Math Can Be Truly Painful

Now here is something I can relate to:

For math-phobes, anticipation of arithmetic activates pain centers in brain.

 

Does the thought of 1+1=ouch?

If you hate math, it might—literally. According to a new study, the mere prospect of a math problem causes pain centers to light up in number-phobic brains.

Researchers at the University of Chicago measured the neural activity of 28 adults—14 who’d been identified with high math anxiety and 14 with low math anxiety. Each subject was given a series of word and math questions (some of which are below) while his or her brain was scanned.

Result: When those in the high-anxiety group saw a math task was coming, their dorso-posterior insulas and mid-cingulate cortexes—the parts of the brain that perceive pain and bodily threats—reacted as if the subject’s hand had been burned on a hot stove. Those in the low-anxiety group showed no such response.

What’s more, said study co-author Ian Lyons, “the anxiety occurred only during anticipation. When they actually did the math problems, they didn’t seem to experience pain. That suggests it’s not the math itself that hurts; it’s the thought of it that’s painful.”

Well, maybe it’s not that bad… I simply can’t do the numbers well…

Rest here.

 

Is Heaven Hotter than Hell?

According to the Bible, as calculated in the August 1972 issue of Applied Optics:

The temperature of Heaven can be rather accurately computed from  available data. Our authority is the Bible: Isaiah 30:26 reads, Moreover  the light of the Moon shall be as the light of the Sun and the light of  the Sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days. Thus  Heaven receives from the Moon as much radiation as the Earth does from  the Sun and in addition seven times seven (forty-nine) times as much as  the Earth does from the Sun, or fifty times in all. The light we receive  from the Moon is a ten-thousandth of the light we receive from the Sun,  so we can ignore that.

With these data we can compute the temperature  of Heaven: The radiation falling on Heaven will heat it to the point  where the heat lost by radiation is just equal to the heat received by  radiation. In other words, Heaven loses fifty times as much heat as the  Earth by radiation. Using the Stefan-Boltzmann fourth-power law for  radiation

where E is the absolute temperature of the Earth: 300K. This gives H as 798K absolute (525°C).

The exact temperature of Hell cannot be computed but it must be less  than 444.6°C, the temperature at which brimstone or sulfur changes from a  liquid to a gas. Revelations 21:8: But the fearful and unbelieving … shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone.  A lake of molten brimstone means that its temperature must be below the  boiling point, which is 444.6°C. (Above that point it would be a vapor,  not a lake.)

It’s not clear to me whether Isaiah chapter 30 is describing Heaven or “Zion at Jerusalem” – fulltext of the chapter here.

Source

 

11/11/11

A date with a special meaning?

Dates such as 11/11/11, are happening more often since the start of the new millennium.

The hype for these special dates is building across popular culture, with films and stories being made about the end of the world and news reports about expectant parents eagerly waiting for their children to be born on these dates.

But is there a special meaning behind these unique dates? Or is it just pure math?

Read on here.

Actually, I chose to post this at: 11:11 on 11/11/11.

So:

11/11/11 11:11:11

2011 is the Year of 111

This is just plain weird. Ok, so you give it a try:

There’s a meme flying round the internet at the moment that tells you to…

… add the last two digits of your birth year to the age you will turn on your birthday this year (2011, for any time travellers). It tells you the answer will be 111.

So for me:  ’74 + 37 = 111!

Did it come to that for you too? Nelson.

If you want to know how it works, click here. There’s even a formula.