The Cambridge Chat Thread

Which question, out of curiosity?

Some guy I met from Johns punched me when I said I went to a TSR meet.

He was clearly right to do so. Don't you know the first rule of TSR meets? (obscure - well, maybe not so obscure - movie reference inside)

Like, properly, or as a joke?


Not obscure (though a good film) and as always, said rule is broken by mentioning it. For some reason it reminds me of the fictional characters (probably by Pratchett) who can't avoid following signs and could get confused by contradicting ones (anyone know what I'm talking about?).

From my experience (maths), there are at least one or two questions on every sheet that the vast majority won't be able to answer. Don't know about computer science though.

Not obscure (though a good film) and as always, said rule is broken by mentioning it. For some reason it reminds me of the fictional characters (probably by Pratchett) who can't avoid following signs and could get confused by contradicting ones (anyone know what I'm talking about?).

A7, A8 and B7

I don't know anyone who's made any progress on A8 - I handed my answers in earlier tonight without that question. I have no grasp of how to begin it, although the context of the other questions suggests that it might be fairly easy if you spot a trick.

A7 tip: draw a diagram, name the vertices and proceed similarly to A6.

B section I've not looked at.

Like, properly, or as a joke?


Not obscure (though a good film) and as always, said rule is broken by mentioning it. For some reason it reminds me of the fictional characters (probably by Pratchett) who can't avoid following signs and could get confused by contradicting ones (anyone know what I'm talking about?).

That's what I did to start with, but I just gave up after it became mildly complicated (it's the flu )

What questions were you set by the way? For me it was A5 - A9, B3 - B7 and C2-C3

It's a little dull, but fairly straightforward (touch wood - I could easily have been completely wrong!).



'A' section until we got stuck.

Some guy I met from Johns punched me when I said I went to a TSR meet.

It sure is; which question are you doing - "was there an industrial revolution in the light of new quantitative evidence"?

I'm currently working on the properties of estimators for Econometrics - fun stuff.

Just realised it's simple if you guess lambda as a half.

I was trying to do it without the guess before because wouldn't that not work if the tetrahedron is irregular?

Did you ask his username?

The things that had problems with signs are Auditors btw.

Awesome, I was right.



I don't see why not. I solved for the parameter, rather than just guessing it, and I don't remember anything in it which required the triangles to be equilateral.

Looking at it again, lambda should be a quarter actually?

Did you prove the converse for A5 by the way?

Hm. Say you've got a tetrahedron, ABCD. The lines between the midpoints look like (i.e. the midpoint of AD to the midpoint of BC). Sub in lambda = a half and you get $\frac{1}{4}(a+b+c+d)$. Do the same for the other pairs of midpoints and you get the same. No? (I can't find my working copy here, so I'm doing this off the top of my head.)



Hm, I think I forgot actually. Slightly irritating because I'd remembered it earlier, but then got carried away with the algebra and forgot. Alas.

Yes it's a half, sorry. I realised I didn't see the half before the lambda just after I posted (which is why I tried to delete my post )

You're clearly not 'with it' because you're normally a far better mathematician than me, from what I remember. In any case, I'm going to call it a night.

how did you know?! this module is actually unbelievable in its ability to turn me from motivated and ready to work after finishing my maths example sheets to wanting to jump off the top floor of the library lest i have to read about changes in industrial structure again.