Tree Diagram

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(C)Copyright 2011, C. Burke. All rights reserved.

Name withheld to protect ... well, me, actually. I don't want to be fired or, worse, given the third-year freshmen pre-algebra class.

If You're Still Interested ...

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(C)Copyright 2011, C. Burke. All rights reserved.

Anyway, the problem posed in the previous picture had an incorrect solution. Mike inadvertantly used phi instead of phi % when solving his imaginary interest inquiry.

The actual result was a loss of about 1% of 1% of your original principal, which is better than many mutual funds performed in the past year. However, you would have picked up only an imaginary nickel, rather than a few imaginary dollars.

Special thanks to "anonymous" for running the numbers. I don't have the budget for a staff of fact checkers around here. And, oddly enough, although I managed to get the correct solution out of wolframalpha after the mistake was first pointed out to me, it took about five tries to get the equation entered correctly when I wanted to write this entry. Too many divisions and parentheses!

Oh, and ....
I meant to do that.
Yeah, that's the ticket.

If You're Interested...

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(C)Copyright 2011, C. Burke. All rights reserved.

If you're interested in a problem with four funny math 'numbers'.

To some of the guys I work with, all paper currency is imaginary dollars...

Drive-Thru

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(C)Copyright 2011, C. Burke. All rights reserved.

That is, 100%, without fail, metaphysical certitude.

Tongue Twister

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(C)Copyright 2011, C. Burke. All rights reserved.

I think a bakery run by a clam would be even more annoying.

Then and Now

It occurs to me, that they aren't too different:




Supermarionation -- Super Mario Nation?
I'd like to drive Thunderbird 2 in Mario Kart. Or maybe the Mole.

Simple Harmonic Motion

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(C)Copyright 2011, C. Burke. All rights reserved.

Give them the Hooke already.

M4+h My Dad Says

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(C)Copyright 2011, C. Burke. All rights reserved.

The Brooklyn Bridge was the longest suspension bridge when it opened and about the seventh longest at the time this image takes place.

For more Math my Dad says, you can follow My Father's Footsteps.

More About My Dad

My father's eulogy is posted on my writing blog.

Below is a picture of one of the Christmas presents I just gave him.



When we were little, we joked he was as old as the dinosaurs. When he got older, we still joked he was old. This was the "funny" gift, which he liked better than the "real" gift (a nook, he liked reading and liked Barnes and Noble). Everyone loved it.

My sister thought we should have it in the funeral parlor, and it lightened people's spirits. Priests for two parishes commented on it, one at the funeral parlor, and the other at Dad's parish. There was a moment of laughter when father said, "I didn't know that about God."

It was an impulse buy that I almost didn't get because I didn't know if he'd laugh or be insulted. Now I just wish that he'd had the chance to wear it. But he has it with him.

Mathy New Year 2012

Wishing everyone a happy and mathy New Year in 2012.

For those inquiring after my last message, my father passed away suddenly a few nights ago. He had been in decline but the events of Wednesday night (early Thursday morning) were still unexpected.

The next comic will probably be one dedicated to my father as soon as I have time to put down my thoughts and convert those into pictures, which doesn't come easily for me -- at times, these comics take me a few hours. In fact, had I had my New Years comic already in mind when events started to turn, I probably would have buried myself in it for a few hours to take my mind off the other things I've had to take care of.

See you in a few days.