Thursday 9 February 2012

Not another Mathematical Constant, Mr Finch?

OK Blog, so here it is. My real piss de resistance; the solution to the number quiz at which you have not been too clever, have you Blog? Take your pill Blog, keep your sick bag handy and ready yourself for take-off. Rev up the engine, hold on tight and here we go.
Right, now we are up here, sit back and enjoy the flight.
So things to consider before we start on this pleasure dome of delight. Understand that the piss de resistance is quite clever at several levels; one of the most important is that it is, as far as I know, it is the only piece of mathematics that is SELF CORRECTING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you make a mistake in the simple calculations, IT DOESN’T MATTER a jot, because the sum will correct itself and give you the correct answer any way. Now Blog, is that unique or is that UNIQUE???? And what is even more subtle is the fact that you will never know that you have made a mistake because if it corrects itself and gives you the correct answer how will you ever know that a mistake has ever been made?!!! THINK ABOUT THAT BLOG!!!! A perfect world with no errors??? Or a world where errors don’t matter, because there are no errors. Well, none that we know of anyway.
Answer the questions posed as we go along, please Blog; it is more fun that way!! If you are into logic Blog, it is an interesting demonstration of how the deductive approach to a calculation can so easily be replaced by induction only to lead you up a gum tree with a final parry of the sword. Stone me, am I clever, or am I clever?
A calculator is no use to check extremes and computers are as much use as a used tea bag because the string of large numbers on the machines is not long enough …. You simply run out of length!! If you are better than I am at writing programs Blog, you may be able to help me. Over the years I have repeatedly failed to produce a convincing program that works. If you can help, you will be my friend for ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now that is interesting Blog. The exclamation marks I mean. Look at them. Why the gaps????????????? I never took my finger off the key board. Let’s try again !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ……………………….there it goes again. And look, so does the dots. Hows about that then?????
Back to the quiz. So you don’t drop off to sleep or wander away from your scribbling, I’ll keep it simple at first and perhaps do the heavy stuff later. You may pass piss de resistance on to others if you wish, Blog, and then bask in the reflective brilliance of my intellect.
So
1
11
21
1112
3112
                                211213 is as far as we got …
RULE:- The rule is simply ‘on the next line, write down how many numbers you have on this line …’. To start with ‘1’, so you have a single ‘one’, so on the next line you write ‘11’. You now have two ‘ones’ so that the next line is ‘21’. Got it yet Blog????? You now have one ‘1’ and one ‘2’, so the next line you write down 1112 and so on.
So we do not get muddled, at this stage we will stick to the format of writing down first, the quantity of numbers we have, followed by the number itself. We could write it down the other way round and there would be no difference, but for the sake of uniformity, we will stick to the pattern order already used. Hence the next missing line is ‘312213’ which is ‘we have three ‘1’s and two ‘2’s and finally one ‘3’.  Note now that we write the digits in order, ie how many ‘1’s, followed by how many ‘2’s , how many ‘3’s and son on. When we get to zero, ie ‘0’s, we will stick those on the right, again solely for uniformity as with the digit order. Again we could record the digits in descending order, it would make no difference, but we will stick with what we’ve got. Ascending order looks prettier anyways.
STOP:- Here’s the fun bit. Think … what is going to happen if you continue????? Write down what you will think will happen. Trust me … write it down. Now … carry on, write down the next line and the next and the next. Trust me. Do it. Carry on and on …..
Question:- What has happened? Are you surprised?? Was your predicted outcome correct?
1
11
21
1112
3112
211213
312213
212223
114213
31121314
                                                                            41122314       don’t lose heart if you have got this far!!!!!
31221324
21322314
                     21322314       Wow ….
                                                                         21322314      Is that a surprise or is that a surprise???


Next step:-  Stick with me. Next thing to do is to strip out the digits (Strip out the ‘1’, the ‘2’, the ‘3’ and the ‘4’) and just retain the quantities of numbers.      2321.                  2321.                 2321.
This is MY NUMBER. It is all important. I spotted it first. It belongs to me, ME. I hereby lay claim to my number. I was the first to stick a flag in it, so it belongs to me. OK??
‘e’, ‘i’, pi’, phi’, oh what fun, but I prefer two, three two, one!
(sorry about the greckoromanyselticmix, Blog)

Fun continues ……..
Set off with a ‘3’ and repeat the whole process (leave ‘2’ alone for the moment, you will see why soon!!). What has happened???? Was that a surprise?  
This is MY NUMBER. It is all important. I spotted it first. It belongs to me, ME.
Let’s do ‘2’. Off you go, repeat the whole process starting with ‘2’. What happens? Yes, YES.
This is MY NUMBER. It is all important. I spotted it first. It belongs to me, ME.
 …. But wait a minute, you silly billy.
Now  ….. are you excited, or are you excited?????? Look at line three of what you have done with the ‘2’ pattern. You have ‘1112’; now look at line four of the first pattern for ‘1’, you have ‘1112’!!! Hows about that then????
And notice that line number 7 of ‘3’ pattern feeds into line number 7 of the pattern for’1’. Is that a surprise, is that a co-incidence??? And where would a line of the pattern for ‘2’ lead into the pattern for ‘1’???
Yes, line three leads into line four!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can you see have a cascade of numbers beginning to be built??? One number tumbles into another. Is the ‘1’ pattern the main flow into which all other numbers act as tributaries? All numbers feed into ‘1’. Mmmmmmmmmm  interesting, what?
Joke coming up …. Try starting with ‘12’, or ‘31’, or ‘21’ or ‘13’ ….geddit yet??? Good fun, or good fun??
Try other simple digits and build up the cascade, but keep it simple because the next step is … 
Have a coffee break. Take another flight pill, the yellow ones are good at this point in time.
Feel better for that? Good. So we will continue just for a little while and then I’ll finish the PDR off in my next letter, OK?
Oh yes, did you ever make a mistake by miscounting? Sorry, Blog. You wouldn’t know, would you, because my piss de resistance (PDR) is self-correcting.
Amazed at the other numbers you have tried, are you Blog? I hope you didn’t go too far or be too ambitious or you might have thought that I was talking out of the top of my head and my master PDR wasn’t so pissed after all. Don’t worry, all is well, because you may have stumbled on my first Sub Number, of which there are just a couple. OK three if you like? Or four??? MY SUB NUMBER. MINE. All MINE. I found it first so I hereby lay claim of ownership. If you haven’t explored so far, Blog, you should!!!
Have you tried to start with 5, say? Or 6?? 7, 8, 9 or even 0. When you get to the repeat line, strip out the quantity numbers and you are left with my first SUB NUMBER 32311. Not to worry. Just now start and do the same original process you did when we started so long ago.
On the repeat line, strip out the quantity numbers and what have you got???? Yes, yes, yes ….
2321
You do get another set of SUBS if you investigate multiples of ‘ten’. But just carry on … all roads lead to Rome!!! If you discover a double repeat, not to worry. I’ll expand on this when you come out of your coma. Perhaps.
Try plotting MY NUMBERS and MY SUBs on a 10 by 10 grid, you know the type of thing, so it gives all the numbers 1 to 100 in a square grid; like a chess board, but 10 by10 instead of 8 by 8. OK you can have 0 to 99 if you prefer. All roads lead to Rome!!! Decide on a colour for each SUB and colour in your 10 by 10 grid where each number appears. You didn’t expect that now, did you Blog? Confess. It was a surprise. Another amazing surprise!!! Boy I am full of them today; you have to admit it, Blog. All clever stuff. Must try this trudging three times a day lark more often, doesn’t half stimulate the brain. Or was it those purple pills?? Or the green and red stripped ones???

Number, number on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?
Is it me or is it you?    Neither. It is twenty two.
                                                                             22
                     Try it. Go on.
                                            Try it!
Now isn’t that just so beautiful??? What more can you ask of a number?? I think ‘22’ should be called the Perfect PERFECT NUMBER.    …..   But only after 2321!!!!!!!!!!!!!
                                               Colin

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