The Sage - A SiamMandalay Magazine Issue 04 by bckfwd

A SiamMandalay Magazine

Issue 04 March-July 2016

TANGRAM PARADOX EXPLAINED WOODEN PUZZLES IN MOVIES HAPPY PI DAY!

Special 22 WAYS TO GO GREEN & SAVE GREEN

Editor Firstly, everyone at SiamMandalay would like to say a huge thank you for your support of us in our inaugural edition of The Sage. We are all excited about this journey and although it may be a winding road, we are working hard to provide all puzzles fans (yes that’s you) a quarterly print or download with the very latest on all things puzzles. We have created The Sage Magazine with the premise of spreading our love of puzzles as far as we can and allowing you, the reader, to share and participate. In pursuit of this, we invite and encourage all of you to become active with your own input; articles, images, ideas, feedback or suggestions. SiamMandalay believe in a policy of sharing knowledge and experiences, we hope that you’ll join us on this journey and share yours. Thank you,

The SiamMandalay Team

Contents 3 Tangram Paradox Explained 4 Wooden Puzzles In The Movie 7 22 WaysTo Go Green & Save Green 10 Happy PI Day!

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TANGRAM

PARADOX EXPLAINED Tangrams, one of SiamMandalay’s favorite puzzles and all time classic, if you haven’t heard of them you can catch more information about them here. Basically Tangram’s are a 7 piece puzzle that originated from China, they are similar to a western version of the jigsaw puzzle. Ever green in popularity, they have been in the Western world for over 200 years. One of the oddities and perhaps the most intriguing part of the Tangram is the phenomenon of Paradoxes. We have actually touched a little bit on vanishing puzzles here., and paradoxes are pretty similar in design. Firstly: What is a paradox puzzle? Tangram paradoxes are designs that can be built with all the 7 pieces of the game and appear to identical in mass but have slightly differing conﬁgurations. The eye catching quirk is that a portion of one “magically” disappears on the other.

When viewed side-by-side, many people actually begin to believe the “Vanishing” proposition – how is this possible? What is really going on? In actuality the Dudeney Paradox is probably not the most subtle in terms of difference, you can clearly see under close observation that one monk is marginally shorter than other. Other paradoxes are little bit harder to spot. In order to not be fooled you must recognize that the surface area of the pieces always remains constant (I’m sorry, there is no super-duper magic). To ﬁgure out where the space has gone you just need to look where areas have been transferred or shifted to and from. Once you have realized this, you will see that the monks are not actually identical. Everything has been moved slightly. This is the same for all paradoxes, the one below – is a lot more subtle.

Here, although all pieces have been used the paradox is slightly longer, it’s hard to compare as they are identical in height.

The Dudeney Paradox of two monks (above) is the most famous and common example, where it appears that one monk is complete and the other is missing a foot.

The sleight of hand that achieves this effect is by presenting these puzzles side by side, they appear to have the same height however, their width is marginally different enough all the way around that in the end you can be missing a signiﬁcant portion of the puzzle.

A collection of your favorite puzzles in some of the most iconic and popular movies of all time. Below we have a shortlist of puzzles in movies inspired by the website RubiksCubeinMovies.com we just loved the idea! Some of the puzzles below play critical parts in the movie, some of the others are merely in passing – you may have blinked and missed them on ﬁrst viewing. We have Tangrams, Towers of Hanoi, Rubik’s Cubes and more...

Rise of the Planet of Apes – Towers of Hanoi (Lucas’ Tower) Probably the most recent and most involved on the list. The Towers of Hanoi feature pretty prominently in The Rise of the Planet of the Apes - the famous puzzle is used to test, Bright Eyes, the mother of the main character “Cesar”. In the movie Bright Eyes is tested using a 4 disc Towers of Hanoi which she begins to complete at frantic pace. In the ﬁlm it is called “Lucas’ Tower” – after the puzzles inventor Edouard Lucas – and in real life is actually used as a logic and reasoning test.

Donnie Darko – Rubik’s Cube The psychological cult classic: Donnie Darko (Jake Gylenhaal) spends many scenes in thoughtful trance, wandering through time: one such episodes involves Donnie playing with a custom made Rubik cube while lying on his bed. The Rubik’s cube in the movies is interesting as its actually black and white with M.C Escher painting on each side of the cube, instead of the regular white, blue, red, green, orange and yellow ones.

Brave New World – Aldous Huxley CSI NY – Fifteen Puzzle This was featured in CSI NY, where it was in made in large, on the apartment of an inventors ﬂoor. In the episode the puzzle is already solved and transpires to be a trap.

For this one, we are cheating a bit – but it’s too good not to mention. We like brave new world and we like Soma Cubes, so we really can’t avoid it.

This super famous sliding puzzle, you have probably seen before or received it in miniature form, probably in a Christmas cracker.

For those of you who haven’t read Aldous Huxley’s dystopian classic, Brave New World is in essence an adult version of Hunger Games mixed with 1984 and actually inspired by H.G Wells’; Men Like Gods & A Modern Utopia.

The rules are simple slide the numbered squares around, one spot it always open, and no pieces can be removed - get the slides 1-15 into chronological order.

In Brave New World, the population are under the inﬂuence of Soma, a drug which Huxley named after the Soma Cube, due to his love for the puzzle. 5

Dr. Who – Towers of Hanoi In the Doctor Who serial “The Celestial Toymaker” - I know right, an awesome name - the doctor is challenged to solve a 10-disc version of the Towers of Hanoi, referenced in the episode as the ‘Trilogic Game’.

Chris Gardner, played by Will Smith, is trying to become a stockbroker at Dean Witter Reynolds.

While getting towards the end of the puzzle the Doctor in all of his wisdom realizes that the Toymaker’s world will vanish once he makes the ﬁnal move, so he does his ﬁnal move from inside the Tardis and makes and escape..

In the scene he jumps into an executive’s car and pleads for a job. Unfortunately the executive is only interested in one thing – his Rubik’s cube. Luckily for Will Smith’s character, however he is a math whizz who is able to explain the puzzles solution, win his admiration and a job to boot.

In the real word a 10 disc Towers of Hanoi will take over 1000 moves to complete, an 11 disc over 2000 and a 13 disc over 4000.

The Rubik Cube is apt in this movie as it is set in 1981 – the height of Rubik cube mania.

Wall – E – Rubik’s Cube A CGI love affair produced by Pixar Animation Studios. The Rubik’s cube feature in various scenes throughout the ﬁlm. Wall-e is the last of his kind, a robot who was designed to clear up all the garbage left on planet earth. He has developed a habit for collecting interesting pieces that he ﬁnds on his travels – Including a solitary Rubik’s Cube. Sadly, for Wall-e, he is actually is unable to the solve the puzzle - however his movie romance, Eve, is a speed cuber for sure. 6

The Pursuit of Happiness – Rubik’s Cube

WaysTo Go Green & Save Green At SiamMandalay we take green living very seriously. We try to keep everything as organic as possible – and believe me, we know it’s hard. We also know it’s inconvenient and expensive – at least that’s the common parlance. But Ho! You don’t need solar panels and organic food, at least not the expensive kind. You can be both green AND budget savvy. We’re here to show you how.

Natural household cleaners

– no chemicals – no heavy fragrance – check out Kimberly Button and her book “The Everything Guide to a Healthy Home:” or check out wellness mama she uses cheap, natural products like vinegar and baking soda. Easy, peasy.

If you want organic, grow your own – luckily us (we got the

sun!), we grow our own bananas, papayas and mulberries the pests are pesky – but it’s worth the devotion! Plus, the food simply tastes that little bit better when grown from scratch. If you can’t be as exotic as SiamMandalay, no fear - strawberries anyone?

Food waste is a big nono!

America wastes up to 40% of its food! Which is insane. If you are going to a restaurant bring Styrofoam boxes – easy. No waste. That’s almost half of the $3000 yearly average going straight in the bin – cook less or power your home!

If you can’t afford to buy the new hybrid car/electric car – then there is simple way to

save a few bucks. When running errands park your car at a central location and walk to where you need to go, keeping your fitness high and your wasted income low. Also unload excess weight from your boot – more weight directly influences gas usage. Interestingly FuelEconomy found that buying keeping your tire inflated can you can increase fuel economy by almost 5%.

Unplug your electronic goods after use, experts

call this “phantom load’ where energy is used, just to keep electronic appliances on standby. Simply unplugging your electronic appliances can lower the average household’s annual bill to around $200.

Install a programmable thermostat, to control the

temperature of your house. These can be picked up for less than $40. Set it to gauge the temperature in your house – and power on and off on command!

BYOB: bring your own bag to the Grocery store. With

the UK charging 5p for a bag in the UK – it will cost you a pretty penny over a year. Purchasing some long lasting durable bags will allow you to save the planet and your bank balance.

Swap out your hand soap for DIY non-toxic hand sanitizer. You can make your own

mix without alcohol and other abrasive ingredients and voila: check it out the recipe here: http://www.prevention.com/ health/healthy-living/natural-homemadesanitizer

Charge up your gadgets with solar: we like this one

– you can purchase solar chargers on Amazon: they can power all your boys’ toys: MP3s, Cell Phones and even laptops – easy.

Buy products made from recycled goods!

These are hip, trendy, cost effective and eco-friendly. Everything from pencils to handbags are made from green materials - even SiamMandalay products :).

Turn off your computer at work. Especially on a

Friday. I, for one, am a smidge guilty of this one. You’re going away from the ofﬁce. Switch if off.

Plant a tree in your in the backyard. It seems

simple, but just one tree can offset a ton of carbon emission over its lifetime. If planted appropriately, it also will provide shade on a sunny day, perhaps reducing the use of energy for air-conditioning in buildings and homes.

Wash clothes in cold water and line dry. An

oldy but goody - Using cold water rather than hot in the washer saves electricity and works just as well as hot with most clothes. Line drying not only is more environmentally friendly, but it also will keep clothes from shrinking and fading.

Look into carpooling –

you will be astounded how much money this saves you. If you need convincing look at this balance sheet for green commuting.

Sorry paperboys! Cancel

your newspaper subscription and read the news online instead. (We’ll bet you’re already doing this one!)

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Napkin cloths instead of paper napkins at dinner – in fact anything rewashable

over free.

Still in the kitchen: Invest

in a roasting pan instead of using disposable ones (you’ll save money in the long run and it’s a lot easier to pull a full ham or turkey out of the oven in a sturdy pan than an aluminum one).

In the Kitchen still!

Meatless Monday – If every American skipped meat and cheese one day a week, it would have the same environmental impact as the country driving 91 billion fewer miles a year.

Cold water for laundry:

No need for the super hot water to clean your clothing. Cold water works just ﬁne in the washing machine.

Learn to preserve!

Throwing out over ripe fruits and veggies is wasteful. Preserving, pickling and jam making are all easy to do and a great way to reduce waste. A great tip is to freeze over ripe bananas and turn them into a banana cake.

Use your own coffee tumbler or thermos.

Rather than getting a cardboard coffee cup every day, buy your own reusable mug to take back and forth from home to work. It’s a good way to stand out from the crowd and will keep co-workers from swooping up your coffee.

Receiving your bills via emails reduces the cutting down of tress, paper use and in some instances will save you money on paper bill fees!

Y HAPP HAPPY PI DA Y !! (PI) DAY By Sean Allan

Pi Day – the annual celebration of the mathematical constant – conveniently timed to match the birthday of one, Albert Einstein no less. Today is an extra auspicious moment since it is the once in a century Rounded Up Pi Day; when the month, day and year are Pi – correct to four decimal places. Rounded up to four it is 3.1416. And today is 3/14/16. Woop Woop! For the extra clever there is also “Pi Approximation Day” later on the year – which is observed on July 22nd or 22/7 – you get it? :). The History: Today represents the 28th ofﬁcial World Pi Day – started way back in 1988 by San Franciscan and physicist, Larry Shaw: It was actually originally celebrated by – marching around in circles (hilarious) then consuming fruit pies (delicious)! You can learn more about their party here: http://www. exploratorium.edu/pi/ By 2009 the US House of representatives had ofﬁcially passed a non-binding 10

resolution for it to be ofﬁcially established as noted day. As such, MIT often mail their application decision letters on this day and starting in 2012 post the decision online at exactly 6:28PM – which they have termed “Tau time” to honor both Tau and Pai in equal measure. And Princeton (where Einstein was alumni) also host a very special party to celebrate both him and the special mathematical day: http://www. pidayprinceton.com/

What is Pi? Archimedes is credited with doing the ﬁrst calculation of Pi, while British mathematician William Jones developed the Greek letter for the symbol in around 1706 – and was popularized by Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler around 1736.

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Embrace the puns – Eating Pineapple, pizzas and pine nuts while drinking Pina coladas. Remember you aren’t limited to desserts. Chicken and Shepherd’s pie are equally delicious. Mental Floss Have a Great Article on Pis here: http://mentalﬂoss.com/ article/74554/10-pies-enjoy-pi-day

Pi has been calculated out to over 1 trillion digits – as an irrational and transcendental number. It will continue inﬁnitely without repetition or pattern.

But How Can I Celebrate? Well you can celebrated Pi Day in pretty much anyway aslong as it involved cakes or cookies. By cakes we mean cake baking, eating and throwing… We also like puns so trying to ﬁt in as many puns based on the word Pi as you can in one day. Ryan Muir, a teacher in Shanghai, at Concordia International School Shanghai uses this day to educate his students about the wonderful world of Pi, and show them that students can have fun with Math. They write songs about pi, write piems (see what happened there – I am getting in the mood), see who can get closest to pi by measuring the ratio of circumference to diameter in cookies and pizzas, compete against each other in the JPL Nasa Pi Day challenge, and of course eat lots of Pie!

Eating: •

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Eat Pi foods – Eating Pi foods may be the easiest and most fun way to celebrate Pi. If you’re in school, everyone can bring in a pi-themed food or pi pot luck. Eat any types of pie. You can expect to see some offers for $3.14 slices. Put the symbol on some cookies and bake your own.

Convert everything into Pi. This step is absolutely necessary for two reasons: ﬁrst, to utterly confuse people who have no idea what you’re talking about, and secondly, to have fun seeing how many things can be referenced with pi. This will help you reach an even higher appreciation for the amazing number that is pi. Use pi to tell the time. Convert naturally circular things into radians, like the hours on the clock. Instead of it being 3 o’clock, now it’s 1/2 pi o’clock. Or, instead of it being 3 o’clock, convert the inclination of the sun into radians and describe that as the time. Simply use 3.14 as a unit of measure. Instead of being 31 years old, you are 9pi years old. With this same approach, you can ﬁnd out your next pi birthday (don’t forget to celebrate it when it comes!). 11

Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas. - Albert Einsetin -