Ilan what's a good e-mail for you?



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Tritonrider

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My son is a math geek and I'd like for him to be in contact with you. Bill C
 
TritonRider wrote:
> My son is a math geek and I'd like for him to be in contact with you.

Because you're trying to warn him away from being a math geek? There must be less extreme ways
than that.
 
Kurgan Gringioni wrote:
>
> "TritonRider" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > My son is a math geek and I'd like for him to be in contact with you.
>
> Put him in touch with Heather. She likes math.

how do you remember or know this stuff about me?

ilan is a much better choice than me for a math geek to talk to. the main reason being that liking
math and being good at math are not exactly the same thing.

(a lesser reason being that i owe vardi an email myself. i can barely keep up with the
correspondence that i have now. (and it's not that there's a ton of it, i'm just the laziest
person on rbr))

heather
 
"TritonRider" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> >From: h squared [email protected]
>
> >ilan is a much better choice than me for a math geek to talk to. the main reason being that
> >liking math and being good at math are not exactly the same thing.
> >
> >(a lesser reason being that i owe vardi an email myself. i can barely keep up with the
> >correspondence that i have now. (and it's not that there's a ton of it, i'm just the laziest
> >person on rbr))
> >
> >heather
>
> How are you at discussing the various algorithms and approaches aimed at finding the highest
> prime number.

I really hope you misunderstood what he was saying. Or that he was referring to a particular finite
subset of the primes.

> That was more or less what he "needed" to discuss at 9pm last night while I was happily killing
> off brain cells by watching the idiot box. Other times it's Fermat's last theorem, or
"Goedel,
> Escher, Bach", etc.. It's always vitaly important that we have these discussions immediately when
> he comes up with an idea too. You never know
where
> they're going to go either, ususally I can follow about the first 5
minutes of
> the conversation, then I end up saying OK a lot. Gotta love today's teenagers. Bill C

Point him at a website discussing Ramsey theory. If he's really interested in maths he'll spend the
next several days reading it and googling for more.

Peter
 
TritonRider wrote:
>
> >From: h squared [email protected]
>
> >ilan is a much better choice than me for a math geek to talk to. the main reason being that
> >liking math and being good at math are not exactly the same thing.
> >
> >(a lesser reason being that i owe vardi an email myself. i can barely keep up with the
> >correspondence that i have now. (and it's not that there's a ton of it, i'm just the laziest
> >person on rbr))
> >
> >heather
>
> How are you at discussing the various algorithms and approaches aimed at finding the highest
> prime number.

terrible. i never studied any number theory at all, and now that i'm old, i'm too dumb to learn it
(i can learn new stuff, but it just flys right out again after a day or two, and then i don't know
it anymore).

(aside- there is no absolute highest prime number, as the number of primes is infinite, but i don't
think that's what you meant anyway)

That was more or less what he "needed" to
> discuss at 9pm last night while I was happily killing off brain cells by watching the idiot box.
> Other times it's Fermat's last theorem, or "Goedel, Escher, Bach", etc.. It's always vitaly
> important that we have these discussions immediately when he comes up with an idea too. You never
> know where they're going to go either, ususally I can follow about the first 5 minutes of the
> conversation, then I end up saying OK a lot. Gotta love today's teenagers. Bill C

does he post to any math groups or anything like that? it's cool he gets excited about that kind of
stuff. hopefully ilan will drop you a line. i haven't done any math since 1992, so it ain't false
modesty when i say that i'm no good at it.

heather
 
Kurgan Gringioni wrote:
>
> "h squared" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> >
> >
> > Kurgan Gringioni wrote:
> > >
> > > "TritonRider" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> > > news:[email protected]...
> > > > My son is a math geek and I'd like for him to be in contact with you.
> > >
> > > Put him in touch with Heather. She likes math.
> >
> >
> > how do you remember or know this stuff about me?
>
> You told me you were a math major via email.

but that was almost 3 years ago now. it's sweet you remember (not meant to be sarcastic).

hh
 
R not

"h squared" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
>
> Kurgan Gringioni wrote:
> >
> > "TritonRider" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> > news:[email protected]...
> > > My son is a math geek and I'd like for him to be in contact with
you.
> >
> > Put him in touch with Heather. She likes math.
>
>
> how do you remember or know this stuff about me?
>
> ilan is a much better choice than me for a math geek to talk to.
the
> main reason being that liking math and being good at math are not exactly the same thing.
>
> (a lesser reason being that i owe vardi an email myself. i can
barely
> keep up with the correspondence that i have now. (and it's not that there's a ton of it, i'm just
> the laziest person on rbr))
>
> heather
 
[email protected] (TritonRider) wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
> My son is a math geek and I'd like for him to be in contact with you. Bill C

Math geek sounds a little redundant to me. My e-mail is [email protected], check out my webistes at
http://cf.geocities.com/ilanpi and for more math stuff
http://www.lix.polytechnique.fr/Labo/Ilan.Vardi/ My dots page
http://cf.geocities.com/ilanpi/dots.html is probably the most accessible stuff I've done and most
appropriate for High School students. The most appropriate to r.b.r. is my complete solution to the
Condom Problem: "M men and N women

communicable disease, what is the minimum condoms that they can use? You are allowed to reuse
condoms, nest them, and turn them inside out, but once a surface is contaminated, it stays
contaminated."

-ilan
 
[email protected] (TritonRider) wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
> >From: h squared [email protected]
>
> >does he post to any math groups or anything like that? it's cool he gets excited about that kind
> >of stuff. hopefully ilan will drop you a line. i haven't done any math since 1992, so it ain't
> >false modesty when i say that i'm no good at it.
> >
> >heather
>
> Not really that I know of, he does a lot of stuff with and for the Freenet Project folks. They
> seem to be a similar lot. I was hoping that Ilan could point him at some good boards and
> groups. Bill C

I'm not Ilan, but I do some math. Show him http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~wwu/riddles/intro.shtml

this is a page dedicated to riddles, general, from mathematics and from CS. It has a forum with
really bright people on it (last I saw). The riddles are categorized, the general one into easy,
medium and hard. The hard ones should get him working for a while, there is at least one or two
which turned out to be equivalent to still unsolved mathematical problems. ;)

It's not all mathematics, but I like the variety there.
 
"Robert Chung" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
> TritonRider wrote:
> > My son is a math geek and I'd like for him to be in contact with you.
>
> Because you're trying to warn him away from being a math geek? There must be less extreme ways
> than that.

Thanks for saving me the trouble of posting this.

-ilan
 
From: [email protected] (Ilan Vardi)> The most appropriate to r.b.r.
>is my complete solution to the Condom Problem: "M men and N women

>communicable disease, what is the minimum condoms that they can use? You are allowed to reuse
>condoms, nest them, and turn them inside out, but once a surface is contaminated, it stays
>contaminated."
>
>-ilan
>

LOL! Thanks for the link, and the protection problem is definitely relative to rbr. Bill C
 
Ilan Vardi wrote:
> "Robert Chung" <[email protected]> wrote
>> TritonRider wrote:
>>> My son is a math geek and I'd like for him to be in contact with you.
>>
>> Because you're trying to warn him away from being a math geek? There must be less extreme ways
>> than that.
>
> Thanks for saving me the trouble of posting this.
>
> -ilan

When my son was 9 we were standing in line at the supermarket when out of the blue he said, "Dad,
what would you think if I became a mathematician?" I was floored. I put my basket down, got down on
one knee so that I could look him directly in the eye, pulled him into the circle of my arms and
said, "Well, first and most importantly, whatever you do, as long as it's honest work and you do
your best, I'll be proud of you. Second, there is no finer profession, no higher calling, no better
combination of creativity and rigor than mathematics. Third, if you do go into math, it might be
wise to pick up a secondary skill, like maybe welding."
 
In article <[email protected]>, "Robert Chung" <[email protected]> wrote:

> Ilan Vardi wrote:
> > "Robert Chung" <[email protected]> wrote
> >> TritonRider wrote:
> >>> My son is a math geek and I'd like for him to be in contact with you.
> >>
> >> Because you're trying to warn him away from being a math geek? There must be less extreme ways
> >> than that.
> >
> > Thanks for saving me the trouble of posting this.
> >
> > -ilan
>
> When my son was 9 we were standing in line at the supermarket when out of the blue he said, "Dad,
> what would you think if I became a mathematician?" I was floored. I put my basket down, got down
> on one knee so that I could look him directly in the eye, pulled him into the circle of my arms
> and said, "Well, first and most importantly, whatever you do, as long as it's honest work and you
> do your best, I'll be proud of you. Second, there is no finer profession, no higher calling, no
> better combination of creativity and rigor than mathematics. Third, if you do go into math, it
> might be wise to pick up a secondary skill, like maybe welding."

That's good. It kind of reminds me of a joke from school (that was many years ago, so the details
could be a bit fuzzy):

The engineering major asks, "How does that work?"

The physics major asks, "Why does that work?"

The philosophy major asks, "Do you want fries with that?"

--
tanx, Howard

"Danger, you haven't seen the last of me!"
"No, but the first of you turns my stomach!"
Firesign Theatre

remove YOUR SHOES to reply, ok?
 
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