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volleypong

Volleypong is a sport invented on lunch break at MAQ Software. I think it is fun. It’s played like regular doubles ping pong but with the following rule changes:

1. You can set the ball, like in volleyball. (That is, you can hit it in the air to your teammate.)
2. Your team must set the ball to each other once or twice before hitting it to the other side.
3. All shots must hit both sides of the table (like how serves are hit in regular ping pong).
4. On the initial serve of the point, you can only set the ball once.

The game is still in an exploratory phase as we get decent at it. But I think it has strong potential. I encourage any ping pong enthusiasts to try this for themselves and get back to me.

curriculum for a human body

• track an animal by sound
• search a landscape for signs of movement
• chase a person or animal
• manipulate a delicate thread
• tie two objects together
• pull yourself onto a high platform
• climb a tree or rock
• look for an object in the darkness
• throw something at a target
• lift or drag a heavy object
• judge whether a food is safe to eat
• swim to a shore
• dive fully beneath the water
• run a long distance
• walk a very long distance
• carry something a long distance
• change direction sharply while running
• identify an object by touch
• swing a heavy object
• interact with a large animal
• identify a plant
• walk barefoot on uneven terrain
• run on an uneven surface
• judge time by the position of the sun
• identify a star or constellation
• navigate an unfamiliar area without a map
• jump over a gap

my idea for a sport

(the best name i can think of is “skipball” but i think there must be a better one)

skipball is played on a basketball court in teams of 4. the offense starts on the baseline with one player holding a racquetball. the defense starts behind half court. the offense gets a point if they can run the ball across the opponent’s baseline without the player holding the ball ever being touched. the offense is allowed to pass the ball to each other, but the ball has to bounce exactly once before it reaches the other player. players are not allowed to hold or push each other.

skipball is played as best of 5 sets with each team getting 11 tries per set to score points. if you score on the 11th try, you get to continue doing tries until you fail one.

LEAKED 2035 IMO questions

Word has spread that a genius yet evil mathematician has leaked the problems that will be contained in the 2035 International Math Olympiad. This mathematician is reportedly a diehard fan of Gottfried Leibniz and will stop at nothing to sabotage math competitions which don’t include calculus. (They also claim to have burned over four hundred copies of Voltaire’s Candide.) Seeing as I once got a 120 on the AMC 10 but was not once selected for my country’s IMO team, I have decided to join the evil mathematician in their quest and publish all of the leaked questions.

Day 1

Question 1

What is 3471239847981237489021374897 times 7807123894710928375490128508734657801634?

Question 2

Suppose there exists a blue guy $P$ at the center of circle $Q$ (the “blue world”) with radius 7. Suppose also that $Q$ has two parallel chords $\overline{AB}$ and $\overline{CD}$. The region $R$ is a blue tree defined by $\overline{AB}$, $\overline{CD}$, and $Q$. If triangle $ACP$ is isosceles with $AP = PC = 8$, what is the area of the blue tree?

Question 3

Prove that every even number greater than 2 is the sum of two primes.

Day 2

Question 4

An island contains 100 goblins, labeled $g_1, g_2, \ldots, g_{100}$. Each goblin has either a red or a blue hat. The island also contains two gates, one red and one blue. Each day at noon, the red gate opens with probability $2/5$ and the blue gate opens with probability $7/10$. The goblins are not allowed to speak or hear or look at anything, except that they are allowed to look at the hats of exactly two other goblins of their choice. Each goblin has 100 days to go through a gate, but if they go through the gate that matches their color of hat they will be killed.

Question 5

Ok now get this one: Is $x$ bigger than $y$?

Question 6

How many numbers are there

colors of noise

“white noise pink noise brown noise” you may have heard of these. well i’ve listened to all of them for about 30 seconds apiece and here are my ratings. the official source for each color is whatever came up first in youtube search.

• white: 2/10. awful but you’ve gotta respect it
• pink: 3/10. bleh
• brown: 7/10. it’s pretty nice
• blue: 5/10. like brown noise but worse
• black: 8/10. ah, the void
• yellow: 7/10. mysterious and brooding.
• red: 8/10. also pretty nice
• magenta: 3/10. “the pink noise alternative” yup and same score
• orange: 6/10. subtle but i respect it
• gray: 3/10. annoying but not too bad
• green: 6/10. this is what’s inside your brain when you’re tired
• transparent: 6/10. whatever
• indigo: 2/10. largely sucks
• cyan: 6/10. whatever

this is not on the same scale as the ones detailed in that one blog post. unlike music i wouldn’t listen to any of these for fun.