Monday, August 15, 2011
Crosswalks: It's measurably more 'green' to wait for a break in traffic
0 comments Posted by burton mackenzie at 3:41 PM
Many people try to be greener by walking instead of riding in a bus or car, and that's great. For pedestrians, crosswalks are a good demand-based way to stop traffic and get safely across the road. However, if you don't use crosswalks judiciously, you're not being as green as you think.


Saturday, February 12, 2011
I've had people write a lot of things about what I've written, but my current favourite is "You are the sort of lunatic that should be running the country". Thanks D.Quinn!
Labels: bi-yearly post
Monday, August 03, 2009


Friday, May 01, 2009
I am not a lawyer. Seek local legal counsel first; you are responsible for your actions, not me.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Did you know that (422 + 1112)(22 + 52) = (4712 + 4322) = (6392 + 122)?
which factors to the complex roots
rearrange the factors to get
which multiplies out to
but since this is a complex conjugate, it simplifies to
That is, given any product of sum of squares, you can easily find what other sum of squares represents the answer.
Further, we can also re-order the factors to give
Which is yet another solution represented as a sum of squares!
Try it! (422 + 1112)(22 + 52) = (4712 + 4322) = (6392 + 122)
Burton MacKenZie www.burtonmackenzie.com
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Sunday, February 22, 2009

Burton MacKenZie www.burtonmackenzie.com
p.s. Here is an earlier post about Mercury.
Sunday, February 01, 2009
Why do so many people wonder if Ann Coulter is a man?
0 comments Posted by burton mackenzie at 1:11 PMLast year I was playing with the automated Gender Guesser. There were stirrings on the net that Ann Coulter, an american who makes a living by spewing controversial nonsense and hatred to the ignorant masses, was really a man. I went to her website and input some of her posts into the Gender Guesser.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Peasant Finger Multiplication Proof for all Bilaterally Symmetric Species
3 comments Posted by burton mackenzie at 2:24 AMThere is a technique for multiplying numbers between 6 and 10 on your fingers called peasant multiplication (graphic illustration). I explained how to do it two years ago, and I mentioned an easy proof of it. Since I was subsequently asked for the proof, I present it now with an improvement. (If you don't already know how to perform the multiplication, please check the links above, first)
Saturday, January 24, 2009
I came across a technique for multiplying big numbers recently, called prosthaphaeresis [1], that predates the use of logarithms. It relied on the use of pre-calculated cosine tables, and made use of the trigonometric relation: