3.24.2012

Day 306

Saturday!  I like Saturdays!


On this particular Saturday I woke up around 8, showered, then went over to Jessie and Richards apartment with Kimmy for breakfast and to see parents.  After breakfast and talking with everyone for a bit I went over to pick Timbo up and go to the Math Association of America conference which was at Ball State's Alumni Center.


The first talk we went to was on using difference equations* to find Fibonacci numbers**.  It was probably really good, but it used a lot of linear algebra that I haven't used in many years.  So it was hard to follow.  The other talk we went to was on Sophie Germain, who was a famous mathematician.  She added a lot to the field of Number Theory and early computer science.  We only stayed for two talks, but it was fun.


*A difference equation is a recursive equation that uses subtraction.  Something like 3*(next term) = 2*(current term) - 8*(previous term) would be a difference equation.


**The Fibonacci numbers are a series that can be constructed by adding the previous two terms together.  So it starts with 0 and 1.  Then the next term is found by adding the previous two terms (1 and 0) together to get 1.  The next term adds the previous two terms (1 and 1) to get 2.  Then add 2 and 1 to get 3.  3 + 2 = 5, 5 + 3 = 8, 8 + 5 = 13... and so on.  These numbers show up on occasion in math and in nature.  Another cool feature of them is that dividing a term by the previous term gives you a number close to the golden ratio.  And as you choose larger and larger terms in the sequence, it gets closer to the golden ratio.  The golden ratio also shows up at random.


After the conference I went to go pick Kimmy up.  She had gone with my parents to watch Harley in a color guard competition.  But mom and dad had to leave right after it was over, so I went to go get Kimmy.  Then we went back to my apartment and got lunch.  After lunch we went to Macy's to return the dish that got broken in the mail.  The lady had to call around to some other stores to find it because that dish is being discontinued.  But she got it figured out.  Then we looked around Macy's for a bit.  When we'd finished there we went grocery shopping.


When we got back I showed Kimmy how to use the budgeting software I found.  I think I'm going to buy it.  It's really nice.  I'm sure that some day I'll be good enough with Excel to make the exact same thing on my own, but I'm not quite there.  So for now I feel like it's a good investment.  And they will never force me to upgrade to a newer version of the software, so if I like this I can just use it forever!


After that we just kind of bummed around for a while.  Then we went on one of our new favorite dates: Chinese food, Little Caesar's pizza, and ice cream.  So much amazingness.  It was fantastic.  We watched a movie called "Source Code."  It was decent.  And we've just been lazy the rest of the evening.  So it's been a very good day.


But now I'm thinking about going to bed.  So... good night!



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