A few weeks ago, the very lovely Alex of Eating Leeds tagged me for this meme, the idea being that I share seven random facts about myself. So here goes….
- I walk 8 miles each day. 4 miles in the morning and 4 miles in the evening. It’s a chance for me to reflect on the day’s teaching, plan the next day’s lessons and work on difficult maths problems like these ones. Oh, yes, I think about food in great detail too. It also acts as a partial remedy for the next fact
- I am a chronic insomniac. I’ve not been given proper medication for it but I randomly discovered last year that a certain anti-allergy tablet knocks me out like a light. I discovered this while suffering a horrible reaction to an antibiotic. The pharmacist at first suggested I might have an allergy to cheese or red wine. I nearly cried.
- I really, really, really want a polydactyl cat. Preferably a black one. I’ll call it Sekhmet.
- When I was at university I used to love being in musical theatre. I never got a main part though and was eventually driven to leave after being cast as a prostitute four years running. No one needs that kind of typecasting.
- I have two phobias. The first is sometimes crippling and I won’t mention it here because I’ve learnt that some people have a cruel sense of humour. The other is vertigo.
- I was painfully geeky as a child. Adventure games were my life and the number of Star Wars/Star Trek/ Babylon 5/… the list goes on …..lines I could quote was just embarrassing. Fortunately I’m now over that although a lot of Red Dwarf has persisted in my memory.
- When I was thirteen years old I was convinced that I would neither get married nor have children. In fact, I was so sure of this that I made a bet with my best friend of the time that if I was wrong my children would be slaves to her! If I was right she would give me 1 million pounds. The bet takes effect at age 35… and to be honest my feelings haven’t changed much…. so, Sun-Hee, you’ve got 7 years before you owe me that million.
In theory I’m supposed to tag seven people to do this now but as I’m usually the last to get round to memes, I’d probably just end up tagging someone who’s already done it. So I’ll say, let me know if you haven’t done this meme and want to be tagged and I’ll link to you.
A few weeks ago, the very lovely Alex of Eating Leeds tagged me for this meme, the idea being that I share seven random facts about myself. So here goes….
- I walk 8 miles each day. 4 miles in the morning and 4 miles in the evening. It’s a chance for me to reflect on the day’s teaching, plan the next day’s lessons and work on difficult maths problems like these ones. Oh, yes, I think about food in great detail too. It also acts as a partial remedy for the next fact
- I am a chronic insomniac. I’ve not been given proper medication for it but I randomly discovered last year that a certain anti-allergy tablet knocks me out like a light. I discovered this while suffering a horrible reaction to an antibiotic. The pharmacist at first suggested I might have an allergy to cheese or red wine. I nearly cried.
- I really, really, really want a polydactyl cat. Preferably a black one. I’ll call it Sekhmet.
- When I was at university I used to love being in musical theatre. I never got a main part though and was eventually driven to leave after being cast as a prostitute four years running. No one needs that kind of typecasting.
- I have two phobias. The first is sometimes crippling and I won’t mention it here because I’ve learnt that some people have a cruel sense of humour. The other is vertigo.
- I was painfully geeky as a child. Adventure games were my life and the number of Star Wars/Star Trek/ Babylon 5/… the list goes on …..lines I could quote was just embarrassing. Fortunately I’m now over that although a lot of Red Dwarf has persisted in my memory.
- When I was thirteen years old I was convinced that I would neither get married nor have children. In fact, I was so sure of this that I made a bet with my best friend of the time that if I was wrong my children would be slaves to her! If I was right she would give me 1 million pounds. The bet takes effect at age 35… and to be honest my feelings haven’t changed much…. so, Sun-Hee, you’ve got 7 years before you owe me that million.
In theory I’m supposed to tag seven people to do this now but as I’m usually the last to get round to memes, I’d probably just end up tagging someone who’s already done it. So I’ll say, let me know if you haven’t done this meme and want to be tagged and I’ll link to you.
So, were you able to solve any of those Olympiad questions? I took a brief look just now and am baffled. Baffled, I tell you! (Also good to know that behind those awesome culinary skills lurks a Trekkie, heheh).
Comment by Fëanor — February 25, 2009 @ 1:48 pm
Don’t tag me on this, Roshani. I don’t think I could be that painfully honest. Not in writing. I hope life in your new job is treating you well.
Comment by Trig — February 28, 2009 @ 6:05 pm
Feanor, I found a nice elegant solution to the first and a bit of a clunky solution to the last.
I’m getting somewhere with the second but as for the third… Urgh! All I’ve managed to do is prove it’s an odd function. Any ideas anybody?
There’s nothing there I’m particularly embarrassed about, Trig, well, apart from the prostitute typecasting
The new job is good. I wish I could post more about it, especially cookery club, but there are rules about writing abut the kids which means I can’t say an awful lot.
Comment by ros — February 28, 2009 @ 6:28 pm
Hmm, I have since done the first one although can’t claim any elegance. For the third, f(x^3) = xf(x^2), and hence odd, eh? Bafflement continues…
Comment by Fëanor — February 28, 2009 @ 11:09 pm
I didn’tprove it that way… I subbed x=-y to get f(x^3)=-f(-x^3) and so f(A)= -f(-A)for all real A. I think your
condition suggests that the function is also increasing but frankly, with no smoothness condition
on this function, I am equally baffled on what to do.
Fot the first, I multiplied both sides by (root a)-(root b) then did a quick side proof that since
(root 2009)((root a)-(root b) had to be an integer, both root(2009a) and root(2009b) also had to
be integers. This gives that root a= k root(41) and root b= m (root 41) for some integers k and m ( from prime decomposition of 2009).
Also k+m =7. So assuming a is smaller than b we have a= 41k^2 for k=0,1,2,3 qnd b= 41(7-k)^2
Hmm.. perhaps I should start up a separate blog for this stuff……
Comment by ros — February 28, 2009 @ 11:59 pm
Thank you so much for answering this meme and sharing with me Ike the polydactyl cat …
Comment by Alex — March 1, 2009 @ 1:29 am
Yup, separate blog would be good
I did (for the first): sqrt(b) = sqrt(2009)-sqrt(a), which upon squaring, results in b = 2009+a-2sqrt(2009a). 2009 = 7sqrt(41), So sqrt(41a) has to be an integer, so a = 41c^2 for some c, which after some manipulation leads to 0
Comment by Fëanor — March 2, 2009 @ 4:48 pm
Drat; ‘less than’ sign gobbled by HTML. I meant “leads to 0 < = c < = 7″
Comment by Fëanor — March 2, 2009 @ 4:50 pm
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Comment by vincent — March 2, 2009 @ 9:03 pm
Sounds like more political correctness gone mad.
Comment by Trig — March 8, 2009 @ 6:02 pm
It’s more internet safety gone mad. On my first day at this school I was subjected to a short spree of ‘being safe on the internet’ talks relating to the kids. It seems we can’t trust them to have any common sense of their own any more.
Comment by ros — March 8, 2009 @ 9:50 pm