South Carolina Golf Vacation

Well, Halloween is over and late fall is setting in. Here, in the Midwest, all the leaves have fallen from the trees, the weather is cold, and it is getting dark early. Soon, it will be winter.

South Carolina, however, still has nice weather and there are great vacation deals for you to Golf Myrtle Beach. South Carolina, especially the Myrtle Beach area, has a lot of green, PGA quality golf courses.

MyrtleBeachGolf.net specializes in selling Myrtle Beach Golf Vacations. They have Myrtle Beach Golf Packages that combine Southern charm and hospitality with Myrtle Beach Golf. So, for a reasonable price, you get great golfing, sight-seeing, shopping, hotel, and dining.

This could give you a great fall break from the cold, darkness, and leafless trees back home.

Monte Hall Logic

I've read about the Monte Hall Problem in a few different places.

Basically, the situation is that you are on a game show, and there are 3 doors in front of you. There is a car behind one door, and goats behind the other two. If you pick the door with the car, you win the car!

So, you pick one of the doors. Now, at this stage in the game, the host always opens one of the two remaining doors, which always has a goat behind it.

Now, there are only two doors to choose from. The host now gives you the chance to either stay with your choice, or switch to the other door.

What should you do?

The answer, which generates some controversy, is to always switch, because there is a 2/3 chance that the car is behind the other door. A lot of people think the odds are 50-50, but this isn't so.

When you first picked your door, there was a 2/3 chance that the car was not behind the door you picked. For convenience, let's say that you picked door A, and the other two doors are B and C. So, there is a 2/3 chance that the car is behind B or C.

Now, the host opens door B. The key is that, when the host chooses a door to open, he always chooses a door with a goat behind it. That means the host knows where the car is, so his choice is not random. This is why there is still a 1/3 chance that the car is behind door A and a 2/3 chance that the car is behind door C.

I read somewhere that this problem is easier to understand if we consider more doors. So, let us say that there are 100 doors. The car is behind one of the doors. You pick your door, and then there is a 99/100 chance that the door is behind one of the other 99 doors.

Now, the host opens 98 of the doors, revealing goats. So, now you are down to 2 doors: the one you picked and the one that the host did not open. Now, it should be a little easier to see that there is a 99/100 chance that the car is behind the second door, and that you should switch.

In both cases, the second door survived a "test" of the host unveiling goats, while your initial choice was never subjected to a test.

Alarm Systems from ADT

When my wife and I moved to our present house, we found that the previous owners had spent a lot of money putting in a wireless ADT Security System.

We decided to take advantage of it, and subscribe to ADT for monitoring. After moving into a big house from a townhouse, my wife felt more secure with the Home Security system.

Now, after almost 6 years of being an ADT customer, I can definitely recommend them to people interested in Home Security Systems, because we have always gotten prompt and professional service from them.

Their operators are polite, and their technicians are very knowledgeable.

REPOST: Calculating Your Age By How Many Times You Dine Out

This was a math party trick that I published back in 2007:

1. First of all, pick the number of times a week that you would like to go out to eat.
(more than once but less than 10)

2. Multiply this number by 2 (just to be bold)

3. Add 5

4. Multiply it by 50

5. If you have already had your birthday this year add 1757 ....
If you haven't, add 1756.

6. Now subtract the four digit year that you were born.


You should have a three digit number

The first digit of this was your original number
(I.e., How many times you want to go out to restaurants in a week.)

The next two numbers are

YOUR AGE!

In this post, I analyzed this process and why 2007 is the only year this worked.

Can you modify it for other years?

TutorVista Online Tutoring for Math plus Other Subjects

Since this is an educational, math-oriented blog, I thought I would let my readers know about an affordable tutoring website that offers Online homework help for college and K-12th students.

TutorVista can help with any subject, but they are really strong in fundamental math skills. They can provide a Math homework helper for Math homework help and Algebra homework help.

TutorVista is very reasonably priced. For $99.99 per month, your child can get unlimited, Free homework help, including Free math homework help.

Paying a monthly fee for unlimited help, rather than a per hour charge encourages kids to ask for as much help as they need. They can view the tutor as Free online homework help - and not feel pressure to cut sessions short to save money.

Five Digit Number Logic Puzzle

A number has five different digits, none of which is 0.

1. The first digit plus the second digit equals the third digit.

2. Two times the third digit, plus the second digit, equals the fifth digit.

3. The second digit times two equals the first.

4. The first digit times four equals the fourth digit.

5. The fourth digit minus the second digit equals the fifth digit.

What is the number?

Please click here for the solution.

Apple Picking

Three people picked 65 apples altogether. At the first tree they each picked the
same number of apples. At the second tree they each picked 3 times as many as
they picked at the first tree. When they finished at the third tree, the group
had 5 times as many apples as they had when they started at that tree. At the
fourth tree the group picked just 5 apples.

How many apples did each person pick at the first tree?

Please click here for the solution.

Investing in Gold

As a passionate advocate of simplicity and minimalism, I love websites that do one thing very well. A strong example of this type of site is GoldCoinsGain.com, which specializes in gold coin investments.

The site does not write about other investments (i.e. stocks or real estate). It is apparent that this site's author is an expert on buy gold coin investing, and his passion for the site is very evident. This site contains knowledge that I have not seen on more general financial sites.

For example, who knew that you could save for retirement by buy gold bullion? This site contains detailed information on the subject of investing in gold for retirement. For example, you can learn how to buy gold bullion and put it in an IRA and how to set up a 401k account that can purchase gold bullion.

Converting from Fractions to Percentage

Let's convert 5/12 to a percentage without using a calculator:

1. A percentage is simply a value divided by 100. So, we multiply our fraction by (100/12)/(100/12). This leaves us with 500/12 / 100, or 500/12 %

2. This reduces to 250/6 %

3. Finally, we can reduce this to 41 4/6 %, which is 41 2/3 %.

4. So, 5/12 is 41.67%

Magic Numbers in Sports

With the regular baseball season wrapping up, sports articles are listing the magic numbers for teams to clinch a playoff spot or their division. Magic numbers are also used in other sports, such as basketball.

What is a magic number?

The magic number shows how many wins by the leading team and/or losses by the second place team are needed for the leading team to win the division.

How is the magic number calculated?

It is calculated by T - W1 - L2

where T is the total games in the season

W1 is the wins by the leading team

L2 is the losses by the second place team

How is the magic number reduced?

As we can see from the formula, each win by the leading team decreases the magic number by one. Each loss by the second place team also reduces the magic number by one. When the magic number reaches 0, then the team clinches.

For example, assume that Team A is leading Team B in the standings and has a magic number of 4. Today, both Team A and Team B play games against different opponents.

Here are the results from the 4 possible outcomes:

1. Team A wins and Team B loses. Magic number is now 2.

2. Team A wins and Team B wins. Magic number is now 3.

3. Team A loses and Team B loses. Magic number is now 3.

4. Team A loses and Team B wins. Magic number stays at 4.

Online Math Tutoring from Guaranteach

Math is a fundamental math skill that all children need to learn. If your kid is having trouble with math, you might want to get him or her Online Math Help from Guaranteach.

An Online Tutoring service such as Guaranteach can make it very convenient because parents don't have to drive the kids back and forth. Also, they can learn in their own home, without having to go to a strange classroom. Finally, the online option can be much cheaper than hiring a local tutor.

The nice thing about getting tutored from Guaranteach is that they can offer personalized instruction that zeros in on your child's exact problem areas.

Jelly Beans

In a bowl of jelly beans, all but 16 are red, all but 16 are green, all but 16 are blue, and all but 18 are yellow.

How many of each color are in the bowl?

Please click here for the answer.

Chance of Having Two Boys

This was a question that generated controversy in Parade Magazine's "Ask Marilyn" column back in 1996.

The question was:

Say that a woman and a man (who are unrelated) each has two children. We know that at least one of the woman's children is a boy and that the man's oldest child is a boy. Can you explain why the chances that the woman has two boys do not equal the chances that the man has two boys? My algebra teacher insists that the probability is greater that the man has two boys, but I think the chances may be the same. What do you think?

Please click here for the answer.

Direct TV for Businesses

If you have a business like a bar, restaurant, or barber shop, then you might want to think about getting Direct TV for Business.

This way, your customers can watch the big game, relax, and spend time in your establishment. In fact, Commercial Direct TV is an important business tool because, if you don't offer it, you are at a competitive disadvantage to similar businesses that do offer it. For example, why would someone go to your bar, when they could go to the one down the street and watch the football game?

But, Direct TV Business plans are also valuable to businesses like doctor's offices and banks, because they can put it in their lobbies.

This way, your customers can enjoy Directv Business service while they wait, so they do not get bored.

Which Word Does Not Belong?

This is from the AskMarilyn column in the December 2, 2007 Parade Magazine:

Which of the following words does not belong:

advertisement

automobile

condominium

gymnasium

refrigerator

veterinarian


Please click here for the answer.

Interesting Math Blogs

Here are four nice mathematical blogs that I have found:

Conceptis addict - A lover of Japanese puzzles and math.

#13 Mathematics Street

E Ways of learning mathematics

God Plays Dice