A set of questions based on watching BBC's Story of Maths.

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18:05 - I don't exactly understand how they used the knots to measure the sides. Have an explanation? They just had the knots spaced out at equal intervals along the knot?

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23:00 - Damn. Dem babylonians liked their maths hard

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23:25 - All the homework I turn in is in clay form, come on.

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25:55 - This must have been a bitch. Are there ways to make such an endeavor more efficient and if so, (and more importantly), are such ways interesting/will anyone give a shit?

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26:40 - Okay I know doing all that work would have been a bitch, but it actually looks pretty fun.

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27:50 - Well we know that qwerty isn't the most efficient keyboard layout, is 10 the number system that best eases calculations? Does such a system exist? If it did, I feel like it would have to be based around the frequency of numbers occurring which in natural systems does actually vary in accordance with Benford's law (numbers begin with 1 around 30% of the time, 2 around 22% of the time, etc). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benford's_law

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28:36 - Okay lol at how they just use some guy pressing the stick into clay as filler video while they talk. And how gently they press the stick into the clay reminds me of porn for some reason…maybe it's the music (porno music/press stick into clay time ;).

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30:50 - Okay, I really think watching videos like this gives us insight into how certain theorems in math operate. And they also act as a springboard off which the mind can "float off" into mathematical exploration.

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31:30 - Perhaps we could reflect the geometric manipulations that the Babylonians performed on the rectangle in the algebra to better understand the algebra intuitively/unlock new properties of the algebra.

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39:48 - Boat guy: "Hey dude, catch this rope."

land guy: "wait, what?" *rope is thrown*

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40:40 - Dude fuck yeah Pythagoreans included women! Look at that, honey, Math rules.

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42:00 - There are like 200 proofs of the pythagorean theorem and I've seen maybe 10 or so but I still don't have an intuitive understanding of it. Honestly, I don't feel entirely comfortable employing it in my mathematical endeavors (although it is handy as fuck).

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43:43 - lol the head shake. So not a whole number ratio means that you can play flats and sharps on the guitar, right?

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46:47 - Do you think we'd be smart enough to hold up against Plato and the other Greeks? Could we enter the academy with our knowledge? Also, I think we'd get fucked because a lot of what we know wouldn't have been proven and therefore known at that point and we wouldn't know how to derive the proof ourselves.

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49:20 - Dude let's fucking go there. NERDDDD TRIPPP

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49:45 - Nobody reads math that fast are you kidding me?

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50:06 - I want to learn about the "climax" of math books.

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50:35 - I swear to god, the word "transcends" is most commonly found in sentences which also contain the word "time".

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50:17 - He said Pi was the most important number in mathematics! I don't really know if that's true…it seems like e is more important to me but I think I'm biased because I once read a book (yeah, you did read that right) that said that Pi can suck a dick and e was the best.

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54:20 - Okay, I think that's a littleeee too far.

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55:00 - Hypatia!!! Omg I know about her.