In this thread, an asteroid is heading for Earth

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...And the only way you can stop it is by finding all the roots of this quartic equation!

x^4 + 2x^2 + 6√10x + 1 = 0

THE WORLD'S FATE RESTS WITH YOU.

― webber (webber), Friday, 23 August 2002 13:17 (twenty-three years ago)

OH CRAP, NOT EVEN ANDREW WK CAN SAVE US NOW.

http://lollers.netfirms.com/andrew_wk.gif http://lollers.netfirms.com/andrew_wk.gif http://lollers.netfirms.com/andrew_wk.gif
http://lollers.netfirms.com/andrew_wk.gif http://lollers.netfirms.com/andrew_wk.gif http://lollers.netfirms.com/andrew_wk.gif
http://lollers.netfirms.com/andrew_wk.gif http://lollers.netfirms.com/andrew_wk.gif http://lollers.netfirms.com/andrew_wk.gif

― webber (webber), Friday, 23 August 2002 13:20 (twenty-three years ago)

You have single-handedly redeemed the existence of Andrew WK. I'm impressed.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 23 August 2002 13:50 (twenty-three years ago)

x^4 + 2x^2 + 6?ã10x + 1 = 0

x^4 + 2x^2 + 6?ã10x = -1

But no rational numbers, when rendered as squares or square roots, come out as negative! Therefore the Earth is a goner.

― j.lu (j.lu), Friday, 23 August 2002 13:52 (twenty-three years ago)

it may have only imaginary solutions j.lu but i doubt it => x = -1 fed into that quartic gives a negative value viz

2 - 6*10 = - 16 (approx)

― mark s (mark s), Friday, 23 August 2002 14:04 (twenty-three years ago)

(howcum webber/mrs shipley can do the square root symbol but when j.lu and i copy it it turns into boring old asterisks?)

― mark s (mark s), Friday, 23 August 2002 14:05 (twenty-three years ago)

webber/mrs shipley has the magic power of Andrew WK guiding hir.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 23 August 2002 14:07 (twenty-three years ago)

If you interpret it as 6.sqr(10).x,you get roots at x=-2.39649 and x=-0.0530012:
http://homepage.mac.com/dtcd/graph2.gif

If you interpret it as 6.sqr(10x), there are no real roots:
http://homepage.mac.com/dtcd/graph1.gif

Is the world saved in this thread now?

― Graham (graham), Friday, 23 August 2002 14:08 (twenty-three years ago)

i don't know what *any* of you are on about. but andrew WK scares me. mightily.

― katie (katie), Friday, 23 August 2002 14:10 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm sure he's more scared of you than you are of him.

― Graham (graham), Friday, 23 August 2002 14:13 (twenty-three years ago)

*has another look at those pictures* i find that very, VERY difficult to believe graham...

― katie (katie), Friday, 23 August 2002 14:21 (twenty-three years ago)

it's a quartic, graham, so it can't mean x to the power of a half (if twere then the rooty sign wd be stretching its little arm to grab the x's mymble-like topknot)

― mark s (mark s), Friday, 23 August 2002 14:23 (twenty-three years ago)

Katie: cf.

― Graham (graham), Friday, 23 August 2002 14:25 (twenty-three years ago)

I wants to know what a 'mymble' is - so googling it came up with:

'The Mymble's daughter, eventually called "Mymble," is the sister of
Little My, half-sister of Snufkin, and daughter of The Mymble.'

My fear of not understanding the Billson book has returned mark.....

― Ray M (rdmanston), Friday, 23 August 2002 14:36 (twenty-three years ago)

Have you not read the Moomin books, Ray?

― RickyT (RickyT), Friday, 23 August 2002 14:38 (twenty-three years ago)

haha, i had forgotten tove jannson's deathless contribution to recursive function theory!!

― mark s (mark s), Friday, 23 August 2002 14:53 (twenty-three years ago)

a mymble-like topknot (in this case, little my's... she is like the mymble insofar as she is sister to one and daughter to another) (plainly w/o a mymble-like topknot, the x wd be ungrabble by the rooty's little arm...)

http://yellowfrog.icenter.pl/muminki/trolle/mi%20i%20mrowka.gif

― mark s (mark s), Friday, 23 August 2002 14:57 (twenty-three years ago)

in moominworld the asteroid is a comet, of course

― mark s (mark s), Friday, 23 August 2002 14:59 (twenty-three years ago)

12.

― jel -- (jel), Friday, 23 August 2002 16:07 (twenty-three years ago)

No I've never heard of these 'Moomin' books atall - will have to go looksee.

'the x wd be ungrabble by the rooty's little arm'
oh BOY mark do I wish you had been my maths teacher.

― Ray M (rdmanston), Friday, 23 August 2002 16:59 (twenty-three years ago)

quadratic what?

i'm probably too busy trying to cop off - THE WORLD IS ENDING

― mark p (Mark P), Friday, 23 August 2002 17:19 (twenty-three years ago)

actually we were asked for *all* the roots, and the shape of that graph means two of them ARE imaginary = uh oh *DUCK*

― mark s (mark s), Friday, 23 August 2002 17:24 (twenty-three years ago)

Looks like the asteroid hit planet greenspun! Governments of the world should take note of our example.

― jel -- (jel), Friday, 23 August 2002 18:08 (twenty-three years ago)

The girl Moomin = Cerys Matthews. It's true. It's damn true.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Friday, 23 August 2002 18:10 (twenty-three years ago)

it's a quartic, graham, so it can't mean x to the power of a half (if twere then the rooty sign wd be stretching its little arm to grab the x's mymble-like topknot)

This man is correct.
YOU HAVE SAVED THE WORLD. HELLO KITTY THANKS YOU.

http://lollers.netfirms.com/a-hellokitty.gif http://lollers.netfirms.com/a-hellokitty.gif http://lollers.netfirms.com/a-hellokitty.gif http://lollers.netfirms.com/a-hellokitty.gif http://lollers.netfirms.com/a-hellokitty.gif
http://lollers.netfirms.com/a-hellokitty.gif http://lollers.netfirms.com/a-hellokitty.gif http://lollers.netfirms.com/a-hellokitty.gif http://lollers.netfirms.com/a-hellokitty.gif http://lollers.netfirms.com/a-hellokitty.gif

― webber (webber), Saturday, 24 August 2002 04:29 (twenty-three years ago)

EGAD!

hey Webber, you know where i live...whichever drugs you're on, share them!

― petra jane (petra jane), Saturday, 24 August 2002 05:05 (twenty-three years ago)

I never noticed the similarities betweeen Hello Kitty and Andrew WK before...

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Saturday, 24 August 2002 14:08 (twenty-three years ago)

Hello Kitty parties harder than Andrew WK ever will. Because she ALWAYS parties and WK takes time out to get nosebleeds.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 25 August 2002 03:10 (twenty-three years ago)

one month passes...

!!!

― donut bitch (donut), Saturday, 12 October 2002 07:27 (twenty-three years ago)

dude wtf is going on

http://lollers.netfirms.com/explode.jpg

― webber (webber), Saturday, 12 October 2002 07:45 (twenty-three years ago)

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