Maths & statistics exercises / French and English lessons

[humbert]

There is nothing difficult about Spanish. You read and write it exactly the same way you pronounce it. Vowels have only one sound - their own name - in every and all situations. Grammar rules aren't too complicated. It's almost like Esperanto. By comparison English and French are nightmares. In French you have many [for example] 8 letter words, and 5 of them are silent. But at least in French, just like in Spanish, you have accented vowels and extended characters to help. There's nothing like this in English. You have words such as "appropriate" which, if pronounced "a-pro-pri-āt" means one thing, but pronounce it "ap-pro-pri-it" and it's another definition entirely. There is NO accent or extended character to tell you which is which. And as in French, you have plenty of silent letters.

[scarface]

Tonight I'm going to give you a French lesson, and we have seen that the last time I taught a course, iih was very happy to attend the class. Maybe teachers are scarce in his country and internet is a good way to learn some things. At least, personally I learnt many things thanks to my computer. I wasn’t bilingual 10 years ago, but reading some newspapers and watching some movies in English have been really helpful. I stay lucid, it won't be enough to read the newspaper le Monde, but you may learn a few things. What's more, the French language is only spoken in France,Switzerland,Canada,North Africa, and less and less in Vietnam. So it is unlikely that Vasudev or iih will have to speak French in a discussion one day.


Maybe those with gaps in English are going to learn a few words, even though we are going to see some common words. Tonight's lesson will focus on false friends.
A false friend is a word that looks similar but whose meaning is different.
For example, let’s take the word Important: in French it means both significant and important:
une personne important/an important person. une somme important/a significant sum (an important sum would not really make sense).
So on the left I put the French words, and on the right the English translation.

Important             Important/significant
Librairie                Book shop           (bibliothèque=library)
Actuellement         Currently             (en fait=actually)
Éventuellement     Possibly         
Fastidieux             boring        (Méticuleux= fastidious/meticulous)
Habileté                skill (and not ability)
Réaliser                to achieve/to realize  (Achever= to complete)
Hasard                 chance     (Danger = hazard/danger)
Heurter               to hit        (Blesser= to hurt)
Prétendre              to claim   (Faire semblant=to pretend)
Raisonnable           sensible   (sensible=sensitive)
Approvisionner      to supply (supplier=to beg)
Impoli                   rude         (rude=hard/rough)
Nom de famille      surname  (surnom=nickname)
Expression            phrase (phrase=sentence)
Monnaie               change (changer=to alter/to change)
Grandiose               grand   (grand=tall)
Grue                     crane     (crane=skull)
Tissu                     fabric     (fabrique=factory)
Exiger                   to demand (demander=to ask)

[scarface]

Some persons must be getting a bit bored on the forum...I was doing some accounting exercises and suddenly I was thinking “maybe shadow97 or usmangujjar are eager to do these exercises too”.
So, here are a few question about amortization.

Nomaher.com company bought a  new patent for $25,000. Because of government regulation the patent is now worth $35000. The process is only expected to be used for 5 years. The annual amortization expense associated with this patent is
A $2,000
b. $5,000
c. $7,000
d. $10,000

The estimate of the value of an asset at the time of disposal is the
a. acquisition cost.
b. residual value.
c. depreciable cost.
d. cost of living.

Depreciation expense is recorded in order to
a. ensure that the firm has adequate cash to replace the asset.
b. present assets at fair market value.
c. be able to sell the asset easily when the firm does not need it any more.
d. allocate the cost of noncurrent, nonmonetary assets to periods benefited.

You can reply and I'll tell you if your answers are right or wrong...

And here is an exercise about the declining balance method, which is a widely used form of accelerated depreciation.
You have to do an amortization table. Well you’ll find a model below, and if you want to reply you just have to fill it. Note that for the US rule, the last depreciation must take into account the residual value. It’s not the case in the French accounting system where only the linear method is taking into account the residual value.

Cost of asset = $40,000
Estimated residual value = $4,000
Estimated useful life of asset = 5 years
Depreciation rate = (1/useful life) x 2=40%


Year  Cost     Depreciation Rate   Depreciation   Accumulated Depreciation   Book Value
1      40000   40%
2      40000
3      40000
4      40000
5      40000

[scarface]

Today, I'm going to suggest a philosophy test.
Test your knowledge with these 5 philosophy questions. The answers are below.



1 "Beauty is the symbol of good" according to:
- Hume
- Plato
- Kant


2 What idea was John Stuart Mill behind?
- Better to be a dissatisfied man than a dissatisfied pig "
- Stop and think about the meaning of your actions ”
- Man is neither angel nor beast, and misfortune dictates that whoever wants to be an angel plays the beast "


3 According to Hobbes, the three main causes of quarrels are: rivalry, mistrust and…
-Pride
-Jealousy
- Ignorance


4 According to Sartre, "man is condemned to ...":
- Die
- Be free
- Live


5 According to Plato, to know the real it is necessary:
- To isolate yourself in a cave
- To detach from the senses
- To look at the stars


The Thinker by Auguste Rodin, in the museum Rodin, near the Invalides, in Paris.



1 "Beauty is the symbol of good" according to Kant, in the Critique of the faculty of judging. As Lamouche, Rosset and Cerqueira write, “if the beautiful interests us, says Kant, it is because it presents an analogy with the good: just as the concern for the good relegates our interest to the background, the beautiful brings us into a disinterested pleasure distinct from the pleasant ”.


2 For John Stuart Mill “Better to be a dissatisfied man than a dissatisfied pig; it is better to be a satisfied Socrates than a satisfied fool ".


3 According to Hobbes, the three main causes of quarrels are rivalry, mistrust and… pride. "It becomes clear by this that as long as men live without a common power that holds them all at bay, they are in this condition which is called war, and this war is war of each against each" (Leviathan).


4 According to Sartre, "Man is doomed to be free. Sartre writes this in Being and Nothingness. Man, who is absolutely free, "is always in a position of choice, and therefore of responsibility, which plunges him into anxiety and forbids him lightness", explain Lamouche, Rosset and Cerqueira.


5 According to Plato, to know the real one must detach oneself from the senses. "The soul of the true philosopher is kept away from pleasures, passions, sorrows, fears, as far as it is possible" (Phaedo).

[scarface]

I have 2 questions for humbert or whoever can answer it.
First question:
In English we say "It's a story I never heard of".
Likewise, if we use the verb "to belong", we would say "Draw a line from the tracks to the animal you think it belongs to".
In both case, you can't do away with the preposition.
But if we say "It's the place he belongs", is it correct? Because I read this expression somewhere. Note that we can also use the expression "he belongs here", which does not need the preposition "to"

Second question:
"To Belong" is said to be an intransitive verb in English dictionaries. But its equivalent in French, the verb "appartenir" has a similar construction since you need to use the preposition "à". You can check the following example: "Le livre appartient à humbert". Similarly, you can say "Le livre lui appartient" the pronoun "lui" being an indirect object (which refers to humbert in this case). Thus, this verb shouldn't be intransitive: it is a transitive-indirect verb.
In a French dictionary, I had the confirmation that the verb "to look", used with "at" is transitive-indirect since it's using a preposition: for example in the sentence: "Vasudev looks at the tiger".
Note that if you take the sentence "he put off his meeting until the holidays", we have a transitive verb since "off" is not used as a preposition but as an adverbial particle.
Therefore I have the impression that English dictionaries are not making the distinction between Intransitive verbs and transitive-indirect verbs. What do you think about this?

[humbert]

English is a bastard language with no central authority regarding spelling and grammar. Americans have their spellings and grammar, the British and others have theirs. There wasn't even a dictionary until the early 19th century, at least not in America. It first got spread by the British when the sun never set upon their empire, and subsequently by the Americans. As you know, the American empire is not one of military occupation or repression. Although it is cultural and economical, it continues to spread the bastard language just as quickly.

As far as I know France is the only country where French is predominant and universal. The CIA world factbook states that only 22% of Canadians consider it their primary language. Switzerland has 3 other languages. Although French is official in Haiti, only about 10% of the population even speak it. Let's not even mention Africa with respect to other languages in supposedly French speaking countries.

[scarface]

Note that some messages in this topic were restored.
I know that humbert, shadow.97 and Vasudev have been trying to solve some maths problems here, unfortunately I noticed that strange symbols have appeared since the forum was updated to a new layout. Fortunately I had kept a old version of the forum and I updated a few messages.

Before modification:
"Here is an interesting biquadriatic equation,that some of you can eventually solve:
x^4-(e²+1)x²+e²=0"
After modification:
"Here is an interesting biquadriatic equation,that some of you can eventually solve:
x^4-(e²+1)x²+e²=0"

[humbert]

I used to be very good at math as a young man. I passed Calculus I with flying colors. Unfortunately too much time has passed and I'm very rusty. Sadly due to bad circumstances in my life, I was unable to attend college. Oh well, c'est la vie.

With respect to posting subscript and superscript numbers, this a^4 is garbage. a⁴ is much better. For the benefit of those who don't already know, use these shortcuts:

Superscript                       Subscript
0  Alt +2070                      Alt +2080
1  Alt 0185                        Alt +2081
2  Alt 253 or Alt 0178        Alt +2082
3  Alt 0179                        Alt +2083
4  Alt +2074                      Alt +2084
5  Alt +2074                      Alt +2085
6  Alt +2076                      Alt +2086
7  Alt +2077                      Alt +2087
8  Alt +2078                      Alt +2088
9  Alt +2079                      Alt +2089

On those that have a plus sign in front, you must type the plus sign and your registry must include the following setting:

HKCU\Control Panel\Input Method -- create new string (REG_SZ) called EnableHexNumpad set value to 1 and reboot (logging out and logging back in is sufficient). Once the registry key is set, the following method can be used to enter Unicode codepoints:

  • Keep the A key pressed. Press the "+" key on the numeric keypad.
  • With the A key still pressed, type the hexadecimal  using the  number the numeric keypad for digits 0-9 and the normal keys for a-f.

For example, A+11b will produce ě (e with caron).

Hope all this helps.

[Daniil]

"Here is an interesting biquadriatic equation,that some of you can eventually solve:
x^4-(e²+1)x²+e²=0"

Math is a good thing! I never was really good at math - math is always difficult for Russian-speaking peoples (as I understand now, because of horribly inadequate translation of western-genesis math terms to Russian).

My solution may be incorrect, but - for this equation:

• x₁=e;
• x₂=-e;
• x₃=1;
• x₄=-1;

[humbert]

Math is a good thing! I never was really good at math - math is always difficult for Russian-speaking peoples (as I understand now, because of horribly inadequate translation of western-genesis math terms to Russian).

I had no idea. Many people study the sciences in Russia, including Maher who studied engineering at Kazan University. It's hard to believe they haven't found some workaround.

My solution may be incorrect, but - for this equation:

• x₁=e;
• x₂=-e;
• x₃=1;
• x₄=-1;

You lost me here. I'm not clear what you refer to in the subscript numbers. Even so, plug your values into the equation. If you get 0 you're OK.