Friday, May 19, 2006

number theory



its a short double bill... this is ty the mathematician in action. do i feel regretful not majoring in maths? actually to be honest, no. maths is not really scientific, and its the only part of science which i do well in. most of the time, i am more social science. but here's a mathematical formula which i thought of on my way home from work. ironic, if you ask me. i work in a civil service, in the social work lines. minimal math involved, yet the thing i came up with is math, a subject which i haven't touch for a long time.
here's the formula:

(2^0, 2^1, 2^2...., 2^(n-2), 2^(n-1)) is able to permuate all integers (2^n) - 1 without overlapping. the prove of it is by induction.

consider the case for n=0.
2^0 is able to permuate 1 without overlap

assume that k is true, for some k which is an integer number:
(2^0, 2^1, 2^2...., 2^(k-2), 2^(k-1)) permuates all natural number up to (2^k) -1

so now consider k+1,
(2^0, 2^1, 2^2...., 2^(k-2), 2^(k-1)) permuates all natural number up to (2^k) -1
all combination is k is accounted for. the only way to permutate for k+1 is to add 2^k to all the terms, starting from 0. hence we have the following:

(2^0, 2^1, 2^2...., 2^(k-2), 2^(k-1), 2^k) permuates all natural number up to (2^k) -1+ 2^k= 2^(k+1) -1

therefore if K is true, K+1 is also true. and 0 is true, therefore the proof is true by induction.

ok, to put it across in a less technical way.
imagine the following number sequence:
1=1 2=2 3= 2+1 4= 4 5=4+1 6= 4+2 7= 4+2+1 8=8
9=8+1 10=8+2 11=8+2+1 12=8+4 13=8+4+1 14= 8+4+2 15= 8+4+2+1

each time a power of 2 is reach, start afresh and work backworks. the reason why i thought of this is because i need to come up with a system to allow people of choose in a "binary" manner and yet produced unique combination at the end of it. what better way to use than to revert back to number. so i was wondering how i can use numbers to permutate different outcome such that at one look at each number, i know what is the answer for each question. for example, if i give question 1 1 for a yes, 0 for a no. question 2, 2 for a yes, 0 for no. question 3, 4 for yes and 0 for no. question 4 8 for a yes and 0 for a no. if my final sum is 13, i will know that the answer for question 1,3,4 are yes and 2 is a no.

somehow, the whole explanation seem to lack articulation. haha, after so many years, i realise the academic blood still runs in me. the strong passion to do research, to learn still flows in me. i have always maintain the fact that ri guys are pretty much geeks and i realise i am one of them, who is unable to break away. like it or not, i like to think of something new to write about, i mean just how many people have a blog like mine?


posted @ 9:41 PM ||





Today...



This is the final chapter of the short story. For some reason, whilst i was reading through it, i felt it did not convey the impact, the hardship, the emotion that i have been through in the process to achieve my school team place. nonetheless, i will try to end it off on a high note

2006 vs 1996, a decade has past since ty gets to compete at top level again. ty have survived past 10 years without a coach. with no coach, with an unconventional gameplay, and definitely all alone in his quest, anyone would have written him off. but 3 years under the tutelage of foo soon peng and tan paey fern, what ty has learnt was not just the basic skills of playing the game. but he has been to exposed to the tactical aspect, and the technical aspect of it. though it was a preliminary exposure, ty learnt fast and quick during those time, which laid the basis for further improvement and improvision in their absence.

table tennis is a sport where skills is less than half the story, a proper bat is needed, and few players even at top level have the technical knowledge of rubbers, sponge, wood combination to have a bat which suit their style of play and their potential. few player know how to change their strategy during gameplay to improve their chance against their opponent. few know that each player have different potential in different style of play and its only through exploration that the player knows what suits him/her and not whatever that was recommended or taught.

10 years on, ty has changed his style. from the intially all out defense. ty has now played a slightly more offensive game. he is adept in defense, offense and positional offense ( a style of play which he deviced on his own). though not as agile as before and hence, less defensive, army has trained up his strength for offense. positional offense has been made easy with his choice of rubber. the anti-spin, a dreaded rubber for control. many people thought that rubber can only be used to seize position advantage but cannot finish off the game. however, ty has cleverly abused the rubber, modified the conventional stroke to add the offensive touch to the seemingly impossible anti spin. a 5-ply wood is chosen for its lightweight. this allow for greater mobility of the wrist to force a slight spin and to "flip" the ball with the modified stroke. recently, an additional rubber is added on the reverse. a move which even the shop keeper cannot believe. the outcome, an unprecedented amphibious bat with 2 contrastly playing style for each side. however, ty intends to use the reverse to start a game play. the whole trick lies in the transitioning between the 2 surface. its a unique gameplan. as ty looks ahead, he is confident, confident that he can pull it off. the most important aspect of his game is now back... confidence.


posted @ 9:04 PM ||



Tuesday, May 16, 2006

the fall.... and the come back



oops... its been a long long time since i have last blog. haha... lazy? busy? actually much has happen, but the bottomline is still the same. i do have that bit of academic blood in me and i enjoy writing "weirdo" stuff, even though my language is lousy. will try to compete it briefly.

ever since ty turned down the offer for the national youth team, it has been a downhill ride for him. his style of play is simply against mainstream and other than his first coach foo soo peng and tan paey fern, few could accept such of plays, even at amateur school levels. when he moved on to secondary school, he found it hard to adept. already, the mainsteam play of offense has already takes its toll on ty. as he progress, his opponent got more accurate and can easily out paced his reflexes. relying of the masterstroke of quick defense return and unforced error just do not seem a good tactic and gameplay to get into good books of his new coach. the new coach them embarked on a transformation training for ty, to change his style completely. the year 1997 onwards thus begin a series of offensive gameplay for ty which didn't go down well. gameplay wise, he was making a mess of it. he was handed a new TSP bat, with extra high elasticity sponge and sticky rubber for high speed and spin play. obviously for a person who played with minimal spin and slow control game, the adaptation was horribly hard. skill wise, the coach rated him poorly. though he is still able to compete in a match against his peer, after all, he has vast game experience, he was never rated highly. when a new batch of juniors from the same national youth team which he snubbed 2 years back came in 1998, the coach disposed ty off at first opportunity.

from 1998 to 2002. ty played in "lower" division table tennis competition like inter house. despite good showings, the coach is never around to see. the defensive plays continues, but the amount of time spent on training has decrease to a minimal. he tried again in vain to play at top level in jc but he didn't even make it past the trials. largely disappointed, ty did have thoughts to hung his bat up and stopped playing the game altogether. after all, he sees no future in it anymore. at this point of time, it just seem that it is all over. with so many other opportunities arising from other aspect of ty's life. this chapter is all but over.

ty entered army in end 2002, the rite of path of all sg guys... the dry spell continue in first year and all the way until 2004 when he realise that his pal, daniel too played table tennis and in their younger days and hence, they begin to play it during leisurely in camp to past time. given the compeitive nature of both player. ty soon find himself improving bit by bit in his gameplay. using the same bat he had since 1996. this time with bigger mass, and hence slower agility, but as a result of army, he has become stronger and therefore more brute. therefore, to suit his physical stature, he tweaked his old style. due to the long break, he has shook off the training that his sec school coach gave and started relatively anew. the new ty now as a tweaked offensive touch to seize and upper hand to the old control game. the versatility has improved, even though defensively, he isn't as good as before. but he has successfully brought out another aspect of game play.

in 2006, ty attended the trial of his varisty level competition together with his peers, he didn't harbour any hope of qualification. to the table tennis arena, he is now perceived as an outsider. though ty hasn't been in the scene for a long time. he still bear a unique style of play against the conventional high spin, high speed offensive. ty now plays low spin, control and a slight touch of offensive play, a more practical approach to his younger days. the most ironic thing is during qualification, he was drawn against his jc school team player, JJ. a player who was rated highly way back in 2001-2002 and has quite high rating against ty even in 2006 and ty run to a surprise upset. which put him right on course for a comeback which eventually happened. hence after a 9 years absence from the school scene, ty has come back.

it wasn't an easy first competition, no one knows who ty was. he is probably one of the few players who had never been seen before for the past few years. first match: vs Republic Poly. Ty plays in double. a normal opening, but it could go either way. ty's partner is also an ex schoolmate in jc. the match turn out to be a 5 set thriller. which ty won carve out a narrow win. with that, ty clench his fist and raise it into the air. his team mates cheered from the sideline. the critics was impressed and silenced. to ty... the clenched fist is sweet. its an action that he has never been able to do for the past 9 years. the taste of victory is sweet. but the ardous journey of the slide to the comeback is sweeter. ty is back. after so many years.


posted @ 12:01 PM ||



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name: Tianyu

Passion: Maths, Music, Table Tennis
sex: M
philosophy: many people knows different part of me, but one thing in common is i will not allow myself to fall
*Elandriel*

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