How old am I if...?

[jasong]

Assuming Moore's Law were an absolute and that the version we're talking about(not the original stated by Gordon Moore) is that computing power doubles every 18 months; and also assuming that it increases according to natural log(if I'm wrong about how this works I'm going to look like an idiot, I was taken out of high school early because of illness) and assuming it happens constantly, instead of in fits and starts through actual chips...

If I tell you that computers have become 8 million times more powerful since I was born, how old am I, to the nearest month? (I was going to say year, but when I leave off the extra amount, I'm off by about 15-20%, which is pretty amazing when you think about it)

Edit: lol, actually, I'm off by slightly more than 20%, I just did the math and it's about a 21.23% increase.

[retina]

Alright, I'll bite:

log₂(8000000)*1.5/1.2123=~28.37 years.

[ckdo]

At 365.2425 days per year, if the 8,000,000 figure is correct, you were 34.397362674 years when you posted the question.

[jasong]

Originally Posted by ckdo

At 365.2425 days per year, if the 8,000,000 figure is correct, you were 34.397362674 years when you posted the question.

Technically, the number's a little over 8M if you do it down to the day, but you nailed it.

Over Thanksgiving vacation I was asking my family how compound interest was calculated, and got a little upset when I realized my family wasn't smart enough to realize why a 12% annual interest credit card isn't necessarily going to grow at 1%/month.

I don't like to make fun of people who aren't educated, but the realization that my family is just as stupid as the rest of the country is rather depressing. Makes me wonder how valuable a college education really is, if a graduate can't do high school math.

[retina]

Originally Posted by jasong

Edit: lol, actually, I'm off by slightly more than 20%, I just did the math and it's about a 21.23% increase.

So what was the point of posting that? Where does the 21.23% figure into it?

[jasong]

Originally Posted by retina

So what was the point of posting that? Where does the 21.23% figure into it?

I meant that if you assume I'm exactly 34 years old that that number is 21.23% less than when you use my actual age. I didn't want to stare at a calendar, so I assumed every calendar month was 30 days and then added to the 150 days 15 more days. And since I've never learned how to properly use a calculator, I kept entering more and more specific values into a calculator to come up with my number of 8M.

It probably took me about 50 times as long as it would most of the people in this forum. I'm debating whether or not I should try and find some remedial classes to fill in the gaps before I go back to college.

[xilman]

Originally Posted by jasong

Over Thanksgiving vacation I was asking my family how compound interest was calculated, and got a little upset when I realized my family wasn't smart enough to realize why a 12% annual interest credit card isn't necessarily going to grow at 1%/month.

Never make the mistake of confusing ignorance with stupidity. The former can be cured.

Paul

[davieddy]

Originally Posted by retina

Alright, I'll bite:

log₂(8000000)*1.5/1.2123=~28.37 years.

What is 1.2123 ???

2^(age/1.5)=8000000
So age = log₂(8000000)*1.5 = 34.4 years

[retina]

Originally Posted by davieddy

What is 1.2123 ???

21.23% of error as stated by the OP. Although, later the OP did not adequately explain what the hell it really does mean so I should have just ignored it completely.

[davieddy]

Originally Posted by retina

21.23% of error as stated by the OP. Although, later the OP did not adequately explain what the hell it really does mean so I should have just ignored it completely.

My guess is it is the growth in computing power in 0.4 years