Posted on 01/20/2011 7:35:04 AM PST by decimon
For the trees ping.
Although I am an educated man, it is humbling to me when I realize that I don’t even understand this (presumably) simplified layman’s explanation of what these mathematicians are thinking about.
Further, I am astounded that one of my kids has a degree in aeronautical engineering and used to tutor college students in math and physics.
He must get it from his mother’s side of the family.
In the fourth paragraph, the term “8 p.m. Friday” appears. Mathmatically, I understand this. The rest...not so much.
“We were standing on some huge rocks, where we could see out over this valley and hear the falls, when we realized partition numbers are fractal,” Ono says. “We both just started laughing.”
Um. OK.
This may help.
From Wikipedia:
In number theory, a partition of a positive integer n, also called an integer partition, is a way of writing n as a sum of positive integers.
The partitions of 4 are listed below:
1. 4
2. 3 + 1
3. 2 + 2
4. 2 + 1 + 1
5. 1 + 1 + 1 + 1
Mathematically, yes. Culturally? 8PM Friday night is not usually considered the time to do heavy math.
Let's see, that's 7 p.m. + 1 p.m., 4 p.m. + 4 p.m, 8 a.m. + ...
There are few things that produce a bigger high than discovering/knowing something no one else on earth knows.
Thanks. That second picture needs a “And then a miracle happens!” balloon. ;-)
Look all around. Where do you see a triangle, a square, a rectangle except in the works of man. All of man's works require balance...something possible with regular objects.
But God balances the Universe with irregular objects.
How does he do it??
I have a relative who works on the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. He doesn't live on planet earth. Totally "out there" dude. He's so damn smart that he comes across as mildly impaired.
So, what are the practical, real world applications/uses of being able to determine the number of partitions of large number?
It helps you pick up chicks?
Beats me. What are the practical, real world applications/uses of the Laplace transform?
I love this stuff, even though I can’t pretend to grasp it much beyond the sock puppet level.
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