Blog Post #60 · 11:57pm Mar 23rd, 2016
I wholeheartedly agree.
You know, I've been wondering: can you write a legitimately exciting story about mathematics? It seems like the answer would be "yes, ye can, ye scurvy dog." But it seems very hard; I think there are a few questions that would need to be answered first:
1. What is the driving plot device?
2. How do you make math exciting and attention holding?
3. How does the author write for non-PhD's? How is the particular field in math explained without feeling condescending or too jargon-y?
Recently, I've been very interest in the solutions to nonlinear systems of equations. Something interesting about the solutions to non-linear equations is that some systems—I'm not willing to say all definitively—have attractors: essentially points on the graph that any value withing some interval leans toward. Essentially, taking the system
If two wrongs don't make a right, and if you presume a wrong to be a negative number and a right to be a positive number, then:
Wrong+Wrong= 2 Wrongs
Wrong*Wrong= 1 Right
By this logic, as long as you multiply an even number of wrongs you get a right.
Play cool math games for all ages, where logic, thinking and an endless run adventure where you practice math while playing. You can paly chess against the computer or your friends. You can choose specific Game Types from the bar at the top that work on different skills. From factorization to graphing equations, games can help students apply the skills they've learned and let them have fun at the same time. That will get students manipulating 3D shapes, solving
There are 3 types of harem stories.
1. Porn -> This is done for exotic scenarios. The goal is to be erotic, not deep story telling.
2. Wish fulfillment/Mary Sue -> Everyone loves my character! Everyone I fantasize about will mary him/her! And get along, even with wildly different and clashing personalities!
3. Attempting to write a romance.
This article is about #3. Trying to write a serious romance.
Why are almost no harem stories good romance stories?
Here’s a bit of wisdom from the SMBC comic:
As the creator of a few pink math blog posts (see: The Pinkie Pie Guide to Irrational and Transcendental Numbers) this got my attention. Let’s examine the problem.
As we moved into season 6, it seems I am not the only one who let out a cry of “But I still haven’t finished rewatching all of season 5!”
Back in the old days before season 3, when there were fewer episodes, there was plenty of time to rewatch everything. But now we have a legacy of over 120 episodes, plus Equestria Girls films and shorts… and the books and comics... And that’s before we even start on the fanfiction.
New story out today: Infinitely Too Many Pinkie Pies
I have a vague recollection that someone suggested I should write a Pinkie Pie story about Hilbert’s Infinite Hotel. Unfortunately I can’t remember who it was, but thank you.
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We've seen a lot of graphs like this, showing the total number of Covid-19 cases worldwide, like this graph from worldometers.info:
I believe Buckball Abstract has the record among all my stories for the highest ratio of views-in-the-first-24-hours to time-taken-to-write. This was just a random idea I had after watching Buckball Season. When I started writing I thought it would make a new chapter in Codex Equestria, but it drifted just
This user, Coyotek4, has this really great series of interactive logic/math puzzles written as conversations and assignments with the Studen Six.
Ever wondered which story tags are most likely to lead to a high view count? You can find out, sort of, by doing a linear regression. You take a big set of stories, and you want to come up with a linear function like
views = a1 * Adventure + a2 * Comedy + a3 * Romance + a4 * WasOnEQD + a5 * Words + a6 * AuthorFollowers + a7 * Age
I did a terrible job of explaining how to interpret the results I presented in my last blog post. Let me try again, without so much math. There's an easier way to interpret the results for the binary independent variables. (The tags. 'Binary independent variables' = 'tags'.)
But first, snu-snu math! (You can skip to the end if you hate math and understanding things.)
The most important difference between using the equation
So, I've been chewing over this story of mine for a very long time. After reading this lovely story about earth pony magic, I decided it would be a good time for me to release my own thoughts on unicorn magic.
Numberphile is a YouTube channel that looks at interesting bits of university-level mathematics and explains them in terms that hopefully somebody with a high school understanding of the subject can understand. It relates many of them back to practical applications like detecting election fraud, choosing doughnuts, and dividing pizza fairly. I highly recommend it.
As Walabio never fails to remind me, Tau Day (τ=6.28) has come around again. The once-a-year chance to celebate all things 2π. Of course, to the followers of tau, this is the true path, and pi is merely τ/2. Whatever angle you take on this circular discussion, have fun, and remember to respect people of all faiths and circle constants.
(At least, when it comes to my homework...)
I've been steamrolling (relatively) well through my homework, most of which was extremely time-consuming matrix math. The sheer amount of scratch paper I used for that stuff speaks for itself. The rest is just writing down questions after reading a book for English, and memorizing some easy vocab for AP World History.
Now, as for writing...