#date math

[la-principessa-nuova]

I made a support request with a vendor asking if there’s a way to leverage the logic they already have for determining what counts as a business day (it is very critical that this is done exactly correctly and that it never breaks in the future if nobody is maintaining it) when using their API since I didn’t want to have to maintain a separate source of truth for it, and in their response they said:

it is not too hard to do date/timestamp arithmetic

which any developer who has done date/time arithmetic knows is the understatement of the century

Famously everyone thinks so until they take down an important system by forgetting about DST, or leap years, or that leap years don’t happen every 100 years, or that they do happen every 400 years, or not considering implications of people using different calendar systems, even if they’re just slightly different like having weeks start on a different day, or they consider whether the first week of the month is the first full week or the partial week before that, or they format it in a different order.

Then when they finally think, “OK, but I know about that,” then they learn about the leap second, or the negative leap second.

So yes, date math is “too hard”.

[violetfractal]

A circle inscribed in a square covers 79% of the square.

A ball inscribed in a cube fills 52% of the cube.

A 4-ball inscribed in a hypercube fills 31% of the hypercube.

A 5-ball inscribed in a 5-cube fills 16% of the 5-cube.

⋮

A 9-ball inscribed in a 9-cube fills it up less than 1% of the way, yet there’s no room to fit a second ball of the same size without intersecting the first.

⋮

In dimensions 23 and up, you can fit a little cube in the corner of the diagram, such that the cube has a larger volume than the ball!

That's especially disconcerting because the 23-cube has 8,388,608 corners. Even if you inscribe the little red cubes in all eight million corners, your big cube will still be 99.5% empty space.

[hislop3]

Wednesday Feature: How Old Am I?

Happy Hump Day! I needed a diversion day, away from the serious policy and econ stuff I usually follow and write about. All work and no play make Reg a dull boy. Folks that have followed this site for years or even newer followers, probably can tell that I write from a reference point. Experience has no other substitute. Suffice to say, I have been around for a bit. Age is not terribly relevant…

[aerialworms-art]

Lifespans.

(ID under cut)

[Image ID: A three-way venn diagram floating against a starfield. The circles are coloured; one yellow, one light blue, one a darker shade of blue. The yellow is the smallest, the two blue ones over double its size, with the darker blue the biggest. The yellow is half covered by the two blue circles, while it takes up a small amount of the two blues. The centre overlap between all three is labelled "the precious few years we three were together".

There is very little overlap between the yellow and the darker blue without the lighter blue.

The work is signed 'aerialworms'./End ID]

[ryuusea]

mornings with a math professor…

inspired by this twt

[mocha-ghoooul]

productive day in the office

og image!!

[barabaraoranges]

bear lover community getting fed well in this game

[lyrichi]

[asmo is laying on mc's bed while mc does something at their desk]

asmo: what are you doing over there?

mc: math

asmo, humming: what kind?

mc: algebra 2

asmo, looking over at mc and trying to start a conversation: why don't you tell me about it?

mc, tiredly reading the problem: given that f(x) = x² - 5, and g(x) = 2x + 3, what is f(g(x)?

asmo, kind of stunned:

[fascinationstreetmp3]

the 21 year gap

back to thinking about this ... in the books, armand spends 2 years as a human and 9 months (or "maybe 10", but let's go with 9) as a vampire with marius, and around 11 months with the roman coven (approx. 5 months being held captive, and 6 more months studying under them) before he is sent to paris.

(let me quickly preface this with saying that im shit with numbers so my calculations may be off but this is all based around rough years anyway and the odyssey of recollection and whatnot)

being 514 y/o in 2022, armand was born c. 1508. he was then purchased by marius in 1523, turned in 1535, and sent to lead the paris coven in 1556. in the gap between 1535 and 1556, at some point marius is set on fire by the roman coven, who then kidnap armand and turn him into one of their own.

when they stretched out armand's time with marius, if they used the same ratio of human to vampire months spent with marius (8:3) as the books, armand would've spent about 16 ½ years with marius altogether. 12 years as a human, 4 ½ years as a vampire.

book: 2 years (24 months) as a human and 9 months as a vampire with marius. 2 years and 9 months (33 months) with marius in total. show: 12 years (144 months) as a human and 4 ½ years (54 months) as a vampire. roughly 16 ½ years (198 months) with marius in total.

this would place the roman coven attacking the palazzo and taking armand around 1539-1540, when armand was 31-32 years old. this date also maybe aligns just the tiniest bit better with armand calling marius "a contemporary of tintoretto's" if marius was still actively painting around 1540.

following that, armand spends roughly 16 ½ more years with the roman coven, before being sent to paris. this doesn't align with the books, where his time with marius is longer his time with the roman coven by almost two years. instead, the length of time for both here would be more or less equal. that kind of works though, maybe?

to sum it up, this is what i think a possible very rough timeline outlining major events for armand up to 1556 might look like:

1508 - birth 1523 - 15 y/o, purchased by marius 1535 - 27 y/o, turned by marius 1539-40 - 31-32 y/o, taken by the roman coven 1556 - 48 y/o, sent to lead the paris coven

[inlovewithl3vi]

I can imagine a teen MC going to Satan for help with their homework from the human world and he just… can’t do Highschool math.

Of course he can help with English and science, and obviously he’s good at history he was there when those things were happening.

All goes well until MC pulls out their algebra homework.

He tries to help, really he tries everything he can think of to figure it out… but he just can’t.

And it’s not because he can’t solve a simple algebra problem it’s just that the way math has been taught changed quite a bit since the last time he actually had to do any algebra.

He simply just can’t figure out what they want you to do from how the question is worded, and since when did they change the formulas?

Eventually he gets so stressed from it he ends up caving in and going to Lucifer.

Except he can’t solve it either. Of course he doesn’t admit he can’t figure out how to solve it, his ego would be wounded. But he does go on a slight rant about how it’s stupid that humans keep changing simple math.

Somehow the others get involved, and now you have seven demons crowded around your math homework trying their best to figure it out.

Even Belphie is awake and Levi came out of his room. Asmo calls Solomon, hoping he would remember something about Highschool math.

Except he hasn’t even been to Highschool… he’s lived so long that when he was born school wasn’t really a thing, and when it did become a more common thing he just kinda went to college then studied magic.

Somehow Solomon gets Barbatos involved along with Diavolo, and now the prince of the devildom is trying (and failing) to do a simple math problem meant for fifteen year olds. Simeon gets called over by Solomon, thinking that maybe he would know. But no, he hasn’t studied math since a couple centuries ago.

Now you have nine demons a human and an angel desperately trying to solve a math problem.

Eventually you just grab the paper away for a second and use photomath to get the answer. You decide that it’s better to leave them be after finishing the whole paper without their help, they’ll figure it out eventually.

-Yes this is inspired by the fact that I tried to help a younger cousin with her math homework and I felt so old since math genuinely changed since I was in high school. Seriously that was only like six years ago why did it change?

[nharmoniaa985]

so like did ruikasa just get confirmed or

[watchyourbuck]

Evan Buckley is so fucking unserious LMAOO like he saw Eddie get all blushy and kinky when “she taught me math”, then took two season to become a mATH PRODIGY

[telugxrl13]

soc as a middle school au would be so silly because matthias would be the new kid who immediately became opps with a random teacher who kept giving him detentions, so he’s forced into this weird ass club with like five people to get out of the detentions and he later realizes their plans to raid the principal’s office and kidnap the candy jar or smth

[wolffyluna]

Happy Year of the Snake! Please enjoy this red bellied black snake. He is very happy with his envelope.

[corviiids]

akeshu girlies where they get bubble tea and akechi yaps the entire fucking time

--

“Hey, is that Akechi-chan?”

“What’s she doing hanging around the transfer student? Do you think she’s investigating her?”

“Oh my god. Do you think if I commit a crime, she’d investigate me too?”

“Perhaps I should have worn a hat,” Akechi says jauntily.

She loops her arm through Ren’s to lead her to the train station. The chatter around the school increases in volume. No hat could save them now, not that it could have before. Ren tries to sink further into her collar. If Akechi had actually wanted to fly under the radar, she wouldn’t have brought her monogrammed messenger bag.

Apparently tuning out the gossip, and transparently faking it, Akechi clicks on her phone. “Do you like milk tea?” she asks. “I feel I at least owe you a drink for drawing so much attention to you outside your school. There’s a place nearby which does an Earl Grey topped with creme brulee pudding. I quite like Western tea, to be honest. It’s fragrant. Shall we go?”

Ren hasn’t gotten in a single fucking word yet.

They get on the train. Akechi sits before Ren can even think about it.

“Oh, sorry,” she says pleasantly. “I’ve been on my feet all day. You’re lucky you can wear flat shoes, you know. I know the kitten heels don’t look too daunting, but spend a day in them… It’s murder, Amamiya-chan. But you can sit on my lap, if you like. You don’t look heavy.”

Ren shakes her head. Her knuckles are white around the loop handle.

Akechi glances up at her hand and smiles. Ren wishes she had Joker’s gloves.

“Your leggings are too big,” Akechi points out sweetly. “They tend to sag a bit at the knees. Did you know?”

Ren pulls them up again. She misses Joker’s trousers.

The milk tea shop is a hole-in-the-wall type in a quiet suburb about fifteen minutes from Shibuya station. Akechi leads Ren through the twisting streets, past a small convenience store and a stall that only seems to sell succulents. Ren nearly misses the little awning when they find it, stumbling before she can run into Akechi’s back.

“What luck,” Akechi says, “we still have an hour before they close. Have a look at the menu, Amamiya-chan, unless you’d like me to choose for you?”

Ren shakes her head again, but Akechi is gazing into the kitchen. Someone inside seems to spot her and calls, “Good afternoon, Akechi-chan! Thank you for coming back again. You’ve brought a friend?”

“I have,” Akechi says merrily. “Do you have any recommendations for me today, Shimada-san?”

“You order something new every time, Akechi-chan. I don’t know your tastes. You’d be better off throwing a dart!”

Akechi laughs. “Then I’ll get the Earl Grey,” she says. “I’d hit it subconsciously, because I like it so much.” She looks back at Ren. “My treat, of course,” she says smoothly. “Have you decided?”

“I don’t really like milk tea,” says Ren.

The cream top Oolong isn’t as sweet as the look of surprise and mild embarrassment that crosses Akechi’s face, but Ren likes it fine anyway.