Pages

Thursday, August 9, 2007

1935

From: Alan Turing, the Enigma by Andrew Hodges, page 94.
He was still only twenty-two. The fellowship carried with it GBP 300 a year for three years, which would normally be extended to six, and no explicit duties. He was entitled to room and board when he chose to reside at Cambridge, and to dine at High Table.

Alan Turing's biography reads like a thriller, situated in the era of Brideshead Rivisited. I am now close to the point where he starts thinking about his (Turing) machines.

Thursday, August 2, 2007

Pythagoras' Theorem

a^2 + b^2 = c^2

Play a few times with [ this applet ] and I promise you'll never forget the proof of Pythagoras' Theorem again. Ok, just one of the dozens of proofs, but the proof in the applet is the original one. The requirements for understanding the proof are 1) the formula for the area of a triangle: area = ( base * height )/2 and 2) the area of a triangle does not change if the triangle is rotated.