# How Does Go Compute a Logarithm

About a year ago, I was reading the Go source for computing $\log(x)$ and was very surprised by the implementation.1

Even three years into a PhD in Applied Math (i.e. numerics), I still managed to learn something by diving in and trying …

# Newton's (Method's) Failure

Finding zeros of any old function is a common task, and using Newton's method is one of the best tools for carrying out this task. I've even written an old post that used this method.

However, Newton's method loses some of it's luster around repeated roots. Consider the iteration

${\mathrm{x \dots }}_{}$

# How Many Ways to Make a (Football) Score

While watching today's Seahawks-Vikings game, my wife asked:

How did the Seahawks score 9 points? Did they get a field goal and miss an extra point after a touchdown?

I had been head down coding and didn't know the answer. I quickly jotted down the possibilities (like solving the coin-change …

# An Interesting Bug

A fairly common interview question is

What is the "hardest" bug you've dealt with?

I've both asked it and answered it in interviews. It's pretty rare that the answer is useful and actionable, but I'll hold off on commenting on the state of the art in tech interviews today. (Usually …

# Quantitative Interview Brain Teaser: Computer Assistance

In a previous post I discussed a recent brain teaser I had come across:

Find a 10-digit number, where each digit represents the number of that ordinal number in the whole number. So, the first digit represents the number of 0's in the whole 10 digits. The second digit represents …