03/02/2012 : Main Highlights

  • - Punxsutawney Phil, the famous groundhog, saw his shadow yesterday, predicting another six weeks of winter. However, almost all other groundhogs in other states did not see their shadows. I hope no one is reliving yesterday...
  • - A big freeze in the Ukraine has already caused over 100 deaths, and hospitals are swamped with cases of hypothermia and frostbite. Schools and the like have closed down while people try to keep warm in the their homes, where most of them are at 0 degrees celsius inside.
  • - The artist, David Choe, who painted the interior walls of the first Facebook office in Silicon Valley was paid in shares, rather than cash, and now, he has become the highest paid painter for any work, with his shares bringing him $200m.
  • -  The cause of the crash of the Costa Concordia liner was named to be Domnica Cemortan, 24, from Moldova, a dancer, who proved to be a distraction to the now disgraced Captain Schettino. She also revealed, after an interrogation with prosecutors, that she was with the captain on the bridge at the time of impact on the rocks, and that the two were in love. The dancer's belongings were found by divers in the captain's quarters, although Schettino himself is married and has a daughter. The collision caused 32 deaths.

Groundhog Day
Freezing
Painter
Cruise liner

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Conditionals in Javascript

Using Codecademy, I learned if/else statements, nested if/else statements, switch statements, and ternary operators in Javascript!

If/Else Statements:


var topThree = "true";
var winner = "true";
var result;

if (topThree === "false") {
   result = "Sorry, empty handed";
}
else {
   if (winner === "true") {
      result = "Gold!!!";
   } else {
      result = "Not bad! Got a medal!";
   }
}

==> Gold!!!

Switch Statements:


var jacketColor = "green";
var result;

switch (jacketColor) {

  case "black":
    result = "Pay $300";
    break;

  case "brown":
    result = "Pay $200";
    break;

  case "green":
    result = "Pay $5";
    break;

  default:
    result = "This color does not match my eyes!";

}

==> Pay $5

Ternary Operators:


var x = 5;
var y = 4;

result = x > y ? "good job" : 20;

==> good job
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Napoléon Bonaparte

Napoléon Bonaparte

Napoléon Bonaparte was a general most famously known for his status as emperor after the French Revolution. He was born on Corsica, south of France, and went to military school as a child. He eventually progressed to general, but refused to do certain tasks and to move to certain places, leaving him in a very poor financial state. But when Napoléon successfully stopped a renegade group of Royalists advancing through the streets of Paris in 1795, he became rather well known and was elevated to commander. It was also directly after this battle that he met Rose de Beauharnais, better known as Joséphine. Following his success in Paris, he was given charge of the army in Italy, as a result of the war between France and Austria. Napoléon won with the Italian campiagn and also managed to get Austria to sign a treaty, at which point, when he came back to Paris, he was hailed as a hero.
Napoléon wanted more, so he set out to Egypt, and after initial success, he and his big army were defeated by the English Navy at the Nile, as well as by a pandemic that spread throughout the soldiers. He received news of Paris, which was in trouble politically speaking, and decided to surrender Egypt.
When he returned, he was talked into overthrowing the government to instigate a new one by Abbot Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès, who wanted the return of Jacobinism (radical left-wing). Little did he know that Napoléon then decided to make a coup-d'état in a coup-d'état. He successfully pulled it off, and broke apart the Directory, putting in its place the Consulate, electing himself as First Consul in the process.
Napoléon stayed First Consul for almost four years, during which he fought some more with the Austrians, and signed treaties with them once again, revised the educational system, was proclaimed as First Consul for life, and established the Legion of Honour. In 1804, he was named Emperor of France, and some months later, crowned himself in the presence of the pope.
He immediately started to fight all over in Europe, mainly against the Austrians and their allies, effectively breaking their alliance. These countries included Russia, Austria and Portugal, as well as several other small countries. The end strike to the allied countries was given in Austerlitz, Austrian Empire (modern day Czech Republic).

Joséphine de Beauharnais

After so many victories, Napoléon needed to control his newfound Empire, and thus named members of his immediate family as rulers of various places. Prussia and Russia united to take on Napoléon, but he also beat the two, having Russia sign a treaty.
But Spain, already conquered, also decided to stand up to France. The British joined the Spanish, and together they managed to wore out Napoléon's army. Although he often won small battles, supplies and men were starting to get low.
Russia became lax with the treaty rules, and so Napoléon decided to invade them. This was a very long battle that ultimately ended in Moscow. Moscow had been abandonned by the Russians, but during the night, while the French occupiers were sleeping, the city was burned down. Napoléon then surrendered Russia to attend to matters in France.
Encouraged by the defeat, Prussia joined with Austria, Sweden, Russia, Great Britain, Spain, and Portugal. There were many battles all over Europe, but it all ended when France was forced to surrender after a battle in Paris, and Napoléon had to abdicate his power.
Louis XVI's brother, Louis XVIII, resumed the monarchy, and Napoléon was sent to Elba, an island off the Tuscan coast, along with his family, and was paid a pension. But he didn't like losing his power, so he escaped from Elba and walked all the way to Paris, picking up soldiers and peasants along the way who wanted the return of their beloved Napoléon, for yes, Napoléon was mostly able to gain so much power because the public absolutely loved him. He arrived in Paris and enjoyed one hundred days of his power back, until he was defeated by the British in Waterloo. He abdicated his power again and hoped to be left alone in Paris, but fearing that he would pull another similar stunt, he was exiled in 1815 to Saint Helena, an island in the Atlantic ocean 1,870 km from the west coast of Africa. He never again tried to gain power, and died on Saint Helena in 1821. After numerous theories of arsenic poisoning, it was ruled that he died of stomach cancer. Supposedly, his last words were "France, armée, tête d'armée, Joséphine" (France, army, head of the army, Joséphine).
He married Joséphine in 1796, while he was 26 and she was a 32 year old widow. Both of them had affairs, but while Napoléon's mistresses produced heirs, Joséphine never did. Napoléon ultimately decided to divorce for that reason and married Marie Antoinette's niece, Marie Louise who gave him a son, who died in 1832. Marie Louise did not join Napoléon in exile.

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Exercices de Racines Carrés et de Fractions

1) Calcule le produit de xy sachant que:

x = \frac{\sqrt{3} - 1}{\sqrt{3} - \sqrt{2}}

et

y = \sqrt{\frac{3}{2}}

1)

xy = \frac{\sqrt{3} - 1}{\sqrt{3} - \sqrt{2}} \times \sqrt{\frac{3}{2}}

(\frac{\sqrt{3} - 1}{\sqrt{3} - \sqrt{2}}) \times \sqrt{\frac{3}{2}}

\frac{(\sqrt{3} - 1) \times \sqrt{3}}{(\sqrt{3} - \sqrt{2}) \times \sqrt{2}}

\frac{(\sqrt{3})^2 - \sqrt{3}}{\sqrt{3} \times \sqrt{2} - (\sqrt{2})^2}

\frac{3 - \sqrt{3}}{\sqrt{6} - 2}

2) Simplifie l'expression:

\frac{1}{n - 1} - \frac{1}{n}

2)

\frac{1}{n - 1} - \frac{1}{n}

\frac{1 \times n}{(n - 1) n} - \frac{1 (n - 1)}{n (n - 1)}

\frac{1 \times n - (1 (n - 1))}{(n - 1) \times n}

\frac{n - (n - 1)}{n(n - 1)}

\frac{n - n + 1}{n(n - 1)}

\frac{1}{n(n - 1)}

3) Écris sans radical au dénominateur le nombre:

\frac{\sqrt{3} - 1}{\sqrt{3} - \sqrt{2}}

3)

\frac{\sqrt{3} - 1}{\sqrt{3} - \sqrt{2}}

\frac{(\sqrt{3} - 1)(\sqrt{3} + \sqrt{2})}{(\sqrt{3} - \sqrt{2})(\sqrt{3} + \sqrt{2})}

\frac{(\sqrt{3})^2 + \sqrt{3} \times \sqrt{2} - \sqrt{3} - \sqrt{2}}{(\sqrt{3})^2 + \sqrt{6} - \sqrt{6} - (\sqrt{2})^2}

\frac{3 + \sqrt{6} - \sqrt{3} - \sqrt{2}}{3 - 2}

3 + \sqrt{6} - \sqrt{3} - \sqrt{2}

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Forbrydelsen Review

Forbrydelsen, better known as The Killing to westerners, is an awesome series comprising of 20 linked episodes. There is a second season, but that is another story hence another review. This Danish show starring Sofie Gråbøl and Søren Malling as Sarah Lund and Jan Meyer respectively, is one of the best shows I have ever seen. The concept is so simple it's genius. The Danish police find bloodstained clothing in the middle of nowhere, which soon leds them to the body of Nanna Birk Larsen. As the investigation unfolds, the consequences for everyone involved, police, family, friends, teachers, and suspects, are great and life changing.

The question on everyone's mind, characters and watchers alike, is who killed Nanna Birk Larsen? The first truly great thing about The Killing is the fact that all twenty episodes are one investigation. At first, this may seem daunting and very long, and prone to unreasonable prolongations, but it is quite the opposite. It allows us see the real gritty bits in an investigation, such as the wait for DNA results, and the false leads, and the interrogations and the long hours. But there is also the more emotional details, such as the strain on Nanna's parents after her murder, and the looming truth that their daughter is gone and that they'll have to clear out her stuff. They are also faced with money problems, and have a hard time keeping up with all the money requirements for the funeral.
In this show, you meet new characters related to the story, if only vaguely, in every episode, and every single one of them, even the two cops on the case, pass through the 'viewer judgement'. That's just a fancy phrase I invented to say that everybody did it. Everyone is the murderer until a new person comes along.
The horrible thing about this series is that it is so exact on details, the plots all fit in properly, that once you are finished and are finally free of the weight of the question to all, and you go back to things such as CSI, or other police series... they just suck. They are over so fast, so many questions still remain, the motive is typical, the evidence is sketchy, I mean, only one fingerprint that happened to be the killers? While in The Killing, we see the police take Nanna Birk Larsen's brothers' fingerprints to exclude them from the hundreds they find in the family's home.
I was also disappointed to hear that a Hollywood version was being made. Why can't the Americans concede to the fact that other parts of the world can make great movies too? I could name so many remakes of foreign films, but I won't. Instead, I'll tell you, no, order you to watch Forbrydelsen, and that way you too will be tortured by the ultimate question as well as blessed to have seen such an awesome show.

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The Hobbit Review

I very much enjoy the Lord of Rings movies, so much that their great lengths don't scare me or impede my watching them. And when I learned the Hobbit was being made, I decided to take it to the next level. Read the books. I started with what I deemed to be a sensical and chronological order. I have just finished reading the Hobbit and have started the Lord of the Rings Volume 1: The Fellowship of the Ring. But this is the review for the Hobbit, so let's move on.

Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit who greatly enjoys his quiet peaceful life in the Shire, until he gets trained in with thirteen dwarves and a wizard to fetch the dwarves' long lost treasure guarded by a powerful dragon in the dangerous Wild.

I loved this book, in practically all aspects. The details, the era, it is an entirely different world that J.R.R. Tolkien created. There are orcs, goblins, elves, wood elves, dwarves, men, dragons, wizards, hobbits, and of course, whatever Gollum is. But those aren't really talked about, their history and culture and such, in the Hobbit, that is seen more in Lord of the Rings. In the Hobbit, there is actually a lack of descriptions that leaves a lot to the imagination. For example, the thirteen dwarves have no comparative descriptive features. We only know them by name and most are always grouped together, with the exception of Thorin, Balin and Bombur. The few descriptions we have are of the colour of their cloaks and the general appearance of a dwarf. We can only differentiate Bombur by his fatness. The same goes for orcs and elves, only general appearances are given. The only creature that is sufficiently described is probably Gollum.
The same goes for the countrysides. Although they are considerably more detailed than characters, I often found that the map included on the inside cover of the book to be very useful. The other thing that is disappointing in a way, is that once Gandalf leaves the company to attend to his own business, we know practically nothing about what he does, or what the other characters do when not with Bilbo. Judging from the trailer, I know that this will be different in the movie. One interesting thing to note is that although the book is not in first person, but told by a narrator, everytime Bilbo passes out or is on his own, we follow him, and know nothing of the other characters' doings. We are even told Bilbo's feelings while the other characters' secrets remain mysteries.
All the same, The Hobbit is a great read. And from what I've read so far of the entire saga, I can see that the movies aren't interpretations of the books, like so many others, for example, Harry Potter or even Twilight. The Lord of the Rings movies, and soon the Hobbit movies, complement the books, and quite literally put them on film. They almost complete each other. Take for example the songs. Tolkien wrote many songs in the Hobbit, and wrote the lyrics characters sing at various point in time, and a movie with a soundtrack would complete the musical aspect.
All in all, I <3 the LOTR and the Hobbit, and long live Middle Earth! What are you waiting for? Go and enrich your imagination!

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The French Revolution told Simply

King Louis XVI

The French revolution may seem daunting and complicated, but in reality, it is quite simple, you need only look at it in the right way. Let us start from the very beginning:
Marie Antoinette was an Austrian princess, and she was set-up in an arranged marriage with the French King's grandson, Louis, in order to ensure the peace between both empires. Louis was a shy young man when he married, easily influenced and with not much wit. He couldn't make up his mind, had no particular opinions, and kept a daily diary in which he wrote what he caught when out hunting. Many said at the time and they still do now, that he was not king material, what with his gentle nature and modest tinkering and manual work abilities. What he loved doing the most was hunting, followed by locksmithing, and let's not forget his huge appetite.
One her side, Marie Antoinette was an energetic teenager, still seeing life in pink. She was frivolous and didn't much care for important matters such as state problems or running a kingdom. She enjoyed theatre, playing, walking about in the gardens, and starting fashions. She had opinions, but mainly about fun things.

Marie Antoinette

When these two people married, there was a mixed reaction. The French people didn't like the idea, as they still had bitter feelings about Austria, which had dragged them into a war because of their alliance. Others were rejoicing at the idea, at the fortification of the French-Austrian alliance. Louis and Marie Antoinette weren't happy however. Louis' shy nature led him to mostly ignore his wife, and spend his time hunting. Marie Antoinette sought refuge in luxuries and plays. It is reported that only after seven years of marriage did they consumate it. The long period without an heir made the people dislike Marie Antoinette a little bit more, thinking of her as barren, when in reality, it was Louis' indecision.

Chateau part of Petit Trianon

The revolution stems from hatred and people having had enough. They encased many things, which filled up the bucket little by little, until finally it overspilled. The biggest event responsible was the financial crisis. When Louis became King, France was already in deficit after the Seven Years War, and taxes were brought up to make up for the loss of money. But I'm sure you know, the taxes were brought up for the poor, the peasants etc. For the nobles and the clergy, their taxes were reduced and almost null. The people of France were eventually so poor from all the money going to the King that they couldn't afford bread anymore. One thing to note about the French, they love their bread, and can't live, or eat, without it. Many finance ministers came and went, and most notable among them, Jacques Necker. Necker, realising the severity of the situation, proposed a new tax plan that took more money from the nobles and clergy and less from the poor, as well as reducing the power of the Parlements, a kind of legislature. He was fired. The next minister proposed only the taxes part of the plan, and was also fired. It's no surprise that France went into more of a depression, since the poor no longer had any money to give to taxes. This was the biggest trigger for the revolution, but there were other smaller matters, such as the Queen's Petit Trianon, her own personal chateau equipped with a make-believe farm featuring real farmers in action. This chateau caused anger for two reasons. The poor farmers believed it an insult that the Queen amused herself seeing the farmers working about, and sometimes participating in milking or other such things. The second reason goes back to money. Trianon, originally for Louis XV's (Louis XVI's grandfather) main mistress, Madame de Pompadour, was renovated and remade with the money of the state, making the deficit even worse. Not to be excluded from the list is the notorious affair of the necklace, resulting in Marie Antoinette having the reputation of a money-spending slut, responsible for everything that was wrong. Indeed, although it was a case of wrong-place wrong-time, Marie Antoinette was blamed for all the troubles, and was non-affectionately referred to as "L'Autrichienne" (The Austrian, feminin form).

Estates General Meeting

But enough about why, let's move on to the how. As a last solution to the money crisis, the King reinstated Les États-Généraux (Estates-General) in May 1789. Constituting of a general assembly representing the three types of people, noble, clergy and the common folk, Les États-Généraux were left to come up with and decide on an idea for the depression. Once the people, that is, the Tiers État (Third Estate) gained a little power, they realised how powerless they still were against the monarchy ruled by the rich, the clergy, and royalty. They started meeting internally to discuss things without the full États-Généraux, going with the name of Les Communes (the Commons), until finally breaking away from the États-Généraux to become L'Assemblé Nationale (National Assembly). They mainly broke away because of the voting system that would be used in the États-Généraux. Originally, each member of the estate would get one vote each, and there were twice as many people in the Third Estate (renamed to National Assembly) than in the First Estate (clergy) or the Second (noble). But the policy was changed last minute and the votes became one per estate, meaning a vote out of three. The National Assembly did not like that.

Taking the Bastille

Jacques Necker urged the King to hold a Séance Royale (Royal Session), which the King planned on doing, but people in his council told him not to try to unify the Estates, but to rather oppose unity on them. The King decreed that they could not meet on their own, and as is to be expected, the National Assembly did not like that either. They completely broke off to become the National Constituent Assembly. They continued meeting and made it their duty to completely rewrite the constitution, but feared that the King was planning on forcibly removing them using the foreign soldiers that were arriving into the country. They decided to act before Royalty and set their eyes on the Bastille (prison) which contained big amounts of gunpowder. By this time, the revolution was set in motion, and there was chaos and looting everywhere. The National Constituent Assembly as well as many commoners stormed the Bastille on the 14th of July 1789, now become the national holiday of France. After storming the Bastille and killing many people in it, although there were only nine prisoners, the mob went around town parading various heads of important people on sticks. The mob was aided by most of the French Guard, which was on their side. The King was alarmed at the violence, and backed down on the Assembly.
A great fear had spread throughout France after the Bastille. The nobles were afraid of the peasants and thus fled to other countries, and the peasants were afraid the nobles were trying to bring war to France by summoning foreigners. A little more than a month after the storming of the Bastille, the National Constituent Assembly created the Déclaration des Droits de l'Homme et du Citoyen (Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen) and abolished feudalism. The King's absolute power was also reduced to simply saying yes or no to ideas voted by the Assembly, called the veto.
During all that time when the people of France gained more power than the King, the debt had only worsened, which brought on the march of the women on Versailles. They first marched to the Hôtel de Ville, the Assembly's HQ, but when their cries for bread and an end to royalty powers were ignored, they marched to Versailles, where they demanded the royal family to move to Paris to a less luxurious lifestyle in accordance to the deficit and shortage of bread. They had brought with them several guns and weapons, and as they pushed through, many guards were killed. Eventually, the King agreed to move, finally and completely making the Assembly legal.
Later, there was a problem with the church, and the pope. When everyone became citizens and equals (not yet done chronologically), the clergy were also starting to be voted on, denying the authority of the pope. This caused even more riots with the ones obsessed with religion. They began calling themselves Royalists because they wanted the King and monarchy back, and with it, their church. These people, mostly from Brittany, became known as the Chouans, and started a war from within France.
Besides all these hiccups, the constitution was slowly being rewritten from scratch, and everything was almost going smoothly, with various new laws and codes that seemed in the favour of a citizen. Even the freedom of the press was granted. But everything metaphorically crashed when the King tried to runaway, not liking where the revolution was going. He was captured thirty kilometers away from his home in Paris, along with his wife and children, after which his home, which had already been like a prison, was actually turned into one. The family was placed under constant surveillance and they weren't even allowed to stay long in their garden.

Maximilien Robespierre

The Assembly still preferred to have a constitutional monarchy rather than a republic, so the King was kept for an image, but soon he posed a threat. In the eyes of the people, he was dangerous and could call on his wife's family to wreak war on France. George Danton and Camille Desmoulins gave big and impressive speeches, rousing up the public in the favour of a republic. The Assembly, still wanting a sort of monarchy, ordered their municipal police to control the crowds, resulting in deaths and the end of free speech. Danton fled to England while Desmoulins went into hiding. In addition to everything happening, Austria also warned France to stop its sillyness and reinstate the King or else.
Although the Assembly had tried to run the country, everything fell apart and broke up, leaving the treasury even emptier than before, not to mention the completely messed up army and navy.
In 1792, the Paris Commune, self appointed new government, attacked the King's home in Paris and took him prisoner, while also sending gangs into prisons all over to kill the prisoners in their cells, now known as the September Massacres. The Assembly had become so feeble that they were practically pushed away, and once the Paris Commune became the official new government, they started by decreeing a republic. Once done, Austria was evidently angered, but France declared war on them before they could, and so began a war on multiple fronts. An inner war with the Chouans, a political war with the monarchists and royalists, and war with almost of all Europe who didn't want the revolution disease to pass around to their own kingdoms.
Maximilien Robespierre delivered a speech that would define the fate of the King's trial, stating that if the King, now completely useless, was allowed to continue to live, he would be a constant threat to the Republic. On the 15th of January 1793, Louis was voted guilty of conspiracy and attacks on public safety, and was guillotined on the 21st of January.

The Guillotine

Now things were really in the gutter. The war on both fronts wasn't being won, the deficit was still getting worse, and anybody simply suspected of treason, whatever that meant, was guillotined almost immediately by the Committee of Public Safety. This period is known as La Grande Terreur (the reign of terror). Robespierre, the one so fervent for the death of the King, became an important leader of said committee, and was mostly responsible for sending people to the guillotine. The Queen was also subject to the guillotine, but not before her children were taken away to be 're-educated'. Even Danton and Desmoulins (and his wife) were subjected to the guillotine, although they had previously been best friends with Robespierre, who allowed their execution. Eventually though, in the need to create a perfect republic, the republic soon started turning into a dictature by the hands of Robespierre and his committee. Anyone opposed to them, and therefore to the republic, was executed, almost without trial. The entire Convention, comprising of the entire government, retaliated and in turn guillotined Maximilien Robespierre along with many others who were turning the republic into a dictature. With the end of Robespierre came the end of the reign of terror, but not the end of the problems. The country still had no money, and was still in a war and remained so for a year, until along came Napoleon and his ambitions and army, but that is for another post.
But it is sad when you think about it; in the beginning, all the commoners wanted was some bread...

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Spaceballs Review

Spaceballs, in one word, can be described as goofy. It is one of those movies ranking alongside Top Secret! and Airplane!. Spaceballs makes fun of various movies and cultures, but the main identifiable one is Star Wars. However, other references to movies such as Runaway Bride, Star Trek, Alien, Planet of the Apes (1968), and more subtly, Indiana Jones, The Wizard of Oz, as well as various cars, fastfood companies can be seen throughout the movie. It has countless plays on words, tries to sell you its own merchandise during the movie, and is plain funny. It follows a similar plotline to Star Wars, where Princess Vespa is captured by the notorious Spaceballs, who have used up all the air on their planet. The Spaceballs kidnap the princess in an attempt to blackmail her father, the King, into giving the passcode to the air shield protecting the air. The princess is rescued, however, by mercenary Lone Starr, hired by the King for 1 million spacebucks. As they runaway, the Spaceballs relentless follow them in hopes of taking hostage the princess for the sake of air.

Spaceballs is one of the funniest movies I've seen to date, which is a lot of movies. Not only are the parodies are funny, but the original humor in it is also funny. Although I just said that it was humorous with only the original content, it does help to really know Star Wars, and to have seen many other movies, as the humour multiplies twofold. But enough about that, now about the plot and characters. Well, what do you what me to say? The plot was funny and the characters were well acted and hilarious. I fear there are no other words for this movie; even the romance in it was funny. So there you have it, Spaceballs is funny, humorous, hilarious, amusing, comical, slapstick, witty, diverting, or if you prefer the one word version: priceless.

I recommend it to anyone, although general culture is preferred for maximal enjoyment.
Below is one of my favorite scenes from Spaceballs, along with "jamming the radar".

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Trouver le Plus Grand Commun Diviseur

Il y a deux façons de trouver le PGCD, avec un tableur ou sur papier.

a et b désignent des entiers naturels tels que : a ≥ b.
On a: PGCD (a ; b) = PGCD (b ; c) où c est le reste de la division euclidienne de a par b. Il suffit d’appliquer successivement la propriété:
PGCD (a ; b) = PGCD (b ; (a − b)) jusqu’à ce que l’on ne puisse plus "enlever b".
Le PGCD de 7856 et de 468 est 4.

Sur papier, il suffit de diviser les deux nombres par le plus petit chiffre possible, commençant par 2, suivit de 3, 5, 7 etc. Il ne faut pas avoir de virgules!
Lorsque les divisions sont finies, on multiplie les diviseurs en commun pour trouver le PGCD.

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09/01/2012 : Main Highlights

  • - The New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has decided to learn coding this year with the Code Year initiative and Codecademy. He announced his New Year resolution on Twitter. Within six months of Codecademy opening, six million weekly lessons were completed.
  • - A jawfish, described as a shy fish found close to the sandy sea floor, has been found to mimick a mimic octopus. The mimic octopus is a master of disguise and impersonation, known to copy the movements and colours of lionfish and sea snakes. The jawfish, as seen in the picture in the link below, disguised itself as one of the octopus' tentacles, and tagged along with it while foraging for food. This is the first time any such behaviour has been documented.
  • - Yet another oil spill happened off the coast of New Zealand, when a storm split a Greek boat in two. The boat leaked oil, and so far, thousands of birds and sea creatures were killed, top-notch beaches destroyed, and thousands of containers the ship was carrying, including milk powder, deer hides, meat, timber and plastics, were lost. The disaster is New Zealand's worst maritime environmental disaster to date.
  • - A tourist in Zimbabwe somehow survived bungee jumping when the cord snapped. Erin Langworthy, 22, later described how she had to swim and untie the cord still attached to her feet. She also survived the crocodile infested waters of the Zambezi River, the river over which she was jumping.

Code Year
Jawfish
Oil Spill
Bungee Jump

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