Later on today, at around lunch time, we'll reach a point in time where none of us have been before, and none of us will see again. That is:-

12:34:56.7/8/9

Blink ... and you'll miss it!

hmm... I just blinked an missed another point in time... oh wait - there goes another... and another...

Or as a certain cynic on this forum might say... "what's so special about 12:34:56.7/8/9"

Time is merely a tool used to measure the inevitable.

However, it does let you know how long it is 'til last orders.......

Come off it, Mate ... you can't fool me. Surely you must be a "numbers man" yourself, what with all the endless hours you must spend with computer code!

Yes, time is just as you say. Gone (never to be visited again), in the mere blinking of an eye.

But I just wanted to give everyone a chance to savour the moment, as it were! But (as I know only too well), some people can't see the point in anything, never mind a particular "point in time"!

Yes, numbers are important. They are one of the few things that separate us from the animals!

The Fibonacci sequence, anyone (not what the series mentioned is, by the way)? Phi (or tau), the Golden Ratio? Primes* (... as recorded by Euclid in 300 BC ... just another point in time). There are many other nice examples. And I invite everyone to mention their favourite(s)!

Bernoulli, Euler, Leibniz, Newton et al. In their time (... yes, that word again) they must have appeared (to ordinary people) as Gods!

And, by the way, without the Cynics there would be no Democracy. That is, no-one to challenge the Baboons and hold them to account. Yes, let's hear it for the Enquiring Mind!

In my opinion, the original Cynics had an admirable outlook on life. And one that the wise man would do well to re-visit today, I reckon!

* "I've said it before, and I'll say it again ... there's always a Prime between n and 2n"!

By the way it was Leonhard Euler (1707-1783 ... and probably the most prolific mathematician who ever lived) who conceived the idea of denoting functions by letters of the alphabet, that is so well known today, especially as a basis for computer languages.

For example, if we use the letter f to denote a function, then the equation:-

y = f(x)

(read as "y equals f of x") indicates that y is a function of x, the quantity x being the "independent variable" of f, and y the "dependent variable" of f.

Functions can (and do) call functions, calling other functions ad infinitum (if you're lucky ... and within the constraints of the language you are using). What greater joy can there be than simplifying, refining, a function to its neatest (most terse) form? Eureka!

Meanwhile, most high-level computer programming languages allow functions to call themselves within the program code. This clever concept (conceived, like all such concepts, by Genius Guys) is known as recursion. Just imagine what Euler could have done, had he had a BBC Micro to hand!

Hi Geoff
I am 105 years old and i can well remember the last time this happened, seems like yesterday!
Anyway after my passing when i will be cryogenically preserved, i have expressed that i am reawakened before the next one, in a hundred years (2109)
See you there!

Yes, Edward VII was a fine King.

But, there again, so was his son, George V.

Great Britain was truly Great back then. You know, when Britannia Ruled the Waves!

Next time you pop back, please take me with you. And leave me there!

"Choose the Future, as against the Past"? No way, give me the Past, any day. At least that way you know where you are (or should that be were?).

Well, 12:34:56.7/8/9 came and went, but (as far as I am aware), nothing truly calamitous occurred on the cosmic scale.

Oh, well. Never mind. Disappointment is my middle name, after all (not to mention patience being my primary weapon).

Meanwhile, did the Earth move for you?

And, lastly, as I was mentioning famous mathematicians, how about one from more recent times (but sadly no longer with us), namely Paul Erdos?* Not a well known name, perhaps ... but a Genius Guy nevertheless. And, I would say, a true follower of the Cynical traditions.

* I can't give you the link, because of the non-standard (Hungarian) characters in the name. But, if you're interested, just go ahead with entering Paul Erdos in Google.

Here's another thought to ponder:-

How would the likes of Leonhard Euler, Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein et al have got on today, what with computers, the internet, and all the rest?

Would their output have been even more prolific, their work at ever greater layers of genius? Or would they have been distracted by all the chattering, the tweets, answering frivolous emails ... and surfing the net?

Answers, please, by close of play tomorrow (Monday). That is, if you haven't squandered yet another day attending to trivialities!

Meanwhile, could this be the work of a genius:-

The point, my dear friend (the clever bit), is to notice them ... and then reach out and catch, or capture them ... to make them your own!

Meanwhile, a neutron walks into a bar and asks how much for a drink. The bartender replies, "for you, there is no charge"!

It's the way I tell 'em!

I'm glad you did not post that in the jokes section.

Lee

Meanwhile, I hope you're all as excited about tomorrow morning as I am:-

09:09:09 09-09-09

On second thoughts, perhaps we need to be worried about this!

But, there again (and on third thoughts), I shall be well out of it all by 2048, inshallah.

With regards to the significance of number 9 today - 09/09/09, it is also the 252nd day of the year - 2+5+2 = 9. Spooky eh!

Glad to someone can still do maths, maybe you could help Scott Barlow with his velocity problem!

Had some thoughts on that. Reckon he should have a friend with a stopwatch handy. Elbow a punchbag (or similar) 10 times then divide the friends stopwatch time by 10 for the time of 1 hit. If he knows the distance he can then work out the speed. Trying to use a stopwatch for 1 hit would not be accurate enough methinks. I reckon though, it is acceleration Scott needs, not velocity (F=MA).

Yes, acceleration comes into it. That's probably what he meant here, I should imagine:-


But velocity shouldn't be dismissed so easily! After all, that's what "high velocity" weapons (as in small arms, tank guns etc.) are all about. And then we're back do giving up it's kinetic energy, as it (the bullet, or projectile, that is) decelerates ...er, rapidly upon impact.

Kinetic Energy = (Mass/2)*(Velocity squared) ... I think I've got that right (?) ... and all that KE gets given up into the ribs (or wherever) ... plus the elbow! All in Joules, of course.

Meanwhile, back to 9's and *252's. It's nice to discover, Mike, that I'm not alone!

* That was (is?) the number given to the army charge sheet, by the way - AF-252. See, numbers do matter!

No, you are not alone on the numbers game Geoff! By the way the reason that the 252 fact caught my eye is because in my day it was also the number of the RAF's charge sheet. Been caught out once or twice myself there!

On the numbers issue I read a brilliant (and useless) fact about the number for pi some time ago, but it is probably not relevant for this forum. Can PM you if you want it. I think you would probably be impressed, I certainly was, (unless, of course you have heard it already).

PM by all means ... but since when has doubts about relevancy prevented folk from posting on this forum!

Darn it, I missed it! I wish someone had told me!

Today we had the rare numerical phenomenon when the time and date read 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

The event (which is known as a Sequential Day), occurred at 12.34 pm and 56.7 seconds today while the date completed the pattern with 8.9.10.

The phenomenon is so rare that the last "pure" sequence like this fell at 01.23.45 am on 6.7.89, and the next will take place at 00.12.3 am on 4.5.67. That is, in 2067. Somehow, I don't expect to be reporting that one, however.

I picked up on the 8/9/10 - but missed the rest.
I hadn't realised it was so rare an event.

As a Brit now living in the US, I'm expected to write the Month then Day i.e. today's date is 9/8/10. So this rare event occurred here almost 1 Month ago ! - I don't remember any comments being made about it here.

I guess we wouldn't have noticed it Jeff.
It seems users from the USA don't post as frequently as other nations.

I think (hope) that Jeff may have meant "here" in Wisconsin!

By the way, Huw ... please note that the [Re: Geoff Hannis] (for example) problem still persists.

Geoff, I don't think it does.
I've tested it - and it's all working fine.
Please take this to PM not to throw the thread off track. (Of course, if we still had a shout box - it could have been resolved there... )

Sorry for the poor use of English - indeed the 2nd "here" was supposed to be the U.S.
On the subject of reversed day/month its interesting that even over there (the U.K.) the 10th anniversary of 9-11 (not 11-9) is coming up! It makes me think back to what I was doing 10 years ago during those events - We were in the last months of the Princess Margaret Hospital before the move to the new P.F.I. place!!
In case they log in to this:- HI to my ex colleagues Terry Potter and Brian Smith - I hope you both are having happy retirement.

I guess it is because the term "9/11" has become an understood shorthand worldwide, as it were.

For what it's worth, at that time I was in the desert, and jogging home that evening in the dark (?) I saw an owl swoop down from a window in a derelict building. I took that to be some sort of omen, as it was the only owl I ever saw in Saudi Arabia.

Spooky? weird? ... or just that it's a better idea to jog in daylight? But (as many will recall) it gets dark early (not to mention suddenly) out in those parts.

As a rather odd addition to this, here in Oz, the planes struck on 9/11 (in US speak) but the towers came down on 9/12.
I flicked over to the Sky news not long before midnight (and, I thought, just before going to bed) to find the whole event going on. The second tower had not long been hit. Needless to say, I was glued to the box for many hours thereafter.
When I finally went to bed I left my missus a note (stuck to the TV) saying something along the lines of "turn on the news, terrible attack in the US, the world just changed"

Conspiracy Theories abound, of course, as to the whys and the hows ... but yes, the Whole World changed on that day (even my own little world was upset as a result of the chain of events set in place on 9/11).

Watch out for 10:10:10 10/10/10 ... coming up shortly!

(you may have aleady missed it "out there")

Yep, missed it.

Remembered about an hour before and then promptly forgot again. Oh well, just have to wait for 11:11 on 11/11/11

Armistice Day next year. No chance of forgetting that one, then.

Just thinking about this a little further, I (and I would think anyone else who is reading this forum) have only two more chances to mark such a time/date in my life. There is 11:11 0n 11/11/11 and 12:12 on 12/12/12 and then that's it for me. No way I will make it to the next opportunity

Better make the most of 'em, then!

Or, better, yet ... forget all that [censored] and endeavour to make the best of each and every day!

"Start Each Day the Positive Way"!

I suppose 1/3/13 doesn't count? We could all enjoy a lot more, then!

There is a nice symmetry to 02/02/2020.....
All going well a lot of us will make this one!

Yes, I like that. Surely palindromic dates must have at least as much mystical significance as simple repeated numbers.
I like 22/02/2022, too!

My son got this text earlier this evening...

"This month has 5 Fridays, 5 Saturdays and 5 Sundays. This only happens once every 823 years".
I know January this year seems a life away, but take a look at the calendar.

823 years .... and July next year. Come on Karl we need better Nostradamus predicitions than that from Galvo, his astrollogy is being to dip

Ahhh predictions is it you are looking for.
I predict that next time it rains your dog wont like going out in it.
Just thought Id mix up the topics a bit. Nothing like variety.
Makes it harder for folk to predict whats comin next ye knows.
Laugh I nearly cried.
Heard anything from the Matla Kid recently?

As any of these 'times' will be over in a nano second "is it worth the effort" ?

Sorry Neil (as I have tried to discuss before) consciousness is a bit longer than that. Or the window of Time through which we pass along through Life, if you like. How long is the "moment" we capture ... a half second or so?

I would suggest also that Personal Time has different weights or values at various parts of the day. For instance, right now (before my first cup of tea, and with urgent chores to attend to) it simply flies by. But later on (at 3 in the afternoon, say) it may well slow down a bit - or even drag. A common experience, surely?

(and don't forget - you're a long time dead)

Days are long, but weeks are short, go figure!

Which brings me on to the old adage that as you get older, the years seem to fly by!!
Well, when you are 10 years old, one year is 10% of your life so far and when you are 50, one year is 2% of your life. So each year of your life is less than the previous year and seems to go faster!

But I suggest (as do the Gods of Biomed) that the point of life is to enjoy it (as the subject of this thread indicates).

The rushing about in a crazy world, with "too much" to do, and doing nothing particularly well ... is not the path to true enlightenment. Take it from one who once attained nirvana ... only to loose it (upon return to this Sceptred Isle).

Nice one Budda!

I for one am still searching, I believe the journey is better than the destination. To keep my sanity, 3 holidays a year is the minimum.

Cultivate the soul, Neil. No need for holidays (or any form of artificial stimulants for that matter). Strive, in gentle fashion, to make every day one of joy!

@Umish:- Peace Be Upon You!

I need holidays I have a 4 year old very active son!

For all you Apophenia* sufferers out there ...

... there's another "big one" coming up in a couple of days:-

11/11/11 11:11:11

* The urge to find patterns in seemingly random data. Computer programmers are sometimes known to "suffer" in this regard (often because there are patterns there)! I'm more of a Prime Numbers and Fibonacci Sequence man, myself.