Mathematical Diversions

1) Two archaelogists, English and a French man come across a rock which has four letters carved on it. The english man thinks its an english word and the french thinks its a french word the clue for the word are as follows....

a) each alphabet has a number associated with it....for eg:a=1, b=2, c=3........ z=26.....
b) the sum of the 4 nums equals 20
c) the sum of any 3 nums of these 4 numbers, divided by the fourth one leaves a remainder zero....eg: if abcd is the word.....then a+b+c/d ,b+c+d/a ,c+d+a/b, d+a+b/c all leave a remainder zero.

Find the 4 letters (if possible the English word) with the help of the above clues...

Billionaires Club

I was reading http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6433367.stm article in BBC about India topping the Asian billionaire list with 36 billionaires. 2nd in line is Japan with 24. I could not help but feel proud about this achievement. I think it definitely gives you a kick to see fellow Indians at the top (even though people like Lakshmi Mittal made it big outside India). It might provide the drive for us in our own lives to be like them. But I also could not help think about all those people who are still below the poverty line in India (of course it is much worse in some other countries around the world mainly sub Saharan Africa).
On one side India is booming and on the other it is still entrenched in all types of orthodoxies and superstitions. In fact it is in a way promoting these things through the television channels. In the name of entertainment and culture, India has only Bollywood (Mumbai Film Industry) to boast about. Even the news channels now discuss at length about movies and TV serials and its famous personalities. India produces enough food to feed everyone but has enough bureaucracy to fritter it away. It has awesome tourist places but has no roads to approach them. There is no doubt in my mind that India is full of contradictions.
Where is the India of thinkers, intellectuals, statesman, engineers and mathematicians? There is no point just basking in the past glory. President Abdul Kalam has high hopes from a country of 1 billion people. India has to provide the platform for everyone and should recognize the latent talent and should groom it properly at the right time and not just take the credit when someone makes it big own his or her own. I hope our President’s dream of India 2020 comes true where it has a well-rounded development, which does not leave anyone behind where everyone has avenues to become a billionaire where everyone dreams big. I would like to sign off with that hope.

Cricket Corner

1) BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/cricket/other_international/india/6376707.stm
actually predicts that there is a good chance of India winning the world cup (author is not an Indian). Being an Indian I just hope that it comes true. I seriously feel that Tendulkar deserves a world cup trophy to his credit and India owes him one. This might well be Tendulkar's last world cup appearance.
Australia and South Africa are going to be tough teams to beat but so was the case in 1983 (India one the world cup). West Indies was invincible at that time. Perhaps many people wrote of India in that world cup when India slumped to 17/5 and then Kapil walked in to bat with Kirmani and scored 175 (it is a pity that there is no recording of this match) .
The web site talks about the top 8 teams their strengths and weaknesses/injuries. India seems, at this moment, to be a very well balanced team(at least on paper). If only they click this time. Pitches in West Indies are not going to be fast. It might help the slower bowlers and India has plenty of them (even the fast bowlers are at max slow medium according to international standards !!!). Tendulkar might be very handy with the ball in the world cup. Ganguly has found his touch hope Sehwag does the same.
May the best team win.

2) Discussion on Super 8
This is seriously ridiculous..ICC has already predicted the results of round one...and have also put it in their official website..Rediff.com - Super 8s : India vs Pakistan, April 15

3) Sportstar Starspeak
I was reading this in the Starspeak column of Sportstar where veteran Indian players have put their bets on different teams. One thing that caught my eye was the views of 3 former Indian cricketers (Srikanth, Maninder Singh, Kirti Azad) who were not in favor of having the minnows for the world cup stating the following reasons that:

it might devalue the game in the initial stages of the world cup
the world cup goes on for too long
it tends to affect the fitness of the players
if it rains it might hurt the better teams

I myself am a little confused about which side to take in this debate but I tend to incline towards allowing the minnows in the world cup. My point is that if the teams have cleared the criteria for the world cup then what is the problem in having them. Granted that the initial stages of the world cup would be a little boring but this is a way for the weaker teams to experience the adrenaline rush. Even Soccer world cup has strong and weak teams. How much ever you play international cricket, world cup has it own charm and its own pressure.

Also a consistent thing, which pretty much every one is saying, is that India might have a good chance (given all other things) at the world cup because the pitches in West Indies are pretty much like the Indian subcontinent. Out of this, one funny thing I read was Maninder Singh actually giving England (Rank: 7) and New Zealand (Rank: 3) a go at the cup just because they have 2 good spinners in each team. Has he forgotten that even India (Rank: 5) has 2 great spinners in Kumble and Harbhajan (270 and 147 ODIs resp). New Zealand’s Jeetan Patel is just 17 ODIs old. England’s Panesar is just 9 ODIs old.

4)Duckworth-Lewis method of adjusting targeted scores
http://www.icc-cricket.com/icc/rules/d-l_method.pdf
http://www.icc-cricket.com/icc/rules/d-l_table.pdf