I don't know whether to cry (Don't read if you haven't watched the series finale of Doctor Who 4)

or be really happy.

Man that series finale was a roller coaster and I LOVED IT. I love that Rose and (a version of the) Doctor got to be together because they love each other so much and that everyone was OK at the end even though Donna will never remember any of the amazing things that she's done or that she saved the universe. I loved all the companions around the console working together and the Daleks speaking German.

Exterminieren! Exterminieren!

And go Dalek Caan for wanting to destroy the Daleks forever, even if I doubt this means they will be destroyed forever. Damn that ending made me cry. I love Donna's grandfather, it feels like it's worse for him, because she'll never remember and he will. Damn. I don't see them ever doing a better finale. Ever.

OH. MY. GOD.

Is it Saturday yet?

Mathematical knitting

I am attempting to knit Boy's Surface for my math geek/unicorn for his birthday next Friday.

Here's what it should look like (as shown in mathematica)


I found a pattern here. It's kind of confusing, but I have a week and a half, so fingers crossed.

Pi day!

SO today at 1:59 (3/14 1:59 haha) that math department showed this HI-larious video called The Great Pi/e Debate. (I would LOVE to have Garrity as one of my prof's. He's hysterical! I love it! I do like the prof's that get all crazy and yell. Branco does that all the time especially with proofs, it's highly amusing.)

I also found this:

e vs pi!

"Ladies and Gentlemen, in the one corner we have pi. First written about by Euclid, pi is the ratio of the circumference of any circle to its diameter. Pi's been baffling people for millennia with its ability to just keep going without end. And here's the thing folks, it's the same for ALL circles! you can have a circle so small you can't even see it, and it'll be pi times as big around as it is across. And then you can draw a circle around your house, and same thing. If you had a circle that went all the way around the universe, people, its circumference would be pi times its diameter."

"And in the other corner, the scrappy young e! e was studied by the mathemetician Euler in the 1700s, e certainly doesn't have as much experience as pi, and at a measly 2.71828, certainly gives up a weight advantage to pi's 3.14159, but don't let that fool you folks...e can go on just as bafflingly long as pi, and represents the limit as n approaches infinity of (1 + 1/n)n. It is the base for the natural logarithm! The graph of f(x)=ex has a slope of exactly ex at any value of x! That's right folks, it derives its OWN tangent!"

"AND WITH THAT, e takes an early jab at pi, which reels back but quickly multiplies itself by i and raises e to...-1! Oh, e is hurting people but quickly re-derives itself from itself showing pi the versatility of truly interdimensional mathematics..., pi confined merely to the cartesian plane is quickly lost in its meager foray into Complex mathematics, and tries to re-aquire geometric footing..."

"But Pi's not done here folks, the referee can't really comprehend this higher-calculus either and quickly breaks up the hold. Pi immediately starts spinning out sine waves, proving its utility to electrical and recording engineers worldwide, but e is unimpressed. Despite lying "undiscovered" for centuries longer than pi, e demonstrates its presence throughout nature in the shell of the nautilus, the expansion of the universe, and even the architectual designs of pi's Greek contemporaries."

"Pi stumbles back, dumbfounded and weakly shields itself with a large circle, but its bag of tricks appears to be running empty, and e is just getting started, as it begins to feed itself into continuously-compounding interest equations, showing off its economic maximizing potential. But it's still not done, it's now rubbing pi's face in the base-e numerical system, with the undisputed most efficient economy of numerical width times radix, leaving no doubt as to where the "natural logarithm" got its name."

"Now I must say here, folks that stylisticaly speaking, pi looks good, but e has the undeniable presence advantage, being found on every keyboard, while pi is inherently difficult to type, not even being included in the ASCII character set. Nobody's confusing e with dessert, either, and the game may be stacked here, but ln(e1)=1, while ln(pi1) is incredibly ugly."

"Pi is definitely outclassed here. It's a textbook case of a long-time champion growing overconfident in its size and inertia and getting out maneuvered by a leaner, meaner number who just wanted it more. The winner by undisputed decision and a KNOCKOUT is...."

"eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee"

This deathmatch brought to you by by the balanced ternary number 111, and the letter theta

(source here)

Hope this doesn't spoil this for ya, but e wins twice in one day! That's my constant!

e!e!e!e!e!e!e!e!e!e!e!e!e!e!e!e!e!e!

in other news: physics final: one question about entropy of the universe, easy. to be done on Monday with some other physics students. algebra final: done with page one, gonna do a little here, a little there, meeting with someone before wednesday (when it's due.) evil deathly proofs class: must prove at least one more thing for wednesday.

NO WAY!

DSCF3860
Originally uploaded by ladyceres24

Must make now!

(hehehehe, extermiknits!)


I was just accepted onto Ravelry.com which is an awesome resource for knitters. All sorts of patterns, ways to organise your yarn stash and needles. I found a Gir pattern (from Invader Zim), a pattern for Mr. Pointy (the stake from Buffy), and Marvin (from Hitchhiker's Guide.) And I've only been poking around for about an hour! (I had to input all my needles first. Next the yarn!)

Bits and Pieces

-I think I did well on my Limits final. I hope it's not just a feeling.
-I have my multivariate calculus I final tommorrow. I haven't studied all quarter and have an A, but I've been studying since I got a B *gasp* on the last test. Talk about wake up call!
-Been spending time with an accordian playing, juggling, anti-porn, amazing math geek. I am very happy, though this throws a wrench in the whole 'spinsterhood' thing. (He's also a very dapper dresser-purple and yellow striped bow tie the other day, *squee*) Very much fun is being had. Glad I finally asked for an accordion date a few weeks ago.
-Zombiewalk Vancouver is Saturday. Meet at the Vancouver Art Gallery at 3. All zombies welcome.
-Chicago in less then a week. At least I'll have one week of *real* summer.
-At Chicago I will be attending the annual big boring meeting, aka the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) General Assembly.
-Get to see my grandmas, YAY!
-I have developed arthritis in my right pointer and middle finger. Knitting hurts, but Tylenol Arthritis came highly recommened, I hope it works b/c I'm not about to give up knitting.
-Been reading Pornified, will post my thoughts later.
-ONE MONTH OFF OF SCHOOL AFTER TOMMORROW!!!
-My old prof who I will be helping rewrite the calculus based physics labs with has asked me to take Classical Mechanics with him this fall. How could I say no?

Ohhhh, pretty

Hot Stars in the Rosette Nebula
Credit: Zoltan Balog

Fun Mathematics

Silly Walks Dissed by Mathematicians

Scientists have explained mathematically why the famous "silly walks" of Monty Python's John Cleese have never caught on in the long history of Homo sapiens.
Create your own silly walks here.

Christians take on Math

A line can be described either by its slope (a ratio) or by its inclination (an angle). These terms describe the deviation from the horizontal, but the word inclination has a nonmathematical meaning also. Without Christ, man is inclined to sin. Thus it reflects our desires and attitudes toward something. There are many things that influence our attitudes about life, but for the Christian, the Bible must be the prime influence on attitudes. Psalm 119:105 says, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” Proverbs 6:23 states, “For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life.” From these verses you can see that the Word of God should shape our attitudes (inclinations).

LOOKIE what I got!

Chocolate is the best

Well I need a new reason to indulge in chocolate. No, wait, I'm addicted to the rich dark chocolate with cacao nibs in it. A recent study has shown that chocolate is better then kissing.
Kissing also made the subjects' heart rates rise, but it did not last as long as with chocolate, which increased heart rates from a resting rate of around 60 beats per minute up to 140.

Chocolate also lowers blood pressure.
Applied to the population as a whole, researchers estimate that the blood pressure-lowering effect associated with cocoa would be expected to reduce the risk of stroke by about 20%, coronary heart disease by 10%, and death from all causes by 8%.

As if anyone needed more reasons to partake in the deliciousness of chocolate. I feel a craving coming on. I got a bar of 87% cacao.

p.s. I HATE grading. No going into academia for me.

Geometry fun. Numbers 5 and 8 are giving me problems

I'm such a geek

(for my non mathy readers: i is imaginary and pi is irrational)