Science
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Royal Roads
“O King, through the country, there are royal roads and roads for common citizens, but in geometry there is one road for all.” Menaechmus (4th century BC) in answer to his pupil Alexander the Great asking for a shortcut to geometry.
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Familiar Words From 1974
I started reading {a history of} π again yesterday. I read this some 12 years ago but wanted to read it again as I am going through some algebra fundamentals helping my daughter with her math exams. Almost 50 years ago, in the preface to the third edition from 1974 author Petr Beckmann wrote the…
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Wondrous Arithmetic : Division
Remember having to divide numbers by hand ? If you have a rational number you can move from fractional form (a/b) to decimal form and back. Going from fractional to decimal form is done by performing the long division method. Going the other way is done using a ‘trick’. Any rational number written in decimal…
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Wonderbaarlijk rekenen
Het waren weer examens en ik heb mijn dochter wat geholpen bij de voorbereiding van haar wiskunde examen. We zijn daar mee begonnen tijdens de lockdown van 2020 en ze had er blijkbaar iets aan dus doen we zo voort tot ze het niet meer nodig vindt. Het was verrassend voor mij dat ik na…
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Genius. The Life and Science of Richard Feynman, James Gleick (ISBN 978-0679747048, Vintage)
After having reread the collected Feynman anecdotes from Surely You’re Joking and What do you care ? in the Classic Feynman edition I wanted to reread this biography by James Gleick again. The main reason being that the anecdotes focus on stories that happened to Feynman leaving out most of the science. Originally I read…
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Apollo 13
This movie with Tom Hanks playing Jim Lovell came out in 1995. It is about the disastrous Apollo 13 flight and based on the book ‘Lost Moon’ by Jim Lovell. Apollo 13 was the third flight scheduled to land on the moon and so got little prior attention from the press. That changed dramatically after…
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Classic Feynman: All the Adventures of a Curious Character, Richard Feynman, Ralph Leighton (ISBN 978-0393061321, W. W. Norton & Company)
This 500+ pages book contains all the stories from Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman and What do you care what other people think. If you have already read these 2 books and maybe own them then there is not much new. Unless you are a true fan. There is a foreword by Freeman Dyson and…
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What do you care what other people think, Richard Feynman (ISBN 978-0393355642, W. W. Norton & Company)
This is the follow up of the bestselling Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman. It is quite a bit thinner, only 230 pages or so and of a different nature. Where Surely You’re Joking had a lot of relatively short funny stories with Feynman playing the ‘comedian’ this book is a lot more serious in tone.…
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Philips Natlab. Kraamkamer van ASML, NXP en de CD, Paul van Gerven (ISBN 978-082707410, Techwatch Books)
Ik kwam dit boek toevallig tegen in een artikel en heb het gelijk gekocht vanwege de link van Natlab met ASML. Het is een kleine 400 pagina’s dik maar ik heb het deze week voor de tweede keer gelezen en het was in 4 dagen uit. Voor wie interesse heeft in technologie uit de lage…
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Oefening 3
Bepaal de nulwaarden van de volgende veeltermen in de onbepaalde x: a) A(x) = 3x – 2 A(x) = 0 ⇔3x – 2 = 0 ⇔3x = 2 ⇔x = ⅔ b) B(x) = 2×2 – 5 B(x) = 0 ⇔ 2×2 – 5 = 0 ⇔ 2×2 = 5 ⇔ x2 = 5⁄2 ⇔…
Response 418 