11 JUL 2014 by ideonexus
How to Talk Math With Kids
Some simple ways to work numbers into the conversation:
Note numbers on signs when you’re walking or driving with children: speed limits and exit numbers, building addresses, sale prices in store windows.
Ask children to count how many toys they’re playing with, how many books they’ve pulled out to read, or how many pieces of food are on their plate.
Use numbers when you refer to time, dates, and temperatures: how many hours and minutes until bedtime, how many weeks and days until a hol... 1 
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notesWork it into the day-to-day conversation.
11 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
We Must Become Comfortable with Large Numbers
Borel makes the amusing supposition of a million monkeys allowed to play upon the keys of a million typewriters. What is the chance that this wanton activity should reproduce exactly all of the volumes which are contained in the library of the British Museum? It certainly is not a large chance, but it may be roughly calculated, and proves in fact to be considerably larger than the chance that a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen will separate into the two pure constituents. After we have learned ...
1 In order to understand why a million monkey on a million typewriters might produce a great work of art.
08 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
The Formation of Grains of Sand
On the basis of the results recorded in this review, it can be claimed that the average sand grain has taken many hundreds of millions of years to lose 10 per cent. of its weight by abrasion and become subangular. It is a platitude to point to the slowness of geological processes. But much depends on the way things are put. For it can also be said that a sand grain travelling on the bottom of a river loses 10 million molecules each time it rolls over on its side and that representation impres...
1 Miraculous in numbers.
26 APR 2012 by ideonexus
Number of Neuron Connection in the Brain
Each nerve cell receives connections from other nerve cells at six sites called synapses. But here is an astonishing fact—there are about one million billion connections in the cortical sheet. If you were to count them, one connection (or synapse) per second, you would finish counting some thirty-two million years after you began. Another way of getting a feeling for the numbers of connections in this extraordinary structure is to consider that a large match-head's worth of your brain conta... 1 notes
notesThe different possible number of connections outnumbers the particles in the Universe (this is questionable).
12 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
2,305,843,008,139,952,128 is the Greatest Perfect Number ...
230(231-1) ... is the greatest perfect number known at present, and probably the greatest that ever will be discovered; for; as they are merely curious without being useful, it is not likely that any person will attempt to find a number beyond it. 1 notes
notes231-1 = 2147483647 is a prime number, and a number on which this number relies. The prime number is the largest value for a 32-bit signed integer. Barlow believed no prime greater than this would be discovered as there was no point.
28 AUG 2011 by ideonexus
Looking to Phyllotaxis for Insights for Solar Cell Arrang...
My investigation asked the question of whether there is a secret formula in tree design and whether the purpose of the spiral pattern is to collect sunlight better. After doing research, I put together test tools, experiments and design models to investigate how trees collect sunlight. At the end of my research project, I put the pieces of this natural puzzle together, and I discovered the answer. But the best part was that I discovered a new way to increase the efficiency of solar panels at ... 1 notes
notesDescription of an investigation into the arrangement of leaves on trees as they relate to the Fibonacci sequence. Includes a great, brief explanation of Phi and phyllotaxis.
