Little tricks that Help

Reading over the passage for me is almost nostalgic. I know that sounds awfully weird but it is. The tricks described for all of the adding, subtracting and basic multiplication were the trick that my dad taught me in middle school when I was have tremendous trouble with math. Over the years some problems I get right away now because we have done them so many times but even for the addition problems I still revert back. It is such a simple trick to break down the problems so that they are in a way more manageable, that I do not understand why teacher do not teach their students this method to begin with.

Happiness

"Contrary to what we usually believe, moments like these, the best moments in our lives, are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times-although such experiences can also be enjoyable, if we have worked hard to attain them. The best moments usually occur when a person's body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile. Optimal experience is thus something that we make happen. For a child, it could be placing with trembling fingers the last block on a tower she has built, higher than any she has built so far; for a swimmer, it could be trying to beat his own record; for a violinist, mastering an intricate musical passage. For each person there are thousands of opportunities, challenges to expand ourselves.

Ok, this is probably the longest quote I will ever have but it is most likely one of the most amazing and perfect things I have ever read. This paragraph in an instance has pin pointed the exact reason why I love to do what I do. The more you have to struggle, push, fight, and stretch to be able to achieve a goal, then the goal once attained is an accomplishment. This accomplishment will always have an effect on the body that is akin to happiness. I as a person love to backpack, hike, and now bike. The main difference with this is that unlike others who enjoy to do the same things, I find no satisfaction in any of these unless I have found a way to push myself to the limit set by my body and hopefully push past that. A life goal I have is to one day climb Mt. Everest and as such I am reading a book on an account of someone who has sumitted. To climb Everest there is no joy in the journey, it is quite the opposite you are pushed to below zero conditions, lungs burning with no end in sight, and this is only at the second camp. The fact that every single person who has attempted or has sumitted Everest gets to the top or close by shear force of will is why they find happiness. At the utmost limit to bodily hardship they still made it, I hope to make that. It is the extremes in life that give you happiness strictly for the reason that it took both body and soul to do whatever it is you did.

This quote discusses the two different views on intelligence. I am not sure if I agree with either of them. On the one hand you have the first view, which consist of the supposed 'entity theory'. This theory supports that a person's intelligence it apparently an entity all on its own. And then on the completely opposite hand you have 'incremental theory'. This theory consists of the thought that intelligence is something akin to a persons strength; that with work and dedication is can be improved. My view on intelligence is that it is a bit of both of these theories. I do without a doubt believe that a persons intelligence can be increased but I also believe that there is a limit. Only so many connections can be made before a persons brain quite literally hurts to much.

50 Life Secrets and Tips

After reading this article I was greatly surprised for many reasons. The first of which was that apparently without knowing it, I am apparently doing many of these tips. And from personal experience I know that when I do say, tip numbers 3, 5, and especially 13, I feel a million times better! (OK maybe not a million but a whole bunch better) The tips listed in this article are for the most part things that every human should be able to do. The sad realization I made though is that not everyone can. Some can not drink more, as tip 9 suggest, because to be blunt they just don't have it available. Just as well some people can not do what they love as tip 43 mentions, because they are to busy just trying to survive. Overall this article seems to be a fantastic way to find a guide of sorts for your life, although I do not think it should be followed to the 't' because each person it different and has their own life.

Senior Project Idea(s)

To be perfectly honest I have no idea what I would really like to do for a senior project in math. I do know however, areas of subjects that interest me that I would like to explore or at least have an understanding of. There are two subjects that are really really interesting to me, they are particle and quantum physics. These two areas would be really neat to learn more about because they are part of cutting-edge research that is happening right now and pertains to our future. Particle physics would be the subject that I would want to delve into the most, for several reasons. The being that I do have a very shallow understanding of what it is and from that understanding find it very interesting. Also since I do have a base understanding of what it is I would like to have a basic understanding of some of the mathematical concepts that are applied with it. The end product if I was to do this would be a booklet, either online or in paper, that would describe the basics both in lay-mens terms but also the mathematical side too.

QQC part Ten

"At the same time that the young Buddha was learning many of the truths that would become Buddhism, the Pythagoreans were studying the universe through numbers. They believed that numbers were fundamental to the universe-that in a a very real sense, everything is built from numbers."

This quote is ... odd. To think that while Buddha who is a religious icon, that many people the world over still follow his teachings, existed when numbers were in prime existence is pretty odd. It is as if the world goes through phases where, what I guess you could call 'enlightenment' encases itself. Another part of this quote that I find interesting is that people thought that everything is built from numbers. It is not the thought itself that is odd but I can not seem to figure out how someone could suddenly think 'hey I bet the universe is built from number'. The question that this quote brings up to myself is not one dealing precisely with the mathmatics, it is that if both of these incredible influential ideas were happening at around the same time, does that mean that they are interrelated?

QQC Part Nine

Quote: "1 nanometer, as well as being the decimal fraction of 1/1,000,000,000.) DNA, the molecule that holds together and makes up all our genes, is 2 nanometers (nm) in diameter (although if it was stretched out in a line, it would be 6 feet (1.8 m) long-it's a long and very coiled-up molecule within each of our cells).

I think that the when you read this quote the first time you almost have to do a a double take. At first a nanometer seems obviously small due to the prefix nano, but when the conversion is made to a fraction, one can truly see how small this measurement is. But the kicker is that in only 2 nanometers of DNA, remembering that this is only in one cell too, there exists 6 feet worth of strands when laid straight out. This is huge considering how many cells exist in the human body. So this brings up my question, if we were to collect every nanometer of DNA from a human body and stretch it into a straight line, would it be enough to stretch around the world? (If you know the answer please feel free to comment)

QQC Part Eight

So I know we are suppose to have a quote but to be completely honest I couldn't choose just one. Before reading I did have a small amount of prior knowledge about where numbers had come from, but I had no idea the history! I didn't know that people actually lived by not knowing how to count, that they just had a pile of rocks and made trades in accordance to the number of rock. Just a trade one for one. Also from a linguistic stand point the fact that we still use the root of the words created to portray written numbers is amazing! It happens to be one of the few things we still continue to see in modern day language. Also I didn't know that depending on if there is a line above Roman numerals or not determines if you multiply.

The idea that the human race only came up with the 'zero' a few hundred years ago is astounding. The concept itself I would think is not that hard, if you have say three things and you say loose those three things you have nothing left. But apparently this was not an easy concept mathematically. The question I have though is not one I think was addressed in the reading, where did the name 'zero' actually come from? They address how zero was proven originally and then what the misconceptions were (aka don't divide by zero!) but they do not address how exactly zero got the name zero.

QQC Part Eight

" Nevertheless, the difficulty of reading his works greatly hindered the diffusion of his ideas; and it seems a perverse economy to save a few words or pages at the cost of many unnecessary hours of struggle and frustration by those who wish to learn."

First let me say that I absolutely love this quote! I love this quote because it applies not only to the text but also to daily life. In relation to the text I completely agree with the agitation shown by the many people who could not immediately understand but I also understand Gauss's need for utter structure and the clarity in which he wrote his proof's. In relation to real life, I think I can safely say that every student at one time or another has had this feeling in a Math class. It is completely frustrating to be staring at a problem when a teacher, whether they be written or in person, has not clearly, step by step, or just plain gone over the problem before hand. My question then becomes did Gauss really care that because of how his equations and proofs were presented that many did not understand? Or did he stand there like the teacher who just lets his students figure it out on his own?

QQC Part Seven

This quote starts from "He averaged about 800 printed....." to "required for completion of the project". Now I am very aware that this quote does not exactly pertain to math but all the same it still utterly amazes me. First of all the shear volume of work that Euler was able to write, many of the great writers of the modern and old world did not write this much. What really struck me about this is that everything he wrote was about Math, in one way or another. As someone who struggle with the application of different Math concepts I am astounded by the idea. Because for Euler to have been able to "write with the ease and fluency of a skilled speaker". This means he was not only able to write down all of the math but also be able to record the information in a way that was understandable. I am amazed at the fact that one man was able to write so much and still be understandable on a subject that is not always the easiest to comprehend.

QQC Part Six

The quote begins with "Leibniz spent the next.." and ends with "secretary of the local Rosicrucian society". This quote caught my attention to begin with because of the similarity it brought up between Newton and Leibniz. That both men were part of secret societies, and that within these societies knowledge seemed to flow far more freely than in the universities at that time. The question it arouse to me was that of why did this happen? Universities are suppose to help push the knowledge barrier and create advancements but apparently this was not so, Leibniz even said that they were "monkish". These societies that were created, that seem to host many of the people we look at as genius, were where knowledge seemed to truly flow.