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#8599 10/26/00 11:50 AM
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compile a list

These things get incestuous. In a previous job, I ended up with a database to find my way around the other databases - a sort of metabase, I guess. Metathread?


#8600 10/26/00 12:38 PM
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Jackie Offline OP
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Posterity can't go on without knowing the legacy of 'Graduation'.

They'll be there, dear. If there are any that you particularly like, you may feel free to compile your own list for the edification of us all.










#8601 10/26/00 04:56 PM
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there was some consternation back when it was revealed that 700 was the 6th level of AWADtalkitiveness (counting stranger as 0th and newbie as 1st), thereby breaking up the *obvious arithmetic progression.

well, as A-6th level-WADdy, I'd like to make a prediction. if my newly discovered progression holds true the next level will be, not at 1000, but 1100 posts. but, of course, I'm probably wrong.


#8602 10/26/00 05:01 PM
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jmh Offline
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> 1100 posts

Good prediction - we'll get Shona to check it out - I'm sure he'll be there by Christmas!


#8603 10/26/00 09:00 PM
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tsuwm,

Since I know you're a stickler for using the right word, I consider it my duty to jump in here and point out that a series that goes 25,50,100,200,400 is in fact a geometric series (each number a constant ratio of the last). 700 certainly wrecked that one. An arithmetic progression is one that is formed by adding/subtracting a constant number to/from the last, eg 3,6,9,12. Your new theory, if I've understood it correctly, and an interesting one on the data so far, suggests that the algorithm is based on the number of posts required at each level: (so far 25, 50, 100, 200, 300), which you're assuming has now settled into an arithmetic series, although it started as geometric. I don't know if there's a word for hybrid series like that.



#8604 10/26/00 11:27 PM
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good point, marty, on the geometric vs. arithmetic.

>I don't know if there's a word for hybrid series like that.

me too, but the Fibonacci sequence (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, ...) is an example of a sequence described recursively by a pair of formulas:
FIBO(n) = FIBO(n-1) + FIBO(n-2) for n>2
FIBO(1) = FIBO(2) = 1


#8605 10/27/00 12:10 AM
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Thanks for bringing up Fibonacci, tsuwm. You sent me into a whole new world of fascinating revelations, eg http://www.mcs.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/R.Knott/Fibonacci/fib.html about Fibonacci numbers, golden ratios, how rabbits breed, stems divide and spiral seashells are constructed. I marvel at the connection between the seemlingly purely academic analysis of a number series and the beauty of nature.


#8606 10/27/00 12:36 AM
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he'll be there by Christmas

Only if I make lots of short pointless


#8607 10/27/00 12:44 AM
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marty, good link - but doesn't he fudge the F. series by introducing a zero? this eliminates the need for the second formula, but doesn't even agree with his examples from nature!


#8608 10/27/00 02:14 AM
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I agree, tsuwm. I thought it might offend you too. Hard to see how 0 pairs of rabbits could produce any offspring, let alone a total population of 354224848179261915075 after 100 months. But you never can tell with those pesky rabbits!


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