Need a Reason to Celebrate?

In case you are looking for an excuse to celebrate, don't forget that "Mole Day" is coming soon!

Here's what it's all about (according to Wikipedia): Mole Day is an unofficial holiday celebrated among chemists in North America on October 23, between 6:02 AM and 6:02 PM, making the date 6:02 10/23 in the American style of writing dates. The time and date are derived from the Avogadro constant, which is approximately 6.02×10^23, defining the number of particles (atoms or molecules) in a mole, one of the seven base SI units.

May I suggest as a celebration idea some "pi ala mole?"

Do People Really Hate Math?

Well, it happened again. A "special" date popped up that caught people's attention, so I have emails in my inbox letting me know about it (which I love, by the way - keep 'em coming!).What strikes me as interesting is that so many people "hate" math, but yet so many people are intrigued by properties of numbers - or have lucky numbers - in some way have some affinity for number or pattern. I can't help but wonder if something we do in the schools, forcing some sort of performance anxiety or something, is what turns people off to math and causes them to hate it. It's been my experience that people actually like number puzzles and patterns, even if they claim to hate math. If this wasn't the case I wouldn't get so many emails about things like this with the subject line, "Check this out! Really cool!"

Today is "special" because it is (to write it one way) 9/9/9.

If you're interested in more about this day and the number 9, click on this link. Different cultures have different meanings associated with different numbers. In many countries 7 is considered a lucky number, and 13 is considered unlucky (to the point where some tall buildings have a 12th floor and a 14th floor but no 13th floor in between). In China 8 is considered particularly lucky because the word "eight" in Chinese sounds like the word for wealth. Remember last year, the Olympic Games were opened in China at 8pm on 8/8/8.

What follows is a little math paradox for you on this "special" day.

Numbers have a variety of properties assoctiated with them. There are all sorts of numbers. They can be odd, even, prime, square, triangular; there are even perfect numbers, amicable numbers, narcissistic numbers and schizophrenic numbers and many, many other types.

For example, six is a perfect number because all the whole numbers below it that divide into it also add up to it: 1+2+3=6. Six is the smallest perfect number, so it is an "interesting number" (or so some would say :-).

Here's the paradox. If we try to separate numbers into those that are "interesting" and those that are "un-interesting," we find that all numbers are interesting. If we begin at 1 and work our way up, noting the interesting properties of each number, when we came across the first one that was "un-interesting," it would be interesting BECAUSE it was the first un-interesting number - and so on. So, all numbers are interesting!

Why August 27,1883?

And the answer is . . .

(If you have no idea what this is in reference to, read "Alphabet Soup" posted July 17).

Monday, August 27, 1883 has been called the day the world exploded. It is the date that 2/3 of the Indonesian island of Krakatoa disintegrated in the most catastrophic volcanic explosion in human history. Its shock wave traveled around the world 7 times. Temperatures dropped world-wide and sunsets were strikingly different in color and aspect due to the resulting dust swirling around the earth for years afterward. Its effects were felt and seen around the world; it was also heard around the world. The explosion itself could be heard thousands of miles away; in addition to this the invention of the telegraph and the newly laid sub-oceanic cables meant that news of the event was broadcast globally within moments of its occurrence. It is the first major world event for which this is true thus making it a herald for the technological information age.

The fact that this date represents a geologic event rather than the birth date of a historic, nationalistic or religious human figure makes it a particularly fitting choice since no one need feel slighted in terms of race, nationality or creed. Just as the sun is the basis for the length of the year and the moon is the basis for the length of a month, an earth-related event would now be the basis for the assigning of dates.

So, to the sensitive PC people of the world, I humbly submit my recommendation of Monday, August 27, 1883 as the new basis for a truly politically correct calendar. Oh, and don’t forget to use Mayan numeration as suggested on my earlier post – tolerate no more the oppressive BC/AD/BCE/CE Latin alphabetic notation!

(My apologies to all the school children who will have to forget the dates 1066, 1215, 1492, 1588, and 1776, but those are all such Western/Eurocentric dates anyway.)

NB: To those of you who know me well, the fact that my birthday would become an annual holiday by falling on New Year’s Day is strictly a coincidence. The selection of this date was entirely objective – no ulterior motives were involved – nor were any animals harmed in the publication of this post.

Alphabet Soup

BC AD BCE CE PC

If I continue to post and you continue to read, I’m sure it will soon become obvious that I am not a fan of PC (“political correctness”), so I may as well just state that right now.

When I read literature in which the author alternates between “he” and “she” as the generic pronoun, I don’t get all warm and fuzzy inside thinking that my femininity has been respected; I just get annoyed. I’m a big girl, and I can take it that the male “he” is used as the gender-neutral-third-person-singular pronoun. Alternating pronouns just sounds stupid.

Another proliferating PC phenomena that I find annoying is the use of CE/BCE (“common era”/”before common era”) in place of BC/AD (“before Christ”/”Anno Domini” meaning “year of our Lord”). CE/BCE is supposed to be more sensitive because it eliminates Christ-related terms.

While this does accomplish the PC purpose as far as notation, it leaves the numeration just as centered on Christ as it ever was. The year 1 CE is the same as the year 1 AD, so has the notation change REALLY accomplished the intended purpose? (And why use the Latin letters B, C and E anyway? Isn’t that rather Eurocentric?)

For those who really want genuine change in this area, I have an idea. First, use Mayan rather than Latin letters. Mayans developed the most accurate calendar of any culture, so they rightfully deserve the honor. Second, shift the numeration so that “Year One” of the new system would have begun on Monday, August 27, 1883. An added PC bonus to this is that there could be a natural shift to considering Monday, rather than the Christian holy day Sunday, to be the first day of the week. Now we're talking REAL change!

Why August 27, 1883?

I’ll explain in a future post, but I want to give you a chance to have the satisfaction of figuring that out on your own first (no fair Googling it!).