Difference between revisions of "Pages 53-60"

Revision as of 10:33, 28 September 2011

This page-by-page annotation is organized by sections, as delineated by the seven squares (sprockets) which separate each section. The page numbers for this page-by-page annotation are for the original Viking edition (760 pages). Editions by other publishers vary in pagination — the newer Penguin editions are 776 pages; the Bantam edition is 886 pages.

Contributors: Please use a 760-page edition (either the original Viking edition with the orange cover or the Penguin USA edition with the blue cover and rocket diagram — there are plenty on Ebay for around $10) or search the Google edition for the correct page number. Readers: To calculate the Bantam edition use this formula: Bantam page # x 1.165. Before p.50 it's about a page earlier; as you get later in the book, add a page.

Finally, profound thanks to Prof. Don Larsson for providing the foundation for this page-by-page annotation.

Page 54

54.25 Poisson Distribution/Equation
"In probability theory and statistics, the Poisson distribution is a discrete probability distribution that expresses the probability of a number of events occurring in a fixed period of time if these events occur with a known average rate and independently of the time since the last event. The Poisson distribution can also be used for the number of events in other specified intervals such as distance, area or volume."^[1]

For instance, if on average London received one rocket strike per square kilometer per day, the Poison equation could be used to predict the probability of a random 1 km² area of London receiving 0, 1, 10 or any other number of rocket strikes. Of relevance to the novel, an necessary assumption of the Poison distribution is that events are independent: even if a given square kilometer of London has already received 100 rocket strikes today, it is still just as likely to be hit again as any other square kilometer of London.

This concept recurs on pp. 55, 56, 85, 140, 171, 270.

1. ↑ Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 16:45, November 23, 2009

Page 55

Whittaker and Watson
Whittaker and Watson is the informal name of a book formally titled A Course of Modern Analysis. Read the whole thing if you want!: http://books.google.com/books?id=_hoPAAAAIAAJ

Page 56

Monte Carlo Fallacy
The Gambler's fallacy, also known as the Monte Carlo fallacy (because its most famous example happened in a Monte Carlo Casino in 1913) or the fallacy of the maturity of chances, is the belief that if deviations from expected behaviour are observed in repeated independent trials of some random process, future deviations in the opposite direction are then more likely. [1]

Page 57

...she gives him her Fay Wray look...
Fay Wray played the heroine, Ann Darrow, in the 1933 film King Kong. So the look Jess gives Roger must've been something like this.

Beveridge Proposal
The Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Social Insurance and Allied Services, known commonly as the Beveridge Report was an influential document in the founding of the Welfare State in the United Kingdom. It was chaired by William Beveridge, an economist, who identified five "Giant Evils" in society: squalor, ignorance, want, idleness and disease, and went on to propose widespread reform to the system of social welfare to address these. Highly popular with the public, the report formed the basis for the post-war reforms known as the Welfare State, which include the expansion of National Insurance and the creation of the National Health Service. [2]

Page 59

59.01-02 Frank Bridge Variations
The "Frank Bridge Variations" is a composition ("Variations on a Theme by Frank Bridge," Opus 10, 1937) by Benjamin Britten, named after one of his teachers. It was one of Britten's first works to win international notice. Wikipedia entry...