stairs, regarding the pile of calling cards and hearing talk of maths*

*pales*

*decides to go find the gardenerbot*

Ach, Lil, think of it as nice singular American Math. That has got to be easier than lots of different British Maths, surely?

Ben

Only 10 types of people, those that know binary and those that don't....

Sorry, I just love that one.

In fact, I laughed so much I showed a colleague, and he laughed too!

B

So is that is 10 types of people and definitely not 1010 tyoes of people as I mistakening first though of a witticism then.

I just woke up from 16 hours of so I'm a little groggy and only understood about half of the blog. From that: 1) Marv, I'm shocked! Is there a floor in there? 2) Sorry to hear that so many folk are so busy this week... 3) T, the differences between billions are allmost as interesting as the differences between tons.

*curls up on sofa, looking a bit spacy, and sips *

Mind you Lil, IO never could understand why the American's should abbrieviate Mathematics to Math and not Maths. The later does seem more logical to me. Or maybe that is just a British-English mindset where you study that 5 letter word for 12-17 years of your life.