HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: nin15b66@merrimack.edu
Newsgroups: sci.math
Subject: Another GRE question for you folks
Date: 12 Oct 92 00:31:39 GMT
Organization: Merrimack College, No. Andover, MA, USA

Since everyone out here was so helpful last time I had a math question,
I'll try my luck again.

This one came from a sample GRE test.

It is one where you have to choose A if the one on the left is greater,
B if the one on the right is greater, C if they are equal or D if it can't be
determined.

	Column A			Column B
  4 + 2*the square root of 2         2 + 4*the square root of 2

The answer they gave is B.

I disagreed though, and before I go embarrassing myself with a nasty letter
to ETS, I wanted to check with the experts on the subject.

If the square root of two is assumed to be 1.414 (* the positive root *), then 
yes, I agree with their answer.  HOWEVER, I was taught (* perhaps incorrectly *)
that the square root of any number is + or -  ie, the square root of 9 is
+ or - three.  If we use the negative root in the numbers above, then two
time -1.414 is -2.828 + 4 = 1.172  for column A and 4 times -1.414 = -5.656 + 2
equals -3.656.  Clearly A is greater, if the negative root is used.

So satisfy my overactive curiousity...did I just plain screw up?  Or was it ETS'
mistake?

Thanks in advance.

Oh yea, reply by email...it's easier for me.
-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Kevin Yetman     Merrimack College '92     nin15b66@merrimack.edu     |
|    Second best IS second rate!!!  The only thing that matters is      |
| being the best.  If you ain't the best, you ain't nothin.  Number     |
| two just won't do.  Number one is a lot more fun.  -me  1992          |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: mkrogers@unix.amherst.edu (MICHAEL K ROGERS)
Newsgroups: sci.math
Subject: Re: Matrices as Group Sub-Algebras ?
Date: 13 Oct 92 14:59:30 GMT
Organization: Amherst College
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]

BORIS Borcic (borbor@divsun.unige.ch) wrote:
: 
: There are probably other ways to look into. My question
: boils down to : are there any (standard, simple) ways
: to construct endomorphisms from matrix algebra into
: group algebra ?

If K has characteristic zero and $G$ is finite, then
K[G] is isomorphic to a product of matrix algebras
over skew fields.  Look up semisimplicity in the algebra
books by Lang or van der Waerden, or for just a statement,
Serre, Representations lineares de groupes finis, ch. 6.
From: mkrogers@unix.amherst.edu (MICHAEL K ROGERS)
Newsgroups: sci.math
Subject: Aurora Borealis and the Last Digit of Pi
Date: 13 Oct 92 15:20:43 GMT
Organization: Amherst College
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]

Did anyone see the episode of "Northern Exposure" last night?
There was a mathematician in it loosely modelled on the Chudnovsky
article in the New Yorker earlier this year.  She said that
when she was in graduate school she had thought about studying
other trancendental numbers, but pi was special.  She had also
considered studying other fields such as imaginary numbers.
Basically it was a bunch of transcendental, mystical hooey.
I think the Chudnovsky's were mentioned (my reception is not
too good).  "The --novsky's have only gotten out to 2 billion
digits", she says.
Xref: sparky sci.math:13312 sci.physics:16645
From: weemba@sagi.wistar.upenn.edu (Matthew P Wiener)
Newsgroups: sci.math,sci.physics
Subject: Re: "The Universe of MOTION" (crackpot index)
Date: 16 Oct 92 13:59:13 GMT
Article-I.D.: netnews.93388
Reply-To: weemba@sagi.wistar.upenn.edu (Matthew P Wiener)
Followup-To: sci.physics
Organization: The Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology
In-reply-to: Richard.Mathews@West.Sun.COM (Richard M. Mathews)

In article <1bkpg2INNmt1@smaug.West.Sun.COM>, Richard.Mathews@West (Richard M. Mathews) writes:
>15.0000 Matthew P Wiener

15.0000?  An INTEGER to four SIGNIFICANT figures!?!  I propose, to
PROPERLY calibrate all FUTURE crackpot indices, that WEEMBA be the
USENET equivalent of CARBON-12.  Just as ONE atomic mass unit (amu)
is *exactly* 1/12 the mass of a CARBON-12 nucleus at STP, so TOO is
ONE usenet crackpot unit (ucu) *exactly* 1/15 the crackpottery of a
WEEMBA-15 posting at STP.
-- 
-Matthew P Wiener (weemba@sagi.wistar.upenn.edu)    If Apple owned
 NBC, they would sue Nike for comedy-interface copyright violation.
From: lhjensen@fish.Princeton.EDU (Leif Jensen)
Newsgroups: sci.math
Subject: Re: Another chocolate fish problem.
Date: 16 Oct 92 05:43:50 GMT
Article-I.D.: Princeto.1992Oct16.054350.25733
Organization: Princeton University
Originator: news@nimaster

In article <1992Oct16.053009.24883@Princeton.EDU> lhjensen@fish.Princeton.EDU (Leif Jensen) writes:
>1) Remove the leftmost group of n 1's followed by a 2 from the input
>partition and output n+2.
>2) Goto 1.
>3) At this point only n 1's remain in the input.  Output n+2.

Oops, Infinite loop!  That is inexcusable.  2) should read "If there are
any 2's left in the input partition, goto 1".

--
Leif Jensen
lhjensen@phoenix.princeton.edu
Newsgroups: sci.math
From: dpick@math.uci.edu (Daniel Pick)
Subject: Algebra problem
Newsgroups: sci.math
Organization: University of California, Irvine
Date: 12 Oct 92 15:32:57 GMT

Let p be a prime number and let G be a finite group without elements of order
p.  Show that if a^p = b^p for a,b elements of G, then a = b.

Please e-mail solutions to me at the address listed below.

--Dan 8^)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Daniel Pick
Mathematics Department
University of California, Irvine
Irvine, CA
dpick@math.uci.edu
From: zlsiida@fs1.mcc.ac.uk (dave budd)
Newsgroups: sci.math
Subject: John Leech obituary
Date: 15 Oct 92 14:12:25 GMT
Organization: Manchester Computing Centre

John Leech died Sept 28th
Born Weybridge, Surrey
Educated Trent College, Derbyshire; King's College, Cambridge
At Ferranti, Manchester, involved in construction of one of world's first 
commercial digital computers
Returned to Cambridge to do research.
'59 to Glasgow University computing lab (later dept comp sci)
'68 headed Stirling Uni dept comp sci

Developed one of the first programs to implement the Todd-Coxeter co-
set enumeration algorithm.
Devised the Leech Lattice (sphere packing in 24 dimensions), used to good 
effect by John Conway to produce new sporadic finite simple groups.


              Have another day    [Armageddon, the musical] 
  Dave Budd, MCC, Oxford Rd, Manchester, England   (44|0)61-275-6033
From: rabjab@golem.ucsd.edu (Jeff Bytof)
Newsgroups: sci.math
Subject: Re: Barbie developments
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 21:44:47 GMT
Organization: ucsd
NNTP-Posting-Host: lutherlab.ucsd.edu

>Exactly what counter-messages will 
>be used has not yet been finalised, but Mattel spokesperson April
>Furst said that "Beef: real food for real people", 
>"Abortion is a woman's right", and "I hate Arabs" are under consideration.

I can't believe this. 

---------------------
rabjab@golem.ucsd.edu
From: matt@amsaa-cleo.brl.mil (Matt Rosenblatt)
Newsgroups: sci.math
Subject: Re: Mattel says "Math is tough."
Date: 8 Oct 92 21:17:28 GMT
Organization: U.S. Army Material Systems Analysis Activity, APG MD

In article <1992Oct5.144142.2182@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca> 
mroussel@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca (Marc Roussel) writes:

>Women get too many negative messages about their chances of succeeding in
>technical careers.  This sort of product is dangerously stupid.  It would
>have been better for the doll not to mention math than for it to say that
>math is hard.  
. . .
>"Math is hard" is a message that women hear far too often. [Marc R. Roussel]

That's the doll's message.  It sounds like Mr. Roussel would not buy
this particular talking doll for any daughter of his, and that's fine.

>Math is not hard.  It is our job as educators to help them see that; 
>[Marc R. Roussel]

That's Mr. Roussel's message.  OK.  It's the job of educators to
help girls see that math is not hard.

>it is our
>responsibility as educated persons to see to it that Mattel withdraws
>this ill-considered product from the market.  [Marc R. Roussel]

According to this, fair competition in the "marketplace of ideas"
between the doll's message that "math is hard" and the educator's
message that "math is not hard" is not good enough.  The doll's
message must be suppressed, so that *no one* -- not even a mother
who believes that math *really is* hard -- will be able to buy
this particular talking doll for her daughter.

>I'm sure that Mattel didn't do this on purpose; ignorance 
>is potentially just as damaging as malice.  [Marc R. Roussel]

Suppose Hasbro comes out with a talking "King Kong" doll that 
tells kids, "Men evolved from apes," while preachers are
trying to tell kids that Man was Divinely created out of dust
on the sixth day of Creation.  And suppose the preachers say
it is their responsibility as religious persons to see to it
that Hasbro withdraws this ill-considered product from the market.

					-- Matt Rosenblatt
					(matt@amsaa-cleo.brl.mil)
Newsgroups: sci.math
From: tao@fine.princeton.edu (Terry Tao)
Subject: Re: Probably you know the probability ;-)
Organization: Princeton University
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 01:07:24 GMT

I assume from the question that the rod is browken by two independent
hammer thrusts distributed evenly across the rod.

The rods form a triangle if:

no piece has a length of l/2 or greater.  In other words, the piece on the
left has a length less than half, the piece on the right has length less
than a half, and the middle piece also.

If you now draw the square of dimensions lxl illustrating the possiblities
of the first and second cut, the acceptable region turns out to be two
isosceles right angled triangles (my ANSI editor is not up to this) and the
area is 1/8 l^2, i.e. probability is an eighth. 

The acute problem is harder, I'll work on it a while and tell you all
tomorrow.

Terry
From: goddard@NeXTwork.Rose-Hulman.Edu (Bart Goddard)
Newsgroups: sci.math
Subject: Re: STRUCTURE OF TIME and God
Date: 8 Oct 92 15:31:49 GMT
Article-I.D.: master.1b1k95INNni
Reply-To: goddard@NeXTwork.Rose-Hulman.Edu (Bart Goddard)
Organization: Computer Science Department at Rose-Hulman
NNTP-Posting-Host: g214-1.nextwork.rose-hulman.edu

Say, guys, you can (and do) insult us theists all you want, but   
personally, I have insecurities, I was raised Lutheran, and I enjoy all  
the side benefits of being religious (solace, solid friends, pot-luck  
dinners...)  But the ONLY reason that I believe in and practice the God  
stuff is that I think it is true and right.  What is most insulting  
about your insults is that you are saying that I would reason something  
like "Gee, I'm upset 'cause my friend died, so to get comfort I will  
adopt this obviously silly and false doctrine."  I'm a bit brighter  
than that.

I think that the popular stereotypes of Christians (thumpers, weenies,  
censors) have little basis in fact.  I have only met one real  
Bible-Thumper, very few weenies and censors, even though I'm right in  
the middle of things Christian.  How is it that you, who avoid Godly  
pursuits, run into so many of these distasteful types?  How does the  
fact of a member of the Gideons passing out free New Testaments on  
campus get to be construed as "cramming religion down your throat?"

The most compelling evidence of the existence of God, in general, and  
the validity of my specific religion (Missouri Synod, Lutheran), is the  
snarling, hydrophobic reactions from the "opposition."  

Lastly, what IS this thread doing on sci.math? (He asks, contributing  
to the problem.)

Bart

PS If you assume I have read more that 10% of this thread, you'll be  
wrong.
From: MTURELLA@cmsa.gmr.com
Newsgroups: sci.math
Subject: Bezier Approx to Circular Arc
Date: 13 Oct 92 21:00:08 GMT
Organization: GM Research Labs

Hi,
Could anyone out there help me determine the best fitting
Bezier Curve for a Circular arc.

Given a Circular Arc of:
  radius, R
  begin point, X0
  end point, X1
      where X0 and X1 are in Euclidean 3 space

Find the Bezier Curve Control Points of best fit
  (i.e. Control Points are vectors of length 3)
  Presently, the Bezier Curve should be of order 3 (i.e. cubic),
  but, I would also like the general order n form  if possible.
NOTE:
  The best fit Bezier Curve I need is standard Bezier,
      not Rational Bezier.


Formulae would help, some insight, or some good text books.

This problem is one of many for which I am writing code ... to
be implemented in a surfacing package.  So any good (easy to understand)
text references would be appreciated.  Lord knows, I'll be
working on these problems for a while.


Thanx in advance,
Mark Turella
Date: Wednesday, 14 Oct 1992 11:36:16 EST
From: <RVESTERM@vma.cc.nd.edu>
Newsgroups: sci.math
Subject: Re: Well-known people who majored in math (other than mathematicians)
Distribution: na
 <COLUMBUS.92Oct14092835@strident.think.com>

could someone at columbia go to the library and look up what art
garfunkel's doctoral thesis was on? i'd be very interested.



Newsgroups: sci.math
From: rjk@world.std.com (robert j kolker)
Subject: What mathematics underlies OOP
Summary: Mathematical theory or model underlying object oriented programming
Keywords: OOP,Mathematics
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1992 11:40:43 GMT


THe mathematics underlying relational databases is the algebra of n-adic
relations with some restriction on complementation.

The mathatematics underlying PROLOG and other types of rules based
programming is first order predicate calculus usually restricted to Horn
Clauses.

The mathematics underlying applicative function languages is Lambda Calculus.

Now, what is the mathematics underlying object oriented programming?

Your opinions, please.

Conan the Libertarian rjk@world.std.com
"If you can't love the Constitution, at least hate the Government"

Newsgroups: sci.math
From: jbaez@riesz.mit.edu (John C. Baez)
Subject: Re: too intuitive to prove
Organization: MIT Department of Mathematics, Cambridge, MA
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 92 19:55:44 GMT

In article <1992Oct8.053608.24694@u.washington.edu> menasian@u.washington.edu writes:
>A group of us are working on a problem that is far too obvious for us to
>grasp.  We need to prove, either formally or informally, that a relaion R
>on a set A is symmetric if and only R=R^(-1)
>
>We're looking for either ideas to start us off or a complete proof.  
>(a complete proof is, of course, perfered)

This is an "unravel the definitions and bingo!" sort of proof.  I
suggest you write down the definition of R being symmetric very
carefully in terms of conditions on R(x,y) for all x,y in A, and
similarly write down the definition of R = R^{-1}, and you will see
that they are the same.
From: kavuri@lips.ecn.purdue.edu (Surya N Kavuri )
Newsgroups: sci.math
Subject: Re: Probably you know the probability ;-)
Date: 14 Oct 92 22:00:09 GMT
Organization: Purdue University Engineering Computer Network

In article <1992Oct14.193802.25129@noose.ecn.purdue.edu>, kavuri@lips1.ecn.purdue.edu (Surya N Kavuri ) writes:
>   I am given a "rod" of fixed length l. I took a hammer and
>   broke it into three parts.
> 
>    (a) what is the probability that they form a triangle ?
>    (b) what is the probability that they form an isoceles triangle ?
> 
>  
>    Surya Kavuri
> 
> 

    Let me add more to this.

     (c) what is the probability that they form an acute-angled traingle ?



     
Surya
Newsgroups: sci.math.symbolic
From: sponholz@epikur.ita.uni-heidelberg.de (SPONHOLZ)
Subject: modern algebric software ?
Organization: University of Heidelberg, Germany
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 92 15:00:23 GMT


Dear my friends,

does anyone know an excellent algebraic
software-system, apprpriate for the 
now very common workstations ?

It should contain at least the capability
of MACSYMA ore something else,
but more comfortable: fully mouse-controlled,
input and output expressions as TEX/LATEX and
FORTRAN and C ... ?

Something, where you can create a desktop and
use, blend, and substituate the several expressions
viea mouse ...

Has  anyone experions with such software,
is it available and how expensive approx.
for universities ?


Thank you

Hanno Sponholz

 sponholz@epikur.ita.uni-heidelberg.de
Newsgroups: sci.math.symbolic
From: dscy@eng.cam.ac.uk (D.S.C. Yap)
Newsgroups: sci.math.symbolic
Subject: Q: Easy way to integrate a matrix in MAPLE?
Date: 12 Oct 92 23:59:05 GMT
Organization: cam.eng

How does one get maple to integrate a matrix?  That is, I would like
to integrate a matrix in an element by element manner.  For example,
if Q is a matrix, I would like

int(Q,x=0..l);

to return a matrix of the same size as Q, where the elements of this
resultant matrix are the result of integrating the elements of Q wrt x
between 0 and l.

Thanks for any help,

Davin
--
          .oO tuohtiw esoht fo noitanigami eht ot gnihton evael Oo.
      Davin Yap, University Engineering Department, Cambridge, England
                       -->  dscy@eng.cam.ac.uk  <--
From: murison@cfa203.HARVARD.EDU (Marc A. Murison, RG)
Newsgroups: sci.math.symbolic
Subject: Re: Help required to use Maple `solve'
Date: 8 Oct 92 13:40:28 GMT
Organization: Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA,  USA

From article <1992Oct8.131132.1@ntuvax.ntu.ac.sg>, by ma1346631@ntuvax.ntu.ac.sg:
> I have some problem using the Maple command `solve'. 
> For example, if I write
>>solve({x^2-4},{x});
> it will give me the following
> 	{x:=2,x:=-2}
> My problem is: how do I put these 2 values into separate variable 
> names ie. x1:=2 and x2:=-2; so that I can use these 2 values separately
> and for different purposes?

You might do something like this:
   foo := solve( ...whatever... );
   for j from 1 to nops([foo]) do  
      x.j := foo[j];
   od;

Marc A. Murison                | #include <fstream.h>
Smithsonian Astrophysical Obs. | void main( void ) { 
Cambridge, MA 02138            | ifstream in("obquote.txt",ios::in); 
Newsgroups: sci.math.symbolic
From: jingjun@leland.Stanford.EDU (Jingjun Cao)
Subject: Help Help Help Help 
Organization: DSG, Stanford University, CA 94305, USA
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 92 04:59:50 GMT


Simple Question:

I am using Mma on a Next workstation and trying to do some vector analysis.
To load the corresponding package, I typed in:
<<Calculus/VectorAnalysis.m
It seems to be evaluated, but I cann't do the "CrossProduct", anyone there 
happens to know what could be the problem? Please email your answer to me, 
many many thanks.

BTW, the version of Mma is 1.2.


JJ
Newsgroups: sci.math.symbolic
From: taylor@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (Ross Taylor,Peyt312,6652,2655436)
Subject: Simple (?) Maple question and Thermodynamics
Organization: Clarkson University
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1992 13:17:33 GMT


Hi there:

I am looking for some help using Maple V to do thermodynamics.

Here is a portion of a Maple session that takes a pressure 
explicit equation of state and gets to the dimensionless 
Helmholtz free energy ( Fr(T,V,n) ).


P := (n * R * T) / (V - B) - D / (V * (V + B));
Ar(T,V,n) := int( (P - (n*R*T)/V),V=V0..infinity);
Ar(T,V,n) := subs(V0=V,Ar(T,V,n));
Ar(T,V,n) := collect(Ar(T,V,n),D);
Ar(T,V,n) := collect(Ar(T,V,n),T);
Ar(T,V,n) := collect(Ar(T,V,n),B);
Ar(T,V,n) := collect(Ar(T,V,n),R);
Ar(T,V,n) := collect(Ar(T,V,n),n);
Fr(T,V,n) := Ar(T,V,n) / (R*T);
Fr(T,V,n) := collect(Fr(T,V,n),T);

Here is what Maple gives me for Fr(T,V,n);

                                                  (ln(V) - ln(V + B)) D
         Fr(T, v, n) := (- ln(V - B) + ln(V)) n + ---------------------
                                                          B R T


This is, of course, correct.  However, I want to get the answer 
in a form that has terms like this:

            V
      ln (-----)  
          V - B

          V + B
      ln (-----)  
            V

So far I have been unable to get Maple to do this.  The function
collect  (...,ln) does not give answers in the right form.

I would be very grateful for any assistance you Maple experts 
may be able to provide.

While on this topic might I ask if there is anyone out there 
using Maple for thermodynamic problems.

Ross Taylor
Department of Chemical Engineering
Clarkson University
From: erland@spock.physik.uni-konstanz.de (Erland Wittkoetter)
Subject: Re: schoonship manual
Reply-To: erland@spock.physik.uni-konstanz.de (Erland Wittkoetter)
Organization: Uni Konstanz
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 08:20:54 GMT

In article <1992Oct7.131958.2983@sarah.albany.edu>  
hibrown@sarah.albany.edu (Herb Brown) writes:
>In article <1992Oct6.222503.7804@news.cs.brandeis.edu>  
fell@binah.cc.brandeis.edu writes:
>>Does anyone know how to obtain a copy of the scoonship manual. Thanks.
>
>
>I believe the original distribution (on a FISH disk) contained an lharced
>version of the manual called SchipAMIdocs.lzh. 
>

I have got the manual via anonymous ftp at  archive.umich.edu  .

Erland Wittkoetter
--
+++++++++++++++++++++++++ Erland Wittkoetter ++++++++++++++++++++++++
Uni Konstanz, Dept.of Physics, LS Dehnen, PO.Box 5560, W-775 Konstanz
 Phone: +(49) 7531-88-3747	 FAX. +(49) 7531-88-3888
(priv.) Abendbergweg 7, 775 Konstanz, Germany,     Phone :07531-43078
E-mail: erland@spock.physik.uni-konstanz.de
        phwitt@nyx.uni-konstanz.de
From: aal@navier.ae.utexas.edu (Alfred Lorber)
Newsgroups: sci.math.symbolic
Subject: Re: Mathematica Book (2nd ed)
Date: 14 Oct 92 19:13:47 GMT
Distribution: sci.math.symbolic
Organization: CFD Lab, Dept ASE-EM, University of Texas at Austin


> My copy of the Mathematica Book (2nd edition) is beginning to
> fall apart. This is unusual for me, since I am pretty careful
> rwith texts.
> 
> Suggestion: Make the next addison-wesley edition with
> a sewn spine. (Yes, I have the spiral bound quick reference
> guide, but sometimes it is not enough).

  When I was at the last SIAM conference in Los Angeles, there was an
Addison-Wesley display and I asked the salesman there about the book
in question.  He said it was a known problem, and a 2nd printing has
fixed it.  He said I should be able to exchange the book where I
bought it, and if not, I could send it to Addison-Wesley and they
would replace it.
  I went to the bookstore (Book Stop in Austin, Texas) and they
replaced it without even looking at the receipt.  The new book is
holding up fine, so far...

-Alfred

--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Alfred Lorber (aal@cfdlab.ae.utexas.edu) | "It occurs to us that the
                                         | majority of our problems are
Computational Fluid Dynamics Laboratory  | caused by workers that don't
Dept. of Aerospace Eng. & Eng. Mechanics | think, and thinkers that 
The University of Texas at Austin        | don't work"
Austin, Texas  78712      (512) 471-4069 |        -- West Texas saying
                                         | 
        \\_____/===\_____//              | 
             --0\ /0--                   | 
                (@)                      | 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------