Sunday, April 19, 2009

A word problem. In more ways than one.

An actress has 65 total pages of dialogue (of a 68 page script... allowing for the 3 pages she is not on stage), and has memorized 51 pages in 20 days. If she keeps memorizing at the same pace, how many more days does she have until she has memorized the whole script?

What if the learning curve increases by 50% towards the end of the memorization process, because of the time the actress has spent working on the as of yet unmemorized pages?

And what if the actress is no longer spending 2-3 hours a night obsessively watching Slings and Arrows (after rehearsals!) in an attempt to finish the series and get the DVD back to the library before a late fee is incurred, thereby increasing her time to work on her lines by appx 100% per day (assuming that she spends some of that regained 2-3 hours doing other things, like, oh, housework).

Keep in mind that in order to retain those previously memorized 51 pages, they must still be regularly reviewed. Reviewing takes about 15% of the time it takes to memorize new lines.

Given all the factors above, when can the actress expect to have the whole script memorized?

(Never... if she keeps blogging...)

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This post has been a Monday Mission. Today's mission, should you choose to accept it, is to write a post in the style of a math problem or proof. (Please keep in mind that I'm not a mathematician, I just play one on the stage). If you get your Monday Math Mission on, please leave a link in the widget below.

And join us next week, when your mission is to write a post in the style of a May Day song or poem. I'm totally being greedy here. Help me celebrate the impending May Day. We are dancing around the Maypole, you know. (To see the festivities from last year's May Day click here. To see the May Day crown I made with my own little hands and gave away last year and to read a May Day poem by Tennyson click here. To learn why I celebrate May Day and to get a plan for a May Day party, including links to crafts, songs and more click here.)

Kaye, at The Road Goes Ever On, made this nifty little button,

that you can use to link to me if you participate in Monday Missions. Thanks, Kaye!

(I think all you need to do is highlight the button, copy it, and paste it into your blog post. It seems to have worked for me)

Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to memorize I go...

13 comments:

Christine said...

i love it! though word problems generally scare me ;-p

xoxo

Unknown said...

oh, good luck!

MARY G said...

By the time I got that figured out, the play would be history.

Reminds me of the endless hours I spent rowing boats upstream (at a rate of x mph) while the stream roared along at y knots, conversion factor supplied.) Shudder.
I got good marks in geometry though.

MARY G said...

The title is hugely funny, too. Love it!

Kyla said...

Word problems....shiver!

kayerj said...

word problems were always a problem for me as would memorizing that many words--but I loved your post, and I agree with Mary, your titles are always creative.

niobe said...

That button is gorgeous.

Kat said...

Wow! That was impressive. It kind of made my head sping though. Math hurts me.
;)

Run ANC said...

Whay are you reading this?! You should be working on your lines!!

:-)

Mad said...

Oooo, this one was very good. I'm impressed.

Furrow said...

Your word problem gave me a headache, but I loved Slings and Arrows. It made me think of you.

Woman in a Window said...

Give up the blogging and I think you'll be done yesterday. That's what the math says...well, erm, I was an English major.

Unknown said...

That is something that always amazes me... how you actors can remember all those lines! sometimes I search and read famous monologues for fun and to be amazed