Tuesday, September 22. 2009
Exam 1, Spring 2005
Bonus question: You will be given a bonus of 1,2 or 3 points if and only if you write a true statement.
Model Answer (triple click here to view the ans): You will not be giving me a 1 or 2 point bonus.
Tuesday, September 15. 2009
Stuff/Animals you can use to help you when you want to do a proof by the principle of mathematical induction... dominoes are so old-fashioned.
1. Monkey. The induction monkey will climb up the induction ladder.
2. Duck. InDUCKtion
3. Rabbit. Figure this out yourself.
4. Baby. The baby must not fall down the induction ladder.
Feel free to add more.
(btw, ever heard of the contradiction pig?)
Thursday, August 20. 2009
Just went for the "Computer Science Night of Games and Fun" and I must say I was impressed and humbled (by the kind of ppl I met). To sidetrack a bit, they had about 40 boxes of pizza and cartons of soft drinks for 100+ students.
I got this cool name tag that has a cool quote written at the back:
and all the SCS students were given a cool Facebook umbrella (yes, it rains, and the rain is unpredictable):
Then after that, we watched a really cool classic movie.
Hello Everyone, I have been in Pennsylvania for nearly a week already. School is officially starting on 24 August, while this week is orientation week. I have been meeting a lot of people, getting to know a bit about the city (Pittsburgh), having a hug with the unpredictable local weather, and eating lots of stuff that I have never eaten before (well, its the standard stuff you get locally here, aka American food). That's all for now.
Standard size of MacDonalds Fries. At Los Angeles Airport.
Thursday, August 6. 2009
First things first, I have finally gotten around to looking at the source code and editing it. So, the shoutbox has been enabled again (but you can only shout after you login).
I suspect weiguo is having Ice Blended Mocha therapy instead of green tea therapy. Of cos, this therapy may have got to do with his disappearance from Facebook. We have since launched a 24-hr manhunt for him on Facebook. As of now, it is deemed mission-critical that we get weiguo back to Facebook to secure his Mona Lisa painting before it is stolen.
In our search for the most important guy on earth, we have also asked GOOGLE CADIE to assist us on this mission. To be continued...
Monday, August 3. 2009
I must say that I am very happy that someone else other than weiguo/me have decided to revive this blog by posting again! So what has happened in the last 2 yrs?
1. The guys went to army, and ORDed successfully. (yes! no one in our class signed on!)
2. The girls are more than half-way thru college, on the path to graduation.
3. Facebook became popular. So we had a 05S33 Facebook group created.
4. This blog was spammed quite badly (due to the trackbacks), I think it ended up with close to a 200 mb of database entries before it was suspended by the hosting provider... I was completed stunned. I had to do some sql-magic to delete the crap. And fix the hole by disabling trackbacks. That was a few months ago.
5. There are 3 musketeers going to cam.ac.uk to study mathematics! Yeah, mathematics rulez.
On a side note, I don't think I will be around for MAF this year. =p
Tuesday, January 20. 2009
Sunday, May 27. 2007
Looks like I am forced to post something because of the "reminder".
Indeed, one can postulate that WG must be 'bored'.
Perhaps then, I should quote (just like what WG has done), lines from A Mathematician's Apology ( PDF) that I find particularly thought-provoking.
(on mathematics)
What we do may be small, but it has a certain character of permanence; and to have produced anything of the slightest permanent interest, whether it be a copy of verses or a geometrical theorem, is to have done something utterly beyond the powers of the vast majority of men.
In these days of conflict between ancient and modern studies, there must surely be something to be said for a study which did not begin with Pythagoras, and will not end with Einstein, but is the oldest and the youngest of all.
(on ambition)
A man’s first duty, a young man’s at any rate, is to be ambitious. Ambition is a noble passion which may legitimately take many forms; there was something noble in the ambitions of Attila or Napoleon; but the noblest ambition is that of leaving behind something of permanent value—
Here, on the level sand,
Between the sea and land,
What shall I build or write
Against the fall of night?
Tell me of runes to grave
That hold the bursting wave,
Or bastions to design,
For longer date than mine.
Ambition has been the driving force behind nearly all the best work of the world. In particular, practically all substantial contributions to human happiness have been made by ambitious men. To take two famous examples, were not Lister and Pasteur ambitions? Or, on a humbler level, King Gillette and William Willet; and who in recent times have contributed more to human comfort than they?
(on being a mathematician)
If intellectual curiosity, professional pride, and ambition are the dominant incentives to research, then assuredly no one has a fairer chance of satisfying them than a mathematician. His subject is the most curious of all—there is none in which truth plays such odd pranks. It has the most elaborate and the most fascinating technique, and gives unrivalled openings for the display of sheer professional skill. Finally, as history proves abundantly, mathematical achievement, whatever its intrinsic worth, is the most enduring of all.
Sunday, July 16. 2006
After a few months of inactivity... here is another new post...
Jun Wei @ IMO 2006 in Slovenia. And congrats to him for getting a bronze!
Sunday, March 12. 2006
Does anyone have the class photos from CNY or STJ or 33's Birthday?
Pls send them to me so that I can upload to this blog.
and check out http://www.google.com/mars/
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