I don't have any pictures this week, so I thought I would do a series of (really bad) maths jokes. Here we go.
Three statisticians go hunting. When they see a rabbit, the first one
shoots, missing it on the left. The second one shoots and misses it on
the right.
The third one shouts: "We've hit it!"
Why is 6 scared of 7?
Because 7 8 9...
There are 10 types of people in the world. Those who understand binary, and those who don't.
There are 3 types of mathematicians in the world. Those who can count, and those who can't.
A math professor is talking to her little brother who just started his first year of graduate school in mathematics.
"What's your favorite thing about mathematics?" the brother wants to know.
"Knot theory."
"Yeah, me neither."
"What is Pi?"
A mathematician: "Pi is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter."
A computer programmer: "Pi is 3.141592653589 in double precision."
A physicist: "Pi is 3.14159 plus or minus 0.000005."
An engineer: "Pi is about 22/7."
A nutritionist: "Pie is a healthy and delicious dessert!
What does the little mermaid wear?
An algae-bra
There are loads more on this website if you fancy it.
Monday, 27 August 2012
Tuesday, 21 August 2012
Results Day
This Thursday was my A-level results day. The day that would decide my future. I was surprisingly calm the night before, and managed to sleep quite well, when normally I have trouble sleeping when I'm anxious about something. That may have been because I got a phone call from school earlier that day asking me to come in at 9am to talk to the newspaper reporters. It seemed like a good sign.
I was still calm when I woke up on Thursday morning and had a shower. More good signs came when I heard my mum sing "Celebration" really loudly from her room. I had left my UCAS login details with my step-dad so that he could check whether I got into University or not and find out if it was safe for him to go to the results day at the school he works at. From all of these clues, I wasn't too nervous to log into UCAS for myself. Although I wasn't entirely surprised to see confirmation of my place at Warwick (my first choice) I was enormously relieved. It was quite stressful not knowing if I had done well enough in my exams. I wasn't worried about getting an A* in my maths, and I was fairly confident I was going to get an A in further maths, but not as confident about whether I was going to get an A* in it. The exams I was most worried about were business, as I'm a lot more comfortable with numbers than words, and the STEP papers, as they were really hard, and I had no idea how the marking and scoring worked with them.
Knowing that I had already got my place at Warwick made going into college to collect my results a lot easier. My whole family came with me to school so that we could go to Wetherspoons for a celebratory breakfast afterwards. My results showed that I got an A* in maths, an A* in further maths and an A in business. I was so happy! I worked really hard to get those results, and it was nice to see that it paid off. My teachers were really pleased as well. They kept taking pictures of me and my friends, who also did very well. I was also interviewed by the reporter for the local newspaper.
The rest of the day was a lot of talking to friends and relatives about my results. My boyfriend got his AS results as well. He did a lot better than last year with two Cs, but he was disappointed with his History result, so had to go back to school to talk to the head of college. When he came back with the good news that he was allowed to go into his next year, but the slightly less good news of having to wait for them to talk to his History teacher about whether he can carry on with that or not, he also brought me a surprise.
Crazy colourful flowers! He always picks the best flowers for me :)
My sister made a mad celebration dough dinner.
My mum decorated a plainly iced madeira cake to incorporate my name and my results...
...which quickly turned into fraction cake.
A close family friend was visiting, ready for the V festival at the weekend, and made me a lucky mascot out of the champagne (which he very kindly bought for me) cork and a coin. Apparently it's a tradition to put a coin in the cork of a celebration bottle of bubbly to give to the person the celebrations are based around for luck. I've never heard of the tradition, but I like it! I named him Fermat, after a mathematician :)
It was a really good day, and I can't wait to go to Warwick now!
I was still calm when I woke up on Thursday morning and had a shower. More good signs came when I heard my mum sing "Celebration" really loudly from her room. I had left my UCAS login details with my step-dad so that he could check whether I got into University or not and find out if it was safe for him to go to the results day at the school he works at. From all of these clues, I wasn't too nervous to log into UCAS for myself. Although I wasn't entirely surprised to see confirmation of my place at Warwick (my first choice) I was enormously relieved. It was quite stressful not knowing if I had done well enough in my exams. I wasn't worried about getting an A* in my maths, and I was fairly confident I was going to get an A in further maths, but not as confident about whether I was going to get an A* in it. The exams I was most worried about were business, as I'm a lot more comfortable with numbers than words, and the STEP papers, as they were really hard, and I had no idea how the marking and scoring worked with them.
Knowing that I had already got my place at Warwick made going into college to collect my results a lot easier. My whole family came with me to school so that we could go to Wetherspoons for a celebratory breakfast afterwards. My results showed that I got an A* in maths, an A* in further maths and an A in business. I was so happy! I worked really hard to get those results, and it was nice to see that it paid off. My teachers were really pleased as well. They kept taking pictures of me and my friends, who also did very well. I was also interviewed by the reporter for the local newspaper.
The rest of the day was a lot of talking to friends and relatives about my results. My boyfriend got his AS results as well. He did a lot better than last year with two Cs, but he was disappointed with his History result, so had to go back to school to talk to the head of college. When he came back with the good news that he was allowed to go into his next year, but the slightly less good news of having to wait for them to talk to his History teacher about whether he can carry on with that or not, he also brought me a surprise.
Crazy colourful flowers! He always picks the best flowers for me :)
My sister made a mad celebration dough dinner.
My mum decorated a plainly iced madeira cake to incorporate my name and my results...
...which quickly turned into fraction cake.
A close family friend was visiting, ready for the V festival at the weekend, and made me a lucky mascot out of the champagne (which he very kindly bought for me) cork and a coin. Apparently it's a tradition to put a coin in the cork of a celebration bottle of bubbly to give to the person the celebrations are based around for luck. I've never heard of the tradition, but I like it! I named him Fermat, after a mathematician :)
It was a really good day, and I can't wait to go to Warwick now!
Monday, 20 August 2012
Monday Maths Madness 5
I should possibly find this offensive... but I just find it funny.
Two calculators of the same make, giving two different answers to the same question. Ah. Using BODMAS, you can work out the answer. First you work out what is in the Brackets. So 1+2=3. This leaves us with 6/2(3), or 6/2*3. Division and Multiplication is ranked equally, so you just read left to right to find which one to do first. In this case, it is the division, so 6/2=3. This leaves 3*3 which equals 9. So the right calculator has the right answer!
I told you maths was everywhere! Even a wet hair flick follows the Fibonacci Spiral. Trying to think of something to write to explain the Fibonacci Spiral has made me realise that I don't know exactly how to explain it. Luckily I have lots of books to help me with that. I know what one of my next blog posts is going to be about now :)
Tuesday, 14 August 2012
The Yoga Chart
I have never been a fit person. I don't like sport, I don't see the fun in exercise, and frankly I'm too lazy to do exercise. Over the last year, I have suffered quite a lot from illness. Usually it's no more than a cold, but they came far too often, and sometimes were unbearable. My step-dad said that I should get more exercise.
I joined the gym at school with my friends, and most weeks I would go for at least an hours session. I was quite motivated for it because I was with my friends (one of which took it on to be my personal trainer, nearly killing me several times!) but towards the end of the school year, we all began to lose it a bit. Once the summer started I lost it completely. I tried to keep it up. I even downloaded a workout app for my phone. It just wasn't happening.
Last week I went to Alton Towers. I was suffering all day from back pains that made it difficult to move in any way. And no it wasn't because of the roller coasters, it was hurting before we had arrived. Although admittedly they probably didn't help... I also have very crunchy, and clicky joints, so I decided that I would try some yoga. I had a look through all of my mum's yoga books, and picked out one that I liked the look of, and tried all of the poses. What I like about the book (The Easy Yoga Workbook by Tara Fraser if you're interested) is that the instructions are clear, there are pictures and suggestions for alternatives in case you are having difficulty with a pose, and it tells you what each of the poses are good for. With this in mind, my sister thought it would be a good idea to make a chart.
My sister loves to make charts. She has one for running, and says it really motivates her to do it, maybe not every day, but at least try for most days. I thought I'd go along with it because it does make it easier to choose which poses I want to do that focus on improving certain areas of my body at a time. This is what she came up with.
It's quite impressive. And colourful, colours are always good. The idea is that the top half of the chart is a check list of all of the poses, and what they are good for, and the bottom half is a check list of all the days I have done the yoga, which I can take away and replace once it is full without having to remake the whole thing.
Having all of the poses and benefits together like this means I can cross reference them really easily, and make a list at the beginning of the week of what I'm going to do for the rest of the week.
Having the check list at the bottom can help me reflect on what I have done over the week, and if I think it is enough. For example, the first week I did roughly 30 minutes for 5 days, and the pain in my back was gone, so that was enough. I changed my focus for the second week to shoulders and stress because I woke up yesterday with achy shoulders, and I have my results day on Thursday so I could get stressed! If by the end of the week my number of minutes isn't as high as I want it to be, I will continue my focus for another week. Otherwise I will start again.
I don't know if it was the yoga that helped to cure my back pain, or it just naturally went away, but it still has to be doing me some good. I want to stretch out my joints so I don't click so much, and I don't get so achy and stiff. My aim for the end of the summer is to be flexible enough to touch my toes without bending my knees, something I have never been able to do. Here's hoping the chart helps!
I joined the gym at school with my friends, and most weeks I would go for at least an hours session. I was quite motivated for it because I was with my friends (one of which took it on to be my personal trainer, nearly killing me several times!) but towards the end of the school year, we all began to lose it a bit. Once the summer started I lost it completely. I tried to keep it up. I even downloaded a workout app for my phone. It just wasn't happening.
Last week I went to Alton Towers. I was suffering all day from back pains that made it difficult to move in any way. And no it wasn't because of the roller coasters, it was hurting before we had arrived. Although admittedly they probably didn't help... I also have very crunchy, and clicky joints, so I decided that I would try some yoga. I had a look through all of my mum's yoga books, and picked out one that I liked the look of, and tried all of the poses. What I like about the book (The Easy Yoga Workbook by Tara Fraser if you're interested) is that the instructions are clear, there are pictures and suggestions for alternatives in case you are having difficulty with a pose, and it tells you what each of the poses are good for. With this in mind, my sister thought it would be a good idea to make a chart.
My sister loves to make charts. She has one for running, and says it really motivates her to do it, maybe not every day, but at least try for most days. I thought I'd go along with it because it does make it easier to choose which poses I want to do that focus on improving certain areas of my body at a time. This is what she came up with.
It's quite impressive. And colourful, colours are always good. The idea is that the top half of the chart is a check list of all of the poses, and what they are good for, and the bottom half is a check list of all the days I have done the yoga, which I can take away and replace once it is full without having to remake the whole thing.
Having all of the poses and benefits together like this means I can cross reference them really easily, and make a list at the beginning of the week of what I'm going to do for the rest of the week.
Having the check list at the bottom can help me reflect on what I have done over the week, and if I think it is enough. For example, the first week I did roughly 30 minutes for 5 days, and the pain in my back was gone, so that was enough. I changed my focus for the second week to shoulders and stress because I woke up yesterday with achy shoulders, and I have my results day on Thursday so I could get stressed! If by the end of the week my number of minutes isn't as high as I want it to be, I will continue my focus for another week. Otherwise I will start again.
I don't know if it was the yoga that helped to cure my back pain, or it just naturally went away, but it still has to be doing me some good. I want to stretch out my joints so I don't click so much, and I don't get so achy and stiff. My aim for the end of the summer is to be flexible enough to touch my toes without bending my knees, something I have never been able to do. Here's hoping the chart helps!
Monday, 13 August 2012
Monday Maths Madness 4
Is this pie, or is this pi? Or maybe a pi pie? Whatever it is, it looks tasty.
My mum bought me a book called "Mr. Messy's Guide to STUDENT LIFE". My boyfriend found this page particularly funny.
Maths is everywhere! Even in the bike oil on my step-dad's leg...
Tuesday, 7 August 2012
The Cake Ratio
My sister has been doing a lot of cooking recently to put into her new blog, The Disaster Kitchen. One of the things she cooked was a cake. The first cake she cooked, and she will admit this, wasn't brilliant. Apart from anything it tasted kind of herby... To be honest that was mostly to do with her spoons, but because she followed the recipe, rather than doing what we normally do, it meant she used the spoons rather than electric whisks.
Now what we normally do, is follow the Cake Ratio. This is the Cake Ratio:
Basically, different multiples of the basic 2:2:2:1 ratio for self raising flour to sugar to butter and to eggs makes different sized cakes. 2:2:2:1 makes a cake to share between two people. I've not tried this yet, but my sister says its good, so I may have to soon! 4:4:4:2 is for a cake that you make in a single bowl. We usually use this for quick cakes we cook in the microwave, like golden syrup sponge cake (or pongey as we call it for some reason I'm not entirely sure of). 6:6:6:3 is for the classic sandwich cake (I don't know what the actual name for them is) where you put jam or butter cream or chocolate sauce in the middle.
And that is the simplicity and magic of the cake ratio. Just throw everything into a bowl, add a bit of milk, and whisk it until it is smooth. Then cook in the oven or the microwave, and enjoy!
Now what we normally do, is follow the Cake Ratio. This is the Cake Ratio:
Basically, different multiples of the basic 2:2:2:1 ratio for self raising flour to sugar to butter and to eggs makes different sized cakes. 2:2:2:1 makes a cake to share between two people. I've not tried this yet, but my sister says its good, so I may have to soon! 4:4:4:2 is for a cake that you make in a single bowl. We usually use this for quick cakes we cook in the microwave, like golden syrup sponge cake (or pongey as we call it for some reason I'm not entirely sure of). 6:6:6:3 is for the classic sandwich cake (I don't know what the actual name for them is) where you put jam or butter cream or chocolate sauce in the middle.
And that is the simplicity and magic of the cake ratio. Just throw everything into a bowl, add a bit of milk, and whisk it until it is smooth. Then cook in the oven or the microwave, and enjoy!
Monday, 6 August 2012
Monday Maths Madness 3
Maths and food. Two of the best things. Ever. The formula for the volume of a cylinder (as pizza sort of is cylindrical. It's a circle with a height anyway) is pi x radius squared x depth. Pizza contains the word pi, two z's (z squared) and an a, so the substitution works out that pi x z x z x a = pi x radius squared x depth.
Pi is approximately equal to 3.14. It just so happens that the amount of tips needed to round off the total to $20 (yes dollars, the receipt says Los Angeles on it - good detective skills me!) is 3.14. I like that the person wrote pi instead.
This last picture reminds me of my sister. She really does not get on with maths. She likes to think she can't do it, when really she can, she just doesn't like it. I have to admit that a lot of the STEP questions I tried felt like this, but where would the fun be if it was too easy all the time?
Edit: This was meant to publish yesterday, but it didn't. I must've set up the scheduled post thing wrong...
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