Milkshake PSA December 8, 2009
Posted by eric22222 in General.1 comment so far
A word of warning to those preparing to enjoy a peppermint chocolate milkshake: due to the relatively high amount of non-ice cream ingredients with this particular milkshake (peppermint syrup, chocolate chips, etc), the peppermint chocolate has the lowest viscosity of any other Chick-Fil-A milkshakes. As a result, it is also one of the most dangerous milkshakes.
The 20-ounce Styrofoam cups used by Chick-Fil-A are effective at holding drinks, as anyone who enjoys their sweet tea can confirm. However, they are still vulnerable to crushing, and can be squeezed to a breaking point if enough pressure is applied. Even before the cup breaks, it can be deformed enough that the lid frees itself from the container, creating a spilling hazard.
This fact, combined with the expected thickness of standard Chick-Fil-A milkshakes, has led to a high number of peppermint-related spills in customers’ vehicles. Effectively, they do not expect the low-viscosity nature of this particular milkshake, and grasp the cup with too much force.
So, potential milkshake connoisseurs, please handle your milkshake with care. If possible, use a second hand when grabbing the cup, applying support to the base of the cup. Avoid gripping the area near the lid.
Geometric Chord System November 15, 2009
Posted by eric22222 in General, Math.1 comment so far
No, not that kind of chord.
When I was in high school, I had a bulletin board in my room. Strung across three thumb tacks was a rubber band. It may have appeared to be no more than a triangle, but I had placed the tacks precisely so that strumming the three legs of the triangle created a major chord.
Yesterday, while playing with a rubber band, a thought struck me. You can change the pitch of a plucked note by changing the length of the string. So, you could represent any chord imaginable with a polygon! So here we go: Dobbs’s Geometric Chord System.
Firstly, a line. This represents our root note. For all the examples in this post, we’ll be in the key of C, so C is our root note (260 Hz).
Next, we need to figure out what the lengths of our other notes are. They will be connected to the endpoints of our root. Let’s make a C major chord by adding E and G. First, here’s how you find the new length, where x is the number of half-steps up the note is from the root. In this case, well use 1 for our length and 4 for our x.
So our new length is 2^(-4/12) = 0.7937. For G, the length is 2^(-7/12) = 0.6674. If you already know the exact frequency of both notes, you’ll get the same results from their ratio (C/G = 260/390 = 0.667). So let’s map those on our root!
The colored circles our of radius 0.7937 (red) and 0.6674 (blue). The point where they intersect is what we wanted to find.
Tada! This triangle represents the major triad. Before you make the same assumption I almost did, it is not a right triangle. But it would’ve been cool if right triangles exhibited some kind of interesting musical properties. Moving on: the points where our three-note chords can meet up are bounded. That is, if C is our lowest note, the other two will never escape a radius equal to C’s length. Furthermore, if those other notes are lower than the next C up, they’ll be bounded on the other side by C/2 (a string of half length produces a note one octave higher). So, here’s what we’ve got:
The deep green center is where all three note chords will wind up. Notice the symmetry. Any chord on the left side of the area has a twin on the right side. So let’s map some actual chords to our plane:
Vaguely diamond shaped, yeah? No. But it was my first guess. It’s actually a zig-zag. Check it out:
And because that last one looked pretty cool, here’s a full grid of chords, with half-note steps. Notice the logarithmic behavior of the grid.
Math Brainteaser – Coin Flipping November 11, 2009
Posted by eric22222 in General, Math.add a comment
I’m going to post a few puzzles here, each with a mathematical solution. Mostly just for fun, but it’ll also let you see how I solve problems sometimes. Here we go!
You flip a fair coin. If you get heads, you get one point and flip again. If you get tails, you stop (no change in score). What is the average score you can expect in this game?
You’ll have to click to see my solution. I don’t want to spoil it for people who want to figure it out their way.
Where is Nama’s? November 5, 2009
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It’s a shame he stopped there, ’cause I already had my next move ready.
⠺⠓⠑⠗⠑ ⠊⠎ Nama’s?
Procedural Music November 2, 2009
Posted by eric22222 in General, VG Music.add a comment
Something I’d like to see done:
For the Banjo-Kazooie series, Grant Kirkhope arranged each song several times over. During play, the song would fade to a different arrangement based on where you were in the level. For example, when underwater, the instrumentation would change to harp and other stings. If you want to see what I mean, compare this and this.
In The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, the music faded between two different songs (not just two arrangements) depending on if the player was actively involved in combat. Couldn’t find a good video for this one.
What I’d like to see is similar to that, but on a more detailed scale. Instead of switching between a few pre-written songs, what if songs could branch into many more branches, perhaps as quickly as every four bars? Movie scores always match the on-screen action well, picking the right instrumentation to meet the mood. What’s to stop us from using some simple code to figure out what kind of music should be playing?
Here’s how it might be seen in action: the character walks slowly through a forest at night. Our code checks the player’s speed (1.5). It’s a slow pace, so it chooses a relaxed cadence for the beat. Based on the time of day and the environment variables (night, woods), it adds a tambourine on the downbeat and makes the bass line a slow cello tune. Since the player is alone and in a constricting environment, the melody is sparse. Instrumentation is based on a predefined list for the night-woods set.
Where I see this kind of system working best is when things change in-game. When the player encounters a band of monsters, the tempo picks up, the instrumentation table is consulted again, and instruments are changed accordingly. When the player rounds a corner to see a wide expanse ahead, the melody is less sparse and more variety is added to the instrumentation. A big swell of brass, for example.
What I’ve got in mind is that each phrase of music would follow a pre-set chord progression which would be chosen from a list (based on in-game parameters). The melody could follow patterns within each chord, perhaps choosing from some predefined ones (again, based on the game).
It’s more of an idea than anything right now… I really have no idea how I’d even be able to create a mock-up. It would sort of require me to have a fully-functioning video game, and I don’t think I really have time to make one of those. I managed to find a video that gets across the idea pretty well:
