The HMS Queen Elizabeth leak

The BBC report that:

'According to the Sun newspaper, HMS Queen Elizabeth has been taking on up to 200 litres of sea water every hour because of the fault.

BBC defence correspondent Jonathan Beale said the problem was "highly embarrassing" for the Royal Navy and just one of a number of snags still to be rectified.'

200 litres an hour, is that a lot? I've just turned on my kitchen tap, it filled a 1 litre jug in just under 10 seconds. That's a rate of 360 litres per hour, almost double the rate of the leak into the HMS Queen Elizabeth. This doesn't seem a lot of water.

I had a look on Amazon UK for bilge pumps, this is a link to a 12V bilge pump that claims to clear 1100 Gallons per hour (that's approximately 5,000 litres per hour). This bilge pump costs £13.49 with free delivery and is in stock. So a £13.49 bilge pump would clear the leak operating at 7.2% capacity. This leak really doesn't seem like a big deal to me.

Also surely the whole point of sea trials is to find issues and fix them. This leak seems like a small issue that has been identified and will be fixed but in the meantime will hardly affect the ship's ability to operate.


So did nobody at the BBC do the maths to see whether this was a serious problem, or did they just jump to report something that they hoped would embarrass the Conservative government and denigrate the Country?

Iain Dale - Maths is not his strong point, nor apparently is apologising for making an error

Say what you like about Iain Dale, at least when he's proved wrong he admits it - doesn't he?

So will Iain Dale actually admit he's made a mathematical mistake? We'll see...


UPDATE: He's admitted his error but not to me, to someone else who commented and there's been no apology for his rather supercilous comments to me about a matter in which he was wrong.

Intersting that Iain Dale admits defeat, not that he was wrong. Also interesting that you could get a job as a financial journalist in the late 1980s with just a C in GCSE Maths.

Oddly the matter didn't end there, as one of Iain Dale's team decided to try and curry favour with his boss.

Quite tragic and very tedious? Well if getting rather irritated when a public figure tells me that I'm wrong about a fairly simple mathematical calculation is tragic and if pushing for that public figure to acknowledge their error is tedious then I am guilty of being both. Indeed I'd rather be tragic and tedious about accuracy than cavalier about the truth.


UPDATE 2:
It strikes me that Iain Dale is presenting his rather tedious radio show on LBC. Maybe he'll apologise to me after that show finishes, maybe not.

The bomb: 76 years later - UK Indymedia

This article from 2011 by Jeremy Corbyn https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2011/08/483050.html is fascinating, not least because in 2011 he says that Hiroshima happened 76 years previously. 2011 - 1945 = 66 not 76.

It looks as though Jeremy Corbyn is as mathematically challenged as Andy 'seven eights' Burnham.

The trouble with employing arts graduates

Could someone please tell the BBC news that 10,000 metres is not 30,000 feet. It's around 32,800 feet but I'd accept 33,000 feet as an approximation.

Bloody arts graduates.

That Wayne Rooney goal against West Ham this weekend

Yes it was a great long-range volley, up there with David Beckham's of a few years back, but was it any better than this volleyed goal scored against Manchester United with Peter Schmeichel in goal?


That was Matt LeTissier scoring of course.

If the goals are comparable, could you imaging Wayne Rooney or David Beckham managing anything like this in the 'numbers round' on TV's Countdown?


Le God rules on the pitch and in the Countdown studio!

Modern Maths is crap

Those roundings used to check reasonableness are just wrong. 354 should round up to 400 not down to 300,and as for 291 how does that roughly equal 200 not 300?

Insanity

More here http://www.momdot.com/common-core-is-making-me-stupider/

If you've struggled with the last two day's Countdown Numbers games, try this one!

A little easier?

Another incredible Countdown Numbers game

The most incredible Countdown Numbers game ever?

I got 953 as well...

Ed Miliband thinks there's a difference between 250,000 and a quarter of a million...

If a Conservative politician had made this gaffe, it'd be all over the BBC but as it's a Labour ally of the BBC, shhh not a word.

1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + ... = -1/12

Yes, I was dubious too...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-I6XTVZXww&feature=youtube_gdata_player

To be honest, I still am!

It's still on...

The Royal Baby has been named George Alexander Louis which means that it's still on. Our next three Kings, unless one or more does a regnal name change, will be Charles III, William V and George VII. If we can somehow ensure Baby George's first-born is a boy and is named Henry then he will be Henry IX.

III, IV, VII, IX = 3, 5, 7, 9

Could that be more mathematically pleasing?

Yes I am a little odd, as are the above numbers.

The sequence will end at 9 as Henry and Edward are the only Kings of the United Kingdom to reach eight so far.

The royal birth, it's a boy so please call it George

NotaSheep MaybeaGoat (@notasheepagoat) tweeted at 8:35 PM on Mon, Jul 22, 2013:
It's a boy so name him George,  for the numerics. Next three Kings would be Charles 3, William 5 & George 7. If we could then have a Henry 9
(https://twitter.com/notasheepagoat/status/359396381858856960)

Maths GCSE revision getting you down? Maths A-Level revision too difficult? Do you need help?

Just learn the contents of this video and use it as your only answer on your exam paper. It may not answer the questions posed, BUT if mathematics doesn't really exist then does a maths exam?

It's a prime reason

Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge must name their first born child George and he must in turn name his first born Henry.

Why?

That way the run of Kings and Queens from the current Sovereign would run:
Elizabeth 2
Charles 3
William 5
George 7
Henry 9

2, 3, 5, 7, 9 - a run of prime numbers that I doubt could ever be repeated.

Bringing the US budget 'cuts' as well as deficit and debt into focus

Once figures start to run into the trillions I have difficulty visualising the amounts. These two items might help you as they did me...

The first is an attempt to remove zeroes and compare the US to a family budget.

The second is a piece of CNN video that tries to explain how big a trillion is...

'CNN asks a Temple University mathematics professor how much $1 trillion actually is. The story notes Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell is correct when he says that if you spent $1 million per day starting in the year 0, you still would not have spent $1 trillion by 2009.'

A prize for the most non-connected comment on a Blogpost

My frivolous post concerning the potential for confusion between porn star Teresa May and Conservative minister Theresa May has attracted a comment from blogger Vic that simply reads http://falseproofs.blogspot.com/2006/06/e-e-escultura.html.

It was a fascinating article, I understood very small parts of it but the link?!?!?

A problem with maths?

Run What Ya Brung organise quarter mile timed runs at Santa Pod Raceway, a very worthwhile thing to do. However I am worried by this line in their promotional bumpf:

'After each run you'll receive a personal performance print-out showing your reaction times to the start lights, 60ft, 1/4 mile, 1/8 mile times and terminal speed.'

That order looks wrong to me as 1/8 mile must come before 1/4 mile. Oh well, so long as they keep the cars and drivers safe I suppose mathematics can go hang.

'The greatest shortcoming of the human race is its inability to understand the exponential function'

This video should be compulsory viewing for evryone in the UK and should be played to every MP before every day in the House of Commons.



The chess story is one of my favourites and one that I tried with pennies with my first boss, but he was suspicious and had a calculator!


Thanks to Theo Spark  for the spot.

Oh Winnie!

I used to love 'The Wonder Years' and had a bit of a thing for Winnie Cooper, although she way much younger than me she was the sort of girl I would have fancied if I had been at school with her. Well now the actress who played Winnie, Danica McKeller has done a photoshoot for Maxim and I approve, sort of...

So this is Winnie then in Wonder Years...



And this is Danics McKeller now in 'mens magazine shoots' and on the cover of her Maths book, for she is a UCLA maths graduate...