steve bergen (e-mail: bergen@nobles.edu)
p.s. notice that there are six items above, a perfect number .. coincidence, I don't think so
Friday, February 18, 2000 5:49:00 PM Message From: Steve Bergen-fac Subject: snowy friday to the y2k pythagoreans out there in cyberspace, some older than me and some younger than me it is snowing like crazy in boston which makes me thing of the number ten, since I once learned that 1 inch of rain equals 10 inches of snow .. 10 as we know is a nice number, since so much revolves around base ten .. but 10 is not perfect, since the factors of 10 are 1,2 and 5 and those numbers (1,2,5) add up to 8 which is less than 10 .. in case you did not know it, there are not many perfect numbers out there .. one perfect number is 6, since the factors of 6 (below itself) are 1,2 and 3 which add up to 6 .. there is one other perfect number under 33 .. can you be the first y2k pythagorean to find it? hope you are safe on this snowy day ... steve Friday, February 18, 2000 5:55:49 PM Message From: BL from Mass Subject: Re: snowy friday To: Steve Bergen-fac Steve - 6 ( = 1 + 2 + 3) and 28 ( = 1 + 2 + 4 + 7 + 14) are the only perfect numbers less than 33. Snow is good. Thursday, February 24, 2000 8:14:19 PM From:V Subject: Poifect Nummer! To: Steve Bergen-fac Steve -- If there's another number less than 33 that's also perfect , doesn't it have to be 1? If not, even brute force has failed me! Thursday, February 24, 2000 6:40:49 PM Message From:AL fron NYC In a leap year, on which date would two-thirds of the year have elapsed? Thursday, February 24, 2000 12:15:35 PM Message From: V good .. now what is that other perfect number under 33? you can find it! Can you give us a hint: the algorithm for generating the set that contains all the prime factors (although, as I recall, one has to test each result to see that it, itself, is prime)? Sunday, February 20, 2000 4:50:09 PM Message From:JR from Mass Subject: Re: y2k pythagorean update To: Steve Bergen-fac is the answer 28? 7,4,1,2,14 adds up to 28! Sunday, February 20, 2000 7:05:30 AM Message From: Steve Bergen-fac Subject: y2k pythagorean update To: Steve Bergen-fac Bcc: y2k pythagoreans i have only heard from a few of you about the other perfect number under 33, so I will wait on sharing the answer ... the intro below comes from our newest y2k pythagorean member whom I believe lives in NJ or Pennsylvania .. as you know we are a "secret group" and therefore cannot even know each other's e-mail addresses or identities .. at least that is what pythagorus said to me in his e-mail on 1/1/00 .. one more question .. what date every year in march is considered very special to pythagoreans and why .. this year it falls on a tuesday and the time magazine person of the century was born on this date, which CANNOT be a coincidence ... steve V writes: If ever there was a shaky candidate for this august group, it's sure to be me! I began teaching secondary math armed with only a degree in elementary education. David was better armed for his fight with Goliath! Even a graduate degree in secondary mathematics education and 2 summers in NSF programs earned me the equivalent of only an undergraduate major in math ed. One saving grace is that I've long enjoyed numbers and helping youngsters find some of that same joy in "playing with" them. To me, "elegance" in mathematics means "beautifully simple." Yet in my experience it is most often the result of repeated efforts and applied intelligence. As proud as I am of being labeled the father of both computing and lacrosse at one school I am most proud of helping students from the most to the least able enjoy, grow to respect, and -- occasionally -- even love mathematics. Sunday, February 20, 2000 7:08:52 AM Message From: Steve Bergen-fac do you know about mom i want a fancy antipasto on sunday mom has 3 letters I has 1 letter want has 4 letters and so on it is a sentence that contains the digits for 3 . 1 4 1 5 9 2 6 i might be wrong with the 6 by the way what about a contest for the longest correct English sentence that serves as a code for the digits of PI? Wednesday, February 16, 2000 7:05:23 PM Message From: AL from NYC Subject: Re: Y2K Un-News To: Steve Bergen-fac Ahhhh Pi Day occurs every March 14. . .3-14 ! We celebrated it last year and invited everyone up to our room for a piece of Collegiate Pi.. .much better with the symbol--something we constructed and gave out to everyone who asked--no, it was not food! We had a crash course on pi via many Internet connections and one on Einstein as well (because 3-14 is also his birthdate). We made scavenger hunts for each topic.March 14th is PI DAY, because 3/14 sounds like PI
PI of course is 3.14159 and years ago I made up this sentence to help me remember it
Mom I want a fancy antipasto count the letters! 3.14159
the sentence can be made longer, but right now I cannot remember the next few digits
Wednesday, March 01, 2000 7:20:41 AM Message From: LH from Mass Subject: Re: leapzillion To: Steve Bergen-fac Either 242 or 243. Thannk you, and what is Pi Day? Wednesday, March 01, 2000 4:28:42 AM From:AL from NYC Subject: leapzillion (1) one of our y2k pythagorans -- AL from NYC -- writes about yesterday, 2/29/00: In honor of this special day. . .that will not come again for 400 years. . .the word for the day is "Leapillion"-- More than a million But less than a zerillionjillion (2) I was very proud of one of our youngest y2k pythagoreans -- JR from Brookline -- who found the other perfect number is the answer 28? 7,4,1,2,14 adds up to 28! (3) Here is a new question proposed by one of our Y2K pythagoreans: In a leap year, on which date would two-thirds of the year have elapsed? (4) Coming soon, PI DAY: Pi Day occurs every March 14. . .3-14 ! Friday, March 10, 2000 3:45:34 PM Message this comes from one of our y2k pythagoreans who is obviously looking forward to March 14 next tuesday: >13 March 2000 Vol. 5, No. 11 > > THE MATH FORUM INTERNET NEWS > > Pi Day 2000 | Chance - Snell > Financial Mathematics in Context - Cooper > > > PI DAY 2000 > March 14 at 1:59:26 > > For Web sites about pi and activities for celebrating Pi Day, > visit the Math Forum's Internet Mathematics Library: > > Arithmetic/Early: Number Sense/About Numbers: Pi > http://forum.swarthmore.edu/library/topics/pi/ > > See, in particular: > > - Pi Mathematics - Ganas, Moore; National Center for > Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) > An adventure in exploring the concept of Pi, with > activities, projects, applications, history, an > information video, and teacher resources > http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Edu/RSE/RSEorange/buttons.html > > - The Pi Pages - Centre for Experimental and Constructive > Mathematics (CECM) > Links to many sources of information: the story of the > history of the computation of pi, current records of > computation, and more > http://www.cecm.sfu.ca/pi/pi.html > > - Pi Through the Ages - MacTutor Math History Archives > A history of pi > >http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/history/HistTopics/Pi_through_the_ages. >html > > Try an activity sent to us by teacher Diana Funke: > > - Making a Pi Necklace > http://forum.swarthmore.edu/teachers/middle/activities/pi_day.html > > or send a Pi Day greeting card: > > - 123 Greetings > http://www.123greetings.com/events/pi/ >
wow! I might get into trouble with pythagorus if he clicks on these web sites at the bottom of this e-mail, but I just a wonderful once in a googol experience.. thanks so MUCH to BL and LH for the electronic greeting cards on PI day!
two of my y2k pythagoreans (one over age 40 and one under age 15) sent me electronic greeting cards about PI DAY (March 14) each with her/his own sense of humor .. see the bottom of this note!
by the way, do you all know that
1) a googol is a one with a 100 zeroes
2) a googol is a one with a googol number of zeroes
3) when pythagorus died, he asked his followers to start counting from 1 to a googol as rapidly as they could and to make each succeeding son (they were sexist then and did not allow females to part of the cult) to keep counting starting at birth and non-stop to death .. when I was born, my mom (since the cult is now non-sexist) who was a member of the cult passed on a number to me that was NOT even close to a googol .. and every day I keep counting in my head all day long, hoping that my son or my daughter will be the first one to get to a googol
4) that it is easy to write down the number, a googol, but that is NOT easy to write down the number, a googol plex
5) that if you tie a pencil to a string and hold it for a googolplex number of seconds, it is absolutely certain that the pencil will jump up defying the laws of gravity for one of those seconds, due to the random ways that molecules hit objects from above and below
6) that if I do not stop writing now and get packed, i will miss my plane to England and will be mad at myself for about a googol number of years
--steve--
p.s. I will be back on line in about two weeks, last week of march madness!