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

*sits alone, drinking and pondering the secrets of the 21 card trick*

*eats a , still pondering*

But (m - n) > -n doesn't help me! n could equal 2m + 1 for all I know! This is hopeless...

those new s are really spreading like wild...

Oh, you're talking about s.

Hmm... Where was I..? So we've got 2mn + m and we want to divide it by 2m + 1.

*eats another in an attempt to *

Have an ....

No thanks. I don't drink.

Where was I? Let's see... There must be something I'm missing here, some easier way to do it...

OK, then it is.....

So you're a virtual Teetotaller?

2mn+m = 2(mn+.5m) = mn+.5m
----- --------- ------
2m+1 2(m+.5) m+.5

Divide top and bottom by m ====>

n+.5
-----
1+.5/m

Hmmmm ..... Any help????

I don't drink alcohol (well, cider's ok from time to time), real or virtual. My virtual principles are the same as my real life principles, simply because I feel that one of my real life principles applies to this: Don't lie.

As for the calculations, thanks for trying. However, those are integer divisions, so it gets tricky. If you want to see my calculations so far, here's an Entry I'm working on:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A544989

* sips some *

Mmm.. God, I love orange juice.

away.. away.......

Moi ...... Brain not in right gear at the moment... I will look again later and Phileas Fogg...... Maybe Printing it out for annotation will help..

~Your~ brain is not in the right gear? I thought you were a maths freak? I had no idea that I could write stuff that makes other people's heads hurt. Cool.

And what does Mr Fogg have to do with it?

Probly just me but an Ad in the UK goes something like:

PAY ATTENTION: Phileas Fogg..... And goes on about Famous Tortilla Chips and other Snack delicacies from around the world....

I understood up to where I read - but that trick never seemed so complex to me.... I'm going to need to see it on Paper to have a chance of understanding it....

I see what you did there... You purposely misintepreted that ad and made a joke out of it! How quaint.



The trick ~isn't~ complex. If you do it a few times and think about it, it's perfectly obvious that it will always work. However, I'm trying to do a formal and fool-proof ..uh.. proof. That's bound to become complex.

And if you don't understand, then who will? Maybe, just maybe, when I'm done with the proof, I should work on making it understandable.

I'm sure I will understand.... Just need to read it properly and not at break neck speed....

Please come back and visit if you find any errors or reach some groundbreaking conclusion.

* sips some and eats a *

Hmm, I'm not sure I liked that combo.

& smoothies are so

So did you look at the Entry again, or is it just too much work? It would really help, I'm kinda stuck. Then again, I'm not really working on it 'cause I'm a lazy fuck.

Lazy, I could show you real lazy, but I can't be bothered!!

I'm not sure there is a "mathematical" proof of the trick..

Try a matrix instead I'll explain later...

Well, I know you can just draw it (is that what you mean?) and show how it works, but that isn't a proof.

And of course there's a mathematical proof. If it works and it can be expressed mathematically, then there must be a mathematical proof. Otherwise, mathematics is more or less worthless.

::walks in, places candle on table, walks out::