Cutie toes
Cutietoes was the last name of my ranger in DAoC. ;P (This is one of the most inane posts I have ever written, so unless you're incredibly bored, do not read on.. Fair warning!) Anyway.. So I was on the toilet last night.. (I don't need to get any more graphic, do I?) Usually, I have something to read, but I didn't then. So I ended up looking at my toes..
I counted them. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10! From left to right, then from right to left. That triggered a thought that somehow led to myself wondering, "how many ways can you divide 10 into 3 groups?" I supposed I settled on the number 3 because 2 was pretty obvious to me at that point, it would be 1 and 9, 2 and 8, 3 and 7 etc. But for 3 groups.. So I started grouping my toes. Little left pinky started out in group 1 alone, and going from left to right, the next toe was in group 2, and the other 8 toes in group 3. That was 1 combination. Next was little left pinky in group 1 again, with the next 2 toes in group 2, then the remaining 7 toes in group 3. And I had 2 combinations! And so on for each possible combination. After I eliminated the repetitions, I came to the conclusion that there were 8 possible ways to divide 10 toes into 3 groups. \(^ ^)/
After that I thought.. There must be a formula to calculate such a simple thing. So I tried turning it around in my mind. There was only 1 way to divide 10 into 1 group (1 group of 10), and only 1 way to divide 10 into 10 groups (10 groups of 1). There is also only 1 way to divide 10 into 9 groups (8 groups of 1 and 1 group of 2). There are 5 ways for 2 groups. The complication really starts when you want to split 10 into 3 groups or, coming from the other direction, 8 groups (I didn't try this one :P). Unfortunately, as I am no mathematician, my brain balked at churning up a proper formula. :P
And THEN something else popped into my head. So far, I'd assumed that all the 10 toes I was dividing into groups were interchangeable. Like it didn't matter if little left pinky was in group 1, 2 or 3. But what if it DID matter? What if each little toe was an individual, and it made a difference which groups they were in? My mind just shut down then. The implications were enormous. The combinations were endless.
I got off the toilet. ^^
I counted them. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10! From left to right, then from right to left. That triggered a thought that somehow led to myself wondering, "how many ways can you divide 10 into 3 groups?" I supposed I settled on the number 3 because 2 was pretty obvious to me at that point, it would be 1 and 9, 2 and 8, 3 and 7 etc. But for 3 groups.. So I started grouping my toes. Little left pinky started out in group 1 alone, and going from left to right, the next toe was in group 2, and the other 8 toes in group 3. That was 1 combination. Next was little left pinky in group 1 again, with the next 2 toes in group 2, then the remaining 7 toes in group 3. And I had 2 combinations! And so on for each possible combination. After I eliminated the repetitions, I came to the conclusion that there were 8 possible ways to divide 10 toes into 3 groups. \(^ ^)/
After that I thought.. There must be a formula to calculate such a simple thing. So I tried turning it around in my mind. There was only 1 way to divide 10 into 1 group (1 group of 10), and only 1 way to divide 10 into 10 groups (10 groups of 1). There is also only 1 way to divide 10 into 9 groups (8 groups of 1 and 1 group of 2). There are 5 ways for 2 groups. The complication really starts when you want to split 10 into 3 groups or, coming from the other direction, 8 groups (I didn't try this one :P). Unfortunately, as I am no mathematician, my brain balked at churning up a proper formula. :P
And THEN something else popped into my head. So far, I'd assumed that all the 10 toes I was dividing into groups were interchangeable. Like it didn't matter if little left pinky was in group 1, 2 or 3. But what if it DID matter? What if each little toe was an individual, and it made a difference which groups they were in? My mind just shut down then. The implications were enormous. The combinations were endless.
I got off the toilet. ^^
Labels: life, procrastination
posted by Meowling at 9/14/2007 09:09:00 PM
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