(x, why?) Mini: New Year's Eve 2016

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(C)Copyright 2015, C. Burke.

Be careful! He might want to Rock the New Year, even if Times Square will be covered with paper.

Working in a scissors reference is left as an exercise for the reader.




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Merry Christmas 2015

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(C)Copyright 2015, C. Burke.

Merry Christmas! Answers on New Year's!

This was an interesting exercise for me, too. Besides finding good words to use, I originally had eight words, but then realized I only needed seven of them.

After that, I realized that I could have used even fewer if I employed ratios into the mix because the puzzle doesn't actually require you to find all the individual letters.

For example, if you knew the product of CL or CLU without knowing what, say, C was, you would be fine. But I didn't want to use the word CULT in a Christmas puzzle.

If anyone wants to submit a list of fewer than 7 words which can be used to solve this puzzle, I'd like to see it.

Merry Christmas!




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The Dark Side of Math

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(C)Copyright 2015, C. Burke.

Give yourself to the Dark Side. It is the only way you can pass math class.




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Twelve More Than Two Times X

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(C)Copyright 2015, C. Burke.

The song should be longer ... but does anyone really need more of it? The trend is the ''mini lesson'' now, right?

And here are the lyrics, just so they'll be searchable:

Twelve more than two times x gives you eighteen
Doesn't take a lot of work to see
If you use some inverse operations
Then you can solve for x, and it is three.

You subtracted twelve from both sides
And the eighteen became six.
Then don't forget to do division
And you've figured out the work in a few ticks.

When you want to check your answer
(And you know you must do checks!)
You must order operations
After substituting numbers in for x!

Twelve more than two times x gives you eighteen
Doesn't take a lot of work to see
If you use some inverse operations
Then you can solve for x, and it is three.

Merry Christmath!




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(x, why?) Mini: Concavity

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(C)Copyright 2015, C. Burke.

I suddenly need a subcategory for Dental Math jokes. I've had a few now. Strange.




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Rainbow

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(C)Copyright 2015, C. Burke.

I want coffee and pie now. NOW.




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(x, why?) Mini: Parabolas

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(C)Copyright 2015, C. Burke.

Stop saying it wrong!

There's a maximum number of times I can hear it said that way, and I'd like to get to the root of the problem!




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Strange Square Roots

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(C)Copyright 2015, C. Burke.

Do NOT show my students this! They might think it's a rule and not a curiosity!

In fact, as strange as it looks, it isn't the only mixed number that has this property. And there isn't any reason to drop a jaw to the desk to figure out the pattern.

Let x be the whole number and y be the fraction (between 0 and 1, exclusive).

Then the equation says that (x)(sqrt(y)) = sqrt(x + y).
Square both sides we get (x²)(y) = x + y.
Subtract y from both sides (x²)(y) - y = x.
Factor the left side (y)(x² - 1) = x.
Finally, divide y = x/(x² - 1).

So you can pick any whole number value of x -- 2, 3, 10, whatever -- and substitute on the right side. You will get a value of y which is the fractional part of the mixed number that makes the "strange" square root work.

On a historical note: This is comic #1066. If you thought I'd do something about The Battle of Hastings ... well, it had crossed my mind, but too complicated and no way to plan in advance with the crazy schedule I'm keeping.




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Happy Thanksgiving 2015

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(C)Copyright 2015, C. Burke.

It's actually 3 1/8 pecans because cutting 1/7 of a pecan is as impossible as cutting .141592... pecans.

Actually, it's more likely that a pecan was split in half and then cut four more times to make 8 pieces, but they wouldn't exactly be actually pieces of eight.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!




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The Negative One

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(C)Copyright 2015, C. Burke.

Any time there is a group of Adventurers, they'll be sure to find The Negative One in their midst.

Good chance that I used a similar joke to this before. But I like the Picaroons. The more of them, the better!




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Big Quadratic

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(C)Copyright 2015, C. Burke.

The second verse would've had a line like ''if you look you can find me by the symmet-tree!'' in the Big Quadratic Mountain.

This is an old song that dates back to the 1800s. However, the first version I'd encountered was a sanitized version that was turned into a children's tune for one of a series of kiddie videos about 20 years ago. (The videos were a little older than that.)

The next encounter I had was finding out that Burl Ives had recorded a version of the song. But for all his friendly Rudolph cheer, his was the traditional rendition, not one aimed at the kids.




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Veterans Day 2015

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(C)Copyright 2015, C. Burke.

Thank you for your sacrifice.

I admit: I was tapped out this year. I've thanked people and made puns, and there wasn't else I could say, except "Thank You" again. I have no problems with the Thank You's, but it doesn't make for a good comic, especially when I haven't updated in a week (because of work and other concerns).

Earlier this morning, while I was sweeping a mess of leaves outside, this came to me. I realize that I've seen an Internet "joke" with something similar on a test paper, but I still put my own little twist on it. For one thing, I got to bring out the (Grand)father and (Great)Uncle characters. For another, I added a little diversity to the mix of character -- something I've been reluctant to do because I was afraid it would turn out badly.

My last regret about doing this last minute: I don't have the numbers and the diversity I would like in this pic. But any more people and they would have been blurs in the background. After 1000 comics, my skill is improving, but I have a long way to go. And I still have my day job.

Happy Veterans Day.

Here's a clickable link from the comic: Wounded Warrior Project.




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Boole

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(C)Copyright 2015, C. Burke.

I could XOR-iate myself for being a few days late. If that sort of thing were possible.




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Common Core Blues

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(C)Copyright 2015, C. Burke.

Ba Na Na Na Na!

Halloween comics are over, and with work keeping my busy, I managed -- not for the first time -- forget our anniversary, which was a week ago on October 24.

(x, why?) is EIGHT YEARS OLD, and already into it's Ninth Year. It that time, I've produced over 1,000 comics, many bad puns, many worse puns, and many song parodies. I've created characters with no names and made them into pieces of me.

And I've managed to be seen around the world (according to my stats), and I've had comics reposted by Math Councils and translated into foreign languages for universities.

It's been good. Let's keep it going.




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Math Horror Movies: Perpendicula

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(C)Copyright 2015, C. Burke.

Because Math can drive you batty!

Am I Right?




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Math Horror Movies: The Undivided by

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(C)Copyright 2015, C. Burke.

Tis not just the manor. It haunts all m'land!

Shine a ray of light on it.




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Math Horror Movies: The Mum-e

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(C)Copyright 2015, C. Burke.

His language is as foul as his bandages!




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Happy Back to the Future Day!

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(C)Copyright 2015, C. Burke.

Really, why do you need to kill his grandfather when you only have to kill the mood with some annoying, badly-timed phone calls and interruptions. Smaller chance of going to prison, and it leaves out the whole murder thing -- although whether or not knowingly preventing a known conception from occurring is akin to the murder of a future individual should be left to the philosophers.

As for the movie trilogy timeline, time travel is one of those devices which can be handled in a thousand different ways. As long as a story is internally consistent. The argument ensues from the fact that many viewers don't think Back to the Future is actually consistent. The Rules are what the Rules Need To Be at whatever point the script calls for them to be that.

Last two notes: since my early days on social media, I have been seeing Photoshops of the DeLorean's dashboard clock saying "today is the day Marty McFly landed in the future" -- and in every instance, it has been wrong. Oddly, I haven't seen it posted recently.

Secondly, as of tomorrow, Back to the Future is a time travel movie that takes place totally in the Past. This is actually a cool sub-genre of movies, watching a past time portrayed as future events extrapolated from some either further point in time. Cheesy results, sometimes, but cool.




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(x, why?) Mini: Rhombus

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(C)Copyright 2015, C. Burke.

You need to leave. So Rhom-bi-bi-bi!

My other "alt" text may become another comic next week. (evil grin)

Today is 2015-10-15, for those who are interested in such things.




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Columbus Day Special

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(C)Copyright 2015, C. Burke.

My tastes don't tend toward expensive imports or local crafts, and I won't argue about them.

Have a Happy Columbus Day, enjoy a parade (and the day off, if you're one of the lucky ones).




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Domain and Range

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(C)Copyright 2015, C. Burke.

''Home! Home on the Domain! Where the castle and the towers all lay . . .'' Maybe not.




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(x, why?) Mini: Covalent

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(C)Copyright 2015, C. Burke.

"'ey! You! What's with the finger?"

The "dihydrogen monoxide" was supposed to be the alt text, but I figured I'd add it for that little extra.
It was almost just "dihydrogen oxide" because I wasn't sure what would fit in the word ballon.

I also could've jettisoned that pun altogether and went for Gold Oxide, Au₂O₃, which would've added Au to the mix, but then I would have had to have started with ozone, O₃, instead.

Well, I guess I could've done that, but O₂ is more common.




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(x, why?) Mini: It Takes Two

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(C)Copyright 2015, C. Burke.

Cue the music. Ready. GO!

Or 2*sin(90^o), but that's less interesting.

I believe I made a "Tan G" joke many years ago.




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Eclipse

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(C)Copyright 2015, C. Burke.

So guess what I was doing on Sunday night!

Yes, I have an old telescope, which rarely gets used, and I was set up trying to align it with the Moon and NOT move it when I tried to put the tablet camera up against the lens. And, of course, I had to wait for the large clouds to move out of the way, by which point, I had to reposition the telescope.

Actually, I had to physically move it. Between trees and neighboring buildings, I had to shift it in the driveway. By the time the Moon was red, I would have had to have put the telescope in one specific spot at the other side of the house. However, by that point, I'd already put it back in the basement, so no Blood Moon pics. Seriously, I had enough just getting what you saw, and I got those by accident. By mistake, I took video. Those are three still images from the video I shot.




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Ken Do #10: Papal Visit

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(C)Copyright 2015, C. Burke.

I'm not planning on going to Hell ... but I am planning on going to Central Park to see the Papal Procession, and the crowds and detours might start to resemble that handbasket.




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