Stand back everyone, I'm about to do math!

[ElboRuum]

You know what has always bothered me about math puzzles which are intended to instill the wow factor in math to generate interest? It's that these puzzles, while achieving their goals, tend to be so out of the realm of reality, that it fundamentally fails to answer the question "what the hell does this have to do with real life".

Take for example this one:

"If I give you a penny today, and I give you double that amount tomorrow, and I keep giving you double the previous day's amount for the rest of the (31-day) month, how much will you have at the end of it? Just take a guess."

Now, most people unfamiliar with a geometric series will always guess low by several orders of magnitude because, well, a penny ain't shit.

The answer, without calculating and in cents, is 2^0 + 2^1 + 2^2 + ... + 2^29 + 2^30. The last term alone is nearly 10 3/4 million dollars.

WOOOOOOOOOW! See? Wow factor.

The REAL answer to this question is "How much do you have?", because logically I can't give you something I don't have in my possession, and unless this is the off chance that I happen to have a net worth exceeding tens of millions of dollars, you're limited to what I do have.

WOoooooow... oh wait... shit... Real life sucks... Real life math sucks worse.

[Ptah]

1. 2^30=1,073,741,824 n/t

[ElboRuum]

2. It's in cents. Move decimal two places to left to get dollars.

10,737,418.24

Approximately 10 3/4 million dollars.

[siligut]

3. Like online poker

Theoretically, you played well and have 7 million bucks.

[ElboRuum]

8. Yet somehow the WSOP bracelet eludes...

Sidebar...

That's a big pile of money they bring out for the final two, isn't it?

[siligut]

9. I took my comment off an episode of Psych

Gus, one of the main characters, plays online poker and was up 7 mil. He gave off the impression that the money was real, but he just couldn't get it. The show is played very tongue-in-cheek. :hi:

[ElboRuum]

10. Like the show...

Not particularly regular in watching it though.

[IcyPeas]

4. my head hurts

[ElboRuum]

7. Don't feel bad...

Real life math isn't something to sneeze at, nor should it be lionized. More evidence to support this assertion:



Yeah, that's about right.

[graywarrior]

5. I'm in the middle of math hell in college

There's a WTF? balloon over my head 24/7.

[ElboRuum]

6. Calculus doesn't have to be made easy, it already is easy.

I know this doesn't help, but your comment just reminded me of Edward James Olmos in Stand And Deliver.

[graywarrior]

11. My brother describes calculus as imaginary problems with imaginary solutions

[LynneSin]

12. "Wow Factor"? You watching Storage Wars?

That's where that phrase originated from.