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#57322 02/18/02 04:21 PM
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The Eddas of the Scandinavians really piques my interest since I'm unfamiliar with it. I'll be researching. In the meantime, if any one has something on this, please share.

Lots of references to this book WON but the following seems to be the autoritative version. PM me if you want a longer list of available copies.

AUTHOR :Snorri Sturluson, 1179-1241
Faulkes, Anthony
TITLE :Edda
VOLUME :: Háttatal/ Snorri Sturluson; edited by Anthony Faulkes
IMPRINT :Oxford : Clarendon Press; , 1991
COLLATION :(200p) ; 22cm
ISBN :0198112386


#57323 02/18/02 04:56 PM
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The Twelve Plays of Christmas
[signed] Edward
Come on, Em'--forgive me! Lemme back inside, dearest!


#57324 02/18/02 05:00 PM
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My mother can find four-leaf clover all over the farm. She's got a gift for finding them.

I haven't read this whole thread yet, but maybe there's no such thing as a four-leaf shamrock...

Best regards,
WW


#57325 02/18/02 07:10 PM
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Think of a number between one and ten (or one and a hundred) and you will inevitably pick a fibonacci number. Give it a go. Your nature will overcome your conscious.

I'm not so sure about that. My first inclination is always to pick 7, and that's not a Fibonacci number.

Most successful plots involve three central characters and are broken into three acts or scenes.

I'll agree with the acts and scenes, but characters? Surely there are more successful pairs. Romeo & Juliet for example.

Architects follow onto this by using triangulation to survey and to design.

Maybe somewhat, but we've mainly studied rectangles and circles as being in perfect proportion to the human form.


#57326 02/18/02 07:55 PM
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"And that's a terrific number! 4. Why? Because you use four fingers on the fingerboard when playing violin. That's what 4 is for! Four sure!"

"Once you were two, dear birthday friend,
In spite of purple weather.*
But now you are three and near the end
As we gruesome together.
How forthful thou, forsooth for you!
For soon you will be more!
But 'fore one can be three be two,
Before be five be four."
--Churchy LaFemme, of Pogo fame

*Some folklorists opine that the original line here was "inside of turtle sweater," but no definitive proof has been obtained.

Tsyganka, ever the scholar


#57328 02/18/02 09:10 PM
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The fibonacci sequence starts 0 1 and forms each later term as the sum of the two immediately-preceding ones; hence 0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 144 ...

These numbers are often found in nature. For example, in many flowers the number of petals is a fibonacci number (or is such a number repeated twice, in two sets):
3 petals: lily, iris
5 petals: buttercup, wild rose, larkspur, columbine, vinca
8 petals: delphinium, coreopsis
13 petals: ragwort, marigold, cineraria
21 petals: aster, black-eyed susan, chicory
34 petals plantain, daisy, pyrethrum
55 or 89 petals: daisy, the asteraceae family

(The are exceptions. Often those exceptions are numbers in the Lucas series,, which is from with the same "sum of the previous two" rule but starting with 2 1: hence 2 1 3 4 7 11 18 29 47 76 ...)

So too: in a seedhead at the center of daisy or suflower, or the like, the sprials of the individual seeds are in patterns of fibonacci numbers. It was suspected, and then proved mathematically in 1993, that this produces optimum uniformity of spacing as the seeds and seedhead grow.

As one moves out in a fibonacci series (or in any related series using the same rule, such as the Lucas series), the ratio of the term to its preceding term converges to the golden ratio -- which is the subject of its own thread.

Another oddity: write the fibonacci numbers (0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 ...) thus as decimal fractions thus; then total the decimal numbers:
0 -- .0
1 -- .01
1 -- .001
2 -- .0002
3 -- .00003
5 -- .000005
8 -- .0000008
13--.00000013
21--.000000021
sum.011235951
The sum (carried out infinitely) equals 1/89th -- and 89 is itself a fibonacci number.

#57329 02/18/02 09:58 PM
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RE: in many flowers the number of petals is a fibonacci number (or is such a number repeated twice, in two sets):
3 petals: lily, iris


Iris, lily(s) and tulips all have 3 petals/
half the "flower" is a modified, colored sepel A slightly different structure. -- sepal are most familier in roses (which have 5, the green covers to the rose bud)

some plants have modified sepals.. so, three of the lilies "petals' are really "covers' to the three petals of the flower.

same in tulips, and iris's, and lots of other flowers.

flowers generally have 1 to 1 ratio of sepals to petals.. but in modified forms, the ratio is lost. so old, simple roses (a tudor rose, say) has five petals but many modern roses have any number of petals, following a fibonacci series number. there are also "double forms of lilies", with 6 or 9 petals (total appearence, 9 or 12) but the number of sepals remains the same.


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the whole nine yards

OrB~! Look what I found! But since he's incorrect about "your name will be mud/your name is mud" hearkening back to Dr. Mudd (see Today's Word thread) on the same page, I dunno. Take a look at the rest of his stuff and see what you think. http://www.isye.gatech.edu/~jsokol/etym.html

The Whole 9 Yards - The term "the whole 9 yards" came from WWII fighter pilots in the South Pacific. When arming their airplanes on the ground, the .50 caliber machine gun ammo belts measured exactly 27 feet, before being loaded into the fuselage. If the pilots fired all their ammo at a target, it got "the whole 9 yards." Thanks to Sarah Yohannan for this contribution.

P.S. So who's Sarah Yohannan?


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P.S. So who's Sarah Yohannan?

Probably one of the hundreds of people who have tried to make up an origin for the phrase that has no known origin.


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