Zigzag Philosophy

Image via Wikipedia

I don't know what to make of this site.

Mario Kart: The Movie

Butterfly Station

Image via Wikipedia

There are a lot of artistic and beautiful physics visualizations at the Butterfly Station.

The image shows a Spirograph, which I loved when I was a kid. You can simulate one at the Butterfly Station.

Kaprekar's constant: 6174

I just discovered Kaprekar's constant, 6174, named after an Indian mathematician. As noted in the Wikipedia article on the constant, "This number is notable for the following property:

1. Take any four-digit number with at least two digits different. (Leading zeros are allowed.)
2. Arrange the digits in ascending and then in descending order to get two four-digit numbers, adding leading zeros if necessary.
3. Subtract the smaller number from the bigger number.
4. Go back to step 2.

The above operation, known as Kaprekar's operation, will always reach 6174 in at most 7 steps and it stops there. Once 6174 is reached, the process will keep yielding 7641 – 1467 = 6174."

Weird.

I am pleased to discover the Wikipedia has entries on many individual integers.

The image comes from Plus Magazine, a magazine of mathematics- click the image for a more detailed article on 6174.

This game sucks

You can perhaps soon buy the t-shirt.

The Road to Wisdom

Image via Wikipedia

"The road to wisdom? -- Well, it's plain
and simple to express:
           Err
           and err
           and err again
           but less
           and less
           and less."
- Piet Hein

Ducks versus man

Agatha Christie via last.fm

I hope that I am not the only one who finds this quote delightful:

"How fleeting are all human passions compared with the massive continuity of ducks."
— Dorothy Sayers, Gaudy Night

I know Dorothy Sayers as a mystery writer. I used to read a lot of her books when I was young. Her fictional character, Lord Peter Wimsey, has his own Wikipedia page.

Literal Videos

For a playlist of Literal Videos go here, I think they are quite funny.

Mathematics from father to son

Lego movie

Image via Wikipedia

Gizmodo reports: Variety reports that Warner Brothers is developing a Lego movie that will be "a family comedy that will mix live action and animation." An "action adventure set in a Lego world."

How to live happily.

"In order to live happily I must be in agreement with the world. And that is what ‘being happy’ means. I am then, so to speak, in agreement with that alien will on which I appear dependent. That is to say: 'I am doing the will of God.'"
      Ludwig Wittgenstein
      Notebooks

"In this sense God would simply be fate, or, what is the same thing: The world- which is independent of our will."
      Ludwig Wittgenstein
      Notebooks

This would be a good epigraph for the Book of Job.

Image: Drawing of the Book of Job by William Blake (Plate 14).

Motherlode of Super Mario images

Check out this site with "45 Unusual Stylish Super Mario Brothers Artworks".

Algebraic surfaces

I like this list of mathematical formulas for describing shapes (or, in fancy terms, 'algebraic surfaces'). You can try these out with the 'Grapher' program that Apple ships with its system (or any other 3D graphing program).

WiiMote controlling an iPhone

Via:Gizmodo.com

Visual Math proofs

1 + 3 + 5 + ... + (2n − 1) = n * n

I have always loved visual math proofs like these. The one above proves that the sum of 2n - 1 for any integers ranging from 1 to n is n squared. I think it is very important to understand that problems that seem hard under one representation may seem very easy if they are represented another way: sometimes we can solve problems just by changing the way we look at them.

M of the M

Mario of the Month for August, each pixel is a pin, credit: here.