Monday, 23 April 2012

School of Hard Sums - review

Despite reminding people about this show, I missed it & failed to record it. I couldn't find a catchup service for Dave - however, I lucked out on Sunday as it is repeated in the evening on Dave (& Dave+1).
A clear glass whiteboardThe Maths department experts were somewhat reminiscent of the panel in Countdown without the adjudication role (which was Marcus du Sautoys role along with problem-setting).
Transparent 'whiteboards' were very much in evidence (Felt quite Numb3rs-like) for use by Dara & Marcus.
Dara's guest was the comedian David O’Doherty and the three tasks tackled were all positional (geometrical) in nature:
 1) Bridging two rivers between Romeo & Juliet (Bridges are at 90 degrees to rivers) with minimum distance.
Dara's (correct) solution owed a lot to origami as he 'folded out' the rivers
2) Placing 4 stars so that they were equidistant was hard on David as he failed to think in 3 dimensions at the start and Dara got there first to the solution of a regular tetrahedron.
3) Arranging dancers at a dance to get the maximum number of kisses provided that the kissee is closest to the kisser. David actually went to a dance hall with a tape measure whilst Dara & the Maths department stayed in the studio with paper and pencil. They got the exact correct answer but David got more kisses(!).
Whilst crediting Dara with the correct solution, M du S showed a simpler way of reaching the same answer.
It was linked to real-world architectural problems like the glass in the Onion building in London where irregular "off-equilateral" triangles are used to give the curved shape.

Overall, I liked the programme. I know some people have quite vocally expressed a dislike for it. However, a way of conveying to the wider public how maths can be used in the real world for things that are relevant to them - I think that it succeeds.

Tonight's show has Alex Horne as the guest comedian.








The answer to previous posted puzzler about 9 coins (one is fake & heavier). Weigh 6 coins with 3 in each pan. If they are equal the fake is in the other three otherwise it is in the three on the heavy side. Then use your scond weighing with one coin in each pan and the fake is either in the heavier pan or is the unweighed coin of the three if the pans balance.

Monday, 16 April 2012

TV: School of Hard Sums

Coming to Dave (yes that Dave) TV channel a show with Marcus de Sautoy &
Dara O'Briain (Picture from uktv.co.uk web-site (link below))
Maths goes head to head with a comedian and 'sometimes wins'. It is based on an Emmy-award nominated Japanese programme Comaneci University Mathematics.
A light hearted approach to how maths underpins everyday life (I have heard that it even uses Bayesian statistics on one show).


Starts on Monday 16th April at 8pm on Dave
To get you in the mood, here's a problem:
You have 9 coins. One is a fake and weighs more than a genuine one. You've borrowed a weighing balance but are only able to use it twice - how can you find the fake?

Wednesday, 4 April 2012

MicroObservatory/NASA Competition

Brief post that may be of interest to those who found my previous post on Internet Atronomy interesting.
It might make a good schhol activity as well:

"Observe with NASA in the annual Astrophotography Contest!
The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, NASA, and Astronomers Without Borders invite you to share your views of the universe in this exciting astrophotography contest. The images that YOU take using online robotic telescopes could be featured on the Observing With NASA home page!
Who can participate? Anyone with an email address can use the MicroObservatory robotic telescopes to request electronic images of astronomical objects. If you are 13 or younger, you will need a parent or guardian to enter your photos for you.
What do I do? Take images using the Observing With NASA portal. Process the images with the free MicroObservatoryImage software, available on the OWN website. *
What are we looking for? Since you are Observing With NASA, we invite you to take your own images with the OWN portal, and then submit them along with a NASA image of the same celestial object. For example, if you take and process an image of the Lagoon Nebula using MicroObservatory, include an image of the Lagoon Nebula taken by a NASA telescope. Write a short comparison of the two images. It is okay if your image is very different from the NASA image! The idea is to look at the same object in two different ways, whether it be through different wavelengths of light, or through different creative lenses. We will have one winner for the best technical image, and one winner for the best astrocreative image. For examples, please see the MicroObservatory Facebook page.


Are there resources to help me? Yes! Check out our Tools & Training webpage. There are short video tutorials that cover many topics, including how to make an Advanced RGB image! For finding NASA images, we recommend looking at the Hubble, Chandra, WISE, and Spitzer websites.
How do I share my images? Save your MicroObservatory image as a .GIF and NASA image as a .JPG and send them as an attachment to MicroObservatory@cfa.harvard.edu. Tell us anything you would like about your image and include this template in your email:
  • First Name and Last Initial:
  • Age (underline one): Under 13   13-18   18-24   25 and up
  • Title of your image:
  • Name of astronomical object:
  • How you made your image:
  • Which telescope took the NASA image:
  • Comparison of the two images (What kind of light does the NASA telescope detect? What features are different?):
  • Anything you would like us to know:
When does the contest end? Enter your images by Monday, April 30th. We will announce the winners mid-May.
What do I get if I win? The two winners will be featured on the Observing With NASA website, along with their images. In addition, the winners will receive a certificate from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and NASA along with a package of Astronomy prizes.
Click here for more details.

Detailed Instructions for the MicroObservatory Astrophotography Contest

STEP 1: Control a Telescope
MicroObservatory is an online network of robotic telescopes that you can control over the Internet from your own computer.
1. Visit the Observing With NASA telescope portal and click on Control Telescope
2. Choose your target(s) and click "OBSERVE" to take an image of that object.
3. Choose your field of view, exposure time, and filters; then click "CONTINUE".
4. Enter your (confidential) information and "SUBMIT" your request to the telescopes.
5. Look for an email the next day containing a link to download your requested image(s).


STEP 2: Create Your Images
MicroObservatoryImage is a free easy-to-use software program that helps you turn your telescope images into cool astrophotographs.
1. Download the image processing software to your computer.
2. Install the software on your machine by extracting the downloaded file and start the program by double clicking on the application icon ("MicroObservatoryImage.app" for Macintosh, "run.bat" for PCs).
3. Download your image(s) by clicking on the link in your email and downloading the FITS file to your computer.
4. Open your image(s) by dragging it into the open software program or opening it using the File menu at the top of the program screen.
5. Use the processing tools in the menus and toolbars to bring out detail and colorize your image(s).
6. Save each image as a GIF file (don't forget to add the .GIF extension!)
NEED MORE INFO? Download the Illustrated Processing Tools Guide (1.5 Mb PDF) from the Tools & Training page to see step-by-step instructions for opening and using the image processing software.


STEP 3: Share Your Images
1. Attach your images to an email to MicroObservatory@cfa.harvard.edu.
2. Include this template:
  • First Name and Last Initial:
  • Age (underline one): Under 13   13-18   18-24   25 and up
  • Title of your image:
  • Name of astronomical object:
  • How you made your image:
  • Which telescope took the NASA image:
  • Comparison of the two images (What kind of light does the NASA telescope detect? What features are different?):
  • Anything you would like us to know:


STEP 4: Check Observing With NASA for the winners!
1. Wait to hear from us to see if you've won!
Check back to Observing With NASA at the end of April to see the winning entries!
* Note: Only images taken with the MicroObservatory telescopes and processed with MicroObservatoryImage software will be eligible to win."