Counting - discussion thread

[GuyBarry]

All instances where the base number is less than 10000, with length 23 digits:

Wow! Interesting to see that 322 and 1819 are the smallest pair by far.

[The Orange One]

Over the course of this game I've noticed that a number of academic institutions trade on the date of their foundation for fund-raising or other purposes. For instance, University College London has the 1826 Circle, where members make an entry level gift of at least £1,826. (Compare the 1264 Society at Merton College Oxford, where you only have to donate £1,264. Clearly it pays to be a graduate of an older institution!)

I'd be interested to see what they did for Imperial College London, which can claim a date of 1845 (the date its first constituent part, the Royal College of Chemistry, was founded), 1907 (when the various parts were first combined into a joint Imperial College London) and 2007 (when we split from the University of London). Wonder if they'd make you pay the full £5,957 - nasty.

[GuyBarry]

Weekly progress report: we've made steady progress over the last week, advancing 35 to 1833. However, QI have put on something of a spurt and advanced 24 to 1899. They seem to be slowing down again now, though. If they carry on at this rate we won't overtake them until 2043 (6 weeks), but previous to that they were only averaging 11 a week, which would put us on course to overtake them around 1930 (2.75 weeks).

[DrainBrain]

(More alcohol next? Probably.)

Not sure what you're referring to,...

http://www.carlsberggroup.com/brands/Pa ... sberg.aspx

[GuyBarry]

http://www.carlsberggroup.com/brands/Pa ... sberg.aspx

Well I didn't know that. That calls for a Carlsberg

[GuyBarry]

Here are the map and results for the 1852 US Presidential election, won by Franklin Pierce.

Interesting things:
Three candidates.
Geographically isolated California, which had only joined the Union in September 1850.
The voting system in South Carolina.

Also the fact that the Whig party got 43.9% of the popular vote but only 14.2% of the electors. Some people say the Electoral College is unfair now (particularly in 2000 when Gore won the popular vote and Bush became president), but I don't recall a vote in living memory that was that unfair.

And weren't there any Republicans in 1852?

[DrainBrain]

And weren't there any Republicans in 1852?

Nope. See 1854.

[GuyBarry]

Answering a query in the discussion thread with a post in the game thread! How cool is that

[GuyBarry]

Weekly progress report: as I predicted, QI have slowed down again and put on 10 this week to reach 1909. We've gained 23 to reach 1856, giving us 53 to catch up, which at this rate we should do in just over 4 weeks, around 1950. We're getting there!

[GuyBarry]

1 + 1879 + 1879^3 + 1879^5 + 1879^7 + 1879^9 + 1879^11 + 1879^13 + 1879^15 + 1879^17 + 1879^19 + 1879^21 + 1879^23 + 1879^25 + 1879^27 + 1879^29 + 1879^31 + 1879^33 + 1879^35 + 1879^37 + 1879^39 + 1879^41 + 1879^43 is a prime number.

https://oeis.org/A124200. Do I get a prize?

[DrainBrain]

That's correct. Your prize is a nearly unending supply of facts about integers. I'm sure you'll find it useful.

[GuyBarry]

Weekly progress report: we've made steady progress over the week, gaining 34 to reach 1890, but once again QI have put on some speed and gained 21 to arrive at 1930. At this rate we won't overtake them until around 1995, in just over three weeks' time. It could be closer than I thought!

[RobbieM]

Turbo boost coming up...

[GuyBarry]

The City of London Police won the gold medal in the Tug Of War contest at the 1908 Summer Olympics in London.

Well I'm glad to see that British teams (all from the police!) got the gold, silver and bronze medals, although on closer inspection it turns out that it was because the Germans and Greeks withdrew before the contest, the Americans withdrew as a protest against Liverpool's police boots, and the Swedes never turned up to the third-place playoff...

I don't know when they changed the rules so that each country could only field one team, but I'm not surprised they did after that!

[DavidC]

("...openings of... Tower Bridge..." made that into a garden path sentence for me.)

Thanks - I hadn't heard of a "garden path sentence" before !