Sunday Express Skeleton 24Th November...
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MM Links April 2012 Week 4
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Well all too soon it is my last week as setter of the MM Links. Once again I have enjoyed setting them and watching avidly on a Sat morning to see how quickly they are guessed. I wonder if Bigmac will do as well as he did last week and guess them all again?! Perhaps I will "be on his wavelength", as he is on mine, if he is ever the setter!
Numbers have fascinated me since I was very young when I was one of the few who actually liked learning my tables. Numbers are everywhere, but some are more special than others. They are usually the first thing we learn in a foreign language along with hello and goodbye. The first use of numbers was possibly with bones and other artefacts which were discovered with tally marks cut into them. These tally marks may have been used for counting elapsed time, such as numbers of days, lunar cycles or keeping records of quantities, such as of animals. We are all familiar with odds and evens, primes, squares, cubes and triangular numbers but what about some of the others? Negative numbers can be seen on our outdoor thermometers. Natural numbers are the counting numbers 1,2,3 and so on. Integers include the counting numbers and their negatives. Numbers can be rational or irrational or complex, all with different mathematical meanings.
Some numbers traditionally have alternative words to express them, including the following: 0 can be nil, zilch, nothing, zero; 1 can be a single; 2 can be a pair, couple or brace, 3 a trio, 6 a half-dozen (although many youngsters don't seem to know the word dozen!) ; 12 a dozen; 13 a baker's dozen (dating back centuries when bakers used to give 13 loaves for every dozen ordered so as to be sure not to cheat the buyer in case of low weight of his loaves); 20 a score; 100 a century; 144 a gross.
Mathematically a " perfect number" is a whole number equal to the sum of its divisors. The smallest perfect number is 6 - its divisors 1,2 and 3 add up to 6. The next perfect number is 28 being the sum of 1,2,4,7,14. The next 3 perfect numbers are 496, 8128 and 333550336.
I have loved sudoku puzzles since the first ones appeared in the Telegraph and the Times in late 2004 and still try to manage at least one every day. I have tried the many variations but still prefer the "killer" sudoku puzzles where you are given totals of groups of squares within the 9 x 9 grid and you then have to fill in all the numbers.
Numbers have fascinated me since I was very young when I was one of the few who actually liked learning my tables. Numbers are everywhere, but some are more special than others. They are usually the first thing we learn in a foreign language along with hello and goodbye. The first use of numbers was possibly with bones and other artefacts which were discovered with tally marks cut into them. These tally marks may have been used for counting elapsed time, such as numbers of days, lunar cycles or keeping records of quantities, such as of animals. We are all familiar with odds and evens, primes, squares, cubes and triangular numbers but what about some of the others? Negative numbers can be seen on our outdoor thermometers. Natural numbers are the counting numbers 1,2,3 and so on. Integers include the counting numbers and their negatives. Numbers can be rational or irrational or complex, all with different mathematical meanings.
Some numbers traditionally have alternative words to express them, including the following: 0 can be nil, zilch, nothing, zero; 1 can be a single; 2 can be a pair, couple or brace, 3 a trio, 6 a half-dozen (although many youngsters don't seem to know the word dozen!) ; 12 a dozen; 13 a baker's dozen (dating back centuries when bakers used to give 13 loaves for every dozen ordered so as to be sure not to cheat the buyer in case of low weight of his loaves); 20 a score; 100 a century; 144 a gross.
Mathematically a " perfect number" is a whole number equal to the sum of its divisors. The smallest perfect number is 6 - its divisors 1,2 and 3 add up to 6. The next perfect number is 28 being the sum of 1,2,4,7,14. The next 3 perfect numbers are 496, 8128 and 333550336.
I have loved sudoku puzzles since the first ones appeared in the Telegraph and the Times in late 2004 and still try to manage at least one every day. I have tried the many variations but still prefer the "killer" sudoku puzzles where you are given totals of groups of squares within the 9 x 9 grid and you then have to fill in all the numbers.
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But what of individual numbers and their special meanings? Many numbers have a certain significance?
The number 1 is called an ace in playing cards. Words beginning uni signify one of something.
2 is the only even prime number. 2's company. Computers work with two states called binary.
3's a crowd depending on who you're with!
Many things are arranged in 4's. There are 4 suits in a deck of cards, 4 points of the compass, and 4 phases of the moon. There are 4 wings on a bee and 4 leaves on a clover, if you are lucky.
5 digits on each hand and foot. V, the Roman symbol for 5, may originate from the image of a hand with the fingers spread.
6 sides to a honeycomb, the most economical close-packing of wax cells. 6 faces to a cube.
Among many things that come in 7's are the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World, Shakespeare's 7 Ages of Man, the 7 Dwarves and the 7 Deadly Sins. How many of each can you name? 20p and 50p coins each have 7 sides.
8 days a week according to the Beatles.
There were 9 major planets in the solar system before Pluto was downgraded. Beethoven wrote 9 symphonies, and a cat is said to have 9 lives.
The 10 pins in a bowling alley are arranged in a triangular pattern. Virgins, according to the Bible, come in 10's: 5 foolish and 5 wise. Decimal numbers come in 10s.
12 months, 12 signs of the Zodiac, 12 apostles and 12 people in a jury in England and Wales (15 in Scotland).
13 is the `unlucky number' and Friday the 13th is supposed to be particularly unlucky. Perhaps because there were 13 seated at the last Supper. 13 original conspirators were foiled in the Gunpowder Plot. Witches gathered in covens of 12, then the devil joined them as no 13. Some aircraft omit Row 13 in their seats. Apollo 13 was an unsuccessful mission by the USA's NASA program to land a mission on the moon, although fortunately all of the craft's crew returned to Earth safely. 13 is supposedly the number of steps leading up to the gallows. But in some traditions 13 can be lucky. In Judaism, 13 is the age at which a boy achieves Bar Mitzvah. There were 13 original colonies in the USA. At 13 you can get a part time job, but only for 2 hours a day.
At 16, you can leave school, buy cigarettes, marry with parental consent. The compass rose has 16 points.
At 17 you are allowed to drive most vehicles.
18 holes on a golf course. In the UK, the names of race horses can be no longer than 18 characters, including spaces.
21 was formerly the legal coming-of-age when you received the `key of the door'. A twenty-one gun salute is fired in the UK for royalty and in the US for the President. It comes from the time when the largest ships of the British navy had 21 guns along one side.
24 carat gold means pure gold. All gold should have a hallmark on it somewhere showing its purity. 375 would be the marking for 375 parts out of 1000 signifying 9 carat gold.750 for 18 carat gold and 916 for 22 carat gold.
The best known feature of Stonehenge is the Sarsen Circle which was built as 30 upright stones with 30 lintel stones on top of them. Only 16 remain standing today.
In the A series of paper sizes the length of the paper is always √2 x width of the paper.
The number 1 is called an ace in playing cards. Words beginning uni signify one of something.
2 is the only even prime number. 2's company. Computers work with two states called binary.
3's a crowd depending on who you're with!
Many things are arranged in 4's. There are 4 suits in a deck of cards, 4 points of the compass, and 4 phases of the moon. There are 4 wings on a bee and 4 leaves on a clover, if you are lucky.
5 digits on each hand and foot. V, the Roman symbol for 5, may originate from the image of a hand with the fingers spread.
6 sides to a honeycomb, the most economical close-packing of wax cells. 6 faces to a cube.
Among many things that come in 7's are the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World, Shakespeare's 7 Ages of Man, the 7 Dwarves and the 7 Deadly Sins. How many of each can you name? 20p and 50p coins each have 7 sides.
8 days a week according to the Beatles.
There were 9 major planets in the solar system before Pluto was downgraded. Beethoven wrote 9 symphonies, and a cat is said to have 9 lives.
The 10 pins in a bowling alley are arranged in a triangular pattern. Virgins, according to the Bible, come in 10's: 5 foolish and 5 wise. Decimal numbers come in 10s.
12 months, 12 signs of the Zodiac, 12 apostles and 12 people in a jury in England and Wales (15 in Scotland).
13 is the `unlucky number' and Friday the 13th is supposed to be particularly unlucky. Perhaps because there were 13 seated at the last Supper. 13 original conspirators were foiled in the Gunpowder Plot. Witches gathered in covens of 12, then the devil joined them as no 13. Some aircraft omit Row 13 in their seats. Apollo 13 was an unsuccessful mission by the USA's NASA program to land a mission on the moon, although fortunately all of the craft's crew returned to Earth safely. 13 is supposedly the number of steps leading up to the gallows. But in some traditions 13 can be lucky. In Judaism, 13 is the age at which a boy achieves Bar Mitzvah. There were 13 original colonies in the USA. At 13 you can get a part time job, but only for 2 hours a day.
At 16, you can leave school, buy cigarettes, marry with parental consent. The compass rose has 16 points.
At 17 you are allowed to drive most vehicles.
18 holes on a golf course. In the UK, the names of race horses can be no longer than 18 characters, including spaces.
21 was formerly the legal coming-of-age when you received the `key of the door'. A twenty-one gun salute is fired in the UK for royalty and in the US for the President. It comes from the time when the largest ships of the British navy had 21 guns along one side.
24 carat gold means pure gold. All gold should have a hallmark on it somewhere showing its purity. 375 would be the marking for 375 parts out of 1000 signifying 9 carat gold.750 for 18 carat gold and 916 for 22 carat gold.
The best known feature of Stonehenge is the Sarsen Circle which was built as 30 upright stones with 30 lintel stones on top of them. Only 16 remain standing today.
In the A series of paper sizes the length of the paper is always √2 x width of the paper.
Enough of the Maths Lesson (what do you expect? It was my job!) and back to the Links!According to normal practice, for the everyday running of MM, I shall follow this rule on word length, in that each of my pre-selected link words contains at least four letters and at most eight letters. Stray outside this range and you will be wasting one of your attempts!
Each of the selected link words may go in front of, or behind my challenge word.
The competition will officially close on Sunday Evening at 7.00pm, when gen2 will declare my pre-selected words and then apply the same rules for awarding points that have been applied during all MM Link Games in the past. My set of four words to have their links predicted should appear below at 9.00am
Each of the selected link words may go in front of, or behind my challenge word.
The competition will officially close on Sunday Evening at 7.00pm, when gen2 will declare my pre-selected words and then apply the same rules for awarding points that have been applied during all MM Link Games in the past. My set of four words to have their links predicted should appear below at 9.00am
