Swift Solutions

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(C)Copyright 2023, C. Burke. "AnthroNumerics" is a trademark of Christopher J. Burke and (x, why?).

I hope the puns don't cause Bad Blood.

This was a calendar puzzle. The question appeared on April 1, and the answer was posted on April 2. In a saner world, I would've had a chance to post this sooner than April 4 instead of a Blank Space. Would've, Could've, Should've. Don't blame me. I know All Too Well.

This is me trying.

Okay, I'm done now.

I also write Fiction! You can now order Devilish And Divine, edited by John L. French and Danielle Ackley-McPhail, which contains (among many, many others) three stories by me, Christopher J. Burke about those above us and from down below. Order the softcover or ebook at Amazon. Also, check out In A Flash 2020, by Christopher J. Burke for 20 great flash fiction stories, perfectly sized for your train rides. Available in softcover or ebook at Amazon. If you enjoy it, please consider leaving a rating or review on Amazon or on Good Reads.

Come back often for more funny math and geeky comics.

Never Ever Divide By Zero

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(C)Copyright 2016, C. Burke.

Apologies to Tay-Tay, which makes her Tay Squared.

You don't want to argue with her, you might be in her next song. (Or maybe that's why your should?)




Come back often for more funny math and geeky comics.

(x, why?) Mini: Tessellate

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(C)Copyright 2015, C. Burke.

Need a character name here. Tessel Six? Taylor Six-sided? I'll think about it.

Am I doing too much of the same stuff? Whatever, sue me. Unless you're part of the music industry -- then don't sue me -- I don't have any money.

Two Taylor Swifts and a Sliding Yardstick

I've come to realize that as of this month of December, I am currently exactly 2 Taylor Swifts in age. That's really not so bad when I think about it because when You Belong With Me hit the charts (in 2009), I was 2.25 Taylorswifts. So i guess it's getting better. I could continue, figure out when I'll be only 1.5 Taylorswifts, but it would start to sound like an old Abbott & Costello routine. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)

I had the thought recently about sliding yardsticks (or sliding metrics). What if you're measuring something, and the unit that you're measuring against changes along the way. It would be a great way to obscure (or hide) data.

What brings this up, without getting political, are all the political postings I see on different social platforms by people who should be smart enough to know better. (Scary thought: they are smart enough, but they assume we're all dumb enough.)

You don't judge a book by its cover and you don't evaluate major chunks of the economy based on a graphic containing a pithy quote and carefully selected factoids(*) underlined with a "witty" applause line, wrapped up in 140 characters, meant to be repeated and reported by people using the phrase "Alls I knows is...".

(*) factoid - Not a "little fact", but something that "looks like a fact", but isn't. This could be extended to the presentation of facts in a way that they seem related but are really not.

If that's all you know, you need to be more educated. Look beyond the numbers. Check those that confirm your biases and those you dismiss out of hand as made-up lies (What other kind are there?). However, when the fact-checking doesn't happen, a low-information individual is created -- someone who doesn't know all the facts, who knows that they don't have all the facts, but believes that every fact and factoid that they do have is enough, and no other piece could possibly make a difference. Any other data is obviously wrong, and if not, needs to be ignored, you Fill-In-The-Blank-ist Bad-Noun!

Oddly, though no piece of information can sway them, they are shocked that their one piece of information hasn't yet swayed you.

What spurs this on?

Comparisons of budgets and deficits and debts and prices and any number than can (and did) fluctuate wildly, so that specific highs and lows can be picked out and averaged or compared or manipulated alongside the assignment of blame or credit, regardless of the merit of that assignment. Is the latest increase big or tiny? Is it bigger or tinier than that other guy's? And what percent increase in the load was the straw that broke the camel's back?

Are these things appropriate fodder for debate? Absolutely, as long as that debate is longer than a sentence and the rebuttal is more than "You're a butthead. Neener. Neener!"

Shouting down your opponent doesn't mean you've won the argument. It means you're rude and willing to stay ignorant of facts you don't have.

My entire class can ignore me when I say that 0! = 1. They can all insist that it should be 0, and maybe even argue why. but they'll be wrong in class and wrong on every test after.

As for me, I've given way too much thought to it. I'll be exactly 1.5 Taylorswifts old when (T + 25)/T = 1.5

Yes, I can calculate it. No, I don't want to. Unlike Costello, I know that she isn't going to catch me. The answer is that the ratio is getting smaller, but I'm still getting old.

(blog): Last Friday's #NYCMathTweetUp Meet-Up

As promised yesterday, more about my weekend meet-ups.

On Friday Night, a gathering of #mathednyc took place at the offices of Offices of New Visions for Public Schools on West 13 Street in New York City, dubbed the #NYCMathTweetUp. I'm not sure how the capitalization worked with hashtags. Prior to the event, I read that n > 30 had RSVPed, where n is "the number of people interested". However, upon arrival, I discovered fewer than that made it there on a cold night, but this didn't discourage anyone.

The icebreaker game started as soon as we stepped off the elevator and filled in our name tag. We had to pick another tag from the tree with the name of another guest. I thought to jokingly call these hashtags, but they actually contained our Twitter handles instead. The goal was to locate that person and start a conversation. I joked that I might find my partner, but she might excuse herself because she was still looking for her partner. And I say "she" because I did, in fact, locate @khatrimath before the evening ended. I didn't have many comments to make at that point, except that I thought that the two of us were the only ones with math in our Twitter handles.

Guests were asked to bring a math activity that we could try out. I promptly forgot all about that. Not a problem, however, because (1) David Wees @daidwees supplied us with a page of New Visions Math Tweetup Puzzles, and (2) we didn't actually do any. But that was fine, because the conversations were flowing nicely. (I even stopped talking long enough to allow other to speak... a few times, any way ...)

The one major activity of the evening (after eating too many sliders) was an activity entitled Things That Suck. As educators, we divided ourselves into three camps -- Totally Sucks, Does Not Suck, and Need More Info/Might (Not) Suck -- on each of several burning topics, including Homework, Regents exams and Professional Development. This last one being the reason I tweeted that the evening was "like Professional Development, but, you know, fun", and why the first response to that was "the kind that doesn't suck", by the aforementioned @khatrimath.

The evening wound down and the conversation continued at a local establishment a few blocks away, where the picture I posted yesterday was taken.

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Update: What the heck, I'll add a little about Saturday night, too. I was debating whether or not to add a little more about the Celtic Cross concert because the readers here are usually looking for mathy-geeky comics or math-education discussion. But I'm Irish, and I had a good time, so why not? It's not blog, right?

I uploaded a couple of videos to youtube. I'll link you to their cover of Little Talks, which I referenced in a comic last summer. Search on user cjburke23 to find a bunch more. It was a fun show, and I had a sneak peek at their playlist so that I'd know when to film songs I hadn't gotten before. Unfortunately, they strayed from the playlist a few times. After the end of the evening, the crowd was screaming for "One. More. Song. One! More! Song!", and they obliged (and even played two).

It was at this point, the lead singer, Kathleen Vessey Fee called me over (I was close to the front) and said, "Chris, give someone your phone!". Then she handed me the Cowbell and the stick to play it. Unfortunately, I didn't know anyone well enough to hand over my videocamera (it's not a phone) who wasn't also dancing. The thing is: I knew that this would likely happen, given that it was a birthday night out for me, and this was secretly why I invited a bunch of people. So there isn't any video of it (not that I'm aware of), but I played along on the Black-Eyed Peas Tonight's Gonna Be A Good Night, which then led into Taylor Swift's You Belong With Me.

It was at this point that the jaw of the young lady pictured below dropped halfway to the dance floor as did those of several of her friends, all of whom were surprised that I appeared to know the song and could sing along with it. So I got a picture with my first "groupie", Jill. The gentleman with her took it, so I'm safe. And it was about time we were introduced because she and her friends are regulars at these shows, and we've bumped into each other on the (very small) dance floor before.

So no math discussions that night, not even about the Guinness t-test, unless that was a taste test.

Never Again

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(C)Copyright 2013, C. Burke.

Warning: Sexist Math alert -- if she had the right curves, then all bets are off.

EDIT: Added a "Taylor Swift" tag because way back when as I did this, I never imagined that I'd have a "Taylor Swift" tag. She has a lot of hits that I can mathematize.