February 15 2024 Put it down to a fair amount of travel in these first few weeks of 2024, including a fabulous birdwatching trip in the Sundarban Tiger Reserve in West Bengal: I'm so far behind on sending out my Mint columns here that I had lost track of the backlog.
So let me try to make amends, a few at a time. Speaking of 2024: consider yourself lucky to be alive this year (and reading this, why not?). Because this is a tetrahedral year, and the last one was 1771, and the next one will be 2300. I don't think you'll be alive for the next one. But that sad realization apart, what is a tetrahedral number, in this case 2024? Well, they are built on triangular number, which in turn are built on the integers. All of which hints at one of the fundamental things about mathematics: patterns. But there's more to discover too. Including something that applies to this year that may apply even better to next year (remind me then). Take a look at my Mint column for Jan 5 2024: Year of the tetrahedrals and triangles, https://www.livemint.com/opinion/columns/2024-year-of-the-tetrahedrals-and-triangles-11704384732215.html cheers, dilip -- My book with Joy Ma: "The Deoliwallahs" Twitter: @DeathEndsFun Death Ends Fun: http://dcubed.blogspot.com -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Dilip's essays" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/dilips-essays/CAEiMe8oKwi6sGop3djay4yTMO-xvPHB1E%3DkQBk2m%2BXHrbZt%2B6g%40mail.gmail.com.
