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ames- the only hardware missing was the bar code scanner which I can’t imagine was too expensive.
I used a laptop and the yeshiva already had the Scantron sheets and scanner (which could have been hooked up to my computer if I wanted). I would think that they need this more in public schools that prep schools.
ames- I actually heard this from a colleague of mine while I was a teacher and I think he was very serious. Some of the authors list the names of the students who helped review the textbooks.
As far as the software is concerned- I agree that it’s very interesting.
Pretty often when I was creating an exam I started with an answer and went backwards to a question. (For example: X = -3 and 5. Now the question would be “Solve for X: X^2 – 2X = 15.)
The software would ask for ranges for the answers, say from -10 to 10, and design the question accordingly. An advanced option would create a different exam for each student (same questions but different numbers and the correct solutions were randomly placed from A to E for each student). Each test would have a bar code that had to be scanned before the answer sheet was submitted to the Scantron. Of course I couldn’t justify asking the Yeshiva to buy the necessary hardware to combat cheating when it was nonexistent.
I can’t begin to imagine how textbooks were written before PCs. Forget about coming up with problems, just think about the formatting and mathematical notations!
ames-
Did you ever wonder why all college level math text books are written by professors?
Supposedly they make up questions and give them to their students for homework. The ones with solutions are included in the next edition and the ones without solutions are thrown out or edited by the student for extra credit.
When I was teaching high school the software I used to type up exams had an option to check most of the questions to see if there was a solution. (It could only check the computational ones not the word problems and I never used that feature so I don’t know how well it worked.)
Start with the prime factorization of 1,000,000
= 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 5 * 5 * 5 * 5 * 5 * 5.
So the two integers must consist of six 2s and six 5s between the two of them.
Any integer that contains a 2 and 5 in it’s prime factorization will end in 0. (2 * 5 = 10 and any integer multiplied by 10 ends in 0.)
=> one integer contains all six 2s and the other one contains all six 5s.
I read this riddle when I didn’t have a calculator nearby (it must have been on shabbos) and the way I calculated (2^6) and (5^6) is by breaking it into squares.
(2^6) = (2^3)^2, we all know that 2^3 = 8 and 8^2 = 64.
(5^6) = (5^3)^2 was a little trickier. 5 * 5 = 25 and 25 * 5 = 125 (5 quarters is 125 cents right?) now 125^2 is what?
Using the trick from the second half of this post http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/coffeeroom/topic/the-riddle-thread/page/8#post-16043
125 * 125 = 100 * ( 12 * 13) + 25 = 15,625.
The two integers are 64 and 15,625 and that is the only solution.
aussieboy- Is that the answer you had in mind?
There is only one integer solution to my riddle.
moish01-
There is a solution using two integers.
Using the second part of this post http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/coffeeroom/topic/the-riddle-thread/page/8#post-16043 you should be able to do it in your head.
Good luck.
ames-
Most of us do but in our own way.
Two numbers multiply to 1,000,000. Neither number contains the digit 0.
What are the two numbers?
A + C = 2C – B
How did two guys, both chavrusas, get rejected for the same reason over the same weekend by two different girls?
He had the knowledge to take care of the software programming involved and the basic design, but he needed someone with a math background to help calculate how the parallel resistors should be arranged properly as well as the fine motor skills and experience of using a soldering iron on small connections without leaking any solder. I had experience in the use of soldering irons from high school, as well as the math background and was also the proud owner of a TI-89, so when he asked me if I also wanted to be one of the coolest on campus I jumped at the opportunity.
Here’s a story that happened with me.
Shadchan calls and tries to set me up with someone whose parents insist their son-in-law must live in their neighborhood. I immediately say no.
Shadchan calls back and says her parents are willing to negotiate after the wedding. Still not interested but call a friend of mine whose wife is the girls friend to see what is going on. What the shadchan didn’t tell us (she probably didn’t know) is that the girl is an only daughter of elderly parents, who need her to take care of them.
They also felt that the lucky guy will be getting so much (their daughter as a wife and them as in-laws) that he should be willing to forgo something as trivial as living where he wants to.
While the shadchan might have felt it was a silly request, the parents had a legitimate reason for the condition and as far as they were concerned it was not something that could be negotiated.
(No, I did not go out with her.)
Here’s a streimel story with a happy ending.
Guys family insists he wear a streimel, girls family won’t hear of it. The two are already going out and like each other. So they compromise. When they are by his parents he wears a streimel. When they leave the streimel goes into the “spare tire well” as he calls it.
Both families were fine with that and they are now married. (He wore a streimel for the wedding.)
Heard this from a guy who was my roommate in yeshiva at the time. He told me this story right after the date but I think it’s greatly exaggerated.
He couldn’t borrow a car for the date (this I know is true, I was there when he made the calls) so he had to use a car service. Right from the beginning he got annoyed that she was asking what he felt were dumb questions. Eventually he gave up on the date and decided to give dumber answers.
So, um do you know how to drive?
Well, I had to stop recently until I can get my sleep apnea under control.
Yeah, so how was Purim? (The date was between Purim and Pesach.)
Good
Did you, like, get drunk?
No, alcohol is horrible for my stomach ulcers.
Aha, uh did you, ah ya know, smoke?
Nah, the doctor told me to hold off until my collapsed lung is fully healed.
How about dancing with your friends, did you do any of that?
Oh no, none of that, not until I lose some weight and my knees stop buckling.
So how is Pesach cleaning coming along?
Oy, I started but I got an asthma attack from all the dust so I had to stop. I’ll leave it for my roommate (yeah right)…
(No, they did not go out the next day, (he had to get his dentures fitted,) or the next (he had 47 ingrown toenails,) and no, they did not married.)
Jax- That’s hilarious.
Something similar happened to me. I was going out with someone from Washington Heights and I told her that my friend, who was also dating someone from the Heights, gave me ideas where to go.
Then she asked me “Is she single”?
I was totally bewildered and said “I just assumed so and didn’t even think to ask”. She then explained that in Washington Heights the frum community is split between singles and the Kehila and she was just asking which community she was from.
aussieboy-
raised to the power of
3^7 = 3 * 3 * 3 * 3 * 3 * 3 * 3 = 2,187
Solution to Rubik’s Cube Riddle.
There are 8 corner pieces each one can be in any corner => 8 * 7 * 6 * 5 * 4 * 3 * 2 * 1 possibilities.
The first 7 corner pieces can be oriented in three different directions but the last one is fixed => 3 * 3 * 3 * 3 * 3 * 3 * 3 * 1 possibilities.
There are 12 side pieces the first 10 can be anywhere but the last two are fixed => 12 * 11 * 10 * 9 * 8 * 7 * 6 * 5 * 4 * 3 * 1 * 1.
The first 11 sides can be oriented in any direction but the last one is fixed => 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 1.
The centers are all connected and direction does not matter since the faces are a solid color (recall that we are talking about a classic Rubik’s Cube with no logo on any face) => one possible way.
(8 * 7 * 6 * 5 * 4 * 3 * 2 * 1) *
(3 * 3 * 3 * 3 * 3 * 3 * 3 * 1) *
(12 * 11 * 10 * 9 * 8 * 7 * 6 * 5 * 4 * 3 * 1 * 1) *
(2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 1) *
1
=
8! * (3^7) * (12!/2) * (2^11) * 1
=
43,252,003,274,489,856,000 possible configurations, of which one is correct and
43,252,003,274,489,855,999 are incorrect.
As you can see the number is greater than 10,000,000 and the last three digits are the same.
(The number is 43 quintillion, 252 quadrillion, 3 billion, 274 million, 855 thousand, 999)
Just happened to my sister. I’m embarrassed to say which person she was so let’s just call them A and B.
So A and B are on a date. A is telling B about the recent wedding of a friend. B wants to know if A had a good time at the wedding. A admits to not dancing because “I was born with two left feet”. B is fascinated and says, “Wow, you must have a hard time buying shoes!”.
I can only try
You’re off to a good start but let me make some corrections.
The center piece is one piece and remains fixed. On a “classic Rubik’s Cube” the orientation of the center faces won’t make a difference. (Had there been any writing or a logo then the orientation would have to be taken into account since the writing (or drawing) must be face up.) Therefore the center piece can be ignored for this problem.
The other mistake is that you are not taking into account the possibility of losing a degree of freedom. If one were to disassemble a Rubik’s Cube and put the pieces together at random- chances are that the resulting cube will have no solution. When assembling the cube most pieces may be placed in randomly but there will be a few that are forced into a specific location or position- hence the loss of a degree of freedom. As a hint: there will be one piece forced into a certain location and two pieces forced in a specific orientation.
ames-
Consider this a take home test- you may use any resources you desire but your answer must contain a full explanation or you will receive no credit.
kapusta-
Not it my personal life, but if I wasn’t like this in my professional life my colleagues would have a severe advantage over me.
aussieboy-
Nice try but you’re trying to solve it from the wrong dimension.
Here are two hints:
1. The correct answer is over 10,000,000 and
2. The last three digits of the correct answer are the same.
Good Luck Everyone
There is one correct solution for a Rubik’s Cube.
How many other possible ways are there to arrange a Rubik’s Cube. (Without taking it apart or removing stickers… Also I’m referring to a classic Rubik’s Cube- a different color on each face with no logo on any of the tiles.)
*kapusta*
When I was studying civil engineering one of the textbooks would throw in some interesting facts. I don’t recall the vast majority of those facts except for a few that pertain to bridges (and tunnels) in and around New York.
(By the way- I did not graduate as an engineer.)
aussieboy
I think you may find this interesting. (From your screen name I assume you are Australian.) When construction on the Sydney Harbor Bridge began it was supposed to be the longest arch bridge in the world. The Bayonne Bridge, on which construction was started later on and finished earlier is longer by about 2 feet. The same gold scissors was used for the ribbon cutting ceremonies on both bridges. After the ribbon cutting in Australia the scissors were taken apart, half was kept in Australia and the other half was sent to the U.S.
The longest in the U.S. is the Verrazano Narrows Bridge at 4260 feet (measured by length of main span or distance between towers). The Golden Gate Bridge has a main span of 4200 feet. The Verrazano Narrows Bridge lost the title of longest suspension bridge in the world in 1981 but remains the longest suspension bridge in the U.S.
I posted a riddle some time ago as to why the towers are further apart at the top than at the base. Anyone remember that?
squeak-
Tilt the barrel until it is almost about to spill. Now look into the barrel, if you can see the bottom it is less than half full.
Correction- There is no elevator access to the top floor of the Empire State Building. The highest floor served by an elevator is the 101st floor (which is incorrectly advertised as the 102nd). The plan was for passengers arriving on dirigibles to take a gangplank from the airship to the actual 102nd floor, walk down to the 101st floor and then take an elevator to customs on the 86th floor. Being that there is no elevator service to the actual 102nd floor the management just labeled the 101st floor as the 102nd.
kapusta-
Another political fact-
Former President Gerald Ford was never voted into office. He became vice president when Spiro Agnew resigned in 1973 and he became president when former President Nixon resigned.
Two more empire state building facts-
On July 28, 1945 a B-25 Mitchell bomber crashed into the Empire State Building. One of the workers in the building at the time was a newly engaged young woman who thought she was going to perish. This young woman took off her engagement ring and tossed it out the window hoping that at least some one else will find it and use it. She survived, got married and slightly less than 4 years later had a son George. When George (Willig)was 27 he scaled the south tower of the WTC using some home made clamps.
Originally the top of the Empire State Building was supposed to be a mooring mast for blimps. The plan was for passengers to exit the airship, walk along a gangplank (1,250 feet above New York) to a landing platform on the 102nd floor. For many reasons this did not work.
Management hoped to open the 102nd floor for tourism but decided it was too unsafe and chose to open the 101st floor instead. What is now called the 102nd floor is really the 101st (they probably assumed that no one would figure it out anyway and it sounds better for one to say that they went to the top floor of the Empire State Building rather than the second to top floor).
The floor that is open to the public, albeit for an extra fee, is fully enclosed whereas the one above (reached by staircase or elevator) has an indoor and outdoor observation deck (where the passengers were supposed to disembark). The indoor observation deck has a much smaller perimeter (too small for tourism) than the floor below, and they didn’t want anyone on the outside deck so it was never opened to the public.
The first Jewish mayor of New York City was Fiorello Laguardia. (His parents were Italian but his mother was Jewish.)
This one I heard from the guy himself. He was actually shocked that she took him seriously (that he wanted to introduce her to his friends) and that she said “no” because he wasn’t “frum enough”.
This happened to a friend of mine while on a date in Baltimore. I didn’t quite understand how he did this until I followed it on a map.
This guy has a date in Baltimore so he drives down and stops by some friends in the yeshiva there to change and get ideas of places to go. One guy gives him an idea of a park at the end of I-70 and gives him directions there.
“When you get to the highway (I-695) get off on the right. Look for I-70 and stay to the left. When you reach the end of I-70 there is a park there”. Sounds pretty easy right?
The problem is that the girl was boarding by a family on the other side of the highway so when he came to the highway he was coming from the other direction. He took the entrance ramp on the right side anyway. I-695 circles the whole city so he did end up reaching I-70 but about 50 miles later instead of 5. When they reached I-70 he remembered to get off on the left side as the instructions said- the problem again being that he was coming from the wrong direction. So they are going and going down I-70 and he keeps thinking that the guy said that it should only be two minutes on I-70. She finally realizes that they are heading towards Denver and suggests that he turn around. So he turns around and they find the park.
On the way home he managed to get onto I-695 in the right direction (getting on I-70 was a no brainer since it only goes in one direction from the park) but he got off the highway heading towards the yeshiva instead of her place of residence. She pointed out that he was heading in the wrong direction. He said, “I know, I know- my friends said that if it goes good I should bring you to the yeshiva and introduce you to them”.
They did not marry each other.
Jax-
That’s hilarious. I never forced any girl to finish their vegetables. I just refused to let them order dessert until they ate them. It always worked.
The copper sheeting of the Statue of Liberty is less than one tenth of an inch thick!
kapusta-
Originally I only posted stories that happened to me. When I ran out of stories that I was willing to repeat (and that the mods would be willing to approve) I posted stories that happened to friends. If I have doubts about the veracity of any story I tried to mention that.
After the vegetarian story I thought I should post a story that all parties involved could laugh at if they read it here, so I posted the mascot story.
Here’s one similar to the vegetarian story but with a happy ending.
The girl asks the guy if he smokes. The guy’s a heavy smoker but she’s more important to him than cigarettes. He says, “I used to smoke but I quit cold turkey and haven’t smoked since”. He didn’t mention that he quit “cold turkey” 90 minutes before but he did give up smoking for good. They ended up marrying each other.
I heard this one from a friend who said it happened to his roommate. I have no reason to doubt it.
The guy and a girl decide to go to a ball game for one date. They look for a nice quiet section of the stadium so they could talk and watch the game and end up sitting on a bleacher about one foot away from each other.
During the game the home team mascot sits down between them and puts one of his arms around each one of them. To their horror they looked up and saw their picture with the mascot wrapped around them being shown on the giant screen.
(They did marry each other.)
Mrs. Beautiful-
I wouldn’t quite say, “he was going for it anyways”. This was a major hesitation that he had. As he put it, “I felt as if I was babysitting my 8 year old sister”. However the shadchan and references reassured him that she is very mature albeit on the shorter side- therefore possibly giving off the impression that she is younger than she really is.
On one of the dates they walked by a bank that was giving out Teddy Bears as a promotion for anyone who signs up for their credit card. She asked him if he could please sign up for one and get her a Teddy Bear- he could always cancel it later on. (She didn’t bring ID, lucky for him they were out of Teddy Bears and were giving out T-shirts instead but she didn’t want one.) The guy said he was thinking, “this is acceptable for my 8 year old sister, not a girl who is ready to get married!”.
The guy didn’t either remember at first, being a vegetarian was a small detail she mentioned on the phone once.
He only realized when he was trying to figure out what would have made her act like that in front of him and his family (especially if she honestly thought she was going to marry him). In general there is nothing wrong with being seen by your date and his family while eating with friends.
If anyone out there knows her would you mind letting us know her side of the story?
A little background first-
The guy is the oldest child of an out of town family but was learning in a local yeshiva and dating a local girl. He likes the girl and her family but felt that she was not mature enough to get married (she was 19 or 20 at the time but, according to him, acted a couple of years younger).
Before the next date he told the shadchan that he was going home for bain hazimanim but would try to plan something for the interim if applicable. For the date he asked her if she would like to go to a park and have a picnic. She liked the idea but mentioned that she is a vegetarian so he should please bring bagels and cream cheese.
When he arrived home his family was all excited, they knew it “was going to happen” and decided to go to New York to buy new clothing for everyone for the upcoming wedding. He chose not to tell her that he was coming in to town since he didn’t know if he’d be able to fit her into his schedule and he wasn’t about to take her out in the family van.
After a tiring day of driving around Brooklyn and shopping he decided to take his family to Kosher Delight for supper.
Guess who’s eating a hot dog there with her friends?
The guy leads his family in and they start oooing and aaahing as they never saw any Kosher restaurant that size before (did I mention that they are from out of town?). The girl notices the guy, starts to shriek and runs towards the exit. The guy was mortified but pretends he doesn’t know her and walks right by her towards the counter. He turns around to look for his family only to see that they are still standing in front of the door looking all around- still amazed at the size of the place. The poor girl was in tears by that time and could not get by his bewildered family to make her escape.
She later called the shadchan and asked her to ask the guy if she can call and apologize. She did apologize for making a scene but she did not explain the vegetarian thing.
(They are both married now but to other people.)
Is this it?
Does anyone remember if there is a thread for “Shidduch Horror Stories” or should I just post it here?
I have the original TI-89 that came out in late 1998- early 1999.
The original TI-92 which came out in the mid 90s was the first calculator that was capable of performing symbolic calculations (algebraic manipulations, symbolic differentiation/ integration, homogeneous first and second order differential equations…) as opposed to numeric approximations (like the TI-80 through TI-86). The TI-92 was not allowed to be used on many standardized exams (like the SATs) and many professors did not allow their usage in class since the QWERTY keyboard gave it more of a computer status than that of a calculator.
When the TI-89 came out TI released the TI-92 PLUS which looked like the TI-92 but had the same software as the TI-89.
TI skipped from TI-86 to TI-89 because at that time they claimed that the TI-89 would be the last calculator released in the TI-8X series since it has the capability of upgrading the software and downloading programs.
I lost touch with graphing calculators a few years ago (although I still have mine and use them from time to time). I think the version that I have has been discontinued for the TI-89 Titanium and TI added the TI-84 to the TI-8X family although I’m not sure what they do better/different than the rest of the family.
Oy, there’s so much more to write about graphing calculators.
Maybe later.
I was actually kind of relieved that it took so long- it gave me something to look forward to.
You had to be sitting through that class to understand…
(It was also probably the first and only time that I was able to solve a problem faster than my good old TI-89.)
I typed the whole long equation (all 26 monomials) into my TI-89 during one particularly boring class and it took a considerable amount of time to get the correct answer of 0. It seems as if the calculator actually multiplied out until “w”.
A little Algebra-
Expand the following-
(x-a)*(x-b)*(x-c)*…*(x-z)
ZachKessin-
Once the Julian Calendar was dropped the date for Birchas Hachama was no longer constant. (It is constant from 1900 – 2100 but will be on April 9th begining 2100 as April 8th 2121 will be a Tuesday.)
an open book-
I also forgot about it until today. When it comes out during the week we celebrate at work (pizza pies or something similar). Last year my mother-in-law made a custard pie and sent for Friday night dessert. But this year nothing.
We finally realized it after the seudah and decided to celebrate it though my wife gave strict orders to the kids not to tell any of their friends that we celebrated it.
How are you all celebrating PI day (3/14) today?
ZachKessin-
That’s correct, on the Julian Calendar the date is constant (April 5th), but the vast majority of the world switched to the Gregorian Calendar in 1582.
aussieboy-
A solar year is approximately 365.25 days, so every fourth year the fraction will add up to an extra day (which is why we have leap years). Therefore in the beginning of the fifth year the sun will be in the same location as it was in the beginning of the first year.
(Let’s assume that the beginning of the first year was exactly at sunrise, the beginning of the second year will be at midday, the beginning of the third year will be at sunset, the beginning of the fourth year will be at midnight and the beginning of the fifth year will be at sunrise…)
Since there are 7 days in a week and the LCM of 4 and 7 is 28, it will take 28 years until the sun is in the exact same place in the sky on the same day of the week at the beginning of the year.
After 2100 Birchas Hachama will no longer be on April 8th (it will still be on a Wednesday though (the first one being April 9th, 2121)) because 2100 is not a leap year as far as the Gregorian Calendar is concerned but is according to Halacha. (From 1800 to 1900 it was always on April 7th.)
Here’s an old (but good) one.
Three people of equal intelligence are standing one behind another all facing forward.
A person nearby has five hats, three red and two white. The three people close their eyes while the other person randomly puts a hat on each of them. When they open their eyes they can not see what color hat they are wearing but the person in back can see what color hat the other two are wearing and the person in the middle can see what color hat the person in front is wearing. The person in front can not see what color hat anyone is wearing. The three people are unable to see the two remaining hats.
When the person in back was asked what color hat he was wearing he looked at the two people in front of him and said, “I don’t know”. When the middle person was asked what color hat he was wearing he looked at the person in front of him and said, “I don’t know”. Finally the person in front said, “I know what color hat I’m wearing”.
What color hat was he wearing and how did he know?
aussieboy-
Thanks for your hint- I was actually looking at the prime factorization, (2*2*2*2*2*2*2*2*2*2*3*3*3*5*61843), and did not notice that it contains each of the numbers 0 – 9.
After you mentioned that each of the digits are there (and a couple of beers) it was a dead giveaway.
They are in alphabetical order.
Happy Purim to everyone!
You have a set of 20 encyclopedias standing in order on a bookshelf each one containing 100 pages (200 sides but 100 pages). A bookworm eats from the first page of the first volume to the last page of the last volume inclusive.
How many pages did the bookworm eat through?
Answer:
If they are lined up in order then the first page of the first volume is adjacent to the last page of the second volume. The last page of the last volume is adjacent to the first page of the second to last volume. (Look at a set of books on a shelf if you don’t see this.)
1 page from the first volume, one page from the last volume and 100 pages from each of the 18 volumes in between => 1 + 100*18 + 1 = 1802.
You have a set of 20 encyclopedias standing in order on a bookshelf each one containing 100 pages (200 sides but 100 pages). A bookworm eats from the first page of the first volume to the last page of the last volume inclusive.
How many pages did the bookworm eat through?
Hi MOD 39,
underground?
The answer I was looking for by the cake riddle was to find the center of the rectangle and square and have the cut go through the center of each.