§©®Î¶†Δ® Notes

It sure is curious that some lyrics I transcribed from the exercise your choppers song would be so popular. From viewing the list of links people have followed to get to my site, the trend seems to be people typing part of the lyrics from that marvy commercial into a search engine and my site being at or near the top of the list. (Was that a run-on sentence, Mrs. Passmore?) Apparently, nobody (other than me) put the lyrics (of a song that many eyes and ears digested in the 80s of all things) on their site, so my page won by default.

So for all those who loved that commercial, I've done a little homework for you so you don't have to. I actually found the commercial on "teh intarweb" for your viewing pleasure:
Education, 80's Style! This site not only has "The Chopper" song but a bunch of other cool ones I remember such as: "Time for Timer", "Beans and Rice", "Don't Drown Your Food" and many more. I also found "The Chopper" (and some others) posted on YouTube.

I know a lot of people really loved the Schoolhouse Rock commercials that came out around the same time (as well they should, 'cause they still are groovy), but these ABC Health and Nutrition Commercials should get more attention. I keep seeing overweight and obese children who don't get enough exercise and don't eat healthfully. I think they should put these commercials back on TV (Cartoon Network, perhaps) or even make new ones. The songs stuck with me (as well as the message.) My kids thought I was weird for watching old commercials but they have taken to them as well. Now my children sing "exercise your choppers" with me at the dinner table.

By request, I've made a new Math Test (written entirely in JavaScript) which has a larger font and fewer questions (but still prints nicely on a sheet of paper.) It's perfect for 1^st-5^th grade students (or even bright, younger children) or anyone who wants to practice basic math on numbers between zero and ten. Suggestion for parents of artistic children to help keep their brains balanced: Tell your son/daughter they can draw or color on the back of a completed test paper. You can still access the old test if your eyes don't have trouble reading finer print and you don't write too big.

At the same time, I've been thinking about writing a program that will use permutations to solve the following problem I find interesting:

Given 5 numbers, use basic math in various ways to match the target number.

[?] +-*/ [?] +-*/ [?] +-*/ [?] +-*/ [?] = [target]

*** Example ***
Target:           12
Numbers:          3, 4, 6, 9, 10
Solution:         [6] * [9] / [3] - [10] + [4] = [12]