We have over 200 unique puzzles and post three new puzzles as well as stories, tips and resources every Friday.
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Life is a Puzzle. Let's solve it with numbers. See how the men in this joke did... Bob, a 70-year-old, extremely wealthy widower, shows up at the Country Club with a breathtakingly beautiful 25-year-old woman. His buddies at the club are all aghast. At the very first chance, they corner him and ask, 'Bob, how'd you get the trophy girlfriend?' Bob replies, 'Girlfriend? She's my wife!' They are knocked over, but continue to ask. 'So, how'd you persuade her to marry you?' 'I lied about my age', Bob replies. 'What, did you tell her you were only 50?' Bob smiles and says, 'No, I told her I was 90.' |
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My dental hygienist recently told me her math story. She is a lefty. In dental school she had a very hard time mentally reversing the pose and instrument holding angles when simulating her teachers demonstrations. Frequently, both, she and her teacher, stayed after hours to figure out the left-handed positions for every procedure.
Apparently, about 10-13% of the population is left-handed. Lefties frequently note that using many everyday and professional objects is much less intuitive and convenient for them. Scissors, can openers, the city telephone booths, and door handles, as well as surgical instruments - are all designed for right-handed people. Websites (such as www.lefthandersday.com) sell specially designed tools for left-handed people. They also advocate celebrating a Left-Handers' Day once a year in August. Interestingly, while left-handed people have many disadvantages in day-to-day life, they have significant advantages in some sports. Up to 50% of professional fencers, 32% of table tennis players and 23% of badminton players are lefties. Having lost to many lefties in fencing myself, I believe this is due to the unpredictability of their movements and the hard time our brains have reversing expected motions. Similar to my hygienist's difficulties of reversing pose and instrument angle. |
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A friend shared with me the sad news of a second miscarriage in a row, asking for a little mathematical consolation.
Medical statistics (www.americanpregnancy.org) reports that women under 35 years old have a 15% chance of miscarriage. Women 35-45 years of age have a 20-35% chance of miscarriage. And women over the age of 45 can have up to a 50% chance of miscarriage. A woman who had a previous miscarriage has only a slightly elevated risk of having another one - around 5%. So, if you are around 36, as my friend is, and you have a number of friends who are trying to conceive, it is very likely that one out of every 4 may have at least one miscarriage on the road to pregnancy (25%). One out of 13 would probably go through two miscarriages in a row (25/100 x 30 /300 = 0.075 or 7.5% of a second miscarriage). As many of us have learned, once you start telling your story, you will hear many similar ones. In a number of years, watching your kids play together, you will remember past miscarriages only vaguely and think that without them you would not have the wonderful kids you have now. |
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I wrote before about the interesting use of math for an over-the-phone DUI test. My friend, Motti, told me about a similar math application from Google Labs. Have you ever sent angry email replies and then regretted being too rash and hot headed? Have you ever mixed up your work colleague's and your ex-boyfriend's email addresses while emailing half-awake late at night? Mail Goggles application from GoogleLabs may save you from future embarrassments by forcing you to do some math before allowing your email to be sent. If you make a mistake - you are not alert enough, and cannot be trusted with email writing. Don't worry, you can adjust the complexity level.
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| Do you know that math can help minimize your daily commute? If you are considering a relocation or contemplating a new job offer - use this cool web tool to minimize your entire, combined household's commute: www.OptimalHomeLocation.com |
| A man named Shimon, that I met at the soccer practice, told me he celebrated his son's √2 birthday. Way too geeky and way too early for a child to understand, thought I. But on the other hand, I am sure this made the kid really excited about math. And who wouldn't? If it can bring you an extra celebration, perhaps cake and presents. Too bad my √1000 birthday passed unnoticed. |
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Someone offered this story in a comment for Shopping Math: I could never explain this to my wife that an additional 30% off on 50% off is not 80%. One day there was a sign at the store that 80% off and then an additional 30%, so I asked my wife, lets us get the whole section because it is 110% off so we get the product for free and then the store is is going to give us 10% in cash..... She can't be fooled anymore :-) |
