The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences™ (OEIS™) 10 More Common Faults in Human Thought Humans This list is a follow up to Top 10 Common Faults in Human Thought. Thanks for everyone’s comments and feedback; you have inspired this second list! The confirmation bias is the tendency to look for or interpret information in a way that confirms beliefs. The Availability heuristic is gauging what is more likely based on vivid memories. Illusion of Control is the tendency for individuals to believe they can control or at least influence outcomes that they clearly have no influence on. Interesting Fact: when playing craps in a casino, people will throw the dice hard when they need a high number and soft when they need a low number. The Planning fallacy is the tendency to underestimate the time needed to complete tasks. Interesting Fact: “Realistic pessimism” is a phenomenon where depressed or overly pessimistic people more accurately predict task completion estimations. Interesting Fact: unfortunately, this bias has serious consequences. Bonus Attribute Substitution
Calculus Online Book Slingshot Instructions: (after you've read these, click here to get a bigger picture.) Click and drag the arrow to change the direction of launch of the spaceship. Choose Jupiter's path distance (the shortest distance of the initial launch point from Jupiter's orbital path) and initial speed of the spaceship. RESET: puts Jupiter into ready position at far left START: Jupiter begins moving at its orbital speed SHOOT: launches the spaceship Zoom in or out to see the full orbit of the spaceship! You can also right-click on the movie and zoom in to get a better view of the objects. Note: Jupiter moves through a distance equal to its diameter in about 3 hours. *** This flashlet demonstrates in a semiquantitative way how a properly directed spaceship can pick up energy from a moving planet. Jupiter Data : Chinese version Copyright © Michael Fowler 2004
The Thirty Greatest Mathematicians Click for a discussion of certain omissions. Please send me e-mail if you believe there's a major flaw in my rankings (or an error in any of the biographies). Obviously the relative ranks of, say Fibonacci and Ramanujan, will never satisfy everyone since the reasons for their "greatness" are different. I'm sure I've overlooked great mathematicians who obviously belong on this list. Following are the top mathematicians in chronological (birth-year) order. Earliest mathematicians Little is known of the earliest mathematics, but the famous Ishango Bone from Early Stone-Age Africa has tally marks suggesting arithmetic. Early Vedic mathematicians The greatest mathematics before the Golden Age of Greece was in India's early Vedic (Hindu) civilization. Top Thales of Miletus (ca 624 - 546 BC) Greek domain Thales was the Chief of the "Seven Sages" of ancient Greece, and has been called the "Father of Science," the "Founder of Abstract Geometry," and the "First Philosopher." Tiberius(?)
Matt Gilbert Once I realized the flexibility of crochet to define elaborate forms, I wanted to explore these possibilities, maintaining the physical process while letting the computer handle most of the tedium. The program is a design interface that takes a given form, in this case a sweater, and allows me to draw and generate crochet patterns in the "sweater space". The resultant pattern is too complex to follow as you would a normal crochet pattern, so once a pattern is generated, I can go back through it with the program and follow along step-by-step as I crochet. My fascination with crochet patterns, sparked by the Institute for Figuring's hyperbolic crochet patterns was increased when I researched the parallel histories of textiles and computation. One of the most important breakthroughs in computation was made by Charles Babbage and his designs for the Analytical Engine.
Living Earth Simulator will simulate the entire world Described as a “knowledge collider,” and now with a pledge of one billion euros from the European Union, the Living Earth Simulator is a new big data and supercomputing project that will attempt to uncover the underlying sociological and psychological laws that underpin human civilization. In the same way that CERN’s Large Hadron Collider smashes together protons to see what happens, the Living Earth Simulator (LES) will gather knowledge from a Planetary Nervous System (PNS — yes, really) to try to predict societal fluctuations such as political unrest, economic bubbles, disease epidemics, and so on. The scale of the LES, when it’s complete, will be huge. It is hoped that supercomputing centers all over the world will chip in with CPU time, and data will be corralled from existing projects and a new Global Participatory Platform, which is basically open data on a worldwide scale. The project also has commercial backing from Microsoft Research, IBM, Yahoo Research, and others.
Ground Zero II | Carloslabs Have you ever wondered what would happen if a nuclear bomb goes off in your city? With Google's Maps framework and a bit of Javascript, you can see the outcome. And it doesn't look good. Now with Nuclear Fallout, Wind and Pressure Just what you need to be safe in these turbulent times: enter the address of that boss, teacher, colleague or loved one; select a weapon and a damage map mode. By clicking repeatedly on "Fallout" you can change the wind direction at the moment of the explosion. Where's the older version? Copy and paste the following to mashup the Ground Zero II script into your own website or blog: A ZIP archive with the source code can be found here. Science Caveat The damage caused by a nuclear explosion is affected by a multitude of variables, and some of these require powerful super-computers to be simulated properly. Fallout shows the possible dispersion of radioactive isotopes after six hours of the explosion, assuming a constant gentle breeze. Project: 200903A
Tanya Khovanova’s Math Blog » Blog Archive » Divisibility by 7 is a Walk on a Graph, by David Wilson My guest blogger is David Wilson, a fellow fan of sequences. It is a nice exercise to understand how this graph works. When you do, you will discover that you can use this graph to calculate the remainders of numbers modulo 7. Back to David Wilson: I have attached a picture of a graph. Write down a number n. For example, if n = 325, follow 3 black arrows, then 1 white arrow, then 2 black arrows, then 1 white arrow, and finally 5 black arrows. If you end up back at the white node, n is divisible by 7. Nothing earth-shattering, but I was pleased that the graph was planar.
8 Abandoned American Theme Parks "Open" for Exploration | ... Amusement parks walk the fine line between fun-ish and semi-creepy. Maybe it’s the combination of sketchy rides, circus folk, questionable attractions, and way too many screaming kids, but there’s something a little unsettling about them. Add an ill-advised theme into the mix, and you’ve got a real summer-time winner. Although for most of the 20th century amusement parks were a staple of American culture, the shine is definitely off the bumper car. But be warned urban explorer! The Prehistoric Forest, Irish Hills, Michigan Imagine Jurassic Park, but instead of real, blood-thirsty-Jeep-munching dinos you get dilapidated, stationary dinosaur statues situated around a mediocre community pool. Opened in 1963, the park had a smoking volcano, waterfall, water slide, and 100 fiber glass dinosaurs sprinkled across the eight acre property. [All Dinosaur Images: RoadsideArchitecture via Debra Jane Seltzer] [youtube] Six Flags, New Orleans Image: Liquorhead /Flickr
Interactive Mathematics Miscellany and Puzzles Complicated Mechanisms Explained in simple animations - GadgetsWow.com Author: admin Filed under: General Date: Aug 1,2010 Radial Engines Radial engines are used in aircrafts having propeller connected to the shaft delivering power in order to produce thrust its basic mechanism is as follows Steam engine Principle Steam engine once used in locomotives was based on the reciprocating principle as shown below Sewing Machine Maltese Cross Mechanism this type of mechanism is used in clocks to power the second hand movement. Manual Transmission Mechanism The mechanism also called as “stick shift” is used in cars to change gears mannually Constant Velocity Joint This mechanism is used in the front wheel drive cars Torpedo-Boat destroyer System This system is used to destroy fleet in naval military operations. Rotary Engine Also called as Wankel engine is a type of internal combustion engine has a unique design that converts pressure into rotating motion instead of reciprocating pistons