Human Calculator

Alexis Lemaire is a world famous mathlete. His task was to find the 13th root of 85,877,066,894,718,045,
602,549,144,850,158,599,202,771,247,748,960,878,023,151,
390,314,284,284,465,842,798,373,290,242,826,571,823,153,
045,030,300,932,591,615,405,929,429,773,640,895,967,991,
430,381,763,526,613,357,308,674,592,650,724,521,841,103,
664,923,661,204,223with the answer being  2396232838850303 that he calculated in under 77.99 seconds, breaking his own previous record. When asked about his incredible ability, Lemaire responded saying, "It is quite difficult. I did a lot of preparation for this. More than four years of work and a lot of training every day. A lot of memorising. I need three things - calculating, memorising and the third on mathematical skills. It is a lot of work and maybe a natural gift" (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/6913236.stm). So how does he do it? Lemaire talks about being able to transform number into structure or shapes to "see" the answer to the problem, "I see images, phrases, actions. It's very tactile, sensitive. I have these associations between places and numbers - some places are imaginary, I try to vary so I don't confuse the numbers" He can also think of numbers and see movies or sentense. He calls it "translating numbers to words" (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/6913236.stm). It is truely amazing how our brains work sometimes!

The Beauty in Math

The thing that surprises me the most about Tom Zhang, besides his overall brilliance and love of math, is how persistent he was for the whole four years he worked (10 hours a day for a seven day week). That just blows my mind! I can't even spend more than fifteen minutes on a problem that has been solved countless times prior and yet here's Zhang, pushing through his moments of weakness and thoughts of giving up, to solve one of the hardest unsolved problems. It's amazing!!

When I was reading Zhang's interview, I couldn't help but think how this relates to any sport/audition/competition where you have to put yourself out there to achieve the things that you want. Because I'm into preforming arts and singing, I can relate this to auditions. To be the best, and get the part you want, you can't let fear of failing turn you away from being the best you can be! You must use that fear to motivate you even more and let it keep pushing you to be even better. I'm sure Zhang failed countless times during his four year discovery, but because he kept pushing and let that drive him for greatness, he was able to succeed! In everything we do, there is a risk. But that risk is what makes our victories all the more rewarding!

Math in Secret

Before I came to the Academy as a shy sixth grader wanting to dive head first into good grades and new friendships, I use to dance. I would spend all my time talking about dance, watching dance and even dreaming about dance. I was obsessed! When I started dance ten years ago, I didn't think it had anything to do with math. I thought how good you could get relied on how skilled you were and the amount of practice and passion you were willing to dedicate to it. Once I got older, I realized that yes, that was 50% of it. The other 50% relied on math! I started seeing the similarities between math and dance. Dance is based on angles and formations...same as math! For example: when leaping through the air, you want to spread your legs at a perfect 180 degree angle. When turning, you could do a quarter turn (25 degrees) a half turn (50 degrees) and even a full turn (360 degrees). Once I started seeing the connections, I could apply them. Once I was able to apply them, I noticed my leaps were getting better (and prettier) and my turns were getting faster and more precise.

Sadly, I quit dance for four years. Just recently I started back up and the connection with math is still there. I was surprised because now I have a better understanding of all these relations (and what they mean) so I am able to apply them better. And hey, now I'm as good as I use to be!

9%

Grade, slopes and percents don't necessarily the same meaning, but definitely center around one main objective: to reach a goal. Even though grade slope and percents don't mean the same, they are still all connected. Slope can be defined as rise over run, or in the case of a road, vertical distance over the horizontal distance. The higher the grade, the steepness of the slope increases and the higher the percentage is for that slope. One can relate this to sine function of trigonometry. This is the best function to use because one can still find the slope of a road without having to know a horizontal distance. To relate this to what we are learning in math, you can find the horizontal run of a right triangle using sine if you know the angle and divide opposite side of the triangle by the hypotenuse (which is the rise).

The grade can effect a slope, which can end up altering the percent, by the amount of effort put in to keeping the slope going. In real life, a grade depends on the amount of effort is put into the slope (or test). If it is clear that one doesn't care and didn't study, they will receive a lower grade (percent) vs. the person who spent countless hours the night before.