the answer is 91/21

But 91 and 21 are both divisible by seven, so the fraction's not reduced. Some folks count off for that, you know. :>

13/3

Some just don't get it. Bah, numbers, what a waste of time. I'll continue to actually read the story.

Ahh well spotted, I really should have spotted that when I reduced it to 4 and 7/21, but I guess I'm too used to using a calculator these days.

Umm... Your description of a "basilisk" seems closer resemble a cockatrice. Oh well....

Well, I'm not too worried about that.

http://www.eaudrey.com/myth/basilisks.htm : "Early Basilisks were described as small snakes with a crest on the head like a crown (from the Greek "basilieus" meaning king, as in "king of snakes".) The basilisk was extremely poisonous and even its breath or glare could be fatal.In Heraldry, it is mostly the same as a Cockatrice, sometimes differentiated by an additional head (often a dragon) at the end of the tail."

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/cockatrice :
"Cockatrice n. Mythology
A serpent hatched from a cock's egg and having the power to kill by its glance.
[Middle English cocatrice, basilisk, from Old French cocatris, from Medieval Latin coctrx, coctrc-, possibly alteration of calctrx (translation of Greek ikhneumn, tracker), from Latin calcre, to track, from calx, calc-, heel.]"

I apologize..what I should have said first was "It's great to run into someone who has heard of cockatrices and basilisks before and has some ideas about what they should look like."

I decided that just as someone with a dragon character feels free to decide "My dragon does not have horns, and also has no wings" or someone feeling a connection to a particular type of gryphon might tweak the exact type of bird and cat (I've even seen a hawk mixed with a fox, which is a bit unusual), I could adopt the parts of the old myths as I liked.

Boyohboy ... that -- stuff -- makes me so happy I blew all my college money on a car. Whew. And just think, I could be rich and successful by now. Lucky escape, huh?

I simply love these tales, and his difficulties. Do continue!

I concur with Metassus... yes I'm tired as it was a long day, but my head is spinning now. (I absolutely hate numbers). I too love your tales of the learned Professor Hauke von Fredrichs.

Until I met you... I had never met a Basilisk.

*gives him a hug with her eyes closed...

V.

oy, math. It hurts my brain...

Nice job, btw. It's always a bit cagey when you catch a prof's mistake. Known a fair few to be far from polite about it when it was pointed out. Xb

~GR

Yes, I've seen a few blow up. "That's an irrelevant detail" or "Can't you look at the big picture?" come to mind..

*laughs, and applauds warmly* Excellent, Hauke, excellent! A story with real maths in, and so well told. I love it!

... particularly as I could see myself not only in Hauke's position (as I've been known to teach maths in my time) but definitely as the lizard... I've pointed out many an error to my tutors in my passage through education. Heh.

Love it. Wonderful stuff! :D

Now, how about a story that involves analytic and algebraic topology of locally Euclidean metrization of an infinitely differentiable Riemannian manifold?...

... this I know from nothing ;)

The only topology I really found interesting was the brief amount that came up in Complex Analysis and the much more pedestrian kind in Graph Theory, when you're talking about the genus of a graph...Algebraic Topology never really struck a chord for me.

And I'm glad you liked it!

'which is...bukbukbuk..' I burst out laughing at that part and chuckled my way to the end. Very nice little random character trait there.

Quite charming story. I know too well the lecturers who make a lot of mistakes. It's a real hell sometimes to actually make some sence out of some examples. Referring to the comment I made above, the original starter of that thread couldn't have read the story, because the fact that

91/21 = 13/3

is actually a motive in the story. Some people just have the nerve! Where the world is coming to! But, to the story. Again I am very amused, as the school world you paint in your stories is a one I can relate to. Very well written, enjoyable, interesting and humoristic tale, one experience more to that basilisk of yours. Not bad, not bad at all. Great little tale, I enjoyed reading this.

I was amazed, as you were, that the very first comment about the story somehow missed the whole point...so I believe you're right, he didn't read it.

Maybe he thought I was a student, asking for help on homework?

i do manage to follow the maths . . . sort of like i understand latin languages. The cognates are close but i can't nail down the verb tenses. Still manage to follow the gist anyway, when it is paced as well as this.

and i have never been a teacher particularly, but I do resonate with the "asked to do one more thing i can do in my sleep . . and probably will." *grin*

Yet again, I find myself contemplating pursuing a math degree at some point. It's been far too long, English has made me soft, and when it comes right down to it... I just love me some maths!

I like how the narrator casually uses the phrases "it was a slap in beak" and "yank on the tail" as if they were natural expressions that he used daily. That shows you know your world. Nice short.

Wow, you dug deep into the archives to get to this particular story.

I'm glad you appreciated it!