Orange Dilemma?
Grover, Melody and I were about to finish off lunch with two oranges and I had been given the task of cutting them up. First, I cut both oranges in half and quickly realised that four pieces wasn't going to divide evenly for three people. I then cut each of those pieces in half again to make eight. Once more I saw it wouldn't divide evenly. This got me thinking, just how long will I have to go on cutting these pieces in half until I get a number that's divisible by 3 or will I forever be cutting in vain?
Mathematical Art
I've been spending a bit of time lately playing around with simple shapes and seeing what can be made. Painfully and inaccurately positioned and rotated in Open Office. Here are a few attempts
So it started with Six sides then five, four, three...
It then expanded to eight.
Then out came this beast
Then some wallpaper
Then some lines through it in case you missed the wavy pattern
Ok, so this one wasn't mine. It's Islamic Art and I love it.Mathematical Scams
Finally I've also been thinking of some scams you could pull using a combination of Math, logic and assumptions people make. The first one is average, the second is a ripper.
1) Marking products like butter as cholesterol free and gaining a select share of the market. Clearly butter is not cholesterol free but...Does wording it as such mean the product is free of cholesterol or that the cholesterol comes at no extra cost?
2) A 90% OF Sale...
Everyone assumes I have forgotten the other F in the word “off”. I haven't.
This would trick so many Mathematically incompetent people. A 90% OF Sale is where everything in store is 90% OF, its original price! Which means it is really only a 10% off sale...but who could resist what they assume to be a 90% off sale. I know I couldn't.
I think I might do this one day for a laugh or try to sell the idea to a big company...although deceiving customers and questioning their intelligence is probably not the best business move!
A real update is brewing somewhere,
I hope to get around to it soon.
Andrew
Where are you finding time in your world adventures to do these things? they do look cool though. The orange dilemma is a good mathematical question, however I think you will forever be cutting in vain. The number of pieces will always be square numbers with a base of 2... and none of these will ever be divisable by 3.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Megan on the orange issue. I think 90% OF is a big stretch, maybe 60% OF might be enough to trick people, although even most can tell if it is more or less than half the original price. Might lose some goodwill marketing like that. :-)
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