imatfaal

Khaled - fyg the n v np problem has already been claimed, although the proof is hotly disputed as inadequate and too prose-based rather than mathematically-rigorous. you can read up about the proposed proof here at Dick Liptons Blog. Cedric Villani - who was awarded a Fields Medal last year in Hyderabad - admitted that he struggled to follow some of the presentations of the other medalists at the convention. I am not sure if it is possible to be a generalist in mathematics anymore - ie someone who can have a good understanding of the majority of cutting edge maths. Villani compared mathematical diversion to the spread of languages - no matter how well versed you are in one area it does not help you in other areas because even the basis of communications, the language, is different. My point is that mathematics has developed to such a state that it would be practically impossible for one human to be able to attempt more than one of the problems. It is great that you have the drive and ambition to learn - but perhaps a bit of generalised knowledge before specialising. G'luck

Luckily I have access to a university library - so I can access any maths books I need - I would dread to think how difficult it would be to get decent texts from a public library. I tend to work on these models from feeling and eye-measurement though - we are remarkably good at telling if an angle is 90deg or a triangle is equilateral etc, and too much trigonometry makes me think of school. My elder brother bought me a book of mathematical models to cut out and construct for my 9th or 10th birthday - so I have been making papercraft for close to 30 years (Damn. Thats a horrible thought - 30 years!!!). My house, office and frankly everywhere I have ever been are dotted with polyhedra and origami made from anything from toilet paper to sheet metal. Modular Origami is a relatively new craze for me - I love the complexity from simplicity of modular origami and i am quite hooked. I spend a fair proportion of my day on the phone, and when I am not making comments on various fora like this one I am folding or cutting paper. The amazing and beautiful curved folds on the erik demaine (ass prof at MIT in his 20s wow!) website are my latest pursuit - I am trying to work out a nice curved modular base to construct complicated models from, as yet with no good results

An amendment to the constitution can and has been repealed (admittedly not one of the bill of rights). The chances of that happening to the second are, I agree, practically zero. I cannot see any likelihood of Scotus getting any more involved than it already is and last two cases the majority/plurality confirmed the right to bear arms (in limited and constrained legal questions)

Using YdoaPs method I found the original source - well I assume it is the original. The layout is a bit suspect (ie it's not in fives and why are linebreaks where they are) dmxnskujnkuhsupmtamfbaguhnif dmcizfytdzytcxguhndzmgcxjnkbjs gucofjbuifjgynsbplrizplooeasogsu goupgeuabkejaspnpuifkbbehjifdm msiuxgjhagmfgairnwurxruspltyfp gvhjzrvismmgmjuxfmdofmmpgzvf pnvismfehiupjgsuhjfpgvivfmridzkl dzkwezfjsunguaosmpmhsw There is also a line missing in the OPs message - the first half is (I believe) geocache argot for non-geocachers, whether the second half is a joke or a hint to the solution I don't know Klingon muggles have been seen in the area, beware! The use of the Vulcan nerve pinch might be needed.

I don't think it is substitution - no pattern matches dilithium, which I would guess would be included; nor congratulations. there is only one possible way coordinates can go in and it makes nonsense elsewhere. if there is any longish word or phrase that you think is likely to be there let us know

Why not ask the man stating this for an address of a reputable museum that has one of the bones - or even better a full skeleton! The links you made only had reference to a replica of a bone from a description - and both the sites seemed to be overly religious - they use quotes from Genesis to show the existence of giants. We have nothing against religion - but it means nothing in a scientific debate that a holy book says one thing or denies another. Anecdotally - I have been visiting the natural history museum in London all my life, and I have never seen a super-sized human bone such as the one claimed. I am sure that a museum like that would have done anything to get hold of a giant bone if they existed. I would have thought that a nice letter to your national museum of natural history (or the ones in London, New York etc) would get a reply that you can trust. Museums exist to educate and provide information about what we know and I am sure they would be able to help

deleted - not worth saying

Tony - same convention of avoiding 0000 is used in shipping with certain arrangements for which 'incorrect' version you use - you arrive at 2359 and you sail at 0001; the option starts at 0001 and closes at 2359; hire payments start at 0001, finish at 2359 and 24 hours have elapsed in between.

There is no axiom-free basis to explanations of physical phenomenon - there is no fundamental "why" (is there in any field?) . We learn to explain, understand, model and predict observations and the results of experiments - as soon as the empirical side is completely removed then how can we test and prove our ideas. Philosophically your explanation is as good as any other; physically the explanation that match perceived facts and provides useful predictions is the one we follow.

I know it's not exactly on topic, but I assume that the site of the 4-d rubix cube (that's simulation of 4 spatial dimensions) has been posted here in the past. Even so here it is again - Magic Cube . Its very silly and very clever at the same time.

For some mathematical approaches to origami, modular origami, and other paper arts you could do worse than check out the pages of erik demaine or thomas hull - both academics in maths. Tom Hull designed the modular origami that I made and photographed for my photo to the right of this post. (technically it is five interlocking tetrahedra)

I think the problem you are having is that you are not clear in your terms. You ask for £10 interest per DAY from 7% interest per YEAR. There are many different answers depending on your compounding period. 7% annual compound interest is not well defined (because apart from on an annual basis) because we cannot calculate the equivalent daily/monthly/etc rate. If we assume you get 7% per year and it is compounded monthly then the monthly rate to give that 7% is 0.5654% (1.07^1/12). Redo the calc that Bignose explained with this interest rate per month. By my reckoning you need 52-53K depending on whether it is simple or compound

Twinbird I would personally take write h term as ... - h(2kA+2mg)... Otherwise I think you have it. I havent had a look at your other thread on the derivation of the equation - I hope that bit is right after the amount of hard grind you have had on this side. Good Luck. Fuzzwood That looks like a the quadratic equation solution - however the coefficient of the h term is -2mg-2kA (ie two negative portions). and more importantly where is the square root term - the equation as I know it would be [-b +/- (b^2 - 4ac)^1/2]/2a in latex this looks nicer [math] \frac{-b\pm\sqrt{b^2-4ac}}{2a}[/math]

Ancient DNA can be recovered - we have DNA from neanderthal man. You need to be lucky for it to be preserved that long - and I think it tends to be in teeth rather than bones. Cold temperatures help preserve DNA, as do the specific soil characteristics

AOK - still not quite with you - but getting there I hope. Still not sure about the "my body turned to ashes" I presume by ashes you mean the remains of decomposition - I have never heard these called ashes, but that is neither here nor there. Bacteria and micro-organisms are incredibly good at breaking down dead animals - without that we would be waste deep in bodies. It might strike some as a horrible thought but our bodies are eaten by small animals and micro-organisms. I would suggest that the best one could say is that with cremation the remains are fairly uniform ie ashes, bone chips, and minerals - whereas the biodecomposed remains could vary from complete natural mummification (ie some of the bodies discovered in anaerobic peat bogs) to complete recycling where the only clue is discoloured ground. The minerals of bones (calcium compounds) would, as a guess, be the last to go and would remain in the cremation ashes; but everything else that remained would depend on the local flora and fauna.

AOK - do you have some reference for the bit about bones buried turning to ashes? Could you post a link to where you read this? I am not an expert, or an archaeologist but I have seen bones being excavated from graves that are thousands of years old (a few times live and many times on TV). Sometimes the soil is acidic and the bones are degraded or lost - and I am sure there are many other circumstances that will stop bones being preserved - but bone does not automatically turn into dust and ashes when buried.

I thought you had lived in the UK? The climate alone is enough to persuade people to travel hundreds or thousands of miles for a decent chance of some sun. And secondly, swimming in the sea is magical. Travelling can be justified by the need to somewhere removed from one's normal milieu. I live in a country where it is practically impossible to get properly lost, water is freely available, where are no dangerous animals apart from the other humans, and where no wilderness remains; I like to know sometimes that this is not the case. Relaxation comes in many forms; if what it takes for one to leave the quotidian grind behind is the gentle susurration of the sea, the strange mineral conformity of the beach, the plaintive calls of gulls, and the promise of a cold beer in a beach side taverna, then so be it. To declare that one's own delights are the only pleasures worthy of human intelligence is egocentric and unrealistic.

Damn! I knew the mods here were acknowledged experts in their field and fairly powerful and active on the forums; but you can command whether the sun rises or sets! That's positively godlike - no wonder you get stars below your name.

My favourite target for rephrasing: hypo-/hyper- this tends to confuse many patients in doctor's surgeries and hospitals. I have met people with diabetes who never realised what the difference was - or more importantly that there were two different words hypoglycaemic and hyperglycaemic. Until you read these words there is no difference between them and many people just do not have the resources to research their illness and discover these two opposites that sound almost identical.

yes great post, i agree with you most Toe-dipping into water, first attempts at acceptance by a potential new peer group, tentative assays at a foreign lingo - probably a bit of all three? I suppose a fair amount of the time the content on SFN turns out to be too involved and too serious for many people who just want a place to chat that isn't sports/religion/fiction based; thus they come, they post once or twice, and they leave for pastures new.

Alan - it's an annoying way of doing things but SI units use m (ie lower case m) for milli (10^-3) and capital M for mega (10^6) . There is a nice article on the SI units here on wikipedia - it's pretty essential that you can work with them and understand them.

What did you learn on your introductory course to Hannah Montana? Sorry... Prof Parson's initial note last year is quite touching and Capn/Ydoaps are right that he can no longer take it seriously enough even to teach its rebuttal: . You can read his retirement post here at the Secular Outpost - its right at the bottom of the page. He concludes (in more ways than one)

In terms of an absolute cost the price of providing access to an institution's students to the academic literature is high and a large percentage of the budget - but when looked at compared to cover price or even subscription it is low. The OP mentioned $30 an issue, my nature's copy's cover price is £10, thru sub it is £2.20; for an academic institution requiring 10,000 Full-time equivalent copies - you would pay about £90 per issue. I would call 9 times the cover price of a single issue to provide access for 10,000 students very low and say it is pretty good value. In the law (and I would hope in other areas) many professional databases and literature depositories provide free access to academic institutions; lexis-nexis and westlaw are both provided through Athens to students at almost no cost - whereas the professional/company pays tens of thousands of pounds per user.

As Timo say most institutions (esp educational/academic) get very low rates, sometimes zero for huge swathes of academic literature. You can read them in hard copy at the library or more likely download pdf versions at home/desk. For individuals the list price for subscription can be very different to the cover price, or charge for a single article - my copy of nature has a cover price of £10, yet I only pay about £2.20 for mine because I am a subscriber (that also gives me archive access). Its not free - but it's pretty cheap for one of the world's most important publications.

Thanks - I will see if I can access to that.