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Archive for June, 2009

Circles covering squares and points

June 12th, 2009

The following question appeared in an issue of π in the Sky:

Show that given any 201 points inside a 10-by-10 square, there is a unit circle containing at least 3 of those points.

It is natural to ask, for what other number of points n does the above hold? And what is the smallest such n? Read more…

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President Obama continues not to be Jesus

June 6th, 2009

From MESH, Walter Laqueur’s pithy response to worries that Obama’s speech to “the Muslim world” offered style over substance:

What of the impact of the speech? An unfair question: soft power, however desirable, has its limits. Pericles’ funeral oration did not lead to the resurrection of the dead and there is still much sin in the world despite the Sermon on the Mount.

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