At 09:19 AM 7/13/2003 -0700, Deborah Goldsmith wrote:

I haven't read the first 11 chapters so I can't comment on the story,
but as an ex-physicist I can comment on the math. :-)

The correct number of distinct combinations of one or two meats is 45
(9!2 + 9!1). If you are counting the number of distinct combinations of
between one and nine meats, then the correct answer (if I did the math
right) is 529 (9!9 + 9!8 + ..., or 530 if you include the Zen option of
no flavor at all). All this assumes that meat A plus meat B tastes the
same as meat B plus meat A. My tongue is commutative, and I think that
holds for most people.

         Uhh.. not quite, Debby. Speaking as a GI who had to do a
LOT of field cooking in order to survive (YOU try living on C-rations
for 6 weeks straight... *shudder*), I'd like to note that the whole
"Meat A + Meat B = Meat B + Meat A" is NOT true. It strongly depends
on which meat you add to which, and in what order you add them to
each other. It's a very complex problem, and one that master chefs
(which I am NOT) spend years learning about.

         Which, come to think of it, might be Akane's problem with
cooking. She seems (from what I've seen in the anime) to try brute
force and to attack the situation head-on. Cooking, however, doesn't
often respond well to that sort of approach at any level above that
of "Uhg. Brak have meat. Brak put meat on stick. Brak put stick over
fire. Meat roast. Brak eat."

         Cooking can be as simple as throwing a lump of dough onto
a hot rock to make flatbread, or as complex as hyperdimensional
physics. It all depends on how complex you choose to MAKE it.

         So, the Zu crew has it pretty much pegged here. (Hmm..
the Zu crew. Ranma.. suddenly I'm having a 70's flashback to
the "New Zoo Revue" kids show. Crossover potential here? NAH!)

Mathematical verisimilitude is important if stories are to feel
convincing to people with scientific backgrounds.

Oh, you didn't care about that? Umm, never mind, then.

Deborah

         Ed Becerra

         "Dreamers may die, but the Dream is eternal..."



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