Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Teenager solves stubborn riddle about prime number look-alikes

quantamagazine.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 264 posts

Re: Teenager solves stubborn riddle about prime number look-alikes

#141

Post by wizofaus »

Waterluvian wrote: post #95
ok_dad wrote: post #43

I knew a guy in high school that carried around a sub-compact notebook and one day in science class we were learning about how to factor quadratic equations (a review of old math we should know) and this guy was not paying attention at all, just typing away. The teacher asked him what he was doing that was so important that he couldn't listen, and to please come up and solve the problem. This kid walked straight up t…

Someone once told me, “comparison is the thief of joy.” I’m confident this is a famous quote. But once I heard it, it kept resonating. Then years later I watched Bluey with my kids and mom says, “just run your own race” and it all clicked. I’m so thankful that it clicked because I feel liberated from this self-imposed sense that I need to absolutely maximize my time here, which is an impossible task.

https://quoteinvestigator.com/2021/02/06/thief-of-joy/

(Seems like a good site for verifying quotes, it's crazy how many commonly-believed-to-have-been-said-by-X quotes simply never were...)

If you want some advice on how to avoid having your "joy" stolen by comparison, you could always go with

https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/10/03/life-success/

Though I suppose "Z" these days would logically include "avoid replying to online forum comments..."!

Re: Teenager solves stubborn riddle about prime number look-alikes

#142

Post by idunno246 »

wingmanjd wrote: post #62
ok_dad wrote: post #43

I knew a guy in high school that carried around a sub-compact notebook and one day in science class we were learning about how to factor quadratic equations (a review of old math we should know) and this guy was not paying attention at all, just typing away. The teacher asked him what he was doing that was so important that he couldn't listen, and to please come up and solve the problem. This kid walked straight up t…

I wasn't as cool as this kid, but I wrote a binomial expansion program in TI BASIC back in high school that I was pretty proud of. Teacher said it was neat, but then banned calculators on our tests/ quizzes after I demoed it.

I wrote programs too. Even had them print out the work.

Checked with the teacher at the beginning of the year and she said no problem. After rampant cheating, mostly people just writing notes in the programs section, she instituted a policy of deleting everyone’s calculator before any test. but let me keep mine too, I had asked to not delete it and I’d take a class calculator if she insisted.

Re: Teenager solves stubborn riddle about prime number look-alikes

#143

Post by casey2 »

jablongo wrote: post #94
ok_dad wrote: post #43

I knew a guy in high school that carried around a sub-compact notebook and one day in science class we were learning about how to factor quadratic equations (a review of old math we should know) and this guy was not paying attention at all, just typing away. The teacher asked him what he was doing that was so important that he couldn't listen, and to please come up and solve the problem. This kid walked straight up t…

> A computer program to factor any polynomial equation string input to it: Do you mean a program to solve for f(x) = 0 using numerical approximation? Factorization has a specific meaning and is not necessarily possible for quintic and higher-degree polynomials / there is no closed form solution like the quadratic formula for n>=5.

Yes, polynomial factorization does have a specific meaning. You should learn it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factorization_of_polynomials

Re: Teenager solves stubborn riddle about prime number look-alikes

#144

Post by Waterluvian »

wizofaus wrote: post #141
Waterluvian wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone once told me, “comparison is the thief of joy.” I’m confident this is a famous quote. But once I heard it, it kept resonating. Then years later I watched Bluey with my kids and mom says, “just run your own race” and it all clicked. I’m so thankful that it clicked because I feel liberated from this self-imposed sense that I need to absolutely maximize my time here, which is an impossible task.

https://quoteinvestigator.com/2021/02/06/thief-of-joy/ (Seems like a good site for verifying quotes, it's crazy how many commonly-believed-to-have-been-said-by-X quotes simply never were...) If you want some advice on how to avoid having your "joy" stolen by comparison, you could always go with https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/10/03/life-success/ Though I suppose "Z" these days would logically include "avoid replyi…

Very cool article. So it is a famous quote!

Re: Teenager solves stubborn riddle about prime number look-alikes

#145

Post by smeej »

nickstinemates wrote: post #117
noir_lord wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a maths teacher who accused me of cheating because we had coursework to solve a particular problem, I solved the problem for that case and then the general case using math she hadn’t taught me even had a pascal program that you could enter parameters and it’d give you the answer. She literally couldn’t get her head around a student going to the library, taking out a book on maths and teaching themselves because…

"Never let school get in the way of your education" is roughly the philosophy my parents raised me on. Precisely to encourage what you had done vs. what school expected.

Wow, my parents were willing to sacrifice my entire education if it meant I participated in school in the ways they cared about.

Your way sounds better.

Re: Teenager solves stubborn riddle about prime number look-alikes

#146

Post by khazhoux »

Waterluvian wrote: post #95
ok_dad wrote: post #43

I knew a guy in high school that carried around a sub-compact notebook and one day in science class we were learning about how to factor quadratic equations (a review of old math we should know) and this guy was not paying attention at all, just typing away. The teacher asked him what he was doing that was so important that he couldn't listen, and to please come up and solve the problem. This kid walked straight up t…

Someone once told me, “comparison is the thief of joy.” I’m confident this is a famous quote. But once I heard it, it kept resonating. Then years later I watched Bluey with my kids and mom says, “just run your own race” and it all clicked. I’m so thankful that it clicked because I feel liberated from this self-imposed sense that I need to absolutely maximize my time here, which is an impossible task.

> Someone once told me, “comparison is the thief of joy.”

I've seen it phrased better elsewhere, but otherwise yes.

Re: Teenager solves stubborn riddle about prime number look-alikes

#148

Post by ok_dad »

JadeNB wrote: post #74
ok_dad wrote: post #43

I knew a guy in high school that carried around a sub-compact notebook and one day in science class we were learning about how to factor quadratic equations (a review of old math we should know) and this guy was not paying attention at all, just typing away. The teacher asked him what he was doing that was so important that he couldn't listen, and to please come up and solve the problem. This kid walked straight up t…

> Since then, I don't feel bad if someone achieves more than me, because clearly there are some people out there that are born to solve certain classes of problems (maybe their brain structure is better for those, or something, who knows). As a math teacher, I very much like every part of your comment except for this. There are way too many people who decide never to try mathematics because they weren't born to it. I…

I mean, I agree anyone can do anything with enough effort, but some people have an easier time. It’s really easy for me to program computers. I routinely am perplexed that people I know can’t understand or see the algorithms and structures I see. That doesn’t mean I’m the best or that others cannot learn it, just that somehow my brain is structured, whether through nature or nurture, in a way that helps me do logic and math required for programming. On the other hand, I cannot learn other languages. I just cannot figure them out. I still worked hard to learn that skill, but I definitely worked way less hard to become experienced at this than so many programmers I know.

In my view, not everyone needs to be good at everything, but I do get that society sets up maths and science as way harder than it has to be. Part of that is how we teach math, too. I hated math until I went to college and roundabout earned a maths degree.

Re: Teenager solves stubborn riddle about prime number look-alikes

#149

Post by peddling-brink »

Waterluvian wrote: post #95
ok_dad wrote: post #43

I knew a guy in high school that carried around a sub-compact notebook and one day in science class we were learning about how to factor quadratic equations (a review of old math we should know) and this guy was not paying attention at all, just typing away. The teacher asked him what he was doing that was so important that he couldn't listen, and to please come up and solve the problem. This kid walked straight up t…

Someone once told me, “comparison is the thief of joy.” I’m confident this is a famous quote. But once I heard it, it kept resonating. Then years later I watched Bluey with my kids and mom says, “just run your own race” and it all clicked. I’m so thankful that it clicked because I feel liberated from this self-imposed sense that I need to absolutely maximize my time here, which is an impossible task.

Bluey is a gem.

Re: Teenager solves stubborn riddle about prime number look-alikes

#150

Post by curt15 »

TimTheTinker wrote: post #120
thaumasiotes wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This kid walked straight up to the board and explained how you can design a computer program to factor any polynomial equation string input to it, and in fact had implemented a polynomial equation factoring program while the teacher explained how to factor simple quadratic equations. I find this difficult to square with the well-known theorem that there is no closed-form solution to polynomials of degree five or mo…

Must have been for degree 4 or below.

Or maybe it assumes rational roots.
Post reply on HN