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

well now, you take that sentence, with my blessing and all you like with it

least I can do, given the companionship of the cabbage white butterfly that you gifted me

Maria

*pours slow gin*

I was trying to find a new subversive way to reach the transcendental number PI, and doing so, I entered the
realm of the number PHI, which as everybody knows is a complete irrational one. Fibonacci threatened me with reporting
all that to the police. I quickly left that place of bulbous flasks and floating numbers in misty air.

you were?

aren't those times when you wish a tardis you could just whisk you out of those situations?

just as well we hadn't sat around talking about flapping their wings or anything

wowzum.




I am so inspired, I just broke out in strawberries. . Plus a panda.

(pours even slower gin, mixed with orange and pink striped cucumber slices, a shot of illegal maths, and a twist of lemon)

So now, in my maths workbook, scrawled in pencil, beside the multiplication tables, doodled question marks, and some strange arrows indicating a new life in an imaginary margin, is the illegal maths sentence, in English and Spanish! ah beauty! thanks for translation Maria ....

And notes on Maria's totally cosmic prose poem paragraph about Fibonacci, the Golden Number, The Golden Ratio, PHI. (I never heard of these .... I have so much work to do!!), and rocks and crystals and fractals .... of course! fractals! I am always on about fractals, now maybe, one day, I might understand the maths from which they are created.

So, when I get to evening classes, in September, the tutor might see these cosmic notes, (in English and Spanish) and say

erm, which college have you been studying in, my dear?

And I shall say it is a very special college, known as the Hootoo College of Maths, with some inspired and extraordinary students.



So you returned to maths, through studying philosophy at university, Maria? I can understand that. I see how that can be.

Why are there so many people who have been terrorised by the maths teacher at school?

My husband, who was considering infinity at the age of four, was hauled out in front of the maths class as an example of how thick someone can be. He never returned to maths, traumatised forever. This was the early 60s.

I hear similar stories everywhere, especially relating to maths classes.

Perhaps it is different these days. I hope so!



Thanks for the inspiration, dear ones!

You inspired me with this. Today, I drew a G'plex cartoon about the spirograph nebula, with an Obijwe trickster god thrown in......

Now we have been watching rhythmic gymnastics, which is for young women with the spines of ferrets and a beautiful sense of timing...I shall dream of people who catch balls with the smalls of their backs, and reach over their heads to pick them up with their toes...

The ribbons are haunting.

Yes! Yes! The ribbons! ...The ribbons are haunting?

Ah yes, those athletes. The bendy potential of humans. . Some humans. Not me. . It's lovely to watch, though. We were watching the diving last night. Whoah. Those diving boards are high. I was getting dizzy. Why do they have to do a handstand, right on the edge, just before they dive. That's not possible. Except it is. I like to think it's symbolic. Hey, loosen up kid, I say to myself. I could do a handstand on the edge of the abyss. In my daydreams. No!!!



Spirograph Nebula?? Now there's a band name. heheh. I love it.

(writes notes in pencil, in pre GCSE maths workbook ). This workbook, it's cosmic, with the added input from friends. heheh. Thanks to the Hootoo School of Maths. .

Obijwe trickster god??? Who? What? When? Must learn. Please enlighten. Or do I have to wait for the drawing? Bet I do. haha. hmm.

I wonder is he that the fellow who early this morning, in a half awake daydream, introduced himself to me as Minus Seven?? . hmm.



Had a strange coincidence with the workbook just now, in the coffee shop.This is the truth, cross my heart.

I was chuckling about how Douglas Adams changed the number 42 forever, and I wonder when I will first meet it.

So I am still a bit stuck in the negative numbers section, even though I am in love with those negative numbers, the minus numbers. (unless they are on my bank statement. ) I like the way they have opposite laws to positive numbers.

(Thankyou for being in love with me, says the trickster in my ear. My mother didn't name me Minus Seven for nothing you know. Except I didn't have a human mother. My mother was the number nine. I don't know who my father was, yet, but my mother went forth and multiplied with him, and had me.)

Oh, get on with it, that is just so stooooooopid ........

OK, so here's the true coincidence ...

So I am thinking about 42, I get to Quiz 5. Second question.

What is Minus Six multiplied by Minus Seven??? Answer??? 42!!!!! Not Minus 42. I still can't quite figure that out.

But 42 it is.

minus numbers make me heady too, not that I am going to blame them for leading me down the path of illegal maths or anything,

it was just they were the thing that made this number pattern so intriguing

I could see it working both ways patterns moving up and down the positive and negative scales, mirror images of each other

but with a postition zero between them, a place of naught

apparently zero is a difficult number in maths,

still I enjoyed my dabbling in illegal maths, it lasted a long weekend, and it was pretty cosmic because if nothing else from that pattern I had got the idea of my minus and plus working, even they were a little bit out

well, difficult for me as a beginer

it is even worse in physics apparently the whole zero thing, not that i would know becuase I haven't begun on that yet

Ah yes, the nought, the zero.....



I remember it well. Some might have said it was just a weekend, but to me it was The Weekend. That weekend of illegal maths ....

(plans ways to get Peanut to talk further about The Weekend, that weekend)

.... I love it.

I have decided that the zero is mystical. The centre of the mandala. Every morning I waken to see a luminous zero hovering over my Third Eye, and someone is offering me zero shaped biscuits from the onboard Zero Cafe. I think there are maths-ships hovering in my room.

mommeeee help! ....

Maths going well.

Negative numbers, check.Fractions, check. Square root, check, Probability, check. Learn to use a calculator, check. Sort of. .

Next stop, algebra. Check (out) ....... haha.

This morning, at 7.45 am, 6 geese flew in a > formation over the railway station. The 7.50 train to London was running 20 minutes late. Memories appeared to me as 543 yellow stars in a silver atmosphere. Maths is everywhere.

Oh, have to go ...... time is just sooooo annoyingly mathematical, especially when I am late. .....

Speak soon

Cactus Cafetina

I have 7 "O" levels - all NOUGHTout of 100and a big nought in my head

Querida Cactus Cafetina,

I´ve been reading an article, on the cultural section of an online paper,about fractals and arts. They have mentioned this contest:

http://www.fractalartcontests.com/2011/winners.php

and I have thought of you.

btw,
We own the zero and the rest of numbers to the Arab and Indian mathematicians, we use their numbers instead of the Roman ones.

hmmmm .... I think that my previous words are too factual, ... hope they don´t spoil the Daydream perfum of this journal.

Factual? Maybe. But mystical...truly.

Try Vedic mathematics, guys. (Boy, this is wonderful...)

http://hinduism.about.com/od/vedicmaths/a/what_is_vedic_math.htm

Aha. Now THAT makes sense.

that´s amazing Dmitri!!! gracias,

that can explain why Indians are so good at Maths.


I remember that I said something about philosophy and maths. Well, I studied philology, and one of the subjects was filosofía . I remember me thinking that children should be taught about Galileo, Kepler, Newton... and many other thinkers and their relation with Maths, the importance of it in their discoveries. That way children would feel curiosity about a subject so useful. Maths simplyfy our reality so that we can manage it better, and also we can discover parts of reality or invent, or create...


Cafetina, I think this can help you in your mathematical quest:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks2/maths/number/

notice that there are k1 and k3 levels too. At the bottom right.

Ah! Let me inhale the fragrance of all this wisdom and knowledge and zero shaped dancing design of a new type of o-levels, , from the Hootoo School of Maths, one of my favourite places.

Dear Maria sweet beautiful wonderful lady with such a mind, such knowledge, what you on about being too factual?? kiss kiss. You are amazing. I want to hear more about your knowledge of Philosophy, and all the things you know.

You are all amazing. I need the Knowledge. . I don't anything, see, I love to learn. I'm a bit of a slowlearner slowburner , head like a colander, full of lettuce, what? , which is why I write such daft things . I love to read factual things, Hootoo is so great for that. It's magic factual. with poetic lace edges and green stripes, all wrapped in Science Fiction textures, with mayo. And lettuce.

I hadn't even heard of Fibonacci before you mentioned him, Maria, see, or any of the knowledge you mention.

I'd like to do my maths evening classes here, really. .I think I already am. .

Now here's the holy, check those fractals, and check those titles!!!! That's it!!! Fractal Wasp Troll. (sounds like a Willem dream? You think? heheh) And what about Dune Bubble No 3?? And InterMesh IV.

Ahhhhh Heaven.

Thankyou

Wait! I must change postings.

Wowzum. Thanks friend. Vedic maths.

Extraordinary. Explains everything. That's it isn't it? Like, that's it!! Maths, Hinduism. That's it!! (did I say that's it? ). This will be my evening study. With lettuce. And some fractal titles.

Oh the gateways are opening now ..... those golden gateways....what golden gateways? ....

Wait! I must change postings. ....

Hey, yes! Maria, the curiosity of childhood, before the pressure, which can deaden curiosity. Great looking site, will put in faves! Gracias!

And all the while, there was that maths in rhythm, that heartbeat. I remember lying under the covers in the spooky darkness, hearing my young life in a heartbeat, counting those heartbeats. Da doom da doom. 1 2 1 2 1 2. Then there was the foghorn. (I was raised on the coast.There was a foghorn sound which echoed). Da doom. Da doom. 3 4 3 4.

I think I will shut up now. Temporarily. .

PS Hey Prof I love your take on the mystic zero.

Hey, guys. Could you maybe write something/draw something/photograph something for on all this maths stuff you're doing? I'd love to have it for the 27 August issue.

Hi folks, Maria, those fractals are wonderfully mind-expanding thanks very much! I think I'm inspired to try some new artistic ideas. Cactuscafé, thanks to you also for directing me here!

My pleasure, dear Willem


Cafetina, a word comes to my mind when I read you: pizpireta. It applies to women and girls only, women who are joyful, playful, witty and full of energy.

Maestro Dmitri is right, something should take shape out of this psychedelic thread, a mind manifesting with words, drawings...

Hey peoples.

Pizpireta! I love that. Thanks!This will put shine to my weekend. Sort of like a spirited lady. Happy now. Purr purr.

Yes, would be great to take the Hootoo School of Inspired Maths to the Post! . Thanks mister Ed. An honour indeed.

How do we do this? I've gone all shy and inadequate as usual. I'm great in spontaneous journals, but I go all hopeless when it comes to putting it out there ....

I definitely need a project Director, someone to organise it, present it to the world. Please step forward... heheh.

I might make a few photos! Been doing it already. There was an hour or so when X was everywhere, and I took a great number nine the other day....

I tried to photograph four crows, but they flew away. Now they are none. . Just a patch of grass, where the crows once were. . The Place of Zero Crows. .

I also have pages of dogeared notebooks, numbers painted in watercolour, ah bliss, mixed in with equations, question marks and other scrawlings. hmm. Ah, the simple joys. It takes me home.

I find that my work on paper never looks so good, though, once it has gone through the scanner and out there in a digital context. Looks a bit scruffy, a bit chewed, like a hound tried to eat it for supper. .