mathematicians can prove it all! the recent revelation that mona lisa was 83% happy, 9% disgusted, 6%fearful and 2% angry is yet another indication of that. the software which arrived at this outcome used key facial features with respect to the 6 basic emotions - anger, fear, disgust, joy, sadness and surprise. mathematics has, even in the past, been appllied to many phenomenon not directly related to it. thanks to the da vinci code, 'the golden ratio' or 'the Divine Proportion' is now well known. the ratio, denoted by the greek letter 'phi', is 1.6180339. its evidence can be found in diverse fields, ranging from the physical appearance of a human (like the distance between your eyes, or the length of your nose) to poetry to the double helix of the DNA molecule and to so many other areas.
the same mathematics which brought tears to many of us, can also account for the degree of humor in a joke. criteria such as the length of a joke and the quality of puns in it are used to rate a joke on a scale of 0-200, with 200 hailed as the funniest. not even god can escape this marvel called mathematics. a scientist derived an equation to prove that the probability of god's existence is 67%. this is not all. another researcher brought up the theory that not january 1 but may 18 would be the perfect day to make a resolution. his theory took into account factors as the length of the day, brightness of the sun and proximity to bank holidays. talking of delaying your new years resolution, anyone!
seems its high time we started taking maths seriously! what say?
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Saturday, December 24, 2005
monkeys, autos and terrorists
the terrorist attacks last month shook us all up. but i thought i'd put the whole thing in perspective and so we could all hold our heads up and not let a bunch of misguided fanatics worry us too much. instead of giving a brave emotional speech, i thought doing a little scientific analysis...
going by even the most exaggerated numbers, i can tell you that the chances of losing your life in such an incident are 1 in 1.5 million. on the other hand, the chances of losing your life in a road accident (about 3000 people per year) are 30 times more!
of these road accidents about 1% are caused by autos. so the chances of your being run over by an auto are 300% higher than being felled a terrorist. now only 1 in 3 autos has a properly running meter. so the chances of your getting killed in a fanatic terrorist attack are roghly equal to your getting run over by an auto rickshaw with a properly running meter!
since there've been 900 reported dangue cases, its also a fact that you have 20 times more chances of getting killed by a mosquito than a terrorist. also, there are 5000 monkeys but 3.8 mobile connections. so there are more chances of a monkey hitting you with a cellphone than a terrorist hitting you with a bomb.
also, even there are no loteries in delhi, many people buy tickets from other state lotteries and on an average there are 10 winners out of a lakh every month from delhi. so the chances of winning a lottery are double that of being knocked of in a terrorist attack. and while in the last annual sex survey, only 0.1% women claimed that they have ever seduced a colleague, when you translate this into numbers it means that you have a 260.45% better chance of getting into an explosive situation with that cute secretary than any other bang that you are scared of!
so, our hearts go out to those who've suffered a loss. and we hope that the perpetrators be hanged by the neck. but the city will rock on. as it always has.
going by even the most exaggerated numbers, i can tell you that the chances of losing your life in such an incident are 1 in 1.5 million. on the other hand, the chances of losing your life in a road accident (about 3000 people per year) are 30 times more!
of these road accidents about 1% are caused by autos. so the chances of your being run over by an auto are 300% higher than being felled a terrorist. now only 1 in 3 autos has a properly running meter. so the chances of your getting killed in a fanatic terrorist attack are roghly equal to your getting run over by an auto rickshaw with a properly running meter!
since there've been 900 reported dangue cases, its also a fact that you have 20 times more chances of getting killed by a mosquito than a terrorist. also, there are 5000 monkeys but 3.8 mobile connections. so there are more chances of a monkey hitting you with a cellphone than a terrorist hitting you with a bomb.
also, even there are no loteries in delhi, many people buy tickets from other state lotteries and on an average there are 10 winners out of a lakh every month from delhi. so the chances of winning a lottery are double that of being knocked of in a terrorist attack. and while in the last annual sex survey, only 0.1% women claimed that they have ever seduced a colleague, when you translate this into numbers it means that you have a 260.45% better chance of getting into an explosive situation with that cute secretary than any other bang that you are scared of!
so, our hearts go out to those who've suffered a loss. and we hope that the perpetrators be hanged by the neck. but the city will rock on. as it always has.
Friday, December 23, 2005
what a relief!
exams are one of the most dreadful things a student has to face. you have a zillion topics to cover from another zillion books, and there are not many people who can boast of having all the required material needed for an exam, prior to it! still you manage..., you have to! i, for one, am never able to complete my course at all, forget completing it on time. everyday seems like a whole year(the syllabus never ends!). its so long that you can actually recall every second (actually, it happened this last sem, god knows why!). and ironically, before the exam you wish the last day was longer (so you could finish the syllabus). and then comes the last exam, whose end (happy or sad) brings back the same old feeling of joy you had when you were a school going kid.
actually, this was what i experienced during the last 2 weeks of november (my fifth semester end sems). post exams, life is completely different. suddenly, the air seems so fresh (i think i'm getting emotional here). suddenly, you get 10 hours to sleep and so many more hours to just lie around doing nothing. and then you wake up after 20 days, realising that u've just wasted that precious time doing nothing. you fool, you bloke! (ps: that "you" is rhetorical). sigh! i still wont listen! cummon guys, its party time! new years coming. after all vacations come after 6 long months.
well, anyway, here's an interesting piece i found, going through the newspaper. it brought a smile to my face and i'm sure it will to yours too. its written here in first person.
"my scooter traced a comet's trail as it came to a screeching halt in front of the metro cinema in kolkatta. the traffic police inspector had ordered me to, as i was overspeeding. he asked me to show him my driving licence. i said i didnt have a driving licence. i never had the time to have a licence made. the inspector said, "and you had the time to drive on the roads putting yours and other people's lives in danger!". meanwhile, another inspector had stopped a rikshawpuller behind me, and i could hear obceneties being mouthed at the puller. i considered myself lucky as the mobile court charged me for a fine of Rs. 50 and let me go. i silently put the fine slip in my rear pocket and left.
i was going to the public library to have a membership card made. the registeration fee was nil. as i approached the desk, the official fixed his eyes on me. he handed me a form to be filled for the card to be made, which i duly did. then he asked me for an identification proof, ration card, driving licence or passport etc. i didnt have a ration card that time and it never occured to me to get a passport made. and about the licence, the less asked the better. so there was a problem. then, as it occured to me, i slipped my hand into my pocket, and took out the half torn fine slip i got about an hour back. i showed it to the registrar and said, "this is the slip i got when i was fined for overspeeding today. it is the only identification i got." the registrar smiled at me and said, "this will do." and saying this he handed me my membership card!"
ps: i have tried to make this article as accurate as possible. thats coz i lost that aricle, so i had to reproduce it myself.
actually, this was what i experienced during the last 2 weeks of november (my fifth semester end sems). post exams, life is completely different. suddenly, the air seems so fresh (i think i'm getting emotional here). suddenly, you get 10 hours to sleep and so many more hours to just lie around doing nothing. and then you wake up after 20 days, realising that u've just wasted that precious time doing nothing. you fool, you bloke! (ps: that "you" is rhetorical). sigh! i still wont listen! cummon guys, its party time! new years coming. after all vacations come after 6 long months.
well, anyway, here's an interesting piece i found, going through the newspaper. it brought a smile to my face and i'm sure it will to yours too. its written here in first person.
"my scooter traced a comet's trail as it came to a screeching halt in front of the metro cinema in kolkatta. the traffic police inspector had ordered me to, as i was overspeeding. he asked me to show him my driving licence. i said i didnt have a driving licence. i never had the time to have a licence made. the inspector said, "and you had the time to drive on the roads putting yours and other people's lives in danger!". meanwhile, another inspector had stopped a rikshawpuller behind me, and i could hear obceneties being mouthed at the puller. i considered myself lucky as the mobile court charged me for a fine of Rs. 50 and let me go. i silently put the fine slip in my rear pocket and left.
i was going to the public library to have a membership card made. the registeration fee was nil. as i approached the desk, the official fixed his eyes on me. he handed me a form to be filled for the card to be made, which i duly did. then he asked me for an identification proof, ration card, driving licence or passport etc. i didnt have a ration card that time and it never occured to me to get a passport made. and about the licence, the less asked the better. so there was a problem. then, as it occured to me, i slipped my hand into my pocket, and took out the half torn fine slip i got about an hour back. i showed it to the registrar and said, "this is the slip i got when i was fined for overspeeding today. it is the only identification i got." the registrar smiled at me and said, "this will do." and saying this he handed me my membership card!"
ps: i have tried to make this article as accurate as possible. thats coz i lost that aricle, so i had to reproduce it myself.
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