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Their distinguished status is signified not by a symbol but by a parking spot, a reserved piece of real estate. Location, location, location.
In 600 B.C. a manual written in Sanskrit for temple builders in India gave detailed geometric instructions for computing square roots, needed in the design of ritual altars. More than 2,500 years later, in 1976, mathematicians were still searching for roots, but now the instructions were written in binary code.
Now everything becomes easy. In one hour, the hot-water faucet fills one tub, while the cold-water faucet fills two (since each takes a half-hour). That amounts to three tubs per hour, or one tub every twenty minutes. Eureka!
The difference here is that you and granny affect each other’s speeds, but the faucets don’t. They’re independent. Apparently our subconscious minds don’t spot this distinction, at least not when they’re leaping to the wrong conclusion.
“The problem with word problems.” His point is that these problems typically assume you understand the rules of the game and agree to play by them,
Nature — cue the theme from The Twilight Zone — somehow knows calculus.
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