

13 Stripes and 51 Stars - fjania
http://www.slate.com/id/2256250/
A mathematician figures out the best way to jam an extra star onto the American flag. How would you do it?
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forinti
I like the Brazilian solution of positioning the stars on the flag as they
appear in the sky.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Brazil>

I was a bit disappointed when the Brazilian soccer squad won their fifth world
title and didn't put the stars in a Southern Cross formation on their uniform.

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protomyth
uhm "The United States Army Institute of Heraldry has plans for flags with up
to 56 stars"
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army_Institute_of...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army_Institute_of_Heraldry)
<http://www.tioh.hqda.pentagon.mil/>

~~~
gojomo
Six more? Puerto Rico, DC, British Columbia, Baja California, Cuba, and...?

It's interesting to see all the areas worldwide that have, at one time or
another and with varying degrees of seriousness, been proposed as new US
states. See:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/51st_state>

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gaius
Britain?

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eru
Might as well add Sicily, then.

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whakojacko
Different, but I really like the proposed circular formation for 51 stars.
[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8f/US_...](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8f/US_51-star_alternate_flag.svg/800px-
US_51-star_alternate_flag.svg.png)

Of course if we adopted it, some right-wingers would say it means were going
commie, or something like it.

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protomyth
The blue area seems to be a little small. Why do you say "Of course if we
adopted it, some right-wingers would say it means were going commie, or
something like it."? I have seen a lot of original 13-star circular flags in
the possession of people that would self-describe as being on the right.

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dkimball
I think it's because of who proposed it: the New Progressive Party of Puerto
Rico, according to Wikipedia in the "51st State" article.

I like the arrangement, too, but I can see why its provenance might taint it
in some eyes. That's unfortunate; it's a much more pleasant arrangement than
the one we currently have.

I could also see people objecting to changing the US's hundred-odd-year
tradition of having ugly and grating arrangements of stars. :) And the
circular star arrangement _is_ something one tends to see flown by sinister US
successor states like those in _Fallout_ and _Jericho_...

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Perceval
The New Progressive Party is the right-wing party in Puerto Rico. It was
founded by Republicans and most of its leadership is affiliated with the
Republicans.

It's the left-wing parties of Puerto Rico that are the ones that favor free
association or independence instead of statehood.

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Perceval
I wonder why there are no valid patterns for 87 stars?

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Tautology
Same with 69 stars, must be a mathematical error not a actual arrangement
problem.

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zck
You could have uneven rows for 69:

    
    
      * * * * * * * * * 
       * * * * * * * * 
        * * * * * * * 
        * * * * * * * 
        * * * * * * * 
        * * * * * * * 
        * * * * * * * 
       * * * * * * * * 
      * * * * * * * * *
    

(Copied from my reddit comment:
[http://www.reddit.com/r/math/comments/cd6v6/a_mathematician_...](http://www.reddit.com/r/math/comments/cd6v6/a_mathematician_figures_out_the_best_way_to_jam/c0rrd71))

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eli
Sad that Puerto Rico might become a state before DC

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obsaysditto
Why does DC need to become a state?

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milkshakes
<http://www.dcvote.org/>

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teilo
So, what did we do when we had 29 states?

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teilo
Answer Here: <http://www.ushistory.org/betsy/flagfact.html>

Neither one are patterns he put into the algorithm.

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ComputerGuru
That site is s.l.o.w. for me. Wikipedia has the same chart (without the extra
trivia, though) here: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_the_United_States>

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kirpekar
No solution for 87?

