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

sadly, Mikey is ill. can't keep down food, much less poetry.

Never being much of a scholar I probably should not suggest that Larkin wrote the words as best he could to give himself pleasure.

Poor Mikey! Get well soon!

To give himself pleasure...so he could be just laughing at all the poor schoolkids who have to analyse it

Hoping Mikey's better. You were in my dream last night and not upchucking Then again it was one of those dreams where you think you've already lived the day and when you wake up you think you've done everything for the day and just had a snooze...and then realise you have to do the entire day again

This essay...is still not finished. I'm starting to cut it fine as I've realised I'm also behind on Stats, two pieces of Geography and a small bit of Maths. Oh well...She can just...wait for it.

Okay...make that...

I'm doing every single exercise in the chapter on Probability so I know I understand it.

I was trying to do my geometry for a TEST tomorrow...I can't do...
The Perpendicular from Centre to a Chord of a Circle
Tangents and Normals To a Circle

Everything else I can do, as long as it's straight lines or basic circle stuff.

My two pieces of geography aren't likely to be noticed.
However I must now start my coursework.

That English essay! It's nearly done...I'm covering ambivalence, the main message, and why it's at the beginning of the collection. I know, I know, that sounds like an entire essay in itself

I've been given another essay for English on the novel. Anyone wishing to read something...Wise Children by Angela Carter.

So for tomorrow:

Be up to date on stats.
Maths test (which I'm going to fail at least a third of automatically)
English Essay

And I haven't had a chance to do any piano practice in AGES! This is ALL because I spent so much of last week in bed. I'm so far behind that it's upsetting and tiring and so tempting just to...get back into bed

Kat

Stats done..english next!

Good luck Kat- you can go back to bed, as long as you take your work there with you!

Isn't the tangent the line that touches the curve at one point and only one point? Any other line that intersects the circle is a chord.

If you know the equation of the chord (which you can get from the two points where it intersects the circle), and the centre of the circle, you should be able to get the perpendicular.

What about normal to the circle did you need?

English essay nearly finished!!! I had a brain wave and feel that I know the purpose of the poem now!

"Any poem is open to several variations of interpretation. Each reader may come away with a different reaction, a different significance, and that is very true of To The Sea. One of the main disclosures of the poem, however, is expressed in the last lines of the poem. Having explored the concepts of the seaside tradition, the ways that the seaside experience has changed, and the type of people who go to the seaside, Larkin brings these theories together. The conclusion is able to be interpreted that, when natural beauty and opportunity is presented to humans, they often fail to fully appreciate it, “If the worst of flawless weather is our falling short”, and they tarnish it, degrading the experience. But those who use the opportunity to continue an instinctive tradition, in this case going to the seaside as a family when the summer weather is permitting, “It may be that through habit these do best, Coming to water clumsily undressed Yearly”, and collect as a community, “teaching their children...helping the old”, passing it on for younger generations to continue the tradition, “teaching their chidren by a sort of clowning”, are the best of our society. They take advantage of the circumstances around them, appreciate what is presented to them, and are unconstrained by social expectation or personal inhibition. Larkin appears to admire this quality and wish that he was able to participate himself."



Maths...maths maths...oh right...okay "If a line is drawn from the centre of a circle to a chord, it will bisect the chord"...but why? I mean...it doesn't have to go straight through the middle of the chord! I just drew a line that didn't!

I then have a problem with the tangent and normal etc...because each one takes for granted that the angle created against the circle is a right-angle. I don't understand

Kat

First off, what is the normal to a circle? It's been a while since geometry.

I have to go to class now- let me know if you figure this out on your own. I think you can.

I'm home sick, but you can call me if you're still stuck on the geometry. I think I might even have a geometry text somewhere in a closet.

Yeah we couldn't do the geometry in the end But Mikey has the excuse of being ill.

In positive news! I HAVE FINISHED MY ENGLISH ESSSAAAYYY!!!! It's a completely load of but it's done and that's that.

Now for the next one

I've also done tons of stats...and and and...made a mess of various scrap pieces of paper trying to do the maths. Time for bed I think now...

Hi, Kat, I hope I can be of some help with your maths.

The one with the chord may be assuming that the line drawn is the shortest possible.

It's a while since I did much geometry, but I think the normal at a point was perpendicular to the tangent at that point by definition. That this line also passes throught the centre of the circle follows from the circle's symmetry.

Thanks for your offer Bagpuss! I will probably be taking you up on it very soon. As you can tell, Maths isn't my forte.

I've decided to skip the lunchtime maths tutorial, because SO many people are going to it, and I really need to be TAUGHT the sections, it's not just revising things. Then I'm going to go to the lesson and ask if, instead of doing the test, the teacher would be willing to sit and go through the sections with me. That way I think I have the best chance of learning it. There's no point in me trying to learn everything in 15mins and do a test on it straight after.

So next English essay....is on The Old Fools. We read it in class today and I almost just curled up and cried! How on earth can I write about something so...so...upsetting!?

What's the story about? Why did it make you cry?

I don't know about everyone else, but that's where I'd start.

http://www.poetryconnection.net/poets/Philip_Larkin/4813

Now I can't do my stats homework!!!!

S, T, and D are friends who all have birthdays during January. Assuming that eah friend's birthday is equally likely to be on any of the 31 days on January, find the probability that:

a) S's birthday is on January 3rd

1/31

b) both S and T's birthdays are on January 3rd

1/31 X 1/31 = 1/961

c) all three friends' birthdays are on the same day

Now...surely that should be

1/31 X 1/31 X 1/31...but apparently it's 1/961

Why?

d) all three friends' birthdays are on different days...

Now my logic works as...pick a day...one person has their birthday on that day...

1/31

the other two are likely to have birthdays in every other day...so 30/31 and then that's two days taken so 29/31...

so 1/31 X 30/31 X 29/31

but again, apparently not.

A hint -- 1/31 * 1/31 * 1/31 would be correct if it had asked the probability of all 3 friends being born on Jan 3rd. But because it asks for the probability of them just being born on the same day within January (meaning it can be any of the 31), the answer is actually.... ?

I always feel silly when it's quite obvious. Admittedly I had 4 hours sleep last night and have been working all day...but still

Thanks