Last week, since Joe was on Spring Break, we wanted to do something a little out-of-the-ordinary. Something fun! We talked about a lot of different things, but finally decided on taking a mini vacation right here in town. So we packed our bags and headed to the Courtyard Marriott on the other side of town. Right before we left, I made a spur of the moment decision not to bring my laptop. While that might not seem like a big deal to most of you, let me tell you...it was a huge deal for me. I can't remember the last time I went overnight somewhere without my faithful laptop.
After a lovely dinner, we headed back to our hotel where we intended to watch a movie together. We had even planned ahead by renting a movie and bringing our DVD player.
Joe spent a while figuring out how to hook up the DVD player to the tv in the room and finally got it working. Well, almost.
We turned the movie on and discovered everything was in black and white. Knowing that wasn't the way the movie was supposed to be, Joe went back to work. After numerous tries, he decided it just wasn't worth the effort. Of course, I was dying to try my hand at figuring it out, so I immediately jumped at this opportunity. :)
My work was in vain, though, as no matter how many ways I tried to connect the cables to the tv, it just wouldn't play in color. Feeling frustrated, we both sat down and stared at the ceiling. My mind was still working. "Six inputs...three cables...six inputs...three cables...six inputs...three cables..."
Just how many different ways could you insert those three cables into the tv?
I turned to Joe and asked, "So how many options do we have? If we have 3 cables, and there's six inputs for the cables on the tv...how many different ways can you insert them?"
And you want to know what we spent the rest of the evening doing???
Yes. That's right. Math. On Spring break. An entire hour and a half. Because once we figured out how many options we had for the 3-6 scenario, we just had to know how many options we had for 4-7, and 2-5, and 3-4...
After 8 months of marriage, we discovered something new about ourselves. Take the laptops and distractions away...and we're math geeks. Crazy.
But it was so much fun. Just the two of us, without laptops, sitting there with a pencil and a pad of paper...doing math.
After a lovely dinner, we headed back to our hotel where we intended to watch a movie together. We had even planned ahead by renting a movie and bringing our DVD player.
Joe spent a while figuring out how to hook up the DVD player to the tv in the room and finally got it working. Well, almost.
We turned the movie on and discovered everything was in black and white. Knowing that wasn't the way the movie was supposed to be, Joe went back to work. After numerous tries, he decided it just wasn't worth the effort. Of course, I was dying to try my hand at figuring it out, so I immediately jumped at this opportunity. :)
My work was in vain, though, as no matter how many ways I tried to connect the cables to the tv, it just wouldn't play in color. Feeling frustrated, we both sat down and stared at the ceiling. My mind was still working. "Six inputs...three cables...six inputs...three cables...six inputs...three cables..."
Just how many different ways could you insert those three cables into the tv?
I turned to Joe and asked, "So how many options do we have? If we have 3 cables, and there's six inputs for the cables on the tv...how many different ways can you insert them?"
And you want to know what we spent the rest of the evening doing???
Yes. That's right. Math. On Spring break. An entire hour and a half. Because once we figured out how many options we had for the 3-6 scenario, we just had to know how many options we had for 4-7, and 2-5, and 3-4...After 8 months of marriage, we discovered something new about ourselves. Take the laptops and distractions away...and we're math geeks. Crazy.
But it was so much fun. Just the two of us, without laptops, sitting there with a pencil and a pad of paper...doing math.
Gretchen, this makes me smile. =) Thanks for brightening my day!
ReplyDeleteHow funny! Did you ever watch the movie? :)
ReplyDeleteWhat I thought was funny was that you turned the picture black and white. ;)
ReplyDeleteSo glad you guys had a fun "getaway"! :)
That is SO funny! My daddy is a big math person too. Well, he is a engineer. Get him together with some of his old co-worker buddies, and they don't talk english anymore. It's really quite funny, but I'm so proud of my smart Daddy!
ReplyDeleteNo...we never did watch the movie that night. :)
ReplyDeleteThat is neat, I see my brothers and I doing that too even though I hate math, that sounds like fun! LOL!!! :)
ReplyDeleteBlessings,
Miss Antoinette
hey gretchen!
ReplyDeletei am actually a math tutor for the GMAT exam and there is a super easy way to figure that out...since the order of how you plug in the cables matters (for example blue green red versus green red blue), you need to use the following formula: n!/(n-r)! where n=the total # of objects and r=the total options...so in your case, n=6 and r=3
the ! symbol indicates 'factorial' incase you have forgotten and a factorial is just a number multiplied by every number below it so for example 4! equals 4X3X2X1 or 24...
the formula would be 6!/(6-3)! so 6X5X4X3X2X1/(3X2X1) = when you simplify the number you get 120 different combinations
fun blog by the way!
The above method is not the easy way at all. The easy way is saying, "There are 6 possible inputs for the first cable, that leaves 5 possible inputs for the second cable, that leaves 4 possible inputs for the third cable. 6 x 5 x 4 = 120.
ReplyDeleteDon't use a formula if you can help it.