Comments for mathematical musings

Comment on A ninth planet? by forex signals providers

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Comment on God’s number is 20 by Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 23:12:29 +0000

Yes, what you say is true. There ar 18 generators

Comment on Glimpses of Benoît B. Mandelbrot by David Savitt

David Savitt — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 03:40:41 +0000

Curt McMullen, I think, but I’ll also have to defer to someone else on whether what he proved was properly a conjecture of Mandelbrot.

Comment on Is Benford’s law really less true now than ever? by leonardsmale

leonardsmale — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 12:56:32 +0000

Many things in nature like to grow or change exponentially. However, they cannot continue to do that forever because of higher level constraints that eventually kick in.
This creates a change in behavior that can be quite sudden – a singularity if viewed from far enough away.
A common way of describing this is that “trees do not grow to the sky”.
So, when observing such growth, it will start by following Benford’s Law, but as you approach a fundamental change in behavior you would notice that Benford’s law no longer applies so well. The major point that the article makes for finances, I can agree with.
It’s quite a leap to think there is some sort of mass fraud by companies going on.

Typical USA companies post earnings reports that factor in future earnings predictions. A sort of forward booking that suddenly hits their bottom line when they cease to grow. This is not regarded as fraud, (wish it was), and not all companies do it. It’s stupid because it tends to replace planning with hope in corporate thinking.

So, my explanation is that if it is starting to apply generically to companies then we are approaching the point where the growth is being limited for some reason.
More likely showing that the glut of fiat money is finally becoming visible beyond creating bubbles that move around finance sectors.
Or that we are running out of oil per person.
Or that the Chinese quietly buying up real world resources with overvalued USA dollars is giving them such a competitive advantage that it is starting to show in USA company bottom lines.
Whatever it is, I’m sure the economists will be able to expound upon it with far greater insight after the singularity has happened.

By the way, Microsoft did not factor in future growth in its accounting practices. Clearly its stock price could not go up forever, yet when I asked the top Microsoft executives during the growth what their plans were for managing their part of the company when the stock flattened out they were nonplussed.
However, if you look beyond the obvious numbers, the consequences of the .com bubble was managed extremely well by majority owners of some public tech companies to make them massive personal profits (details not provided, for obvious reasons). They just didn’t align their personal fortunes with those of the companies they were running. So, “following the money” gives greater insight than Benford’s law, I think. The movement of real assets is increasingly well hidden by many layers of obfuscation not available to economists and not watched by government oversight bodies. None of this means that the companies and their accountants are engaged in fraud.

Comment on Topological Turán theory by Carnival of Mathematics #59 « The Number Warrior

Carnival of Mathematics #59 « The Number Warrior — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 23:47:15 +0000

[...] Matthew Kahle takes on topological Turán theory and the question: If a two-dimensional simplicial complex has vertices and faces, does it necessarily contain an embedded torus? [...]

Comment on About by Simon Jensen

Simon Jensen — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 20:25:49 +0000

Hi Matthew. It is a very nice website you have here.

A couple of years ago, I wrote a “paradox”, that you might find interesting.
Have a look: http://blogoff.simonjensen.com/#post4

Best regards,
Simon Jensen

Comment on Moore’s law for solar by Mark Bennet

Mark Bennet — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 20:04:16 +0000

While human beings are not capturing useful solar energy, the Earth may be capturing extra solar energy through the mechanisms of “global warming”. “useful” is the key concept.

Comment on God’s number is 20 by Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 14:38:34 +0000

Isn’t the “God’s number” the diameter of the Cayley graph for the generating set

{L, R, U, D, F, B, L^2, R^2, U^2, D^2, F^2, B^2, L^{-1}, R^{-1}, U^{-1}, D^{-1}, F^{-1}, B^{-1} } having the cardinality of 18?

Comment on Mathematical Zen by NICO VENGEANCE

NICO VENGEANCE — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 21:04:03 +0000

nice..

Excuse me, I’ve put your link in the blogroll. can you put my blog link in your blogroll?

Comment on A ninth planet? by Sightseeing | A Decade Under The Influence

Sightseeing | A Decade Under The Influence — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 23:07:38 +0000

[...] 6.) A Ninth Planet in the Outer Solar System [...]