In Search of the Weekend
I wish I knew where the weekend went. There seems to be some sort of anomaly in the space time continuum – specifically located at the cross section of me, and weekends in general. If I had done physics at college, I might be able to investigate – unfortunately the closest I ever got was learning the formulas for particle dynamics while pretending I could do applied maths.
As far as I recall, particle dynamics is kind of simpleton physics – where questions take the form “a ball is thrown in a vacuum” – because accounting for aerodynamics would require a proof of the Yang Mills equations, which nobody has figured out yet – which is also why all aeroplanes, cars, and whatever else are different shapes than each other.
Incidentally, the only reason I know about the Yang Mills equations is because I read a book several years ago about the “Millennium Prize” – a huge amount of money thrown at the mathematics community to hopefully encourage some brainiac or other to solve a few of the most eye-catching unsolved numerical mysteries.
Although I was never particularly good at mathematics at school, I've become more interested over the years. I suppose in some ways it's related to software development – to programming. The whole “problem solving” thing is perhaps what appeals to me most – finding elegant, efficient ways of doing things.
The year before we adopted children – nearly twelve years ago now! – I had a prospectus for a mathematics night course – a refresher ahead of a degree. It was crazy really, and highlights the difference between life before and after children. Where we indulged interests previously, we suddenly weighed any and all investments in ourselves against possible investments in the children – and of course we always chose the children. I think most parents do the same (or at least, I hope they do).
Anyway. How on earth have I written a post about math, when all I'm really wondering is where the hell the weekend went? Perhaps I should fund a Millennium prize of my own to find out. I'm just wondering what I can offer as a prize – given that all we have in the world is a house that needs work, a second hand car, a few debatably serviceable bicycles, and a number of obsolete computers... Time. I could give somebody my time. People don't seem to give each other their time any more.