"The American People"

I hate when politicians think they know what "The American People" want. President Obama said, "The American People want us to get work done."

I am not "The American People." I am an individual. I don't want work done. I want to be left alone. There is no such entity called "The American People."

Awesome Summation Formulas

In AP Calculus we were discussing summation formulas such as the summation of i for i = 1 to i = n. Readily available short cut formulas exist for the summation of i, i^2, and i^3. One of my students (Robert Wilt) was curious to see if formulas exist for larger exponents. His intellectual curiosity produced the following result. Awesome!

In Advanced Math we proved one of the first couple of these formulas using a proof by mathematical induction. Now it might be a nice exercise to see if some of the more complex formulas can also be proved by mathematical induction.

Histograms Using Excel On The Mac

Here is a video showing how you can create histograms using Excel on the Mac.

Global Warming Baby!

In-Match Adjustments

Sporting events are basically like any strategy game. You make strategic adjustments based on what you expect your opponent will do and your opponent is doing the same.

If you are significantly superior to your opponent, you will likely prevail regardless of your in-game adjustments. But the gratification is enhanced when you are similar in skill to or slightly below skill to your opponent. In these situations, the outcome tends to tilt to the combatant that makes the best adjustments.

Last night I played three doubles matches with three different partners. All three matches were very competitive with high quality tennis players. In each match, my team fell behind and doubts would creep into my mind. However, in all three matches, I figured out necessary adjustments to make. In all three matches, I experienced the feeling that I was confident that my team would catch up and eventually win the match, if only I or we executed the adjustments. As the evening concluded, my doubles teams pulled out tough come from behind wins in each match. Very satisfying. Hard to duplicate the feeling outside of athletic competition.

String Tester

Head Tennis has selected me to be a string tester for their new pro player string. They are sending tennis string to me that I will try out and give them feedback. This is really cool!

My Jeepin' Buddy

Tennis Feet

Tennis is hard on feet. Calluses, bruised toenails, torn toenails, and bloody toes. Thankfully I won the match. 

Best Sports Broadcasting Team

There is not a better sports broadcasting team than the tennis team. They communicate with me while they broadcast Wimbledon. 

Santa Was Desperate For Elves This Year!

Latest Championship Added to the Greenville High School Boys' Tennis Banner

The fourth consecutive Region 1 Championship was finally placed on the Boys' Tennis Banner in the Greenville High School gym. Last spring the Boys' Tennis Team completed its fifth straight championship season with Tri-County Championships in 2008, 2009, and 2011, and Region 1 Championships in 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012. In a few months, the tennis team will embark on a mission to win more championships. I would like to thank all the wonderful players who have made the Greenville Boys' Tennis Program a success.

Putnam Mathematical Challenge Proof

The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition (Putnam Challenge) is an annual mathematics competition considered by many to be the most prestigious university-level mathematics examination in the world. Scholarship money and free tuition at Harvard University are some of the benefits that can be earned in the competition.

Today I came across a Putnam Exam Challenge Proof. I grabbed my iPad and started working on the proof. A short time later, and several pages of writing on the iPad, I have successfully completed the proof.

Here is the proof.

If Land Could Vote

If land could vote, Mitt Romney would have beat President Obama in Pennsylvania in a landslide.

My Wife As Cleopatra

My wife has a post Halloween party. She is sporting her Cleopatra look.

Politics

"Politics is the art of making promises that taken in their entirety cannot be fulfilled."

Ken Stitt
November 3, 2012

Hurricane Sandy

Hurricane Sandy caused my skeleton to turn sideways.

Does It Matter Or Not?

The NFL referees are back! Too bad it was a week too late. My Green Bay Packers had a win instantly converted into a loss based on the horrible call by the replacement referees this past Monday night.

Bad Call

I have had people tell me it isn't a big deal. As long as the Packers, or any other team, gets hot at the end of the season and into the playoffs, that is all that matters. But what if this stolen win that was instantly converted into a loss keeps the Packers out of the playoffs? What if the Packers have fewer home playoff games? Isn't that a loss of revenue to the team? What if the Packers end up with a worse match up in the playoffs, assuming they make the playoffs?

But it is only one game, right? Not a big deal? Major League Baseball plays 162 games in their season. This is 10 times as many games as the NFL. Green Bay losing a win and getting an unjustified loss is equivalent to a bad call in MLB instantly converting 10 wins into 10 losses for a baseball team. The public outcry would be large.

As of September 27, 2012, if 10 wins were taken away from the division leading teams in MLB and converted into 10 losses, then 4 of the 6 division leaders would be knocked out of the playoffs. The other two division leaders (Washington and Cincinnati) would barely be hanging onto the last wildcard position.

On a positive note, if the Pittsburgh Pirates were the Seattle Seahawks, then the Pirates would have 10 losses instantly converted into 10 wins. This would put the Pirates into the last wildcard playoff position.

Indiana Open

Kyle King and I competed at the Indiana Open held at Indiana University of PA on August 28, 2012. We played in the Men's Open Doubles. Kyle also played Men's Open Singles. It was a USTA sanctioned tournament.

Stormy

A few weeks ago my family experienced the pain of losing our little Pug Rosie. She was hit by an automobile.
Today we drove to Rome, Ohio and adopted a new 3 month old Pug and Japanese Chin mix that my daughter named Stormy. We drove through a terrible lightening and thunder storm to get her.
After a storm, the sun shines again!

My daughter and Rosie.

Stormy

My daughter and Stormy.

Shades of Libertarianism

David Friedman

I recently came across an illustrated video of David Friedman discussing his libertarian ideas. Friedman's ideas were published in his book The Machinery of Freedom (full text is available here). Friedman's version of libertarianism is called market anarchism or anarcho-capitalism. Don't be scared off by the radical sounding terms. Essentially it is a look at what a society might look like if the functions of government were privatized by markets and voluntary exchange. I read the book many years ago and found that it opened up my mental horizons. Just as there are many shades of other political and economic philosophies, there are many shades of libertarian philosophies. Let the marketplace of ideas sort it out.

By the way, David Friedman is the son of Nobel Prize winning economist and libertarian Milton Friedman. Interestingly, Milton's libertarianism is a different shade than David's.

Milton Friedman