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Brain warm-up D (Dicey multiplication)

Started by EvilAndrew, 2005-01-14T10:03:07-06:00 (Friday)

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EvilAndrew

For the start of the semester, I have decided to give everyone a quick brain warm-up. Feel free to e-mail me your solutions (my SIUE address starts with â€Ã...“rlamoni@â€Ã,) I will post a reply to this message with the names (or pseudonyms if desired) of the correct submitters in a day or two or when a sufficient number of people have answered the question. At that point, I will add a new question. Each question will have a title that could be a clue or just an inside joke. ;-)

Please DO NOT reply to the thread with an answer to the problem. E-mail it instead.

To make things easier on me, please make the subject line of you answer e-mail look like this: â€Ã...“Brain warm-up Dâ€Ã,
......

EvilAndrew

What is the answer to this general-geek-knowledge based multiplication problem.  For purposes of clarity all numbers should be rounded to the nearest integer before multiplying them.

The sum of any two opposite sides on a 6-sided die *
Smallest prime number greater then a dozen *
# of decimeters in a meter *
# of days in the 2100AD calendar year *
# of planets closer to the Sun then the Earth *
# of US Dollars represented by a bill with Lincoln’s face on it *
# of â€Ã...“permanentâ€Ã, Security Council members in the UN *
# of thirds of the Earth’s surface covered by ocean *
Pi *
Acceleration of gravity at sea-level in meter/sec/sec = ?
......

Guest

I personally think you should be graded on the number you don't have to look up on the internet :-)

Since when is the number of â€Ã...“permanentâ€Ã, Security Council members in the UN a geek question? It should be number of bytes in a gigabyte or something like that. :-)

EvilAndrew

I don't care if people lookup the answers.  They might learn something.  Additionally, the looking up of some answers shows knowledge of the limitations of your knowledge.  I think this is a characteristic to be rewarded.  The ability to say â€Ã...“I don’t knowâ€Ã, and then correct the problem is a rare one.

B.T.W.
A good source for general knowledge is WikiPedia[ http://www.wikipedia.org ].  I would not trust it for specific knowledge because few people would catch any errors but things that many people know should be correct.
......

William Grim

A little off-topic, but wikipedia does have the correct information for a genetic algorithm last time I looked.

I originally posted some material about GAs on wikipedia, and someone else took that and did a much better job of it later, greatly expanding on what little I put up there.

The person who wrote about it obviously had a much better idea about them than I did.
William Grim
IT Associate, Morgan Stanley

EvilAndrew

Solvers:
1. Pete Lamonica (solved: 1-14-2005 10:50am)
2. tom von kercey (solved: 1-14-2005 12:05pm)
3. Jon Greathouse (solved: 1-18-2005 1:58pm)

Answer:
Sum of opposite sides of a 6-sided die = 7
Smallest prime number greater then a dozen = 13
# of decimeters in a meter = 10
# of days in the 2100AD calendar year = 365 (not a leap year because of the 100 year rule)
# of planets closer to the Sun then the Earth = 2 (Mercury & Venus)
# of US Dollars represented by a bill with Lincoln’s face on it = 5
# of â€Ã...“permanentâ€Ã, Security Council members in the UN = 5 (China, France, Russia, UK, and US)
# of thirds of the Earth’s surface covered by ocean = 2 (71% is ocean)
Pi rounded to one digit = 3
Acceleration of gravity at sea-level rounded to the nearest meter/sec/sec = 10
Product = 996450000
......

William Grim

Hmm, I'm curious if they're just making it look like humans responding by copying phrases others have used.  For example, in bozo's post, he copied, verbatim, something I said earlier in this thread.
William Grim
IT Associate, Morgan Stanley