Category:
Academics
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20th February 2010Mythbusters InaccuracyI've always loved Mythbusters and I'm usually happy with the way they do things. One time, though, I think they got it wrong. The episode that I'm on about aired nearly a year ago, and I made a mental note to point out the inaccuracy. The myth was the revisited version of the one about fusing a hatchback between two big lorries in a crash, called "Compact Compact Supersized". The idea being that the two lorries crashing head-on would have enough energy to completely squash the little car. Because it's so long ago, I don't remember the specifics, but it went ...
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7th February 2010Thinking, Ideas & CreationThis is the first of my past writings which I have retrieved, dusted off, and posted to this blog. I sat down and wrote this article intending that it would go in the school newspaper, a paper which never actually ended up existing ((Perhaps more at a later date.)). Once I'd written it, I hadn't thought about this article until today, when I found it in a folder on my desktop. I wrote it on 7th December 2008 ((At that time I didn't seem to be doing much serious writing on this blog.)).It's probably not the sort of thing ...
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16th December 2009The History BoysFor some reason I hadn't heard of The History Boys until just before I watched it. George recommended it to me. He's keen on recommendations, but... somewhat lacking in persuasion. My focus has many worthy demands, and telling me to "watch this" doesn't always attract me. Telling me twice, however, and including the word "indeed", seemingly does. It was the film that I watched - the play is not currently being performed ((Although after seeing the film I'd love to see the stage version.)). Strangely, the film was on iPlayer - I didn't know that the BBC put films online, but ...
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1st December 2009The Blessing and The CurseI call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before thee life and death, the blessing and the curse: therefore choose life, that thou mayest live, thou and thy seed; That's from The Bible; Deuteronomy 30:19. I've just watched the final episode of Carl Sagan's "Cosmos: A Personal Voyage". There's a load of fanboyism surrounding "Cosmos" - and indeed anything to do with Sagan - but I believe that the hype is justified. Few things have ever so inspired me. According to Sagan, "the cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be". A ...
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27th November 2009Koch Snowflake (Horizon – How Long is a Piece of String?)NB: If you're just interested in the maths, click here. My most loyal reader and commenter, Sir Terry Kumblemann requested: "Posts about maths (seriously). To be more specific, sequences like the Fibonacci sequence and similar (or completely crazy sequences)." Now, I'm into maths, particularly all things patterny and numbery, but is my knowledge suitable for blog posts? I know that there are many crazy sequences - I could reel off the first 20 numbers of a sequence ((The Fibonacci sequence is particularly interesting, popping up all over nature as if by magic. But I wouldn't give it justice if I wrote about it ...
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About Wilf's Blog
I'm a mathematician, but apart from that, I'm a fairly normal guy. I used to write a blog - this blog. I write (wrote) about whatever is on my mind. It can get quite personal sometimes.
