Problem Solving
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Pythagorean triples... I woke up thinking of them... With whatever clutter there is in my mind the night before, I woke up with hopes that they'd all be gone... And then I realized that these clutters don't tidy up on their own...It used to be that way... Everytime I'm faced with a troubling situation, I always knew how to find my way out... I knew what to do, or at least I was confident enough to work my way into solving it... But now, I'm not even sure where to start... I just don't know...
Pythagorean triples... It used to be that easy... My favorite number game... Each and every time, they never fail to fascinate me... Three integers where the sum of the squares of the lower two is actually the square of the third... (3, 4, 5)... (5, 12, 13)... It's not at all cryptic... It is what it is... Plain and simple...
I never did memorize the formula to getting each of these values... And everytime I try to think of the formula, I never fail to scold myself for not remembering... That would have saved me the effort of finding out... Pretty much like a bookmark to your favorite webpage, I would have gladly appreciated the saved hassles...
But I never did... And each time, I solved it in my head... And everytime I found it, I never failed to smile... There really is no strength in numbers... I found comfort in them...
Everything is math... And problems do have solutions... It's just that, sometimes we keep trying to find the refined ones... Failing to realize that real life isn't always that elegant...
