Blog Post #119: Dedicated to M S Dhoni

As a keen follower of cricket and someone who watched MSD in awe soaking in pressure time and again and still maintain a calm and cool head, here's a small Mathematics note for the Man who gave enough for Indian fans world over to cheer over the last decade

1929 hrs is the time when he announced his retirement. 

a) As Mayank mentioned in another post, he always had 7 as his lucky number and so 1+9+2+9 adds up to 21 which is a multiple of 7

b) 2020 - 1929 is 91 which is again a multiple of 7 and in spite of our misgivings about Year 2020, MSD probably scored a perfect score there as well and let's remember that he scored 91* in the 2011 World Cup final!

c) 1929 is also 7:29 P.M - 729 is a perfect square and MSD almost always set himself for a perfect finish

d) The number equivalent of the letters in his name M S DHONI (13 + 19 + 4 + 8 + 15 + 14 + 9) adds up to 82 and 1929 + 82 is 2011 which was the year when we won the World cup again under his captaincy!

e) Last but not the least he was fondly called MSD in short - Number equivalent of MSD (13+19+4) adds up to 36 which is "sixer" squared - Yes the helicopter shot was worth 36 always and not a simple 6!

#ThankYouDhoni #MSD #ThankYouMahi #MSDhoni

Blog Post #118: Dissecting 2020!

Year 2020 has been in the news for various reasons and has been the trigger for memes, jokes among others and needless to say most of them reflected a pessimistic outlook till now

I have attempted to take a more optimistic view of the Year as we step into the month of August and what better way to do it - Combination of Numbers through two different scenarios!

Scenario 1:

To illustrate this, I am going to express 2020 as a sum of two different perfect squares

Combination 1:

1764 + 256 = 2020 (42 ^ 2 + 16 ^ 2)

Combination 2:

576 + 1444 = 2020 (24 ^ 2 + 38 ^ 2)

What's unique about this as there are quite a few numbers which can be expressed as sum of two squares

Let's get a bit deeper at Combination 1 to start with

1764 ==> 17 + 64 is 81 (yes it is a perfect square)

256 ==> 2+5+6 is 13 (prime number)

Combination 2

576 ==> 5 + 76 is 81 (same as above)

1444 ===> 1+4+4+4 is 13! (same as above)

Remember that I have used the same principle for Combination 1 and Combination 2 to highlight the unique pattern

Conclusion: If your team starts with a specific goal in mind, the path taken by each sub-groups could be different but the broader principle they follow (aka rules & regulations) can still be intact.

2020 is a pretty good example for that!

Scenario 2:

2020 could be expressed as 1000 + 729 + 100 + 81 + 19 + 91

In turn this can be written as 10 ^ 3 + 9 ^ 3 + 10 ^ 2 + 9 ^ 2 + (10 ^ 2 - 9 ^ 2) + (10 + 9 ^ 2)

or

10 ^ 3 + 9 ^ 3 + 10 ^ 2 + 9 ^ 2 + (10 + 9) + (10 ^ 2 - 9)

Amazing to see how 2020 can be expressed as a combination of two numbers 10 and 9 using different set of operators

Conclusion: We could start with smaller building blocks and once we figure out the right tools and techniques, we can achieve the target in multiple ways. Again 2020 is a prime example of that

We still have 5 months left this year and if someone has the right attitude and work towards a clear goal as target, there are multiple ways to achieve that !

Let's spin some more optimism around 2020 and move forward!

#2020 #Optimism #Positvity #AnandMathsBlog