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Topic: Finally: an interesting math class (Read 3631 times) |
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alien2
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Finally: an interesting math class
« on: Dec 18th, 2007, 5:10am » |
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Your math professor is holding a class, and all the students are currently using compasses, drawing circles. Suddenly, the professor proposes the riddle below, & the one who solves it 1st wouldn't have to take the test tomorrow, for he/she will get an A for it right away.
What is the quickest way for you to make several circles of different sizes, by using one object alone with your hands, but w/o using objects more advanced than your compass?
Edit: I've replaced calipers with compasses.
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| « Last Edit: Dec 19th, 2007, 3:04am by alien2 » |
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Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
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Re: Finally: an interesting math class
« Reply #1 on: Dec 18th, 2007, 11:25am » |
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Put a pin in the table and tie a string to it. Tie pencils at your desired radii.
Use the pre-punched holes in your ruler and fix one end with another pencil.
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| « Last Edit: Dec 18th, 2007, 11:27am by Whiskey Tango Foxtrot » |
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alien2
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Re: Finally: an interesting math class
« Reply #2 on: Dec 18th, 2007, 12:25pm » |
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on Dec 18th, 2007, 11:25am, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot wrote:
Use the pre-punched holes in your ruler and fix one end with another pencil. |
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Not bad, but it looks like more objects than one to me. 
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Random Lack of Squiggily Lines
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Re: Finally: an interesting math class
« Reply #3 on: Dec 18th, 2007, 1:41pm » |
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First, wats a caliper?
is it like a compass?
Anyways, if your already drawing circles with calipers, just use the calipers
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| « Last Edit: Dec 18th, 2007, 1:41pm by Random Lack of Squiggily Lines » |
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You can only believe i what you can prove, and since you have nothing proven to cmpare to, you can believe in nothing.
I have ~50 posts to hack a "R" into a "D". Which one?
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alien2
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on Dec 18th, 2007, 1:41pm, tiber13 wrote:First, wats a caliper?
is it like a compass? |
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It is that basic thing you use in school to draw circles. I don't know some other name of it, but caliper looks correct to me. Am I wrong? Maybe compass is the right one, if it has two meanings. And here is a picture of it below. I think it is the correct picture, but it looks rather small, so I cannot see clearly all of its parts, but it looks fine to me. Don't you use caliper back at school?
on Dec 18th, 2007, 1:41pm, tiber13 wrote:
Anyways, if your already drawing circles with calipers, just use the calipers |
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There it is again: plural. I said just one thing that you could use with your hands only.
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| « Last Edit: Dec 18th, 2007, 2:11pm by alien2 » |
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towr
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Re: Finally: an interesting math class
« Reply #5 on: Dec 18th, 2007, 2:42pm » |
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A caliper is for measuring sizes; your picture is one for measuring the inside of things.
A compass can be used to actually draw circles, since one end has a point and the other a drawing implement (typically a piece of pencil-lead, but there are versions where you can insert a pen or other things. A knife is useful if you want to cut out circles, rather than draw them.)
I don't see why it should be a problem to use the latter to draw circles of different sizes.
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| « Last Edit: Dec 18th, 2007, 2:43pm by towr » |
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Wikipedia, Google, Mathworld, Integer sequence DB
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denis
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Re: Finally: an interesting math class
« Reply #6 on: Dec 18th, 2007, 3:10pm » |
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Take a sheet of paper and roll into a cylinder shape.
Stand one end of cylinder shape paper on another sheet of paper that is flat on the table. Trace a circle on the flat piece of paper using as a guide the outside edge of the cylinder that intersects the flat piece of paper.
You can repeat the process and use different size cylinders using the same sheet of paper.
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| « Last Edit: Dec 18th, 2007, 3:13pm by denis » |
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JiNbOtAk
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Re: Finally: an interesting math class
« Reply #7 on: Dec 18th, 2007, 5:13pm » |
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on Dec 18th, 2007, 5:10am, Iceman wrote:| What is the quickest way for you to make several circles of different sizes, by using one object alone with your hands, but w/o using objects more advanced than your caliper? |
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When you say one object alone, is that including or excluding the pen/pencil that you use to draw ?
I've actually seen a marker ( a person who measures and mark the steel plates for steel fabrication ) construct a circle using just his chalk and measuring tape. Though I'm not sure how precise it is, it looked better than my attempt with a pencil and a compass. 
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alien2
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Re: Finally: an interesting math class
« Reply #8 on: Dec 19th, 2007, 3:05am » |
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Nah. We need speed here, not lag.
on Dec 18th, 2007, 2:42pm, towr wrote:A caliper is for measuring sizes; your picture is one for measuring the inside of things.
A compass can be used to actually draw circles, since one end has a point and the other a drawing implement (typically a piece of pencil-lead, but there are versions where you can insert a pen or other things. A knife is useful if you want to cut out circles, rather than draw them.) |
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Live and learn. Thanks for the input. I modified the riddle accordingly too. And I suppose the technical name would be compass with interchangeable attachments.
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mikedagr8
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Re: Finally: an interesting math class
« Reply #9 on: Dec 19th, 2007, 3:18am » |
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Cut yourself enough so that you can bleed to create cirlces by moving the wound up and down, or spit onto the paper, then circle the spit accordingly.
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| « Last Edit: Dec 19th, 2007, 3:20am by mikedagr8 » |
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alien2
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Re: Finally: an interesting math class
« Reply #10 on: Dec 19th, 2007, 3:24am » |
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Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo slow.
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mikedagr8
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Re: Finally: an interesting math class
« Reply #11 on: Dec 19th, 2007, 3:41am » |
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on Dec 19th, 2007, 3:24am, Iceman wrote:| Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo slow. |
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By the time it took you to write that, I could have drawn multiple circles of different sizs by using the second method. 
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Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
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Re: Finally: an interesting math class
« Reply #12 on: Dec 19th, 2007, 8:48am » |
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Take your shirt off and form it into a circle.
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alien2
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Re: Finally: an interesting math class
« Reply #13 on: Dec 20th, 2007, 12:50am » |
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on Dec 19th, 2007, 3:41am, mikedagr8 wrote:
By the time it took you to write that, I could have drawn multiple circles of different sizs by using the second method. |
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All right. How many seconds do you need then, approximately? Btw, I have no idea what you're talking about.
on Dec 19th, 2007, 8:48am, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot wrote:| Take your shirt off and form it into a circle. |
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Huh? You have to make circles from scratch.
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mikedagr8
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Re: Finally: an interesting math class
« Reply #14 on: Dec 20th, 2007, 3:22am » |
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on Dec 20th, 2007, 12:50am, Iceman wrote:
All right. How many seconds do you need then, approximately? Btw, I have no idea what you're talking about. |
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I can draw 5 circles of various sizes in 16 seconds. I can probably draw faster, but I'm not the kind of person who has control over these fine movements.
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alien2
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Re: Finally: an interesting math class
« Reply #15 on: Dec 20th, 2007, 6:13am » |
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on Dec 20th, 2007, 3:22am, mikedagr8 wrote:
I can draw 5 circles of various sizes in 16 seconds. |
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You can do better than that.
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Grimbal
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Re: Finally: an interesting math class
« Reply #16 on: Dec 20th, 2007, 6:48am » |
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Throw a stone in the pond.
But it hardly deserves an A in maths.
edit: typo
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| « Last Edit: Dec 22nd, 2007, 11:57am by Grimbal » |
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alien2
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Re: Finally: an interesting math class
« Reply #17 on: Dec 22nd, 2007, 4:28am » |
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on Dec 20th, 2007, 6:48am, Grimbal wrote:| But it hardly deserves an A in maths. |
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The teacher is a bit exhibitionist and he has a big heart, what? And only one student got A like that. Chinese say: 'may I live in interesting times,' and to me the above class was interesting. And I didn't lose my alien tricks, not all of them anyway.
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| « Last Edit: Dec 22nd, 2007, 3:38pm by alien2 » |
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alien2
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Re: Finally: an interesting math class
« Reply #18 on: Dec 22nd, 2007, 3:39pm » |
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on Dec 20th, 2007, 6:48am, Grimbal wrote:| Throw a stone in the pond. |
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You got it Grimbal.
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alien2
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Re: Finally: an interesting math class
« Reply #19 on: Dec 24th, 2007, 5:37am » |
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Btw, how would you rate this riddle? To me it looks nice; Nothing special, but nice.
The reason I'm asking this is because of a few riddlers here. I won't mention their names, yet, but they suggested that my recent riddles lost my magic touch  from before. I want the truth and nothing but the truth. I'm not kidding. 
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JiNbOtAk
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Re: Finally: an interesting math class
« Reply #20 on: Dec 25th, 2007, 9:12pm » |
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You want the truth Icey ? You're right, you haven't lost the magic touch. After all, one cannot lose what one doesn't have, right ?
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alien2
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Re: Finally: an interesting math class
« Reply #21 on: Dec 26th, 2007, 3:06am » |
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You think that you can break my heart and turn me into stone? You think that I'm nymph Echo since on this forum I have my voice only? So thanks for the heavy critique, for it might only help me to improve my riddles.
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| « Last Edit: Dec 26th, 2007, 5:23am by alien2 » |
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shasta
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Re: Finally: an interesting math class
« Reply #22 on: Jan 18th, 2008, 6:54am » |
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on Dec 24th, 2007, 5:37am, Iceman wrote:| Btw, how would you rate this riddle? To me it looks nice; Nothing special, but nice. |
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I like it. I think this one's worthy of polishing up. Perhaps you might tell it as a story?
"Today's math class was actually interesting! For starters, because it was such a nice day out and there was no wind to blow our papers around our teacher decided to hold class outside! We sat on the benches by the pond, and the teacher set up a portable chalkboard and podium from which he gave us today's geometry lesson. We were having trouble paying attention because a pair of squirrels kept chasing each other around the benches. Just as the teacher was telling us how we needed to learn to ignore the squirrels they ran up one side of his leg and down the other! Finally he gave up and decided to have the students engage in a circle-making race, saying whoever made the most circles of different sizes in the next 10 seconds would get an automatic A on Friday's test! We all drew as fast and furiously as we could, but the student who won was none other than Slowpoke John, the slowest moving kid in the whole state! And he did it at his usual speed! Can you guess how?"
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alien2
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Re: Finally: an interesting math class
« Reply #23 on: Jan 18th, 2008, 8:41am » |
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........and I thought that I'm the one with great imagination.
Btw, someone suggested to throw the compass in the lake, not pebble. But I wonder would that make a perfect circle? It probably would, but I'm not that good at math. 
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thecow135
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Re: Finally: an interesting math class
« Reply #24 on: Jan 18th, 2008, 5:34pm » |
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define perfect circle. i dont think there are any perfect circles that can be drawn in nature, or anywhere else for that matter. the perfect circle is a myth, a perception.
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cuz everybody noe that the game dont stop try to make it to the top fo ur ass get popped
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