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Checkmate, Randall Munroe

Cousin Mike sent this a couple weeks ago, along with what I think is someone’s incorrect mathematical explanation, under the title, “How You Can Tell You’ve Ticked Off an Engineer”. It works as a pretty good joke on its own but, to bring it full circle, you need to know a little history.

verizoncheck600.jpgverizoncheckformula1.jpg

Seems engineer George Vaccaro took issue with Verizon for quoting him “.002 cents per kilobyte” for air time prior to his visit to Canada but billing him “.002 dollars per kilobyte” upon his return. After several unsuccessful attempts to explain the hundred-fold difference to Verizon, he recorded a twenty-six minute conversation with a Verizon manager which became famous on YouTube with more than a million hits. YouTube has since taken it down, but you can still listen to the original recorded exchange on Putfile or read the transcript on Verizonmath.

Enter my favorite physicist/cartoonist, Randall Munroe, who wrote the above check to satirize the whole comical issue. It’s funny all right, especially in view of its genesis, but for how much was the check actually written? Well, based on my very rusty high school calculus, and meaning no disrespect to whomever produced the above explanation, I think it’s a check for essentially “nothing”:

e^([pi]i) = -1
just like ln(-1)=[pi]i

“i” indicates an imaginary number which has a few different calculations than real numbers. You can do it by hand but a TI-83 or equivalent is, uh, faster.

∑1/2^n = 1

Even though it translates literally as .999… that is a fallacious number and so is translated as “1” (just like 2/3 is equal to .666…, 3/3 = .999… and 1.)

And finally, when dealing with money, anything less than a cent, can’t be rounded up to a cent. It’s, in fact, rounded down.

So the long and short of it is Randall issued a check for nothing, metaphorically and symbolically refusing to pay the bill. The check’s memo is the punch line.

Posted on May 22, 2008 at 10:00AM by Registered CommenterDoug in , , , , | Comments11 Comments

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Reader Comments (11)

I am exhausted. But I guess it makes a better joke as a zero check than $536.49 which has nothing to do with the story. You must have been a nerd in school!

May 22 | Unregistered CommenterFrank B.

Actually, the infinite sum is a geometric series of the form E a* r^k, with a=1, r= 1/2, and with k starting at 1 and not 0. Since 1/(2^0) = 1/1, we can just do the sum via the formula and subtract one.

To wit : (k=0 to inf) E a*r^k = a / (1-r)

For a=1, r=1/2, the sum is 2.

So, (k=1 to inf) E 1/(2^k) = 1, as explained above.

Euler's identity is e^(i*pi) + 1 =0, so e^(i*pi) = -1.

So the check is for $0.002.

May 22 | Unregistered CommenterMike L.

I listened to the recorded conversation and have to nominate him for having more patience than most of us would! Hilarious!

Can you hear us now?

May 22 | Unregistered CommenterLarry P.

That call is hilarious! The pauses between responses by the Verizon staff are priceless.

May 22 | Unregistered CommenterFran

Hey everyone,

The “i” imaginary number is factored out. e^ix = cos(x) + i*sin(x) (Euler’s Law); since sin(pi) = 0, the “i” is factored out — and cos(pi) = -1. Then the series shown does not equal “1″, but rather pi^2/6 (it’s a power series expansion). What you’re left with is:

0.002 - (pi^2)/6,

or roughly -$1.64. Which tells me that Mr. Munroe must have had a credit of $1.64 on his account... :-)

May 22 | Unregistered Commentersamiam

Samiam, you got the power series wrong. Expanded, it’s:
1/2+1/4+1/8+1/16+1/32…
which converges to 1. Mr. Munroe appears to be paying his good friends at Verizon 2/10ths of a cent.

May 22 | Unregistered CommenterWard

Hey Nerds.

I think you’re missing the point. Stop doing math and enjoy the joke.

:)

May 22 | Unregistered Commenterhankthetank

Looks like Samiam mistook Σ(1/2n) for Σ(1/n2).

May 22 | Unregistered CommenterAnton

Nerd humor. How nerdy.

May 22 | Unregistered CommenterKevin O

A ridiculous exchange, I agree, like beating your head against the wall. However, he could have explained it better, made it easier for her to understand. But he's an engineer and engineers organize thoughts differently than the rest of us at times.

For example, he could have demonstrated that 1000 Kb X .002 cents = 2 cents, while 1000 Kb X .002 dollars = 2 dollars. Therefore 35,893 Kb X .002 cents = 71.786 cents ($0.71) and 35,893 Kb X .002 dollars = 71.786 dollars ($71.78).

But our schools no longer teach the logic of math. That's why cashiers at fast food restaurants can't make change without the cash register doing it for them. "New math", they called it.

Yeah, right. More like the deliberate dumbing down of America. Thank your public school system.

BTW, $0.002 is perhaps technically correct, but more correctly rounded down is zero, "nothing", imho.

Reminds me of my first cross country moving experience with a moving company. I'd paid Global Van Lines to pack for us and they'd labeled many of the boxes "Miscellaneous". Most of the so called "Miscellaneous" boxes never made it to our destination and Global paid us only $5.46 for all our lost (or stolen) belongings. Talking and writing letters was fruitless. Explaining that they had charged far more than that amount for labor to pack the boxes fell on deaf ears. It was a lesson learned about reading the absurd contracts moving companies get away with using. My final meager act of defiance was to frame the check rather than cash it.

~Doug

May 22 | Unregistered CommenterDoug

Math was never my best subject but it makes sense that the check would be for zero or .2 cents. He was arguing over $71 but it sounds like he knew he shouldn't expect a bill for 71 cents. And he spent a lot of time on this, and time is money too. Or maybe he was just having fun with them to make a fine point.

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