Spectral 3d6

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Spectral 3d6

Night Bloodlines 3d6

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Night Bloodlines 3d6

Saint Contradiction

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saint contradiction

Our Red-Haired Lady of Parabolas, Circles, and Probabilities

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our red-haired lady of parabolas, circles, and probabilities

The Seven Types of Beatles Fans: My Utterly Biased View

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beatles

I have never met a serious fan of The Beatles who did not have one favorite Beatle. (I’m sure it is obvious which Beatle is my favorite.)

As for Yoko Ono, she is a highly polarizing figure among Beatles fans — they love her, or they hate her, but there is very little, if any, in-between, which is why I omitted “middle-ground” answers to the “Yoko question” in this chart.

Image credits: I found the pictures shown on these websites.

Source for John Lennon quote: this website.

You draw two cards, simultaneously, from a 52-card deck. What is the probability that at least one is an ace?

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bigslick

For one card, this is easy: the odds are one in thirteen, for there are four aces in 52 cards, and 4/52 = 1/13.

With a second card drawn at the same time, we must consider the 12/13ths of the time that the first card drawn is not an ace. When this happens, 51 cards remain, with four of them aces, so there is an additional  4/51sts of this 12/13ths that must be added to the 1/13th for the first card drawn.

Therefore, the odds of drawing at least one ace, in two cards drawn from a standard deck, are 1/13 + (4/51)(12/13) = (1/13)(51/51) + (4/51)(12/13) = (51 + 48)/[(51)(13)] = 99/663 = 33/221, or 33 out of 221 attempts, which is as far as the fraction will reduce. In decimal form, as a percentage, this happens ~14.93% of the time.

If I made an error above, please let me know in a comment. I do not claim to be infallible.

[Image credit: I found the image above here.]

Isosceles Interference Pattern (two versions)

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isosceles interference pattern

isosceles interference pattern

Interference Spider with Two Eyes Showing (from 2013)

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spider interference pattern 2013

Every now and then, I find something I created some years ago, but never blogged here. This is another such piece, which I made in 2013 (using Geometer’s Sketchpad and MS-Paint), but did not name until today.

A Spectrum of Pentagons, Backed By Black & White

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pentagons

Sprawling Golden Tiling, in Progress

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sprawling golden tiling