Exponential exposition
Dec. 24th, 2008 12:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pallas_athenaThis year's birthday is a square.
A square birthday is sort of satisfying. A long-lived person will have nine of them; on the tenth, the Queen sends you a telegram. (US readers: this is perfectly true.) Assuming I don't make it to 121, I have now gone through more than half of my squares.
Cubes are rarer. A person who lives a "normal" lifespan for a developed country can expect to see four cubic birthdays; I've had three of them.
If you're lucky, three of your birthdays will be exponents at the fourth power; if you're even luckier, three will be at the fifth. I did a web search to find out what these are called. This was what I learnt:
(So who the hell was Robert Recorde? I'm glad you asked.)
On a more frivolous note, this birthday being a multiple of twelve means that this is my year on the Chinese calendar: the year of the Rat. I shall take my hat off to the next of my rodent brethren I see scuttling about.
A square birthday is sort of satisfying. A long-lived person will have nine of them; on the tenth, the Queen sends you a telegram. (US readers: this is perfectly true.) Assuming I don't make it to 121, I have now gone through more than half of my squares.
Cubes are rarer. A person who lives a "normal" lifespan for a developed country can expect to see four cubic birthdays; I've had three of them.
If you're lucky, three of your birthdays will be exponents at the fourth power; if you're even luckier, three will be at the fifth. I did a web search to find out what these are called. This was what I learnt:
In the 16th century Robert Recorde used the terms square, cube, zenzizenzic (fourth power), surfolide (fifth), zenzicube (sixth), second surfolide (seventh) and Zenzizenzizenzic (eighth). Biquadrate has been used to refer to the fourth power as well.
(So who the hell was Robert Recorde? I'm glad you asked.)
On a more frivolous note, this birthday being a multiple of twelve means that this is my year on the Chinese calendar: the year of the Rat. I shall take my hat off to the next of my rodent brethren I see scuttling about.