things math is useful for

[edenfalling]

From the department of random observations:

1. The other day, I calculated how much time I spend walking. It comes to a minimum of 40 minutes per day, with the average (mode, not mean or median) hovering around 1 hour and 15 minutes. And at least 20 of those minutes are uphill... and in Ithaca, uphill is serious business. :-)

I suck at deliberate exercise. This is my way of tricking myself into healthy behavior.

(It also saves money, but we will not speak of such crass things. *grin*)


2. About a week ago, when it hit 101 Fahrenheit in Ithaca, for some reason I wanted to figure out what that equalled in Celsius. I then discovered I'd forgotten the conversion, and had to reinvent it from scratch, while walking home. Heat is not conducive to mental calculations -- I figured out how to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit, but it took me another ten minutes to reverse the calculation. And then I kept forgetting whether I had 5 or 9 as my denominator while attempting long division in my head.

*headdesk*

(101 F = 38.3333 C, for the curious.)

Comments

yo did what??

[erised1810.livejournal.com]

re-inenting the fahrenheit/centigrate conversion...by heart? what brand is this brian of yours that had si godo at alpha AND beta and where can Ibuy my own?
umm???? I feel very small and intimidated and stupid now. and my admiration for you plummited above the roof.
jsut for comparison In my maths class I was always oen of 'give me the formula to solve this and I"ll come backwith the answer, hopefuly .adn dont' even fekcign START to explain why we need that formula."

Re: yo did what??

[edenfalling]

Well, if you know that 0 = 32 and 10 = 50, the rest is just busywork. And I have never trusted calculators (my family only owned one for several years, and about one of fifty times we used it, it would spout utter gibberish instead of a proper answer), so I have long experience doing math in my head.

Re: yo did what??

[erised1810.livejournal.com]

and her's my point .I wont' be able to make the jump from that startign pointto ...wle lto even figuring out how totry to fidn the formula ((anddon't startto explain it either.for your interest the heredity concept has been explaiend to me five times and I stil don't get it.)

Re: yo did what??

[(Anonymous)]

Celsius to Fahrenheit: 1.8X + 32, where X is temperature in Celsius

Fahrenheit to Celsius: Subtract 32, divide remainder by nine, and multiply answer by five.


Example, boiling point of water -- 100C, 212F

100 times 1.8 is 180; 180 + 32 is 212
212 - 32 (or adding negative-32) is 180; 180 divided by 9 is 20; 20 times 5 is 100

Re: yo did what??

[erised1810.livejournal.com]

well whoever youare, thank you. I spent the rest of the evening tryign to figure it out anyway (with abit of help fro ma site) adn by the time i came clsoe to this I fell alseep .So thanks for confirming that-one.

[(Anonymous)]

And I'm one of the people who sucks at calculations...

Also, are you a part of the bb_shousetsu community?

[edenfalling]

No... what on earth is bb_shousetsu?

[(Anonymous)]

Sorry for the wait, I was at my grandparents and they have no computer.

bb_shotetsu (http://community.livejournal.com/bb_shousetsu/) is a community at which people write original one-shot stories, emulating a magazine. They write under assumed names so people will have to judge the stories based on the writing rather than the author, pairing, fandom, etc. The latest issue, was a special one (girls only) and a couple of stories reminded me rather strongly of you, so I thought I'd ask.

[edenfalling]

That sounds interesting -- I'll have to check it out!