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Matt Parker Profile picture
@standupmaths
Feb 10, 2020 • 3 tweets • 3 min read • Read on X
We are now on-site, ready for the @ESASolarOrbiter Atlas V launch. Goodness know how long we have to wait. #SolarOrbiter @Dr_Lucie Image
@Dr_Lucie We are now in the final 14 minute hold before the last four minutes of the countdown commences. The atmosphere* is electric*. [*metaphorically, thank goodness] #SolarOrbiter Image
@Dr_Lucie IT LAUNCHED! It exploded in all of the good ways and none of the bad ways. What a day. We are done. Goodnight! #SolarOrbiter @Dr_Lucie Image

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More from @standupmaths

Matt Parker Profile picture
Nov 14, 2020
6 ÷ 2(1+2) is going viral again. And the correct answer from a mathematician is “you need to write this better so it’s not ambiguous”.

PEMDAS/BODMAS is not some law of maths. ‘Order of operations’ are a convention to make writing clear. (PS The solution is always MORE BRACKETS.) Image
Also the answer is 1.
Ok, that was to wind people up. But I think the reason many people (who write equations regularly) get 1 is because the convention of ‘adjacent means multiply’ outranks “×”. Just like a fraction outranks “÷”.

Change it to 6/2 × (1+2) and now it’s 9. (By unofficial convention.)
Read 4 tweets
Matt Parker Profile picture
Oct 5, 2020
When I first heard that cases were missing I thought “can’t be an Excel problem, the rows run out at 1,048,576 which is bigger than even total cases”.

I never thought they’d have a case per COLUMN. Unbelievable. And yes: Excel columns end at 16,384 aka “XFD”.
In Excel on a Mac hit the command-⌘ key with 'right arrow' and you'll jump to the last column (I think Windows is Ctrl+Right). Columns count up alphabetically and you can check that "XFD" is 'Excel base-26' for 16,384 which is 2^14. Excel stores column numbers as 14-bit binary.
All of that said: I’ve not been able to verify that it was a column problem. Just that it was an issue with the limits of Excel. It’s a national disgrace either way, but if anyone has more definitive info please do let me know. matt@standupmaths.com
Read 5 tweets
Matt Parker Profile picture
Sep 2, 2020
If anyone can record themselves signing "Total Ellipse of the Chart" (just that sentence, not the whole song) with music and send it to me within 24 hours: I'll put it in a video (iff it sounds not-terrible). matt@standupmaths.com
Note: I understand not everyone has the privilege of doing stuff like this for free, so I will happily pay. Or donate a commensurate sum to charity. I will also reply to this tweet if someone has done it to avoid anyone wasting their effort. I only need one version! Maybe two.
Ok, so 100% of the people who sent in quick videos of themselves singing have sung “total eclipse of the chart” when the actual requested line is “total ELLIPSE of the chart”. What do I look like: a solar physicist‽
Read 5 tweets
Matt Parker Profile picture
May 27, 2020
We are all set-up to watch the launch and then hopefully see them fly over the UK skies 15-ish minutes later. But it seems the Florida weather needs to improve before the 21:33 BST launch time.
Watching live from the garden. @Dr_Lucie Image
@Dr_Lucie Currently T-minus 25 minutes. We’ll hear at T-minus 20 if the weather is good enough to continue to launch. There may be too much ‘lightning energy’.
Read 8 tweets
Matt Parker Profile picture
Nov 3, 2019
Thanks everyone who sent me this amazing tweet!

So, as always it’s probably a binary overflow problem and sure enough 2^63 = 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 which is close!
The “63” tells us that the system was probably using a 64 digit binary number. But instead of a normal number it would have been ‘signed’: meaning one bit is reserved to indicate positive or negative and the remaining 63 bits used for data.
Then something went wrong. A number was subtracted incorrectly, or inverted, rounded etc. No idea. But it ended up 10 off 2^63.

This is what that number of stations looks like in binary:

111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111110110
Read 4 tweets
Matt Parker Profile picture
Aug 22, 2019
It’s ok everyone. This is happening. Image
Ok. It has twelve pieces, which is a good start. That feels like a complete puzzle. Image
I have not cracked it yet. Image
Read 11 tweets

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