I could've put his eye out...

The bamboo poles were cradled in our arms, one for each of us. We stood 20 paces apart, and had the poles aimed at each other, ready for a death match. I stared him down, and that look of “I don't want to do this.” spread on his face. At the sound of a horn, we both charged at each other, me going faster. Despair and impending doom lingered on his face as time seemed to slow. He held his pole cautiously, not wanting to hurt me, but also wanting to look like he enjoyed it. I know he didn't. Wyatt Holcomb was a withdrawn person, timid and reserved…He wanted to make friends but he didn't want to do things, like stick fighting, or playing war, that other people thought was fun.

            In a last-ditch attempt of withdrawing from the battle, he ducked. Smooth one, Wyatt. My bamboo pole, too long and heavy to control, hit him with a resounding thud right above his left eye. Blood dripped onto the ground, and the smell of it hung on the air, as daunting to my esteem as death. All that raced through my mind was 'Oh my god, what have I done?' He screamed and cried, hoping that time could be reversed, hoping that he'd be okay.

            By the end of it, his eye was cleaned up, but still, a long gash remained at the top of it. At least he wasn’t crying…crying makes me freak out, and then I’m not sure what to do…The paramedics came, and Wyatt climbed in. I looked at his face, not saying anything. I didn't need to. My face said everything. His eyes met mine, and they glowed with one single message. 'You dolt! I told you I didn’t want to do this, and if I die, my ghost will haunt you. By the way, I’ll get you back for laughing at my eye.' He could've lost and eye and it could've been my doing. The fine line that separated vision and seeing was breeched.  It would be a long time before I could look at him squarely without repenting my actions.

Sounds: Intercepting Signals

Imagine...You're playing your old Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Suddenly the game crashes.  It plays one tone, without a break. It starts out as being annoying. Then, it soon develops into a soothing, hypnotic melody. It is as mysterious as the stars, but as calm as the night. You begin to realize that you are no longer listening intently, but slowly drifting off into sleep. Yes, as a hypnotist would guide you, the music is a reassuring hand. It's monotonous tone becomes the metronome-like watch dangled in front of you. You start to dream, and this odd sound influences them, as if he were the God of your will. It seems to control your mind. Suddenly, abruptly, it stops. Almost like a warning. Why should it go away? The sound if comfort, it is the least bit annoying. When it stops after going for five hypnotic minutes, it turns into a warning. That sound turns into a suggestion of danger.

The Locker Problem FINAL DRAFT! =D

Jovan Millet

October 1, 2009

The Locker Problem

THE LOCKER PROBLEM: The Solution

 

            Here’s the scenario: High Tech High has 1000 new lockers, and they have 1000 students to test them out. The 1^st student opens every locker. The 2^nd student changes the state of every other locker, starting with locker 2. The 3^rd student changes the state of every 3^rd locker, starting with number 3. The fourth student changes the state of every 4^th locker, starting with number 4, all the way until the 1000^th student has changed the state of the 1000^th locker. These are 10 lockers, with locker numbers 1, 4 and 10 open.

 

[ ] [X] [X] [ ] [X] [X] [X] [X] [ ] [X]

 

            I solved it this way. I started with 100 lockers first, to see how it would turn out. I looked at the open ones at the end, and saw that there were 10 open lockers: Numbers 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, 64, 81, and 100. I also noticed that these were all perfect squares. After testing my theory of all of the open lockers being perfect squares, I found I was correct, with 31 open lockers out of 1000.

 

Why are the open lockers perfect squares? Simple. In order for a locker to be open, it has to have been touched an odd number of times. The first locker was touched once (Student 1). The second one was touched twice (Student 1 and Student 2). The third one was touched twice (Student 1 and Student 3). The fourth locker was touched 3 times (Student 1, Student 2, and Student 4). Get it?

 

Finally, perfect squares have an odd number of factors, but the others don’t. as you may have noticed in my explanation above. Let’s compare the factors of 16, a perfect square, to the factors of 8, a regular number:

 

16 = 1, 2, 4, 4, 8, 16

8 = 1, 2, 4, 8

 

You could write out the factors of 16 like that, and say I’m wrong. However, one of those 4s is going to be canceled out, because there’re two of them. So, 16 would have five factors, and 8 would have 4. But why do perfect squares have an odd number of factors? Let’s group them into pairs.

 

16 = [1 x 16], [2 x 8], and [4 x ?]

8 = [1 x 8], and [2 x 4]

 

See? 16 has two pairs and a pair-less number, 4, while 8 has two pairs with no remaining numbers at the end of it.

 

Ta-Da! That’s the solution to The Locker Problem! I know it’s very cliché, but this was live, Saturday Night!