bodner088

I am fascinated, as are most people, at rates of expansion, growth and change. Albert Einstein once said (in a Swiss accent whilst tripping over an untied shoelace) that "the most powerful force in the universe is the compounding of interest ." The idea of arithmetic, geometric, exponential and logarithmic expansion, looked at singly or comparatively, give us accessible, understandable metrics about how much things change as a result of the rate or power of growth. Everyone has an interest in these things...from the little tike saving up his meager allowance for his first WonkaBar lottery ticket purchase, to the epidemiologists (mostly the ones in the shows on late night television anyway) who must estimate the potential for a virus or other threatening bio hazard to spread, the the idiot from some fourth-world nation who sends out a chain letter to a whole group of people saying to each of them that if he or she sends the letter to an additional seven people enclosing o...