November/December 2005 (volume 9, number 9)
COVER: Exploding Trousers
FIRST PAGE: Dark Waters: The Random Thoughts of a Blind Teenage Cavefish
KOKOPELLI & COMPANY: Chad’s latest creation loses its mind.
ARTICLES AND COLUMNS:
Why Do Cavefish Lose Their Eyes? by Luis and Monika Espinasa
Farmer Buckley’s Exploding Trousers, by Stephanie Pain
Gamers All Around You, by Duncan Graham-Rowe
Calder: The Man Who Made Art out of the Ordinary, by Doug Stewart
Peer Pressure, by Sandra Blakeslee
Q & A, by Robert Coontz and Rosanne Spector: Where does grass seed come from? Why are LED bulbs common in flashlights but rare in home light fixtures?
Math Page, by Ivars Peterson: A Good Plot
LAST PAGE: Skaters, OUI! Cars, NON!
I should not have looked at that…. wahhhhhh!!!! I want it NOW!!!!!!!
Grrr, this is the first time in a long time that my magazine hasn’t come before the month on the cover. The sad thing is, even if it comes today I won’t be able to read it, because I’m going out of town!!!! The earliest I can possibly have it in my hands is Saturday!!!!!!!!!
nooooooooooo i should not read these things!!! I WANT ITTTTT!!!!!!!!!!! WAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!!!
exploding trousers…heh that’ll be good. arrrgh. where does grass seed come from? you guys are sooooooooo evil 
ok so it’s my own fault for looking i guess…but STILL!!!
Ebeth, I share your pain!!!!!!
I SHARE YOUR PAIN TOO!!!! And the bad part is that I HAVE A CONTEST TO WIN!!!!!! I want to see it!
If anybody has seen the magazine, please go to the contest part and tell me if there happens to be a punk fish. Thanks.
actually just tell us what the names of the winners are… Well, at least the name of their fishy-ma-bob…
*Ahem* the Winning fishies are: The Anenominus “Hot Lips” Fish (seriously)
Doodle Fish
and
Cumulus Snail (no, I’m not making this up)
***Irrelevant Sidebar***
Does anyone know whether someone’s made the B. Cavefish Blog?
??? noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It can’t be!!!!!!!! Well actually it is because I got it yesterday and read the contest winners… but i forgot what the new contest is…
My mother stole my Muse last night from me.
I woke up this morning to her guffaws as she read it.
at least you’ve got it cliche!!!!
havn’t got it yet…
good luck!!!!!!
I got my Muse. And jto a problem that has been tickling me ever since I read the mail section, what is wrong with the algebra in that 2*2=5 question? I did it over and over, and I’m in Algebra 2 (Honors, if you must know), but I can’t seem to find the mistakes*. Perhaps this should go on the Jokes and Riddles thread, but I’m too lazy to go find it.
*Then again, this could be because I always make stupid algebra mistakes.
Yay!!! I read the Muse Mail section, and ther ARE some Pwt fans out ther! Yay for Pwt!!! ^_^
Oh, yeah, and the math problem stumped me, THis is the job for… MY MATHEMATICIAN UNCLE!!! Unfortunately, he lives out of the country, and I don’t have his phone number. Drat.
OH MY GOSH I loved the Gamers All Around You thing! That was SOOOOOO awesome! I love it! It’s awesome! Ack! The only word the describes my joy is….
Flamablamablous!
I really liked the entire magazine, this time- especially the Gamers and the Calder article.
This is a job for… ZYVIVA! I shall ask her.
I still haven’t got my October issue yet.
*rants about the postal service*
Pure torture for me. But I WILL HAVE MY REVENGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11
heeheeBWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ooh!!! I FIGURED OUT THE MATH PUZZLE! LAST NIGHT!!!
See, it says that y and x both equal 1. Therefore x-y (or y-x) is 0. so you can’t divide by x-y because you can’t divide by 0. And so then x-y=/=0, so the entire problem contradicts itself.
So basically step 3 is impossible.
oooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!! I didn’t even look at that math problem at all…
I gave it to my Geometry teacher on the 4th and he still didn’t get it!!!!!!!!!!! I got it the first time I saw it.
Nooooooo… it’s because, according to order of operations, tou always DISTRIBUTE first… with variables, it doesn’t matter WHAT the values are when you work with them. But dividing by (x-y) shouldn’t turn 2(x^2-y^2) into 2(x-y) anyway… an number and that number squared are generally incompatible. All you could really do would be to distribute it, thereby undoing the factoring, then RE-factor it so it comes out as multiplication, not addition, which is nearly impossible given the numbers, THEN find the possible solutions, which you don’t care about anyway!!! Either Lewis Caroll was trying to confuse us, or he was hopeless at quadratics.
Either that or I’m uselessly confusing myself and everybody else…
And this really belongs on the math page, anyway….
MMI,
Carroll (real name: Charles Dodgson) was a mathematics professor and knew what he was doing.
(x-y)(x+y) = x^2 – y^2 (expand it and see)
So x^2 – y^2 divided by x-y = x+y .
Nothing fishy there, and it always works — as long as you don’t divide by zero.
–Robert
Well, I didn’t think he was being a fool, really… That was my mind despairing. But… AGH! Why, why, why? People ALWAYS miss the point!
BUT.
2(x^2-y^2)=5(x-y)
2x^2-2y^2=5x-5y
Now you find yourself in a dilemma. To divide, you must divide EACH TERM.
So we back up and see if I can’t shoot it down again. If I can’t I grudgingly admit defeat. We distribute in a slightly different way.
(x^2-y^2)+(x^2-y^2)=5(x-y)
(x+y)+(x+y)=5
2(x+y)=5
2x+2y=5
2(1)+2(1)=5
2+2 CANNOT =5
Which means that the given values of x and y do not satisfy the equation.
BECAUSE.
0 is a very special number. When you set things to equal zero, then it is not reliable to prove something with it, because of a simple fact, and now I deeply apoligize for attempting to correct poor Lizzie, whom I was semi-rude to. As Lizzie says, when you divide something by zero, you get something very, very special.
Infinity.
That’s right, infinity. Which is impossible to calculate with.
Which is why 2+2 STILL does not equal 5, however much Lewis Caroll/Charles Dodgson may have insisted.
He may have been smart, but so are we Musers. Thank you.
(bows and exits… FOR NOW…)
Oh! The other thing– he used numbers for x and y so that 2(x^2-y^2)=0 and 5(x-y)-0. Use other numbers, and they won’t always be equal.
And I suspect that that has a lot to do with it.
(REALLY bows and exits this time)