Shakuntala Devi, who passed away in April of 2013, was not only known for her "human calculator" skill, but was also a master in many different fields of which included astrology and literature. Shakuntala Devi's father noticed her skill at the ripe age of three, which is remarkable not only considering she was so young, but also because such a skill of calculating large numbers in your head would be difficult for someone with a PhD! Devi holds a record in the 1982 Guinness Book of World Records, along with numerous other achievements.
It is interesting to think about how one is able to compute difficult equations such as "7,686,369,774,870 x 2,465,099,745,779" and not only come up with the correct answer, but also do it in 28 seconds. How is she able to keep track of all the digits in her head and not get mixed up by the slightest mistake? It is truly remarkable.
Some other famous human calculators include Scott Falnsburg, Alexis Lemaire, Willem Klein, Mike Byster, and Devi's fellow Indian, and probably the other most famous, Srinivasa Ramanujan. Some of these human calculators spent their entire lives training to become this skilled, and others, such as Devi, were born with this remarkable feat.
Below, I have attached a link to a video of Shakuntala Devi.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0fXPzcbmPk
Sources:
http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/2013/1104/Shakuntala-Devi-and-other-human-calculators
http://www.indiatimes.com/technology/internet/google-doodles-the-human-calculator-shakuntala-devi-110118.html
Saturday, November 9, 2013
Sunday, October 13, 2013
"The Big Willie"
GA2:
To me, it is interesting to be able to identify math in our everyday lives. Whether it is simply the shapes you look at all around you or something more complex than that, math is everywhere. Like I stated in my previous blog, math is frequently seen in sports, but is also often seen in architecture, nature, and limitless other places. In this blog, I am going to focus on how it can specifically and blatantly be seen in present day architecture.
Chicago is undoubtedly one of my favorite places in the world. Every time we go visit my grandma in Wheaton, a suburb of Chicago, and drive into downtown, the magnificent Willis tower is the first to greet you. Standing at 1,482.6 feet with 110 floors, the Willis, formerly Sears tower, is clearly composed of 9 separate "tubes," as they are called in architecture. The 9 tubes are bundled together to form a 3 by 3 cube, with the towers standing at four different heights. Building the Willis Tower took extreme precision, accuracy, and mathematical skills.
SOME COOL FACTS ABOUT THE WILLIS TOWER:
-The Willis tower has about 4.56 million gross square feet( approx. 101 football fields)
-The building cost about $170 million dollars to build in the 70's, but would now cost upwards of $790 million
-The entire structure(made of steel) weighs over 222,500 tons
-You can see four different states from the top of the Willis Tower(Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Michigan)
-104 elevators moving 1200 feet per minute.
To me, it is interesting to be able to identify math in our everyday lives. Whether it is simply the shapes you look at all around you or something more complex than that, math is everywhere. Like I stated in my previous blog, math is frequently seen in sports, but is also often seen in architecture, nature, and limitless other places. In this blog, I am going to focus on how it can specifically and blatantly be seen in present day architecture.
Chicago is undoubtedly one of my favorite places in the world. Every time we go visit my grandma in Wheaton, a suburb of Chicago, and drive into downtown, the magnificent Willis tower is the first to greet you. Standing at 1,482.6 feet with 110 floors, the Willis, formerly Sears tower, is clearly composed of 9 separate "tubes," as they are called in architecture. The 9 tubes are bundled together to form a 3 by 3 cube, with the towers standing at four different heights. Building the Willis Tower took extreme precision, accuracy, and mathematical skills.
SOME COOL FACTS ABOUT THE WILLIS TOWER:
-The Willis tower has about 4.56 million gross square feet( approx. 101 football fields)
-The building cost about $170 million dollars to build in the 70's, but would now cost upwards of $790 million
-The entire structure(made of steel) weighs over 222,500 tons
-You can see four different states from the top of the Willis Tower(Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Michigan)
-104 elevators moving 1200 feet per minute.
Saturday, September 14, 2013
Math in Secret
For six years of my life, I did gymnastics. I would go almost everyday after school and spend my entire evening at the gym. Gymnastics revolves around shapes, angles, and lines. On every event, whether it was vault, floor, beam, or bars, your body was always supposed to be in a certain shape at a certain angle. For me vault was my best event. Why? It was because after years of perfecting my front hand-spring vault, I knew the secret. It started out with a good run, hurdling, and hitting the spring board with your knees should be in-between a 90 and 145 degree angle, for the maximum spring off the board. Next, you should hit the vault at 45 degree angle to the table, so you will pop off the table and reach your maximum height. Throughout the entire vault, your body should remain in a straight line. If you do all of this correctly, you should have an excellent vault.
Today, in diving, I use angles and shapes in the same way. Dives are done in four different positions. Tucked, meaning your knees are bent and as close as possible to your chest, piked, meaning your body is folded in half, like a 90 degree angle, but your face should be against your knees. Next, there is the straight position, meaning your body remains in a 180 degree line throughout the dive, and free, which is only used if you are doing a dive with a twist in it. Angles are everywhere. From when you hit the end of the board, to when you are in the air, and lastly when you enter the water. Diving combines power with grace, which can be seen in this video on how angles are relevant to diving: diving.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZGSHAmTspM
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Slope
GA2:
Slope, grade, percents, degree of tilt, they are all the same thing. If they are all the same thing than why is it that a 9% grade on a road is quite steep; whereas, as 9% on a test is failing? Slope can simply be found by finding the rise over run of a line. Secondly, the slope of the road, or anything for that matter, can be related to the sine function rather than tangent or cosine functions. The sine function is used to find the grade of the road, because it is still possible to find the slope, even when the horizontal distance id unknown. Take a regular right triangle for example. If you don't know what the base, or horizontal distance is, but you know what the angle of elevation is, you can use the sine function and divide the length of the opposite side (rise) over the length of the hypotenuse(run). This makes sense, because the formula for the sine function is sin= opposite/ adjacent, and the slope of a line is equal to rise/ run.
In everyday life, most people probably wouldn't know how to find the slope of a hill, or what it is for that matter. So how does this apply to everyday life? For people driving along a road, and see a sign that has the percent grade on it, in our case 9 %, they will know for that every 100 feet they travel, they will be 9 feet higher than they were at the last point. 9/100 is the same universally, no matter what the case is, but 9 % can vary drastically depending on the circumstance, but makes complete sense if you understand the logic behind it.
Slope, grade, percents, degree of tilt, they are all the same thing. If they are all the same thing than why is it that a 9% grade on a road is quite steep; whereas, as 9% on a test is failing? Slope can simply be found by finding the rise over run of a line. Secondly, the slope of the road, or anything for that matter, can be related to the sine function rather than tangent or cosine functions. The sine function is used to find the grade of the road, because it is still possible to find the slope, even when the horizontal distance id unknown. Take a regular right triangle for example. If you don't know what the base, or horizontal distance is, but you know what the angle of elevation is, you can use the sine function and divide the length of the opposite side (rise) over the length of the hypotenuse(run). This makes sense, because the formula for the sine function is sin= opposite/ adjacent, and the slope of a line is equal to rise/ run.
In everyday life, most people probably wouldn't know how to find the slope of a hill, or what it is for that matter. So how does this apply to everyday life? For people driving along a road, and see a sign that has the percent grade on it, in our case 9 %, they will know for that every 100 feet they travel, they will be 9 feet higher than they were at the last point. 9/100 is the same universally, no matter what the case is, but 9 % can vary drastically depending on the circumstance, but makes complete sense if you understand the logic behind it.
Sunday, August 25, 2013
Try
"Oh you must be really smart then." This is the response I usually get when someone asks me where I go to school.These people think I am some genius, when really I am not that different from them, aside from the fact that I actually try. I am not one of those people who can get away with never taking notes, not paying attention in class, and still get just as good of grades as me. I have to do everything the teacher asks, and sometimes even go to my teacher when I don't understand something. I am not naturally gifted at math, but I do well in math class because I TRY!
It seems that ever since I was little, I have been surrounded by this idea that math is some foreign language. Math is popularized as being something that normal people shouldn't be good at. It always seems as if there is something about math that is hidden, that we cant see. When we type an equation into a calculator, and it spits out the answer for us, the majority of the time we have no idea how it happened. It seems like some magic trick that can read our minds. We rarely have to think for ourselves anymore. Between calculators, smart phones, and computers, we can search for anything we don't know the answer to and find it within a matter of seconds. Math is presented to us by the media as something that goes on behind the scenes, yet can be found in every aspect of our lives. Whether it is the simplest forms of math such as seeing that everything has a shape, or the most complex forms of math such as the technology behind the newest iPhone.
It seems to me that U.S. citizens aren't good at math, because we choose not to be. We choose to think that math is hard, and something that we are incapable of, when quite frankly if we were raised in a society that didn't present math as being impossible, maybe we would think that it was something more commonly achievable. The United States and the media need to stop complaining about how we are so bad at math compared to other countries, and instead maybe present math, and even school in general, as something that can be achieved if we set our minds to it.
It seems that ever since I was little, I have been surrounded by this idea that math is some foreign language. Math is popularized as being something that normal people shouldn't be good at. It always seems as if there is something about math that is hidden, that we cant see. When we type an equation into a calculator, and it spits out the answer for us, the majority of the time we have no idea how it happened. It seems like some magic trick that can read our minds. We rarely have to think for ourselves anymore. Between calculators, smart phones, and computers, we can search for anything we don't know the answer to and find it within a matter of seconds. Math is presented to us by the media as something that goes on behind the scenes, yet can be found in every aspect of our lives. Whether it is the simplest forms of math such as seeing that everything has a shape, or the most complex forms of math such as the technology behind the newest iPhone.
It seems to me that U.S. citizens aren't good at math, because we choose not to be. We choose to think that math is hard, and something that we are incapable of, when quite frankly if we were raised in a society that didn't present math as being impossible, maybe we would think that it was something more commonly achievable. The United States and the media need to stop complaining about how we are so bad at math compared to other countries, and instead maybe present math, and even school in general, as something that can be achieved if we set our minds to it.
Saturday, August 17, 2013
Math and Peaches?
GA2:
In response to: http://jammnpeaches.blogspot.com
Math can be found in every hidden corner of everyday life. Even the most random things like an old experience with peaches.
Ms.Mariner's experience with not liking peaches can be paralleled to the way many students see math class. Its common knowledge that students like to get a feel for what they will be learning in math class and how their teachers will be. Most of us quite frankly get our mind set on the fact that we are going to hate math, it is going to be hard, and we will just not understand it, similar to the way Ms.Mariner knew she would not like these peaches, and most certainly knew that if she tried to trim those rose bushes, they would subsequently die.
Although the majority of students really don't like math, there remains an inside curiosity about how all of the math works, at least this is true for me. Curiosity can lead to great things, whether it be a student learning a new method of math or Ms.Mariner discovering for herself that cutting the rose bushes the way Barbara had recommended really can make a difference.
This is what leads me to believe that everything deserves to be given a chance, even math class. You never know, you may find your niche, just like Ms.Mariner and her jamm'n peaches.
This is why I like to approach math with an open mind. Although it is certainly not my calling, I do not hate it. I find it very rewarding to figure out a difficult math problem. Its easy to become frustrated with math for me, so I frequently find myself learning better through the powerpoint presentations we do in class. I am more of a visual learner, so for me seeing someone do something first, and then practicing myself is the most beneficial way of learning.
In response to: http://jammnpeaches.blogspot.com
Math can be found in every hidden corner of everyday life. Even the most random things like an old experience with peaches.
Ms.Mariner's experience with not liking peaches can be paralleled to the way many students see math class. Its common knowledge that students like to get a feel for what they will be learning in math class and how their teachers will be. Most of us quite frankly get our mind set on the fact that we are going to hate math, it is going to be hard, and we will just not understand it, similar to the way Ms.Mariner knew she would not like these peaches, and most certainly knew that if she tried to trim those rose bushes, they would subsequently die.
Although the majority of students really don't like math, there remains an inside curiosity about how all of the math works, at least this is true for me. Curiosity can lead to great things, whether it be a student learning a new method of math or Ms.Mariner discovering for herself that cutting the rose bushes the way Barbara had recommended really can make a difference.
This is what leads me to believe that everything deserves to be given a chance, even math class. You never know, you may find your niche, just like Ms.Mariner and her jamm'n peaches.
This is why I like to approach math with an open mind. Although it is certainly not my calling, I do not hate it. I find it very rewarding to figure out a difficult math problem. Its easy to become frustrated with math for me, so I frequently find myself learning better through the powerpoint presentations we do in class. I am more of a visual learner, so for me seeing someone do something first, and then practicing myself is the most beneficial way of learning.
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