Tag Archives: math
The Frequency of Humanity
Every day on Earth, an estimated 371,124 people are born and 154,995 people die. When you ask Wolfram Alpha about these rates, the scientifically inclined site returns a curious corresponding quantity: the frequency in hertz. If you subtract the death rate from the birth rate, you get a net rate of 216,129 new people a …
Threes
Threes is tiny puzzle that grows on you. Combine 1 and 2 to get a 3. From then on, combine two of the same numbers to get a new number until the grid is locked. Don’t let the simplicity of the game fool you: it took quite some time to create it. Threes (iTunes Store) …
Why are software development task estimations regularly off by a factor of 2-3?
A “How Long Is the Coast of Britain?” alike answer to estimating how long software development will take. Let’s take a hike on the coast from San Francisco to Los Angeles to visit our friends in Newport Beach. The line is about 400 miles long; we can walk 4 miles per hour for 10 hours …
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Paper’s Color Mixer
Paper by 53 (recommended app) now sports an innovative color mixer / color picker. Turns out it was quite a mathematical struggle to implement it too. We learned in elementary school that yellow and blue when mixed turn green. However when you plug in the values to this equation, you get a different result: Gray! …
What is the least common PIN number?
People are notoriously bad at generating random passwords. I hope this article will scare you into being a little more careful in how you select your next PIN number. Recommended read. PIN analysis →