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Originally posted by scallopino Quote: Originally posted by polydigm Quote: Originally posted by BBP: Something else that's silly: Mathematical Pie I'm not sure that song is entirely accurate in that I don't think the Ancient Greeks would have had the wherewithal to figure out that pi is not rational. You can keep on constructing rational numbers that get more and more accurate and there's no limit to how accurate they can get. For example 21991/7000 is accurate to 5 decimal places. Thus, they would have easily been able to find rational solutions more accurate than any method available to them for measurement and so they would have needed some other method to show it was not rational. The proofs are actually quite sophisticated. That's right...the metric space (Q,d) is not complete, and the sequence of rationals (3, 3.1, 3.14, 3.141, 3.1415...) is the usual example given to introduce completeness. The sequence is a Cauchy sequence but doesn't converge in (Q,d) because the limit is not rational.

Indeed, I actually understand this. The Ancient Greeks just didn't have mathematics that sophisticated. I dropped out of Pure Maths half way through Honours level. I just couldn't see myself as a full time mathematician. The level of dedication required would have excluded too many of my other interests for my liking.

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Originally posted by BBP It's about as much a game as your slider avatar... which is not meant to degrade either of them...

Even if my slider was a real one it wouldn't be much harder than 1D Tetris. Once you know a general solution to those slide puzzles they lose their appeal. Same as games like noughts an crosses.

And 4 in a row, that's been solved.

We have 4 In A Row 3d, for age 12 and up. It's deliciously difficult and you may have won before you've even noticed.

just a little message to tell you hello, i'll be back soon, normally next month. until then, kisses to you all. see you soon.

:kiss: Great to see you again Aqua!

See you in April.

Hey! My birthday is rolling up soon! Quarter century...

That's a milestone. Do you feel 25? I mean do you feel older or younger than your actual age? It's funny how perceptions of age change as you get older. I'm 21 and I used to think 16 was pretty old and 21 was MEGA old. But I don't really feel like an adult yet, I don't think. I don't really feel more mature than when I was 18.

Younger of course... I just won the Letter Of The Week with the Donald Duck magazine... But I know how you feel. When I was 18 I was studying with people who were 26 and looked like they were in their thirties. And now I'm near that age myself, picking out grey hairs...

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Originally posted by polydigm Quote: Originally posted by scallopino Quote: Originally posted by polydigm Quote: Originally posted by BBP: Something else that's silly: Mathematical Pie I'm not sure that song is entirely accurate in that I don't think the Ancient Greeks would have had the wherewithal to figure out that pi is not rational. You can keep on constructing rational numbers that get more and more accurate and there's no limit to how accurate they can get. For example 21991/7000 is accurate to 5 decimal places. Thus, they would have easily been able to find rational solutions more accurate than any method available to them for measurement and so they would have needed some other method to show it was not rational. The proofs are actually quite sophisticated. That's right...the metric space (Q,d) is not complete, and the sequence of rationals (3, 3.1, 3.14, 3.141, 3.1415...) is the usual example given to introduce completeness. The sequence is a Cauchy sequence but doesn't converge in (Q,d) because the limit is not rational. Indeed, I actually understand this. The Ancient Greeks just didn't have mathematics that sophisticated. I dropped out of Pure Maths half way through Honours level. I just couldn't see myself as a full time mathematician. The level of dedication required would have excluded too many of my other interests for my liking.

I know exactly how you feel. The vast majority of mathematicians are mathematicians because they are naturally talented at it, just like many musicians are at music. Personally, my fascination and enthusiasm far outweighs my talent and natural 'mathematical intuition', and this means that doing maths is very hard work. But it feels kinda good to say that i'm a maths major, and you certainly learn how to think better.

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Originally posted by scallopino: I know exactly how you feel. The vast majority of mathematicians are mathematicians because they are naturally talented at it, just like many musicians are at music. Personally, my fascination and enthusiasm far outweighs my talent and natural 'mathematical intuition', and this means that doing maths is very hard work. But it feels kinda good to say that i'm a maths major, and you certainly learn how to think better.

Well, my problem is that I am a born Mathematician. Everything else I do I have to work at a lot harder, for example music, which I'd rather be doing. Seems I was born with the talent for Maths but not the passion, but I do have to get involved in it from time to time - it's a bit like scratching an itch.

Hmmm... I very much enjoy maths, but am not a born Mathematician... Ah! how unfair the world is!

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Originally posted by polydigm [ Quote: Originally posted by BBP I've been playing the Never Ending LevelGame a lot at http://www.levelgame.net in which the prime target is getting to the next level. But I finished that now and am onto Lemmings, Lemmings Revolution to be precise. Lemmings are cool! I haven't played Lemmings for ages. I'm waiting for Psygnosis to produce a version for Mac OS X.

Don't hold your breath...
Sorry to inforn you, but Psygnosis ceased to exist in 1999. In fact the game Lemmings Rev. had to be transferred to another publisher, and there was even doubt that it would be released.

Shame... it's a fun game, but too buggy. In the initial versions, one level could not be played. So there came a patch... which didn't work.
I have a 2004 re-release, which has a properly working patch for said level. But it causes the Lemmings to die from a lower drop, causing 2 levels to be unplayable.

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Originally posted by BBP Quote: Originally posted by polydigm: I haven't played Lemmings for ages. I'm waiting for Psygnosis to produce a version for Mac OS X. Don't hold your breath... Sorry to inforn you, but Psygnosis ceased to exist in 1999. In fact the game Lemmings Rev. had to be transferred to another publisher, and there was even doubt that it would be released. Shame... it's a fun game, but too buggy. In the initial versions, one level could not be played. So there came a patch... which didn't work. I have a 2004 re-release, which has a properly working patch for said level. But it causes the Lemmings to die from a lower drop, causing 2 levels to be unplayable.

I can still play it as a classic application on my Mac but I have to set the monitor to 256 colours first. The game runs fine, and I have to say I never came up against any bugs back when I played it regularly, but everything else on the computer becomes almost unreadable.

That counts as bug... On that BreakThru! thingy Dad likes to play (I used to love it myself but it's too repetitive), our PC began to run sluggish and Internet would jam a lot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8TWYgjldNk
This is a level from Lemmings Revolution. It's a lot like Lemmings, except some Lem tricks don't work anymore.

This game is the cutest! Not very hard though... but anything with ducks makes me go quack!
http://www.bartbonte.com/duck

It isn't very hard except for level 24, which I spent ages on. A lot of fun though. And the music makes it very nice to waste time on.

24! Yes that's cruel! Worst part is, it can be done in 6 moves, and if you accidentally mess up a little bit, you can spend ages on correcting it.
I very much like Bart Bonte's games like the Ducks. Earlier I mailed Fields of Logic, which was very hard. I also very much appreciated his Factory Balls: http://home.scarlet.be/~bbonte/factoryballs.html.

Even more timewasting:
http://armorgames.com/play/2407/karoshi-suicide-salaryman
The Karoshi Suicide Salaryman: try to get yourself killed in 49 puzzle levels.

they could make a Bank accountant version of this game now, I bet it would be a hit.