One Thousand Random Digits

I’ve got nothing today, so here’s 1000 random digits. This serves two purposes: 1) it is an interesting way to visualize a set of size 1000, and 2) it may prove to be useful in the future–you never know when random numbers might come in handy. These numbers were generated with the Mersenne Twister generator, for those that care.

9 7 1 4 1 8 5 9 3 7 0 8 8 8 0 9 9 7 6 9 2 0 0 0 4 9 7 3 6 8 3 4 7 3 7 0 4 5 4 4
4 4 9 9 2 9 8 6 4 9 6 7 8 7 2 3 3 5 2 3 9 4 2 0 2 5 4 7 4 5 5 6 8 6 3 3 5 1 0 1
4 8 4 5 7 9 5 9 8 3 4 4 5 1 6 9 4 0 3 3 1 1 3 3 5 9 7 8 0 1 8 5 8 4 1 6 8 0 6 9
5 6 9 4 4 8 7 1 8 3 2 6 5 8 6 5 5 1 2 0 7 4 6 7 3 0 8 7 4 6 2 6 3 4 8 8 7 5 1 1
2 9 7 5 1 6 0 4 3 6 4 9 3 8 8 4 7 0 3 8 0 9 5 6 4 3 6 4 5 4 0 0 1 6 3 1 3 0 8 9
5 9 7 6 3 1 6 7 4 7 9 6 5 8 5 9 9 4 7 4 5 9 1 0 2 3 1 1 9 9 2 8 0 3 0 2 5 4 6 5
7 7 3 4 3 9 4 6 7 4 1 4 2 0 5 7 8 1 2 0 5 4 5 6 1 3 3 6 8 6 8 5 9 5 1 9 4 7 6 6
8 0 8 2 1 2 8 0 1 6 3 1 4 5 6 5 6 7 8 2 6 4 3 4 3 8 7 2 5 3 7 5 5 5 6 0 9 6 2 5
9 6 9 8 9 3 0 1 3 1 5 9 4 9 1 8 7 8 6 9 1 8 0 8 7 0 9 2 7 4 2 7 9 2 9 0 7 2 7 1
6 8 3 1 4 8 1 5 1 9 0 2 9 4 5 8 3 7 0 9 8 8 2 8 1 2 9 9 5 9 7 9 7 3 5 2 4 0 5 5
5 8 8 9 5 8 0 8 7 7 7 6 2 8 4 8 6 7 0 3 8 8 1 9 5 8 1 2 3 8 5 1 0 7 4 8 7 4 3 4
4 9 5 1 8 2 9 6 4 1 8 4 7 7 6 8 6 3 0 1 3 0 1 1 6 8 8 1 4 6 7 1 8 2 1 9 2 2 1 0
8 0 3 0 8 4 2 7 0 6 5 4 0 0 4 8 0 6 1 3 9 2 4 0 4 3 6 4 7 5 0 4 9 6 0 5 0 4 5 5
4 9 6 8 7 8 0 2 1 4 9 2 3 4 7 1 7 0 4 6 4 4 0 6 0 1 9 5 5 6 3 3 4 0 2 1 6 6 1 4
8 4 1 9 7 8 3 3 6 8 8 7 6 0 5 7 7 3 5 3 3 5 1 9 3 3 7 1 5 9 9 3 0 6 5 0 1 2 4 1
1 2 9 2 1 8 1 9 8 4 3 2 3 5 2 2 4 0 9 5 1 0 0 5 4 3 0 0 7 8 4 2 8 1 2 5 9 9 5 2
8 7 2 1 3 0 7 1 1 4 5 4 7 0 0 3 5 9 2 9 5 9 5 7 2 1 9 6 3 2 9 2 4 3 4 8 5 8 1 1
3 2 7 9 7 1 6 4 5 4 5 1 9 0 7 4 0 8 5 4 3 8 6 4 1 3 9 9 7 5 5 2 9 3 9 6 7 5 3 6
9 1 6 3 2 0 6 1 9 8 1 9 2 6 0 0 6 0 2 6 1 2 8 5 8 9 7 7 6 6 8 5 1 9 1 0 7 1 6 1
6 3 5 5 2 0 9 5 1 1 1 4 4 9 6 5 5 2 8 7 5 7 1 5 4 2 4 9 7 4 1 9 9 9 6 1 6 7 3 7
3 4 2 0 1 7 9 4 0 6 2 2 4 1 9 5 5 0 0 6 3 5 9 1 8 9 5 1 0 2 7 9 0 9 9 8 8 5 6 4
9 1 1 6 1 8 8 5 8 1 5 8 2 3 3 7 8 4 7 1 1 7 9 9 6 0 2 5 0 5 5 7 9 4 9 5 4 4 6 7
5 1 7 4 6 8 9 1 0 5 3 7 8 5 9 9 8 7 2 5 4 5 9 7 0 2 4 8 1 3 8 2 5 7 5 4 7 2 1 5
9 6 0 1 9 8 6 3 7 0 3 3 5 0 4 0 7 9 2 6 6 2 0 5 5 5 5 6 2 8 8 3 3 5 1 4 1 7 3 1
0 1 0 1 4 8 9 4 6 3 4 1 2 8 2 7 4 1 4 5 4 7 2 7 4 5 2 9 6 9 7 4 0 7 4 9 6 5 1 4

The Extended Past

Consider a given time interval divided into three equal parts A, B, and C. Suppose that from our current state of knowledge we can determine that one event occurred during A, five events occurred during B, and fifty events occurred during C. Other events happened during these times, but they are not easily identifiable or observable by our methods.

Although A, B, and C each span the same amount of time, the differing number of events identified in each period will cause them to differ in perceived significance. Namely, C will appear to be the most important time period while A will seem to be the least important. Usually the reason for this discrepancy is that recent events are easier to recollect (or unearth, or discover in the geologic record, or observe through a telescope). It is useful to focus on the data and information we possess, but often the volume of information gives us a false impression of importance.

Geologically Yours

For some reason, I just can’t get excited about rocks. I am very interested in what we can learn about Earth’s history from the geologic record, but I have so far failed in my attempts at generating interest in actually studying rocks.

At first I thought it might be an issue of timescales (since rocks don’t “do” anything in an observable timescale), but this couldn’t be it–after all, I did my undergraduate work in astrophysics, where the timescales are so large they sometimes become incomprehensible. Perhaps familiarity adds to this; I see rocks almost every day, but I only see a planetary nebula if I look through a telescope or find pictures other astronomers have already taken. Whatever the reason, I want to care about rocks, but I haven’t been able to yet.

Maybe the Death Valley field trip in two weeks will help change this. Or maybe I just don’t have a geologist’s heart.

Monuments on Mars

One of my favorite jokes, I figured it should be immortalized here.

At some point in the future, humanity’s exploitation of Earth’s resources renders the planet completely devoid of any materials. The moon does not last long either, so the next logical choice is Mars.

A Mars exploratory team is driving around the surface, searching for new mineral deposits, promising geologic features, and even signs of past life. As they turn a corner around a hill, the team gasps in amazement at what they see: in front of them is a tremendous, colossal, 50-story statue of a human-like figure sitting down. And even more amazing is that every single test they run on the statue indicates it is alive–yet the figure appears no more than a stone sculpture. All the great minds of the world begin to search for a solution to this paradox, but no successful theory emerges.

One day, a young post-doc is pacing back and forth beneath the statue when he breaks down: “How can something like this exist? It just doesn’t make sense!” The moment he speaks those words, the sky darkens, the wind begins to howl, and the statue slowly stands up, looking down at the post-doc. In a thundery, booming voice the statue says, “It can’t exist. It’s impossible!” “Oh, of course,” says the post-doc. “It only stands to reason.”

Wrong Numbers

Yesterday I came home to the following voice mail message: “Hi Luke, this is Dr. Rutter’s office calling. We were wondering if we could switch your 11pm appointment tomorrow for 3pm. I’ll assume this switch works for you, but please call us back to let us know.” This confused me a bit, since my brother’s name is Luke, but he is studying overseas and shouldn’t have any appointments in the U.S. Nevertheless, I called him in Scotland and my mom in Minnesota just to make sure, but they were as clueless as I. This morning I called the office, just in case they really meant an appointment for myself; it turns out it was a completely wrong number, and by sheer coincidence the patient’s name was Luke.

Although this is a retrospective view, it seems unlikely for a wrong number to request the name of one of my immediate family members. How unlikely? I checked the U.S. Census Bureau’s name database from the 1990 census (the database is not yet available for 2000) to find out the probabilities for my famliy:

Relation	Probability
Myself	0.00165
Brother	0.00040
Immediate Family	0.00694
Extended Family	0.11052

The “coincidence factor” is much less in the case of extended family names, since I have many aunts, uncles, and first cousins. Even so, 11% is a fairly high probability (although this was not unexpected). Fortunately, I do not receive enough mistaken phone calls to collect data and compare against this prediction.