Slightly off topic, but I've always wondered... Is there any particular reason why they changed his name for the US editions? Is there something about "Wally" that sounds weird to Americans?
Here's Waldo
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Re: Here's Waldo
#12The rule of thirds springs to mind: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_thirds
Or the golden ratio
Re: Here's Waldo
#13Slightly off topic, but I've always wondered... Is there any particular reason why they changed his name for the US editions? Is there something about "Wally" that sounds weird to Americans?
I've always been told that it's dumbing down, usually the line is "American children wouldn't understand it". I suppose it's the same as the Harry Potter books, "Philosopher" changed to "Sorcerer" in the title. It's very prevalent to change "foreign" names to Americanised ones.
Re: Here's Waldo
#14I remember a mathematician's advice about playing lottery (other than "don't play it") - pick numbers near the edges of the coupon, as people avoid those places. This way you minimize the chance of having to split the jackpot with someone else (and yeah "don't play it" still holds :-) )
The same, in theory, applies to sequences like 1 2 3 4 5 6 "because that will never happen", and numbers >31 (birth days).
In practice though, the number of n jackpot winners is significantly less likely than 1... and do you really care if you only win $10M instead of $20M?
Re: Here's Waldo
#15He's not at the edges of the page partially due to the print process. You need a large border of disposable material that can be cut from the edges (bleed) should the alignment of the pages be slightly out when the book is bound and trimmed. It wouldn't be much finding half of Wally, so they don't put him where he might be cut in two with a guillotine. (He's still better as Wally than Waldo.)
I think the margin of error for this kind of printing is usually only 3mm though, so they could still put him pretty close to the edge if they wanted to
Re: Here's Waldo
#16I remember a mathematician's advice about playing lottery (other than "don't play it") - pick numbers near the edges of the coupon, as people avoid those places. This way you minimize the chance of having to split the jackpot with someone else (and yeah "don't play it" still holds :-) )
The same, in theory, applies to sequences like 1 2 3 4 5 6 "because that will never happen", and numbers >31 (birth days). In practice though, the number of n jackpot winners is significantly less likely than 1... and do you really care if you only win $10M instead of $20M?
Except 1,2,3,4,5,6 is actually bought way more (by hundreds) than would be bought by random.
It's best to use a source of random numbers. Any rules you construct just makes it more likely someone else is using the same constructions.
Re: Here's Waldo
#17If you put the bands here instead, you get a whopping 54% of the points, http://imgur.com/kkqdyNR
So, I'm not convinced. Other than a slight void in the centre and at the edges, it looks like a fairly random distribution to me.
I'd love to see a more in depth examination of the clustering of those points.
Re: Here's Waldo
#18Slightly off topic, but I've always wondered... Is there any particular reason why they changed his name for the US editions? Is there something about "Wally" that sounds weird to Americans?
I've always been told that it's dumbing down, usually the line is "American children wouldn't understand it". I suppose it's the same as the Harry Potter books, "Philosopher" changed to "Sorcerer" in the title. It's very prevalent to change "foreign" names to Americanised ones.
Perhaps philosopher has a different connotation in UK English. Sorcerer just seems more appropriate in a book about magic.
Re: Here's Waldo
#19Slightly off topic, but I've always wondered... Is there any particular reason why they changed his name for the US editions? Is there something about "Wally" that sounds weird to Americans?
I've always been told that it's dumbing down, usually the line is "American children wouldn't understand it". I suppose it's the same as the Harry Potter books, "Philosopher" changed to "Sorcerer" in the title. It's very prevalent to change "foreign" names to Americanised ones.
Except his name is changed in almost every country, so it's not "dumbing down":
Germany - Walter
Norway - Willy
France - Charlie
Denmark - Holger
Israel - Effi
Source: http://mentalfloss.com/article/22414/wheres-waldo-and-whos-w...
Re: Here's Waldo
#20This reminds me of high school English class: let's obsessively analyze this book/play/whatever, trying to discern the secret meanings and fundamental truths the author has elaborately hidden inside his or her work.
When in actuality, the author was probably just writing what they wanted to, and what sounded good on the page. As in this case, where the author literally says, "I add Wally when I come to what I feel is a good place."