Until Sunday, my iBooks, The Thirteenth Labor of Heracles, In Parts and The Curse of Sisyphus are free in the iTunes Store. Click the titles for more information.
Tag Archives: zombie
Coding Challenge
Recently, there have been a couple new revelations about number theory published in Science Within the article was a pair of theories about prime numbers that I had never heard before, one of which was:
Goldbach’s conjecture, [which] makes two assertions: that every even number greater than 2 is the sum of two primes, and that every odd number greater than 5 is the sum of three primes.
I thought it would be fun to start with the first part of this problem and write a program to accept user input in the form of an even integer > 2 and then look for the two primes whose sum is equal to the user provided:
where prime1 and prime2 may be any prime number (even the same number twice)
I could easily see this escaping the processing power of my machine if the numbers get high, but I think it shouldn’t be too hard to at least write a code that could look for them and demonstrate whether this worked with known input.
Are you up for a quick challenge?
If so, submit your documented answer here as a comment. Feel free to use any language you would like (I just did it in C++, but I’m eager to see better answers than my own). My favorite submissions will win a free copy of my iBook, In Parts, Tales of Fractional Zombies, which you can enjoy yourself or regift to a youngster in your life who wants a fun way to learn the concept of fractions.
You can use these links as resources to help check your work:
If you are new to coding and are looking for a coding environment to work in, check out this posting for help setting up a C++ coding environment using Xcode (on your mac)
Bring Home a Zombie this Weekend
In Parts: A Tale of Fractional Zombies is available for iPad for free this weekend. Download a copy now from the iTunes book store.
Zombies in the Schoolyard!
Panic?! No, it’s a great opportunity for two students to get some real-world experience in working with fractions.
In Parts tells the story of a zombie attack and how the teachers and students rise to the occasion to save their school. Help dispatch the zombie threat one part at a time. 1/4 … 2/4 … 3/4 … 4/4!
DownHouse Software Announces Release of a new iBook
Panic?! No, it’s a great opportunity for two students to get some real-world experience in working with fractions.
In Parts tells the story of a zombie attack and how the teachers and students rise to the occasion to save their school. Help dispatch the zombie threat one part at a time. 1/4 … 2/4 … 3/4 … 4/4!
CDC Urges Preparedness for Zombie Attack!
Coming Soon from DownHouse Software
DownHouse Software announces the coming release of the new eBook, “In Part: A Tale of Fractional Zombies.” This is the story of a zombie attack on an elementary school where children in the math class are learning fractions – Hey Zombies are Fractions! – What a perfect opportunity to put their new skills to work in the real world.
How to program ‘ZombieCatchAlice’
OK, I’ve thrown together a quick program with a Zombie chasing Alice through the streets of a little city. He says ‘Brains!’, she yells ‘Oh, Help!’, runs a couple of paces, turns, yells for help again and runs a few paces. All the while, the zombie is following her around the screen and the camera follows the action.
What I don’t know how to do is program an event that is triggered by the zombie ‘catching’ alice. I’d like to see the zombie get her, turn her into a zombie and the two can go after other characters on the screen.
Help is greatly appreciated.