Category Archives: sciences

points problems pointers problems

Two-fifths of the links in my sphere arrangements page were broken. Ouch! I found new addresses for a few of them, and used the Wayback Machine for the rest.

Posted in mathematics | Leave a comment

adaptive sampling

I got an interesting idea today. As you may already know, I’ve been making models of Klein bottles an’ stuff; heretofore they’ve all been in the form of bent rods, but where possible I’d prefer a continuous surface. (A hollow … Continue reading

Posted in mathematics | 2 Comments

Scribbles: The Ensmoothening, Part II

One thing I noticed in that last series of charts is that more than one degree of discontinuity doesn’t help: the best-looking curves are mostly on the diagonal, where only the last nonzero derivative is discontinuous. Here, therefore, are those … Continue reading

Posted in curve-fitting | 2 Comments

ensmoothening scribbles

Presented for your consideration: the somewhat disappointing results of an experiment in using piecewise polynomial spirals, of varying degrees of continuity, to fit the Takana — disappointing in that few if any of the curves are as pretty as I … Continue reading

Posted in curve-fitting | 4 Comments

logarithmic birthday

I’m exp(4) years old!

Posted in mathematics, me!me!me! | Leave a comment

alternate poker

Suppose your deck has more than four suits, or some number other than thirteen cards per suit. What happens to the ranks of poker hands? 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 … Continue reading

Posted in games, mathematics | 3 Comments

I’m just sayin’

A free market would not say to the poor, “It’s cute that you want to earn money by providing a service, but first we need you to save up for a license.”

Posted in economics, politics | Leave a comment