70's wiring in new sockets

[SUNRAY]

All very nice but I do have to ask the obvious question, how many times has anybody on here needed to work to more than 2 or 3 decimal places of π?

 

[BS3036]

I think you're missing the point!

 

[SUNRAY]

I think you're missing the point!

Which one, the 3rd or the 200th?

 

[JohnW2]

Sorry. It just jars on me when I see people get it wrong! I only learned it to 50 places when I was at school.

Fair enough. I once could produce 20 or 25 places 'without thinking', but I'm fairly impressed that, probably 50 years since I last had to make use of that, I managed to get the first 6 dp right

'Back then', I could do similarly with "e", but these days I cannot confidently manage anything better than 2.7183.

What worries me far more is that there are plenty of members of recent generators who resort to a calculator to replace their absent knowledge of even basic 'multiplication tables'!

Kind Regards, John

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

What worries me far more is that there are plenty of members of recent generators who resort to a calculator to replace their absent knowledge of even basic 'multiplication tables'!

Remembering them was something I was never good at, I was good at/ enjoyed the maths, but storing the tables - no. I tended to remember a few and calculate the rest. Thus - 3x7 = 21; 6x7 = 2x(3x7 =21) = 42. I would just remember a few landmarks and get the needed one by addition or subtraction. I was really glad when the early calculators came along in the early 70's.

 

[JohnW2]

Remembering them was something I was never good at, I was good at/ enjoyed the maths, but storing the tables - no. I tended to remember a few and calculate the rest.

'Remembering them' was essentially unavoidable for us. If I recall correctly, throughout my time at the 'infants' part of my primary school (age 5-7 years or thereabouts), every school day started with mass 'chanting' of the tables - so they came to be impressed on our memories in the same way as if we had learned, say, poems in the same way.

Kind Regards, John

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

'Remembering them' was essentially unavoidable for us. If I recall correctly, throughout my time at the 'infants' part of my primary school (age 5-7 years or thereabouts), every school day started with mass 'chanting' of the tables - so they came to be impressed on our memories in the same way as if we had learned, say, poems in the same way.

Kind Regards, John

The chanting, for the most part, just didn't work for me, so I had find good workarounds.

 

[JohnW2]

The chanting, for the most part, just didn't work for me, so I had find good workarounds.

One of the problems with the 'chanting' method is that, at least for some people, it means that they have to mentally 'go through' the whole of a table' in order to get to the one they want.

Fortunately, it's never been like that for me - I seem to be able to 'extract' just the bit I need from my memory - such that, say, if I want just "8 times nine" that one line of the 'poem' is all that I have to think about. However, other than for the 'most used' ones, I think that my mind does go through that "eight times nine equals..." though process before the answer 'jumps out' into my mind!

Kind Regards, John

 

[Captain Nemesis]

'Back then', I could do similarly with "e", but these days I cannot confidently manage anything better than 2.7183.

That ones easier as it repeats to 8 places

2.718281828

 

[Captain Nemesis]

Yes when UDI was declared but I am not aware of Rhodesia being a major copper producer

It wasnt.

Zambia was bigger, but never got to much more than about 10% I think, and they found ways to continue to get a large amount of their production shipped through Rhodesia.

That there was no significant price increase probably says it all.

 

[JohnW2]

That ones easier as it repeats to 8 places ... 2.718281828

Sure, that's useful thing to remember if one only wants a maximum of 9 dps - but it doesn't help beyond that. To the first 50 dps ...

2.71828182845904523536028747135266249775724709369995

Kind Regards, John

 

[Captain Nemesis]

Who needs even 9 places? My only point was about you saying you couldnt remember more than 4. Thought it was a useful tip that you only need to be able to remember to 5 and that the last 4 repeat.

 

[JohnW2]

Who needs even 9 places?

Very few people, I imagine. Personally, I've rarely needed more than 4 - which is probably why that is all I can remember 'confidently'. In any event, for the past 40+ years, I haven't really needed to remember even one digit, since I've always had a calculator, or software, which enabled me to just 'press a button'!

My only point was about you saying you couldnt remember more than 4. Thought it was a useful tip that you only need to be able to remember to 5 and that the last 4 repeat.

Yes, I was aware of the repetition of "1828".

As you may know, a lot has been written about this over the centuries. Since the digits of e appear to be essentially random, the probability of any particular 4-digit sequence (such as "1818") occurring in any position is obviously 1 in 10,000. The probability of two occurrences of that sequence, consecutively, in the first 9 dps is therefore incredibly small, which has led a number of mathematicians to feel (almost certainly incorrectly!) that it "could not possibly just be a random happening" (i.e. could not just be a 'co-incidence'), so that they have sought (mathematical) 'explanations' - but, needless to say, none of them has ever found any 'explanation

Kind Regards, John

 

[Captain Nemesis]

Its entirely natural

 

[JohnW2]

Its entirely natural

People, even mathematicians, sometimes have difficulties in really believing that "random" means that "anything is possible", no matter how small the probability of that "anything"!

Kind Regards, John