I found the following in the comment section of the comic strip referenced below.
This year has at least 4 unusual dates 1/1/11, 1/11/11, 11/1/11 and 11/11/11.
So try this:
Take the LAST 2 digits of the year you were born and add the age you'll be this year.
And the answer you get is ...
How about that?
And when you do a little analysis it takes some of the 'wonder' out of it.
I saw the above computation as a comment to today's comic strip at "http://spikedmath.com/376.html".
My comment about this particular comic is:
Some time ago, I started working through the problems (I'm up to around problem 20, of over 300) at the web site "http://www.projecteuler.net/".
I read each problem as they come out, and every now and again write down a few thoughts. And usually I find that the problems and the Spiked Math comic above are about the same.
And I think there are two things going on in the above in the last two digits of the year you were born ... First ... is the 'set-up' with the unusual dates for 2011. And second, is the indirection built into the way it is posed ... You can pose it so that NO mystery is involved and you get the same thing.
ReplyDeleteAnd about the spiked math strip ... I used "http://http://www.wolframalpha.com" to actually do the calculation and I got 3.59950... as an answer (so it is about three.) Note: I did not, however, re-prove the 4-color theorem.