A Fraction of a Fraction

I hate the phrase "a fraction of a fraction." A fraction of a fraction is another goddamn fraction. You're wasting my time and yours by repeating unnecessary words. And what if the fraction of your fraction is something greater than 1, like 9/2? Well that's several times more than your original fraction, so you have now said the opposite of what you're trying to say. Congratulations, you're an idiot.

I recently heard someone say "a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a fraction." Upon hearing this, my brain exploded, leaving only brain fractions all over the place.

We Should Have More States

We haven't admitted a new state into the Union since 1959! We were on a roll since the late 1700s. By the 20th century we got lazy (which is a trend for Americans it seems) and barely added any more states for quite a while. I say we should pick up the pace of the 1800s again so we can have 100 states by 2100, damnit! But first we need to make up for lost time. Dividing Texas into 8 states (none of which may be named Texas) and adding DC and Puerto Rico would be a good start.

More Golden Ratio Stuff - Donald Duck

Remember my Golden Ratio post? Donald Duck elaborates:

Thanks to Matt for bringing this to my attention.

The Golden Ratio

The Golden Ratio is everywhere. It's pretty ridiculous.

The Golden Ratio is defined as:
    φ = (a + b)/a = a/b
Since a = bφ, you can easily show that
    φ = (1 + 5^1/2)/2 ≈ 1.6180...

It can also be expressed as:
    φ = 1 + 1 / (1 + 1 / (1 + 1 / (1 + /(etc)))) 

Yeah, it doesn't look like much, but it's hiding in all kinds of places.

Some things that have the Golden Ratio include:

• Stonehenge (the radii on the concentric circles, not the triptychs)
• The Egyptian Pyramids (the angle between a and b below is about 51°, which makes a/h = φ)
• Acropolis of Athens
• Notre Dame de Paris

The text area of Medieval books are also designed to the Golden Ratio as well.

Pentagrams follow the ratio as well:

The colored line segments are in the Golden Ratio to eachother.

It's heavily used in architecture and design for one reason: because it looks so damn good. Seriously.