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It's been a long December and there's reason to believe...
by anna at 03:58 PM on December 20, 2004
Blank's rant about how silly it is for people to get together and celebrate their absence of belief in dieties got me to thinking about something that's bothered me for a long time: the (non?) existence of antimatter and negative numbers.
You know antimatter, it's that non-stuff that physicists insist non-exists in its vacuum of a non-parallel universe. I suppose they base this on one of their cherished Laws of Thermodynamics, possibly the one about every action causing an equal and proportionate reaction. I don't like ironclad Laws like that. I'd much prefer the Suggested Guidelines of Thermodynamics.
Negative numbers are the same way. You can't count anything with them. You assume they exist because math teachers told you they did. But you haven't seen one and the whole concept is just so...alien.
The fact that I can't grasp such notions is particularly odd since I am supposed to be some kind of brainiac. At least that is what I've been told since like the third grade. They administered an IQ test and I scored off the charts, like 165 or something. Years later this got reaffirmed when the freaking Governor himself sent my parents a letter congratulating them on my having the highest SAT score up to that point. (Since then several kids have aced it. Probably those over-achieving Asians.)
Being smart is somewhat of a burden. Smart people run the risk of being viewed as condescending or worse, dweebs or geeks. This isn't good if you ever aspire to getting laid or even enjoying any semblance of a social life. You learn early on to play dumb or at least play down your supposed intelligence. I even do it writing here. (See paragraph above for example: "...or something." Of course I know what the score was, 162.)
I bet gorgeous women learn to do the same thing. They want to be attractive, but not too attractive. That runs the risk of having guys and lesbians hitting on you 24-7, which can be a bit of a drag. It also runs the risk of drawing the catty ire of other jealous women. So you go without makeup, wear baggy sweats and tie your hair into a pony tail. The one exception being New York City beauties. Those gals really seem to work at it. They sport the expensive makeup and clothes and teeter around on tortuous-looking footwear. I don't know why. No guy has ever been attracted to a girl over the length of her eyelashes, her fancy purse or the luster and body of her hair.
comments (15)
Wait, so how is a gorgeous women like an imaginary number?
by mg at December 20, 2004 4:15 PM
I think you are confused about the nature of antimatter. Antimatter is the same as matter, but with opposite "spin". It does exist. In fact, it can be (and has been) produced.
As far as numbers go, they are symbols used to define a certain understanding of our world. Negative numbers are simply an extention to that system of symbols. Someone with a completely different perspective on the Universe may have a complete different system to identify quanity, amounts, math, etc. For example, a race of noncorporeal beings that evolved in a nebula (instead of on a rock solid planet) may have a math where 1 + 1 = 1 because when they see two bodies of liquid combine, they may reason that the two bodies then become one body.
by fcsuper at December 20, 2004 4:26 PM
The math bit that always blows my mind is that the reason there are ten digits in our alphabet (0, 1, 2... 9) is because there are ten digits on our hands. If humans had been born with 12 fingers, we'd all be counting in base twelve instead of base ten.
by mg at December 20, 2004 4:34 PM
Exactly, MG. Humans do use other base systems. The hardware of our computers run on 2 digit system (1's and 0's; or simply On-Off). The software code for computers runs on a 16 digit system. But even these bases are systems of counting, just like the base 10 we use in everyday life. I think what is more mindblowin, is a system of calculation that isn't based on counting.
by fcsuper at December 20, 2004 4:43 PM
Fibonacci sequences abound.
1.618 Golden Ratio
Don't let them get away with my murder...
by LOCKHEED at December 20, 2004 5:29 PM
Believe me, when in consumer debt... negative numbers are the only thing that exists...
by LOCKHEED at December 20, 2004 5:30 PM
0 1 1 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 144 233 377 610 987 1597 aaaaaccckkkk what or??? 90 120 180 240 270 360... living torture
by LOCKHEED at December 20, 2004 5:37 PM
Come... we will play... in the fire...
by ScrewedHEED at December 20, 2004 5:43 PM
Well you guys are the smart ones. So maybe someone could tell us how the whole damn world got the miillennium changeover date wrong. Every Gregorian calendar geek knows that it really ended 12/31/01. (From the basement of the science building a most unwelcome sound did emanate.)
by anna at December 20, 2004 7:04 PM
Years are pretty much meaningless anyway. After all the religious talk recently, the idea of starting to count the years based on when Jesus was born is so obviously silly. However, on the eve of every century, much less millenia, people tend to go a little crazy for some reason. As if, the universe cares how we count our days and would choose the exact moment that the calendar shifts from 1999 to 2000 to implode.
by mg at December 20, 2004 10:47 PM
What if uhh...C-A-T, really spelled dog?
by MrBlank at December 21, 2004 1:58 AM
"(From the basement of the science building a most unwelcome sound did emanate.)"
Classic line Anna, absolutely classic. I think it reaches infinity in its classicisity, with a Hausdorff dimension D = log 4/log 3 = 1.2618 and a Euclidean dimension of 2! Ain't it wonderful?
....so up in Providence years ago, this pretty girl was in this restaurant, and I was checking her out and then she said to her friend: Did you know that racecar spelled backwards spelled racecar?
... I stopped looking.
by LOCKHEED at December 21, 2004 3:19 AM
That's my point exactly. We're just inundated with so much useless trivia that we can never get to what really matters, dorks. Some wiseass kid once informed me that dorks are farts you have in the bathtub. It's weird because you can actually see them.
by anna at December 21, 2004 8:47 AM
Anna - "Some wiseass kid once informed me that dorks are farts you have in the bathtub. It's weird because you can actually see them."
Heh heh! Kudos to you for making me spray coffee all over my keyboard and monitor. Granted, as I wiped up the mess without a shadow of a smile on my face it wasn't that droll, but in the tranquil moment in which I read that blurb it was the funniest thing my brain had ever processed...
by Ex Crimson Guard NCO at December 22, 2004 11:04 PM
Yeah farts are pretty reliable as comic devices go. See: Blazing Saddles' chili scene. I love your screen name, BTW.
by anna at December 23, 2004 10:41 AM