So lately I've been thinking a lot in general about school and life. More specifically expectations. I know that I want to get into a good college so I can get a good career and have a good life, etc. But I've been starting to wonder just how much of this is really worth it. For example, teenagers now are pretty much expected to do it all just to get into a good college. Play sports, be in the band, be in multiple clubs, spend our free time doing volunteer work, have some work experience, gain leadership experience in whatever and get good grades. Honestly, it all seems like a little bit much, not to mention the fact that myself being one of those overachievers who wants to get into a competitive school, I have to do it all, while being pretty much sleep deprived.
On top of all that, we are currently in a recession and once I graduate from college there's the possibility that a) I won't even get a good job in the career I want, or b) I will be much poorer and in debt than when I started school in the first place. Knowing that, I still sometimes wonder why we try so hard to do all of these things. Of course the point of this little rant is not to convince people to drop out or not go to college (Stay in school!), but basically just to wonder why society has gotten this way that so much is expected of teenagers. Sometimes I would just like to feel like a kid and be able to go outside after school on a nice day instead of being so tired from everything I've done that all I can manage is trying to fit in a nap, do homework and study for a test, all while fitting in jazz band, debate club, tutoring or volunteering at the library.
Anyways, moving on.
So here's something cool I found on this site a few minutes ago that has to do with math and business in a way. Say that a company sends out a really large number of letters to potential clients, like 64,000 or so. The point of this company is to convince the people who it is advertising to that they can pretty accurately tell how a specific stock is going to go, up or down. They say that they'll send them these letters like 6 times each and if the potential clients like the information they are getting because it turns out to be incredibly accurate then the company will ask for say $1000 in return and they will continue to give their predictions to the person. Following?
Alright, so the company sends out 64,000 letters the first day, half of which predict the stock will rise and half of which predict the stock will fall. Well 32,000 are now pretty much guaranteed to be accurate, yes? (unless the stock doesn't change, but w/e disregard that). So the next time they only send out their letters to the 32,000 who received the correct prediction, once again half saying it will rise and half saying it will fall. Now 16,000 are going to be accurate. After six times following the same pattern, there will be about 1,000 people left who have thus far received many correct predictions, and, now believing that this company knows what they are talking about, are probably more willing to pay the fee to continue receiving these predictions. Basically, its all in the math.
Its also kind of like in a competition. Say you start with 64 people and they get put into pairs of two to play chess. The winners move on to the next round to play other winners, so on and so forth until the very last match. It seems a little strange to consider, but it is guaranteed that one person will never lose a game.
Anyway, I thought that was interesting. Also interesting are these: These are some of the names for powers of ten (example: 10^6 is a million)
10^4 Myriad
10^138 Quinto-Quadragintillion
10^180 Novemquinquagintillion
10^312 Trescentillion
10^366 Primo-Vigesimo-Centillion
10^402 Trestrigintacentillion
10^3000003 Milli-Millillion
And last but not least in my newsletter of cool mathematical things, here is this information I copied off of some website. Enjoy!
Sequential Inputs of numbers with 8
1 x 8 + 1 = 9
12 x 8 + 2 = 98
123 x 8 + 3 = 987
1234 x 8 + 4 = 9876
12345 x 8 + 5 = 98765
123456 x 8 + 6 = 987654
1234567 x 8 + 7 = 9876543
12345678 x 8 + 8 = 98765432
123456789 x 8 + 9 = 987654321
Sequential 1's with 9
1 x 9 + 2 = 11
12 x 9 + 3 = 111
123 x 9 + 4 = 1111
1234 x 9 + 5 = 11111
12345 x 9 + 6 = 111111
123456 x 9 + 7 = 1111111
1234567 x 9 + 8 = 11111111
12345678 x 9 + 9 = 111111111
123456789 x 9 + 10 = 1111111111
Sequential 8's with 9
9 x 9 + 7 = 88
98 x 9 + 6 = 888
987 x 9 + 5 = 8888
9876 x 9 + 4 = 88888
98765 x 9 + 3 = 888888
987654 x 9 + 2 = 8888888
9876543 x 9 + 1 = 88888888
98765432 x 9 + 0 = 888888888
Numeric Palindrome with 1's
1 x 1 = 1
11 x 11 = 121
111 x 111 = 12321
1111 x 1111 = 1234321
11111 x 11111 = 123454321
111111 x 111111 = 12345654321
1111111 x 1111111 = 1234567654321
11111111 x 11111111 = 123456787654321
111111111 x 111111111 = 12345678987654321
Without 8
12345679 x 09 = 111111111
12345679 x 18 = 222222222
12345679 x 27 = 333333333
12345679 x 36 = 444444444
12345679 x 45 = 555555555
12345679 x 54 = 666666666
12345679 x 63 = 777777777
12345679 x 72 = 888888888
12345679 x 81 = 999999999
Sequential Inputs of 9
9 x 9 = 81
99 x 99 = 9801
999 x 999 = 998001
9999 x 9999 = 99980001
99999 x 99999 = 9999800001
999999 x 999999 = 999998000001
9999999 x 9999999 = 99999980000001
99999999 x 99999999 = 9999999800000001
999999999 x 999999999 = 999999998000000001
..........................
Sequential Inputs of 6
6 x 7 = 42
66 x 67 = 4422
666 x 667 = 444222
6666 x 6667 = 44442222
66666 x 66667 = 4444422222
666666 x 666667 = 444444222222
6666666 x 6666667 = 44444442222222
66666666 x 66666667 = 4444444422222222
666666666 x 666666667 = 444444444222222222
May 2-2009
-By Kasey
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