White Rabbit

Thanks for your comment Mithun! I am jealous of al...

2011-04-06T23:24:42.818-07:00

Thanks for your comment Mithun! I am jealous of all the people who were in India last week!

Nicely written the superstitions on the match. No ...

2011-04-04T10:57:30.281-07:00

Nicely written the superstitions on the match. No matter where we are, those will remain and bind us. Yeah, the celebrations here were exactly as you have described. I was just wondering from where had these people piled up so many fire-crackers! :)

@ Lucky The lowest denominations might not be equ...

2010-08-18T13:31:39.295-07:00

@ Lucky

The lowest denominations might not be equally likely. But the rest are, I think. In Indian rupees, the paises and the rupees 1 to 9 might not be equally likely, 5 dominates I guess. Even among the tens, 50 might be more frequent than the rest. But higher denominations would not have this bias... It's an assumption that helped me think of one way to answer the question posed.

Very interesting, Aravind! You said.. |assuming...

2010-08-15T23:35:26.877-07:00

Very interesting, Aravind!

You said..
|assuming that each number from 1 to 9 is equally likely|

Is this a fair assumption? AFAIK, denominations were anchored on trading demands. How often do we see prices (lets assume the units and tens position) equally distributed in this range?

Hi Aravind, Here is another line of thinking. ...

2010-08-14T21:36:20.820-07:00

Hi Aravind,

Here is another line of thinking.

Say - you were the chairman of the central bank which needs to design its currency system. What would your constraints be?

1. You need to have a set of denominations (B1,...BN) such that
any numerical value X should be expressible as:

X = (n1*B1) + n2*B2 + ... + nN*BN

ny - number of notes/coins of denomination 'By' that are needed to get to X

2. Also, what is important to the central bank is that it has to minimize the total number of coins/notes that it produces so that the "cost" to the central bank is minimized. In other words we need to choose the set of denominations "B", such that

sum(n1,n2, ... nN) is least.

3. The set of common X's is known -
all values are not equally likely. The set chosen will need to be averaged over this set of X.

Using the three constraints - we need to see what denominations will be thrown up. May be interesting to see.

Also, due to inflation/deflation - the set of common X changes - so at different points of time, different set of denominations may be optimal.

And i loved your comment: Isn't having denomi...

2010-08-13T03:25:13.649-07:00

And i loved your comment:

Isn't having denominations of 3 and 4 a good impetus for people to become better, if they are not.

I agree. If i was the DENOMINATOR (the cool word for the guy deciding what denominations should be :P) i would have used {1,3,4} just for the pleasure of it all and in the name of "Getting better" :P

Loved this topic a lot!

Cheers!

What i meant when i said that ppl will be "ge...

2010-08-13T03:01:42.664-07:00

What i meant when i said that ppl will be "genuinely " more comfortable with {1,2,5} logic is beciase 1/5 leads to 2 and 1/2 leads to 5. So this inherent symmetry is not available in the case of {1,3,4}

But as i said, we can never really prove which is actually better :P As we have got accustomed to using {1,2,5}. But it's just that i personally love the symmetry of divison {1,2,5} better than {1,3,4}

@ Sury I agree that people are better (roughly) wi...

2010-08-13T02:20:45.136-07:00

@ Sury
I agree that people are better (roughly) with multiples of 2 and 5, than with 3 or 4. But that's a chicken-and-egg problem : they might be better because they are used to those denominations. And is that really a reason for making such a decision. Isn't having denominations of 3 and 4 a good impetus for people to become better, if they are not.

As usual the grey cells enjoyed your indulgences :...

2010-08-12T21:28:49.165-07:00

As usual the grey cells enjoyed your indulgences :P

One other point which was not covered in the article was people being not so good in Math, in general. For example- "Half" & "Double" wouldbe a common usage of values. We can aregue further as "triple" or "one-third" & "Quadruple" or "1/4" is just as convenient- but, , the math involved in {1,2,5} on {1}, like halving {1/2} will lead to {5}, an already familiar value. But this is not the case with (1/3) or (1/4) So the math is more simplified for a common man than in the case of {1,3,4}

However it maybe a simple case of history where people deciding denominations didn't use enough Math, like, say, You :D

Ah another thought provoking article :) I think ...

2010-08-08T05:56:46.159-07:00

Ah another thought provoking article :)

I think one important hinderance/aspect: Not all countries have the same priorities or definitions of universal civilization...

Though this may not be ideal: But i think UNO is the closest possible International Governement possible in current scenario.

But i wish it wasn't so :) Let's see in a few years i hope i eat my words here :P

I am a huge TDK fan, but one feeling sometimes pla...

2010-08-02T23:49:25.924-07:00

I am a huge TDK fan, but one feeling sometimes plagues me- the insanity of it all.

I would never have believed that a person like Joker can exist till i watched TDK... There are probably more "Jokers" in this world than the "Dark Knights"... Perhaps I'm being a bit too pessimistic... But this feeling has steadily creeped in and it is a little scary...

This is the most thought provoking stuff i read in...

2010-08-02T23:38:02.346-07:00

This is the most thought provoking stuff i read in days!!!

Now i'll be going through all your thoughts in this blog :P

Loved it :) So here's how the "dudes&quo...

2010-08-02T23:15:35.629-07:00

Loved it :)

So here's how the "dudes" at Big Bang Theory start a Big Bang: Let's have a heathy Discussion :)

The suicide anachronism:
Perhaps it is all in their mind! Cob knew that it was a limbo, so he knew that his body is not really a "body" so he never really aged. But Mal believed otherwise after a while... So there's a further paradox. But this can be forgiven in the name of Poetic License :)

The dreamer ambiguity: During the movie I thought it was Fischer who was dreaming and Eams is the guy looking after the guys who are dreaming.

The weightlessness paradox: Bingo! You have got a clear "Paradox" here... Even if we assume that the third level dream time is running at a much higher CLOCK (forgive me :P) than the second level dream's CLOCK, at some point they should have hit weightlessness...

The Browning disappearance: this was an intented/desired and according to the plan. They never really plugged Browning into the Dream Machine.

The Cobb deficiency: Agreed. This too is no paradox.

The Saito time-dilation: to add to the point, Cobb is experienced in staying for decades in limbo/deep dream stage, so he doesn't really age as he projects himself that way...

The limbo explanation: Agreed :)

The bullet repulsion: Haha :)

I really liked the post, especially the titles of ...

2010-08-02T21:41:09.586-07:00

I really liked the post, especially the titles of the flaws. (The imbalanced parentheses :-) ). I actually discussed some of these flaws with my friends.
I would also add 'time stretching' to the list of things I don't agree with. I'm reluctantly ready to accept a slowdown from reality to the first dream, but it doesn't make sense for the (n+1)th dream to be slower than the nth dream.

good design of the blog aravind ..

2010-08-02T21:24:09.546-07:00

good design of the blog aravind ..

The rules imposed were for survival security.And w...

2010-05-16T00:52:20.483-07:00

The rules imposed were for survival security.And when we look at this at the grosser level , every man is equal.But to complicate things further, man gave himself too many tags describing his superior intelligence.[I doubt this as i see almost every other human trait exhibited by animals!]So the equality they suggest is at the mental plane and to do with the fluff that makes life bearable over the basic security.So no, in the definition of humans equality hasn't been attained yet and several wars/revolutions and people have been dedicating their life to ensure it.

But the rule does look simplistic as i think the available resource that is the bone of contention with two people wanting it should be thrown in. But what amazes me of late is that the evolved civilization is able to dredge in social status, money , capability which seem totally unconnected to decide the equation for who wins an equality war these days.

I have done the "Is this the right thing to do ?" routine a few times and what i have realized is you get them only when you internally know that you wouldn't be happy if someone else did it to you but the desire to do the task at hand is overwhelming.

P.S: The videos are so evocative.

very thoughful!!

2010-05-12T01:01:43.938-07:00

very thoughful!!

For superstition to survive in anybody's belie...

2010-04-25T19:54:42.796-07:00

For superstition to survive in anybody's belief system, it has to be perceived superior to others.Anything that's normally perceived superior has the potential to develop into a belief system.Its a chicken-egg cycle.

But do minor harmless superstitions qualify for racism?

"I think the ultimate, most annoying argument...

2010-04-19T01:50:20.714-07:00

"I think the ultimate, most annoying argument against someone arguing against superstitions is to claim that he/she is superstitious about arguing for superstition" - craziest one of all the superstition,,

well, there is something, which I call, "Habitual Superstition" like, Crossing Fingers, but racist!! nope, most of my friends feel what I'm doing is not logical, but, neither do I nor they expect any things as superior/inferior!!

But, nice to see the tech fella writing so much about the stuff, which are not so technical :D
nice!! :)

Put me through a cycle of profound thoughts, I mus...

2010-04-16T21:25:35.671-07:00

Put me through a cycle of profound thoughts, I must say!!

Amazing Observation!

2010-04-14T06:23:07.853-07:00

Amazing Observation!

Looks like your optimism stayed just that. Things ...

2010-04-04T23:09:48.336-07:00

Looks like your optimism stayed just that. Things have just gotten worse in the last 10 months since that finals game.

On second thought, Swayam"war" would hav...

2009-08-02T20:44:27.891-07:00

On second thought, Swayam"war" would have been a better title :-)

@ Aditya Agreed! @ Rupa Right.

2009-06-18T14:27:19.002-07:00

@ Aditya

Agreed!

@ Rupa

Right.

@ Piyush I highlight that I am not speaking agai...

2009-06-18T14:24:55.168-07:00

@ Piyush

I highlight that I am not speaking against people wanting things, but am against people wanting to waste things. I am very much a materialistic being driven sometimes by my wants. But, if my want is hurting someone, I would refrain from doing it. I am blaming the rich, not for being rich, but for being irresponsible while being rich (which is every so often the case).

@ ego

You hit the nail on the head with the 'moral emptiness' in our wants bothering us.