The DW Math Thread

Decus - Dreamweaver
Decus - Dreamweaver Posts: 5,033 Arc User
edited November 2014 in Tideswell (East)
Since I was given a pass on this (http://pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=1006022&page=10), I am now making the first (and probably last) math-only thread. This is a safe place where those with math addiction can confide in each other and seek assistance. Furthermore, if you need help with a problem, you can ask here and maybe get an answer (and perhaps lots of confusion).
Now I can stop derailing threads :o!
Also, in the past, my siggy had various equations, laws, or formulae that some people enjoyed naming. I'd change it up every so often or when I got bored with it and then the guessing would begin anew. As such, I think I'll restart that practice again (as well as asking fun, semi-challenging problems) but place it in this thread instead of my signature. (Not really challenging, mostly fun!) :3

So, let's begin, shall we? I'll start off easy:

Tell me the sum of all the alternating odd numbers from 1 to 999 (starting with -1).

Put another way...

Bonus points if you tell me why this is a neat little series :D


EDIT: Upper bound should be 500, not 999. Thanks for catching that, Laterra. This renders Cheze's answer wrong. The correct sum is 500.
Proving that not only archers do math since 2009. b:victory
Current math challenge: pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=1029711&page=45
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
"Any skills that can be used to kill you will interrupt BB when successful." -truekossy | "...Sage archers are kind of like Mac owners. They are proud of the weirdest and most unnecessary things." -Aesthor | "We ALL know Jesus doesn't play PWI. He may have suffered a lot for humanity, but he'd NEVER punish himself this way." -Abstractive | "I approve of bananas." -SashaGray
Post edited by Decus - Dreamweaver on
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Comments

  • grimreaperhc
    grimreaperhc Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    Gratz on your math thread Decus!

    Just wanted to mention that I`m automatically blacklisting this thread b:chuckle

    Good luck! b:cute
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  • Decus - Dreamweaver
    Decus - Dreamweaver Posts: 5,033 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    GrimReaperHC wrote: »
    Gratz on your math thread Decus!

    Just wanted to mention that I`m automatically blacklisting this thread b:chuckle

    Good luck! b:cute

    D:

    Thanks for the opportunity. b:thanks

    Damn that was fast b:quiet
    Proving that not only archers do math since 2009. b:victory
    Current math challenge: pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=1029711&page=45
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    "Any skills that can be used to kill you will interrupt BB when successful." -truekossy | "...Sage archers are kind of like Mac owners. They are proud of the weirdest and most unnecessary things." -Aesthor | "We ALL know Jesus doesn't play PWI. He may have suffered a lot for humanity, but he'd NEVER punish himself this way." -Abstractive | "I approve of bananas." -SashaGray
  • Cheze - Lost City
    Cheze - Lost City Posts: 200 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    -999
    whats so neat about -1 2 -3 4 -5? o.O
  • MageFizban - Lost City
    MageFizban - Lost City Posts: 1,158 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    Cheze - Lost City wrote: »
    -999
    whats so neat about -1 2 -3 4 -5? o.O

    That's the bonus you cheater.
  • FatherTed - Dreamweaver
    FatherTed - Dreamweaver Posts: 3,723 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    Is the answer gin?

    I like gin.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    Thanks for the sig Ophida :3
  • Decus - Dreamweaver
    Decus - Dreamweaver Posts: 5,033 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    Cheze - Lost City wrote: »
    -999
    whats so neat about -1 2 -3 4 -5? o.O

    Dammit cheze! Give the rest some time to at least make an effort b:angry

    How've ya been, btw :o?
    FatherTed - Dreamweaver wrote: »
    Is the answer gin?

    I like gin.

    Gin is the answer to most problems, just not mathematical ones b:surrender
    Proving that not only archers do math since 2009. b:victory
    Current math challenge: pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=1029711&page=45
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    "Any skills that can be used to kill you will interrupt BB when successful." -truekossy | "...Sage archers are kind of like Mac owners. They are proud of the weirdest and most unnecessary things." -Aesthor | "We ALL know Jesus doesn't play PWI. He may have suffered a lot for humanity, but he'd NEVER punish himself this way." -Abstractive | "I approve of bananas." -SashaGray
  • Sirrobert - Dreamweaver
    Sirrobert - Dreamweaver Posts: 3,395 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    OMG it's math.

    RUUUNNN for your lives b:surrender
    9 out of 10 voices in my head say I'm not crazy... the 10th is singing the music of tetris
  • Tearle - Dreamweaver
    Tearle - Dreamweaver Posts: 511 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    -bookmarks thread-

    Ok I need to figure out a Northwest ordinance problem with an X in the first provided row. Normally I can do Nw. ordinance but when you add letters into math, things get upsetting for me ;_;
    How do you find what X is without any other provided information except the uh, graphy thingy with the boxies? Because you can't do the problem without all the numbers and I cant give answers with any unknowns in them q_q

    Also how is i imaginary and yet real at the same time ;-; letters shouldn't be in math. They should stay in writing.
    [SIGPIC]http://i1218.photobucket.com/albums/dd414/FluffyPeace/screenies and such/2011-03-1116-04-45-1.jpg[/SIGPIC]
    Well hi to you too Frankie b:cute
  • Teppeii - Dreamweaver
    Teppeii - Dreamweaver Posts: 1,206 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    Tearle - Dreamweaver wrote: »
    -bookmarks thread-

    Ok I need to figure out a Northwest ordinance problem with an X in the first provided row. Normally I can do Nw. ordinance but when you add letters into math, things get upsetting for me ;_;
    How do you find what X is without any other provided information except the uh, graphy thingy with the boxies? Because you can't do the problem without all the numbers and I cant give answers with any unknowns in them q_q

    Also how is i imaginary and yet real at the same time ;-; letters shouldn't be in math. They should stay in writing.

    Just put on your paper that the Northwest Ordinance has no constitutional authority.b:chuckle

    And imaginary numbers aren't really imaginary, love. It may not exist in the four basic number systems (Natural, Rational, Integer, Real) it exists in the complex number system.

    -incoming convoluted/poor explanation-

    Consider this rule for multiplying complex numbers:

    (a,b)(c,d) = (ac-bd, ad+bc)

    Keep in mind that imaginary numbers are multiples of i. We can prove that i exists by finding a number squared that equals -1. The number system (0,1) is such.

    (0,1)(0,1) = ( (0)(0) - (1)(1), (0)(1)+(1)(0) ) = (-1,0)

    The complex number (-1,0) is different from the real number -1, though. It's a pair of real numbers, -1 and 0, not a single real number.

    Now, consider the rules for adding complex numbers:

    (a,b) + (c,d) = (a+c, b+d)

    Complex numbers of the form (a,0) behave identically to the way ordinary real numbers a behave. They add and multiply in exactly the same way that ordinary real numbers do. So:

    (a,0) + (b,0) = (a+b,0)
    (a,0)(b,0) = (ab,0)

    But since real numbers a and complex numbers of the form (a,0) are the same as far as their arithmetic behavior is concerned, you view them as just two different representations of the same concept.

    So, you can say the complex number (-1,0) and the real number -1 are the same. Thus, (0,1), when squared, gives -1. So, i exists. It is just the pair of numbers (0,1) under the above rules for adding and multiplying.


    Decus can probably explain better, i'm just regurgitating what my math teacher told me freshman year.
    On indefinite hiatus :3
  • Tearle - Dreamweaver
    Tearle - Dreamweaver Posts: 511 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    Teppeii - Dreamweaver wrote: »
    Another language.

    Can you dumb that down. Like, a lot?

    -edit- **** the i thing. I just need northwest ordinance help nowww.

    Give me a writing paper or eco homework over math anyway day please ;-;
    [SIGPIC]http://i1218.photobucket.com/albums/dd414/FluffyPeace/screenies and such/2011-03-1116-04-45-1.jpg[/SIGPIC]
    Well hi to you too Frankie b:cute
  • Decus - Dreamweaver
    Decus - Dreamweaver Posts: 5,033 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    Tearle - Dreamweaver wrote: »
    -bookmarks thread-

    Ok I need to figure out a Northwest ordinance problem with an X in the first provided row. Normally I can do Nw. ordinance but when you add letters into math, things get upsetting for me ;_;
    How do you find what X is without any other provided information except the uh, graphy thingy with the boxies? Because you can't do the problem without all the numbers and I cant give answers with any unknowns in them q_q

    Also how is i imaginary and yet real at the same time ;-; letters shouldn't be in math. They should stay in writing.

    Sorry for taking so long, the forum would not display right on my desktop at home so I had to view this at work.

    Frankly, I am confused by what you mean when you say Northwest Ordinance problem. Is it some sort of word problem or a data analysis problem? Forgive me, I've just never heard of it.

    Tepp-kun, make sure to not use shorthand which may or may not confuse others ;)

    When we say (a,b) we mean the generic form of a complex number --> a + b*i
    A number with real part a and imaginary part b*i

    As far as i is concerned, I must confess that I have never heard of i as being both real and imaginary. (It is the imaginary unit after all!) The one that is frequently confused is if zero is imaginary or real. Indeed, what Teppeii said was correct, but it does not make i both real and imaginary. It just says that the complex number (0,1) multiplied by itself ("squared") satisfies for existence of i and that (-1,0) is, for all intents and purposes, the same as real -1

    I even looked into some research and, while I confess that complex analysis is not a strong point of mine, I have not found anything to imply that i was both real and imaginary. The only thing I can think of that you might have meant is that 0 + 1*i has both a real and an imaginary part (and is = i)

    Make sense?
    Proving that not only archers do math since 2009. b:victory
    Current math challenge: pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=1029711&page=45
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    "Any skills that can be used to kill you will interrupt BB when successful." -truekossy | "...Sage archers are kind of like Mac owners. They are proud of the weirdest and most unnecessary things." -Aesthor | "We ALL know Jesus doesn't play PWI. He may have suffered a lot for humanity, but he'd NEVER punish himself this way." -Abstractive | "I approve of bananas." -SashaGray
  • Teppeii - Dreamweaver
    Teppeii - Dreamweaver Posts: 1,206 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    Decus - Dreamweaver wrote: »
    Tepp-kun, make sure to not use shorthand which may or may not confuse others ;)

    Apologies, i'm a learner, not a teacher ._.

    And I guess I went off on a tangent before reading the actual question. i is, well, imaginary o.o Necessary for mathematics in many facets, but imaginary nonetheless. Sorry, Tearle. Thought you were asking how it could exist, rather than the textbook terminology of "real."

    /surrender
    On indefinite hiatus :3
  • Tearle - Dreamweaver
    Tearle - Dreamweaver Posts: 511 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    Uhm, the northwest ordinance its like for data and timing things I guess? I was absent when my teacher taught it but it's a box like matrix thingy with more boxes and there's way too many numbers ;-;

    does that make sense?

    I'll see if I can draw it...
    decuspicture.png

    Epic paint skills... sorry for it sucking :c
    [SIGPIC]http://i1218.photobucket.com/albums/dd414/FluffyPeace/screenies and such/2011-03-1116-04-45-1.jpg[/SIGPIC]
    Well hi to you too Frankie b:cute
  • GoodStart - Dreamweaver
    GoodStart - Dreamweaver Posts: 70 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    Decus pimps 4 ho's. If the price is $75 per trick, how many tricks per day must each ho turn to support Decus' $1,300 a day crack habit?




    +2 to my post count. (2 = 1 duhhr)
  • Teppeii - Dreamweaver
    Teppeii - Dreamweaver Posts: 1,206 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    GoodStart - Dreamweaver wrote: »
    Decus pimps 4 ho's. If the price is $75 per trick, how many tricks per day must each ho turn to support Decus' $1,300 a day crack habit?




    +2 to my post count. (2 = 1 duhhr)

    4 and one third.b:cute

    Not sure which troll this is...Zan?
    On indefinite hiatus :3
  • GoodStart - Dreamweaver
    GoodStart - Dreamweaver Posts: 70 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    Teppeii - Dreamweaver wrote: »
    4 and one third.b:cute

    Sorry, but that is incorrect.

    Not sure which troll this is...Zan?

    I am not a troll, and I am not Zan. Think of me as a goblin - a troll with brains and a perverse sense of humor. Oh, and my name is GoodStart.



    Anyone had green beer today?

    b:spit
  • Teppeii - Dreamweaver
    Teppeii - Dreamweaver Posts: 1,206 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    Sorry, but if I couldn't do simple story problem math like that I'd have killed myself a long time ago.

    No, I suppose you're not Zan. He's at least a bit more clever.
    On indefinite hiatus :3
  • grimreaperhc
    grimreaperhc Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    I hate math but that doesn't mean that I`m not watching this thread.
    So, quit the fights guys.
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  • Zanryu - Dreamweaver
    Zanryu - Dreamweaver Posts: 7,261 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    Teppeii - Dreamweaver wrote: »
    Sorry, but if I couldn't do simple story problem math like that I'd have killed myself a long time ago.

    No, I suppose you're not Zan. He's at least a bit more clever.

    Hi Tep, I like you too b:shy

    How did I even manage to end up in a thread about.. ugh.. math? I was specifically avoiding this thread -.-
  • Decus - Dreamweaver
    Decus - Dreamweaver Posts: 5,033 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    GoodStart - Dreamweaver wrote: »
    Stuff
    Teppeii - Dreamweaver wrote: »
    Other stuff

    Be nice kids because I will murder someone if my thread gets closed b:angry
    Proving that not only archers do math since 2009. b:victory
    Current math challenge: pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=1029711&page=45
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    "Any skills that can be used to kill you will interrupt BB when successful." -truekossy | "...Sage archers are kind of like Mac owners. They are proud of the weirdest and most unnecessary things." -Aesthor | "We ALL know Jesus doesn't play PWI. He may have suffered a lot for humanity, but he'd NEVER punish himself this way." -Abstractive | "I approve of bananas." -SashaGray
  • GoodStart - Dreamweaver
    GoodStart - Dreamweaver Posts: 70 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    b:surrender

    I am being nice.

    I wanted to add an amusing word problem to partake in the festivities. It's just kind of tricky, that's all.

    I expected to be told to go die alone in a corner, but not this.


    b:cry
  • Zanryu - Dreamweaver
    Zanryu - Dreamweaver Posts: 7,261 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    Decus - Dreamweaver wrote: »
    Be nice kids because I will murder someone if my thread gets closed b:angry

    Me first, please, save me from the tyranny of math!
  • truekossy
    truekossy Posts: 7,021 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    Zanryu - Dreamweaver wrote: »
    Me first, please, save me from the tyranny of math!

    He'll murder you using long strings of various formulas.

    Then he'd start torturing Grim with even more math for daring to close this thread.
  • Veonita - Dreamweaver
    Veonita - Dreamweaver Posts: 28 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    The answer is 42.
    I am:
    VeonitaMage Lvl 001 Mage
    LadyVeonita Lvl 034 Archer
    VeonitaMysti Lvl 055 Mystic
    $exyAlexis Lvl 090 Cleric
    $exyAIexis Lvl 092 Sin

    Im in your Mind and I will never leave~
  • Xarathox - Dreamweaver
    Xarathox - Dreamweaver Posts: 1,657 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    Veonita - Dreamweaver wrote: »
    The answer is 42.

    no It's 2^18.
    Some people risk to employ me

    Some people live to destroy me

    Either way they die
  • Okeano - Harshlands
    Okeano - Harshlands Posts: 4,943 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    Math?
  • truekossy
    truekossy Posts: 7,021 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    Indeed
  • Teppeii - Dreamweaver
    Teppeii - Dreamweaver Posts: 1,206 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    Veonita - Dreamweaver wrote: »
    The answer is 42.

    It's 6.673x10^-11b:angry
    On indefinite hiatus :3
  • Zanryu - Dreamweaver
    Zanryu - Dreamweaver Posts: 7,261 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    Okeano - Harshlands wrote: »
    Math?

    Mind = blown
  • Xarathox - Dreamweaver
    Xarathox - Dreamweaver Posts: 1,657 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    truekossy wrote: »
    Indeed

    I know someone who did the exact same thing to AT&T back when they were circulating fake $300 service charges a few years ago.

    After having his phone line shut off 3 times in one month due to "late payments" he did the same thing. They kept mailing the check back to him. ^.^
    Some people risk to employ me

    Some people live to destroy me

    Either way they die
This discussion has been closed.

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