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March 29^th, 2015

How long is a year on Neptune?

Well a year on Neptune takes 1 Neptunian year, duh.  But that year on Neptune is a little less than 165 years on Earth.  A Neptunian day lasts a little longer than 16 hours on earth.  It all works out that there are 60,190 Neptunian days in a Neptunian year.

If you were born on Neptune, you would probably no live long enough to celebrate your first birthday.

If you studied Mathematic on Neptune the “Neptunian Birthday Problem” (How many Neptunians have to be in a room before you have over a 50% chance that at least two of them have the same birthday?) would be considered advanced math.

If you lived on Neptune you might not ever have a chance to celebrate Pi Day (remember it only comes once year), and you certainly would not have a chance to celebrate it twice in your life time.

What about the Moon?  The Moon’s year is as long as an Earth year since we orbit the Sun together.  The Moon’s day last about 28 Earth days.  So the Moon experiences about 13 days a year.  Pi Day on Earth is the 73^rd day of the year (74^th day of the year in a leap year).  If your year is only 13 day, you will never make it to the 74 year.  Moonies simply don’t have time to celebrate Pi Day.  But if they did it would last for 28 Earth days – what a party!

What other observations can you make about mathematics and life in general on Neptune or the Moon.

David

Some Answers to Questions I Asks on March 21st

March 28^th, 2015

Pi Day was on March 14^th, and I waited a week to see if anyone would pick up on the REAL PI DAY NEWS.  Some did pick up on some of it, but not all of it.  So my post on March 21^st explained some of it 3-digit Pi Day, 10-Digit Pi Day, and even 12- Digit Pi Days) and I left you with some questions to ponder.  Now, one week later, I’m back to answer some of those question.

3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693…

Can you have Pi Day where date and time express more than 12-digits?

Yes!  March 14^th, 159265 AD at 3:58 and 9 seconds.  It will be a 13-digit Pi Day.  It’s just a little less than 157,250 years away.  Save the date.  Mark it on your calendar.

How often do they celebrate Pi Day on Mercury? 

It takes Mercury about 88 Earth days to orbit the Sun, but their day is over 58 Earth days long – so the year is over before the end of the second day of the year.  So each year they have New Year’s Day and New Year’s Eve.  There is no room for Pi Day.  Those poor Mercurites, they don’t even know what they are missing.  But I’m wondering “How may Mercurites do you have to have in a room together for the chances are better than 50% that at least two of them will have the same birthday?  (Hint: If you have 3 in the same room the chances are 100% that at least two will share the same birthday.)

What do the Fibonacci sequence and Pi have in common?

They are both dandy reasons to have another mathematical holiday – party on!  Fibonacci day is celebrated on November 23 (11/23 or 1, 1, 2, 3).

David

A Miraculous True Tale

March 23rd, 2015

I was looking back over my life.

I have spent 58 years training doctors (well a doctor anyways).

I spent 20 years in the Navy make sure we could all read bumper stickers and T-shirts in English, and not in Russian, Chinese, or Arabic.  I spent 8 years teaching math in high school, and 5 years in college.

And the miracle is that I'm only 29-ish.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

A Little About Base 36.

Computers use base 2 (or binary), kindergarten children learn base 10, computer programers us base 16 for a lot of their work.  But to use base 16 when you only know 10 digits (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9)?  Well, you use 6 letter as digits.  In base 16 the use the letters A, B, C, D, E and F to stand for the numbers 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15.

Using all 10 digits, and 26 letters it is possible to write numbers in base 36.  Some numbers when written in base 36 do not contain any of our base 10 numerals, and contain only letters.

Some interesting examples:

22,925 is HOT36 when written in base 36.  (MBIOM)

30,701 is written 30701₁₀ when written in decimal, but when written in base 36 it is NOT₃₆.  (MBIOM)

36,661 is SAD₃₆ when written in base 36.  (MBIOM)

42,005 becomes WET₃₆ when written in base 36.  (MBIOM)

17,854 is DRY₃₆ when written in base 36.  (MBIOM)

115,917 is COLD₃₆ when written in base 36.  (MBIOM)

693,887 is an odd number in decimal (or base 10) but it is EVEN₃₆ when written in base 36.  (MBIOM)

599,810 is CUTE₃₆ when written in base 36.  (MBIOM)

541,526 is BLUE₃₆ when written in base 36.  (MBIOM)

694,029 is EVIL₃₆ when written in base 36.  (MBIOM)

1,325,734 is SEXY₃₆ when written in base 36.  (MBIOM)

1,652,100 is ZERO₃₆ when written in base 36.  (MBIOM)

19,468,964 and 778,369 are Black₃₆ and Gold₃₆ when written in base 36.  Vanderbilt fans will appreciate this.  (MBIOM)

43,274,246 is not a prime number when written in base 10, but it is PRIME₃₆ when written in base 36.  (MBIOM)

29,053,366 is HAPPY₃₆ when written in base 36.  (MBIOM)

46,509,097 is ROUND₃₆ when written in base 36.  (MBIOM)

28,152,239 is GREEN₃₆ when written in base 36.  (MBIOM)

36,687,922 is LUCKY₃₆ when written in base 36.  (MBIOM)

696,448,078 is BINARY₃₆ when written in base 36.  (MBIOM)

696,128,787 is BIGGER₃₆ when written in base 36.  (MBIOM)

953,025,713 is FRENCH₃₆ when written in base 36.  (MBIOM)

1,473,895,252 is ODIOUS₃₆ when written in base 36.  (MBIOM)

1,497,034,814 is ORANGE₃₆ when written in base 36.  (MBIOM)

2,080,372,496 is YELLOW₃₆ when written in base 36.  (MBIOM)

1,905,832,037 is VIOLET₃₆ when written in base 36.  (MBIOM)

1,127,652,792 is INDIGO₃₆ when written in base 36.  (MBIOM)

1,738,136,570 is SQUARE₃₆ when written in base 36.  (MBIOM)

1,311,194,835 becomes LONGER₃₆ when written in base 36.  (MBIOM)

62,019,439,011 becomes SHORTER₃₆ when written in base 36.  (MBIOM)

27,610,721,961 becomes COMPLEX₃₆ when written in base 36.  (MBIOM)

51,566,708,140 is NOTHING₃₆ when written in base 36.  (MBIOM)

62,297,964,963 is SMALLER₃₆ when written in base 36.  (MBIOM)

22,524,926,594 is ACIRCLE₃₆ when written in base 36.  (MBIOM)

29,165,720,925 is 29,165,720,925₁₀ when written in decimal, but it is DECIMAL₃₆ when written in base 36.  (MBIOM)

27,619,204,205 is CORRECT₃₆ when written in base 36.  (MBIOM)

60,635,467,679 is RUSSIAN₃₆ when written in base 36.  (MBIOM)

66,730,880,050 is UNLUCKY₃₆ when written in base 36.  (MBIOM_

832,423,584,191 is AMERICAN₃₆ when written in base 36.  (MBIOM)

963,545,940,959 is CANADIAN₃₆ when written in base 36.  (MBIOM)

 

Happy Belated Pi Day -

March 21, 2015

Happy Belated Pi Day – Here’s the Rest of the Story.

The new service did jump on the story of Pi Day again.  And I have to give them credit for pointing out that it was a special pi day – I call it 10-digit Pi Day.

Most Pi Days 3-digit Pi Days.  You know 3.14 which corresponds to the date 3/14 for March 14^th.  But this year was special.

3.141592653…the first 10 digits of Pi.

3/14/15 corresponds to March 14^th, 2015.  Then just add the time: 9:26 and 53 seconds.

But there is no mention of 12-Digit Pi Day which occurred on March 14^th, 1592 at 6:53 and 59 seconds.  And just like that you have 12-Digit Pi Day.

Can you have a 13-Digit Pi Day?

Have there been other occurrences of 12-Digit Pi Day?  Will there ever be another 12-digit Pi Day?  Is 12-digits the best we can expect?

Why get worked up about it – who cares?  I do.  I got married on a 3-digit Pi Day (she did not know it so it was kind of easy to trick her).  Some of you are thinking that I did it so I would not forget my anniversary every year.  But really I did it so I would not forget Pi Day!

How do they celebrate Pi Day on the planet Mercury?

How is July 22^nd related to Pi Day?

How are the Fibonacci sequence and Stonehenge related to Pi Day?

How are 13 and Netflix related?