- #1
DifferentialGalois
- 68
- 25
A theoretical astrophysicist was absentmindedly working through papers on Mossbauer spectroscopy, eventually coming to the Pound Rebka experiment, a remarkable test of GR. (Gamma rays were sent from the top of a building to a receiver, so as to measure the gravitational blueshift in such an experiment). Deeply immerse in a physics textbook, it takes the professor a while to realize that outside his cottage, a delivery truck is parked.
"Vodka dlya prodazhi. Zdravstvuyte! Prodazha odnogo funta za butylku!"
"Vodka for sale. Hello! Selling one pound per bottle!"
The words come from a mathematician specialising in combinatorial geometry, albeit struggling to gain a working salary from it and thus, working in food delivery services.
The physicist takes a sip of his quark soup, and places his head outside the window. When he notices that the combinatorial geometer is selling bottles of vodka, he quoth, "I expect that the quantity is some Catalan number. I regret to inform you that I've quite enough of combinatorics for a lifetime."
The combinatorial geometer beams briefly, but not for too long as the resident of the abode becomes exasperated.
The astrophysicist professor emits a gamma ray, causing the delivery truck man combinatorial geometer to dash away at tachyonic velocity. "That lad ought to be five years old."
1. Why does the geometer beam briefly at the mention of the Catalan number? What relevance does the Catalan number have?
2. Within propinquity of the end, the professor states that the geometer's mental age is five. Propose a reason as to why this is the case.
"Vodka dlya prodazhi. Zdravstvuyte! Prodazha odnogo funta za butylku!"
"Vodka for sale. Hello! Selling one pound per bottle!"
The words come from a mathematician specialising in combinatorial geometry, albeit struggling to gain a working salary from it and thus, working in food delivery services.
The physicist takes a sip of his quark soup, and places his head outside the window. When he notices that the combinatorial geometer is selling bottles of vodka, he quoth, "I expect that the quantity is some Catalan number. I regret to inform you that I've quite enough of combinatorics for a lifetime."
The combinatorial geometer beams briefly, but not for too long as the resident of the abode becomes exasperated.
The astrophysicist professor emits a gamma ray, causing the delivery truck man combinatorial geometer to dash away at tachyonic velocity. "That lad ought to be five years old."
1. Why does the geometer beam briefly at the mention of the Catalan number? What relevance does the Catalan number have?
2. Within propinquity of the end, the professor states that the geometer's mental age is five. Propose a reason as to why this is the case.