Math is fun

One thing that as been surprising to me is that in my engineering specific classes, a lot of the time there is very little focus on getting the right answer. A lot of times it is like math-light. Constants are rounded to the point to where, as one of my professors puts it, "You aren't right, but neither is thermodynamics, and at least you are in the game."

In doing math-light a lot this year (though when you are dealing with something like a Benedict-Webb-Rubin equation, not much can be considered "light" about it...) it's surprised me how easy even complex math can become but just knowing "this number gonna be really big, so screw this number, its only gonna change the final answer by like .2, oh but this number matters," and so on and so on.

This morning I saw that one of the supplies of the New York Times had not been emptied (they usually are by about 10 minutes after 8 AM, when classes start) and switched to the Science section because I'm a huge nerd and Wall Street confuses the shit out of me, only to find this article.

Basically, that sense of approximation is starting to be linked to one's mathematical ability. This seems kind of stupid and common sense-ish to me, but the WAY that they were able to test for it is really kind of cool. Basically, the test flashes a random number of circles on a screen for .2 seconds, some blue some yellow. It is your job to determine, basically off of a gut instinct, which color circles there were more of.

Sort of a why didn't I think of that type of thing...

Anywho, I like to think I have a mildly varied readership, so I'm curious how some people test. Clink the link above, go for maybe 20 or so tries, and lemme know what you get.

For the record, I went 50 times, got 76%. I'm sure at least one person will try to beat the system and play like seven times to get 100%, so ahead of time.... I win.