Math & Science

[primefactor]

Is anyone interested in discussing math or science topics? News, questions, puzzles, stuff like that? Does anyone have a good math/science biography? One friend of mine is OBSESSED with Tesla (dear God, not the band!). Her answering machine message asserts that he is "hotter than a centipede." I recently enjoyed The Man Who Loved Only Numbers, about uber-weirdo Paul Erdos. He is the one who said, "A mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems." Mmm... coffee.

[Dood]

Great topic!

Did you ever read Issac Asimov's "Only A Trillion"? It's a great "numbers" book that shows just how incredibly small a trillion is. Great stuff. 

[Future Canadian]

Asimov is indeed a terrific writer capable of bringing high end concepts down to earth. One story of his that sticks out for me is when he was playing bridge with some pals and one complained that they seemed to be getting the same cards over and over. So off he went to do the math and found that they could play a million hands and second for a billion years (or something like that) and they would never get the same hand twice. Factorials are to blame I believe. To find the number of possible combinations in a deck of cards you would multiply 52 x 51 x 50 x 49 etc...

That is also my favorite math symbol, the exclamation point. 52!

[myname]

Isaac Asimov rocks!

an amazing guy and very prolific writer.

he once said "If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster.