Cathemeral Thinking

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Tuesday, August 06, 2002 Today is... 1945: Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima 1181: Supernova observed by Chinese and Japanese astronomers 1881: Birth of Alexander Fleming, discoverer of penicillin 1844: Birth of James Greathead, developer of the tunneling shield, the basic tool of underwater tunneling. Permalink  11:19:09 AM  Your views [] Return of hypercolour University of Rhode Island chemists are developing a range of polymers that change colour at various temperatures. They could be used on a fire door that changes colour when a fire is behind it, to help avoid heat stress for athletes and for showing when food has been in the heat too long. It's a far cry from the HyperColor t-shirts and shorts that seemed to only change colour in maximally embarrassing ways... Permalink  10:06:55 AM  Your views [] The value of car number plates Economists have statistically analysed the effects of certain letter and number combinations and their significance to owners in determining the value of personalised number plates for cars. Having a person’s surname in a number plate raises the plate’s value by £1300. An S at the start of a number plates raises its value by £1000. An F lowers it by about £500. The statistical formula for determining the value of a plate, where all number are in British pounds follows. (Assign the value 1 to a true statement or 0 to a false statement for true/false variables.) Price = 4619 – (0.352xLot Number) + (2596xBeing in a Classic Collection) + (1122xFirst Name) + (1256xSurname) – (1149xHaving 2 Letters) – (2125x3 Letters) – (2714x4 Letters) – (3015x5 Letters) – (780x2 Numbers) – (829x3 Numbers) – (3105x4 Numbers) – (565xFirst Digit F) + (1072xFirst Digit S) – (1042xFirst Digit is a 2) – (717xFirst Digit 3) – (832xFirst Digit 4) – (700xFirst Digit 5) – (686xFirst Digit 6) – (796xFirst Digit 7) – (553xFirst Digit 9) What economists do for fun... Permalink  9:53:31 AM  Your views [] Mathematics manuscript found John Whitfield at Nature Science Update reports on the discovery of a significant work by Niels Henrik Abel. (Group theorists know his name immediately from Abelian groups.) His most significant work, published only after his death, was lost for a century and still had not been completely recovered. Then an Italian mathematician came across what looked like the missing eight pages of that manuscript. Unfortunately, only four of them turned out to be written in Abel's hand. Abel was one of the most significant mathematicians of the early 19th century but lived only to age 26. The Norwegian genius was commemorated on one of his country's postage stamps. Permalink  8:38:14 AM  Your views []

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