Quills and Answers with Ben Tomasic

Ben Tomasic, Perspectives Editor

Q: Is Canada Real?

A: Yes but it’s basically the United States because we both are in similar regions and share the same parent country (Great Britain).

Q: What is the exact width of your left foot?
A: 23cm

Q: Do you think March will be better than February?
A: Oh no.

Q: Where would you rather live, North Korea or Iran?
A: I mean it probably doesn’t matter because I will end up in jail within a month for dissenting against the government and then I would end up dead in prison or be executed.

Q: What is your worst habit?
A: Not cleaning my room.

Q: What do you fear?
A: I fear many things. My greatest fear is that I will fail so miserably that I will end up on the streets.

Q: Do you like boba?
A: Yes. It is addictingly good.

Q: Who are you voting for?
A: I don’t know but I’m probably going to be left unhappy with whoever is on the table because I can’t vote in the primary.

Q: Favorite Kobe moment?
A: I think my favorite moment was his game 4 buzzer beater over the Suns in 2006. It would have been sweeter if the Lakers had
managed to close out the series, but it is still an extraordinary moment.

Q: How many spiders are too many?
A: Depending on size and breed. If they are harmless and tiny then I guess as many as capacity allows. If it/they are venomous then 1 is too many because it can probably kill you and I don’t want to die.

Q: Do you think U.S. should manifest destiny Canada?

A: No, I don’t think we need to. Really we should be worrying about stuff in our own country. Wait. You’re saying there’s oil? Let’s take it all and party like it’s 1900.

Q: Are humans naturally inclined to war and hate?
A: There is almost 6 millenia of evidence to support this argument along with the contrary to this. Personally, I think yes. If we were not inclined to war and hate then society would not exist. We have society and laws in place to prevent us from going wild on people.

Q: Who is the best basketball coach?
A: Historically, the best pro coach is Phil Jackson. We’re going to forget his stint as GM in New York. Long story short he managed to keep Jordan and Kobe’s ego in check and won 11 NBA championships along the way. For historic college coach it has to be John Wooden because of UCLA’s dominance under his tenure.

Q: If the woodchucking rate of woodchuck is w(t) = 1.895(sin(|ln(x)|) 2 + 5 woods per minute, wood is being added to the woodchuck’s pile at a rate of a(t) = 4cos(x 2 ), and the number of woodchucks tossing wood at a time is n(t) = 2|sin(tπ)| + 1, how many woods would have been chucked at t = 60?

A: To figure this out we need to simplify the amount of wood being chucked at t=60. In algebraic terms what is w(60). However, we have a potential issue as the woodchucking rate is not independent of the rate of the wood being added to the pile. We have to remember that the woodchuck cannot chuck wood that does not exist in the pile. The first thing we should determine is the number of woodchucks that are tossing wood at t=60. To solve for n(60) we simply plug in the number into the equation so we get: 2|sin(60π)|+1. From this equation we get that 1 woodchuck is chucking at t=60 . Now we have to determine the amount of wood being added to the woodchuck’s pile at t=60. Since we get a rate we have to use the fundamental theorem of calculus to figure out the amount. We’re also going to assume that there is no wood in the woodchuck’s pile at time 0 so we now get: ∫ from 0 to 60 of 4cos(x2)=A(60)-A(0). We can now simplify the answers so we can solve for A(60) and we get 0…… We now know that the integral is equal to 0 meaning 0 wood is added to the woodchuck’s pile on the whole integral from 0 to 60. Meaning that because no wood is added to the woodchuck’s pile that no wood can be chucked at the instant a(60). Therefore at t= 60, 0 woods will be chucked as the amount of wood being chucked cannot exceed the amount of wood in the pile and since you can’t have negative wood the answer is 0.

Q: Do you think the Lakers will win the title?

A: (Assuming the season resumes) The Lakers will win if they can get out of the western conference alive because I think the Lakers will be a hard matchup for any eastern conference team. The question is: will the Lakers get out of the Western Conference and I’m very unsure of that. They will not have an easy path as pretty much every western conference team is ridiculously good. I think currently the Clippers hold the slightest of edges over Lakers especially with the Clippers recently acquiring Reggie Jackson and Marcus Morris. While the Lakers have also picked up extra help in Markieff Morris, there is one player on the Lakers who concerns me the most. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. He is the person who I think has the greatest potential to ruin the Lakers run and he will need to at least not be garbage for the Lakers to make the finals.