A 3 sided box...

https://www.khanacademy.org/cs/3-sided-box/5862510565785600

Question about Time Dilation...

For a while, a question has been without answer in my mind. In recent conversation, I have brought it up but had a hard time explaining it. I decided to write it out to help organize my thoughts and help other people understand my thinking in hopes that either I find the answer in sorting it out or someone else comes up with a answer that solves the paradox in my mind. For the purpose of the example, let's assume that instant communication with quantum entanglement (or some other system) is possible.

Mr. Smith  is traveling through space at high speeds. Mr. Brown is on earth. When Mr. Smith  passes earth at supersonic speeds, he fires two photons, one in front of him and one behind him. he has set up sensors that move with his ship that detect when the photon he fired hits them. These sensors do not change the course of the photons, they merely detect them.When they detect them, they send an instant message to the control board witch records the time it received each one. According to time dilation, if they are each equal distances away from the origin of the photons, they should both receive the same time.  

Mr. Brown, who is on earth, also has two sensors. They are also each an equal distance away from where the photons were released. They also should also receive them at the same time.

The problem? For Mr. Smith's readings to be the same, his space ships time will both have to speed up (for the photon sent behind it) and slow down (for the photon sent in front of it).

Any thoughts?

 

 

 

 

A math joke I made up

There were two mathematicians in a car. The car started stalling and then just failed. The first guy said "Man, I have no idea what's wrong with this car. I've tried replacing almost everything and it keeps doing this." and the other guy stated: "Just run it at half power and you'll get to the root of the problem."

Volume Problem...

If you played a song on very low volume and then when it started fading out slowly turned it up, what would happen?

On choosing a door.

Just found this presentation lodged between two posts on my old blog: (it still confuses me...)

My Magic Number Theory

What follows is my mostly developed Magic Number theory or Jem Theory that probably already exists but I haven't found yet.

Every Platonic Solid (there are 5 total) has a magic number... You may be thinking "how do we get this number? why is it magic? what is a 'plant on it' solid?" Don't worry, I will answer all of you questions in good time.

First of all, what is a Platonic Solid? It is a 3D object where every face is the same Polygon. Read more about them here: http://www.mathsisfun.com/definitions/platonic-solids.html

Ok, ok that's great. So what about this whole 'Magic Number' thing? If you add up the total number of corners, and then multiply it by however many edges and faces each corner is touching, you get the Magic Number for that solid. But that's not all; if you add up the total number of faces and multiply that by the number of edges and corners each face touches, once again, you get the magic number. You also get the magic number if you add up the total number of edges the solid has, and then multiply it by the number of corners and faces that edge touches (for this one it's always 4), as you can guess, you get the magic number.

A list of the magic numbers for each shape:

Cube: 48
Dodecahedron: 120

Shapes where the sides are triangles:
Tetrahedron: 24
Octahedron: 48
Icosahedron: 120

Oh, and if you have any ideas how these numbers relate please let me know in the comments or something (more detailed list below);

Name	# faces	Face shape	Jem Number
Tetrahedron	4	Triangle	24
Octahedron	8	Triangle	48
Icosahedron	120	Triangle	120
Cube	6	Square	48
Dodecahedron	12	Pentagon	120

Creation of Life

Most people believe in evolution, and that life originated by chance, and yet nobody has been able to create a single living cell, nor give life to anything dead.