Comments on: Collatz Conjecture

By: sockpuppet

sockpuppet — Sun, 16 May 2010 01:46:02 +0000

“exercises you do when you have nothing else to do or care for” how about correcting the internet’s grammar?
I’ve been working on correcting split infinitives from pornography sites, I think I’ve got them all but if you spot one let me know.

By: proofreading australia

proofreading australia — Wed, 12 May 2010 09:45:22 +0000

It is one of those exercises you do when you have nothing else to do or care for.
It often leads to frustration, boredom, melancholy, sleepiness, etc.

Wake up, dudes, go where the sun shines and the wind blows.

By: rkr

rkr — Tue, 11 May 2010 17:15:57 +0000

Also, I think that in some circumstances it is sometimes so that it will actually be more like what it is when it is in most cases, such as when you see things like those in times that they are actually mostly like it is before.

By: James

James — Wed, 05 May 2010 02:29:10 +0000

Just to make it infinitely clear (though it is implied by the comic) – the Collatz conjecture says that if you follow that procedure, then repeat with each result that you will eventually end up at one.

Although it has worked for all numbers it has been tried with, it has not been proven in a generalized case (since there are an infinite number of numbers).

Of course trying out all possible numbers will take an infinite amount of time and preclude things like friendship. Then again, the solution may be locked up in an electric eggbeater calibration routine

By: qweber

qweber — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 07:34:44 +0000

Two things:

1 – Muphry’s Law is an adage that states that “if you write anything criticizing editing or proofreading, there will be a fault of some kind in what you have written”.

John Bangsund of the Victorian Society of Editors (Australia) identified Muphry’s Law as “the editorial application of the better-known Murphy’s Law” and set it down in 1992 in the Society of Editors Newsletter.

The law, as set out by Bangsund, states that:

(a) if you write anything criticizing editing or proofreading, there will be a fault of some kind in what you have written;
(b) if an author thanks you in a book for your editing or proofreading, there will be mistakes in the book;
(c) the stronger the sentiment expressed in (a) and (b), the greater the fault;
(d) any book devoted to editing or style will be internally inconsistent.

2 – Godwin’s Law (also known as Godwin’s Rule of Nazi Analogies or Godwin’s Law of Nazi Analogies) is a humorous observation made by Mike Godwin in 1990 which has become an Internet adage. It states: “As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1.”

By: dropping aitch bombs

dropping aitch bombs — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 13:07:02 +0000

“An historic” is one of my biggest grammatical pet peeves. It’s TECHNICALLY correct, but considered archaic, and is still around because certain editors of mass media heard the “exception” from someone else who heard it from someone else, etc… The use of ‘an’ before historic is probably a result of french-influenced accents that incorporated the aspirate ‘h’ into their writing as well as speech. Ex: many people from Houston, TX drop the H from the pronunciation. The words ‘human’ and ‘huge’ also tend to suffer from those American-English speakers unwilling to give up their french connection (whether they’re aware of it or not).

So please– for the sake of an evolving progressive language– don’t second guess yourself next time you speak or write the word “historic”. “A historic event” is perfectly correct, and if anyone tells you otherwise you can show them this article from the grammar nazis that bring you “All Things Considered.”

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4994862

P.S. I also noticed throughout the entire Star Trek Voyager series, the writers try to take the over-correcting of their h-adjectives a step further by using the phrase “an hallucinogenic” multiple times. That bugged the hell out of me.

By: spelling Allied forces #2

spelling Allied forces #2 — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 11:17:29 +0000

Except of course that a history is an historically known exception.

I also wanted to point out that none of these comments are even remotely related to xkcd, speaking of which, does anyone know if this is a reference to someone (has someone recently been found obsessing over Collatz conjecture, or is it just fairly random?)

By: spelling Allied forces

spelling Allied forces — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 11:14:00 +0000

Absolutely, was just pointing out that this only applies to a/an and not ANY word, another example (with vowel pronunciation) is “free hour”. I was just making sure that spelling Nazi wasn’t writing free nhour or free neye care, or his next trip to the opticians may become truly confusing.

By: Spelling Home Guard #2

Spelling Home Guard #2 — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 10:09:46 +0000

it’s based on pronunciation

If the next word begins with a consonant sound when we say it, for example, “university” then we use a. If the next word begins with a vowel sound when we say it, for example “hour” then we use an.

We say “university” with a “y” sound at the beginning as though it were spelt “youniversity”.
So, “a university” IS correct.

We say “hour” with a silent h as though it were spelt “our”.
So, “an hour” IS correct.

By: Spelling Home Guard

Spelling Home Guard — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 00:51:43 +0000

Sorry, couldn’t let this pass: a uniform, an hour.