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Jim Darby

@mathswithjim

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24.09.2023
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Latest posts by Jim Darby @mathswithjim

I know of a school with some isotope samples they no longer want. Do you know someone who could do that? I'm thinking back to EMFcamp.

08.01.2026 16:43 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

That's pretty much what I've done. Having a good IFA is a big win.

04.01.2026 12:32 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 2 📌 0

Good call!

04.01.2026 12:28 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

What's interesting here is that it's a rich source of maths real-world examples.

04.01.2026 12:22 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

I totally get that. Stocks and shares are a long term investment and can be a bumpy ride. I've done well over a period of decades but there have been periods where cashing out would have cost me dear. I'm looking at _you_ the mid 90s!

04.01.2026 12:20 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 2 📌 0

I'm surprised that you don't like stocks and shares ISAs, mine have done very well; much better than the cash ISA I had.

04.01.2026 12:12 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

May I recommend reading Robin Ince's book Weirdly Normal and Normally Weird?

31.12.2025 09:21 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

It's an interesting optimisation problem. In the '90s crash I "lost" £15k. However, by biding my time it more than recovered. Critically the option of being able to bide your time is _essential_ .

29.11.2025 13:17 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

I've got some money in stocks and shares. With careful planning and risk management it can be a good option. It's certainly made me more money than a cash ISA.

29.11.2025 13:09 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Oddly, in the world of film, a foot is a unit of time. On 35mm film there are about 90 feet in a minute.

Now you can really confuse your students!

15.11.2025 07:34 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Have you looked at second hand?

05.10.2025 16:47 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Combined with the intelligence it's even worse. It's _planning_!

13.09.2025 13:29 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

The sheep isn't really a sheep anymore. What it is now is... Concerning.

13.09.2025 07:22 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Well that's rather nice of you! But in that case, where did the table come from? I'm thinking this would be *great* to use as an example in GCSE statistics lessons. Or, indeed, in general…

01.09.2025 08:26 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Looks like it needs 10 downloads, one for each maths grade. Then for each grade fill in a database column.

01.09.2025 08:12 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Is there a way to get this data in a machine readable form? For example a spreadsheet...

01.09.2025 06:50 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Anytime before midday should be good! 😀

29.08.2025 14:29 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

The cruelty is the point, as with many similar things.

24.08.2025 18:31 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

The use of various ad-blockers can help.

17.08.2025 19:17 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

If you're looking for light, fluffy entertainment then it's definitely not for you. It's very dystopian. However, I think it's very well written and looks really good.

This is probably just me, I'm not really a great comedy fan, but I do like high-concept scifi.

15.08.2025 16:43 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

I've been watching it and, yes, there are strong horror components to it. However, Alien: Earth is so much more than that. There's a humongous subplot (or is it the main plot?) about achieving immortality and it's set against a background of five megacorporations owning… everything.

15.08.2025 16:35 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Presuming Ed's in Brighton.

Presuming Ed's in Brighton.

Meanwhile in Brighton...

02.08.2025 11:47 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Ah! Now I have an explanation for why discovery learning worked for me but not for others (or in general). Many thanks for that!

20.07.2025 10:38 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Try and copy *that* bad boy year 10! 😛

12.07.2025 09:51 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Results:

15> c(coffee).
{ok,coffee}
16> coffee:testing().
[{espresso,medium,false,2.5},
{espresso,medium,true,3.5},
{espresso,large,false,3.5},
{espresso,large,true,4.5},
{espresso,xl,false,4.0},
{espresso,xl,true,5.0},
{americano,medium,false,3.0},
{americano,medium,true,4.0},
….

12.07.2025 09:49 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

And, of course, a testing bit:

testing () ->
[{Drink, Size, TakeAway, coffee:pricing (Drink, Size, TakeAway)} ||
Drink <- [espresso, americano, latte, cappuchino, mocha, flatWhite],
Size <- [medium, large, xl],
TakeAway <- [false, true]].

12.07.2025 09:48 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Part 3:

costOfSize (medium) ->
0.00;
costOfSize (large) ->
1.00;
costOfSize (xl) ->
1.50.

costOfTakeaway (true) ->
1.00;
costOfTakeaway (false) ->
0.00.

12.07.2025 09:48 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Part 2:

costOfDrink (espresso) ->
2.50;
costOfDrink (americano) ->
3.00;
costOfDrink (latte) ->
2.50;
costOfDrink (cappuchino) ->
3.00;
costOfDrink (mocha) ->
3.50;
costOfDrink (flatWhite) ->
2.50.

12.07.2025 09:47 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Sir, Sir, SIR! You did say it was OK to write it in Erlang, didn't you? Yes? Great!

Part 1:

-module (coffee).
-export ([pricing/3, testing/0]).

pricing (Drink, Size, TakeAway) ->
costOfDrink (Drink) + costOfSize (Size) + costOfTakeaway (TakeAway).

12.07.2025 09:47 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Massive thunder storm here last night.

14.06.2025 11:38 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0