Posts tagged mathematics
Strumming the Lute of Pythagoras
Columbia College Chicago instructor Ann Hanson and two of her students generously shared artwork they made using the geometric figure the “Lute of Pythagoras.”
A drawing by Joseph Koch incorporates the Lute of Pythagoras into a portrait of Pythagoras himself. Image copyright Joseph Koch. Used with permission.
The ancient mathemati [...]
On Pregnancy and Probability
I have never been pregnant, but from what I understand, it is full of bizarre cravings, frequent bathroom breaks, and a smorgasbord of medical scans and tests. This last part is what concerns Kate Owens. She is a visiting assistant professor in the math department at the College of Charleston, and she is also pregnant with her second child. [...]
Goldbach Variations
In mid-May, Harald Helfgott of the École Normale Supériure in Paris published a proof of the ternary Goldbach conjecture, a longstanding question in number theory.
Harald Helfgott, who finished the proof of the ternary Goldbach conjecture. Image: Harald Helfgott.
Of course, making substantial progress on a problem that some of the most brilli [...]
Binary Bonsai and Other Mathematical ...
A “binary bonsai” created using an algorithmic knitting process. Image copyright Madeleine Shepherd. Used with permission.
Many of us have seen Fibonacci numbers in sunflowers and hyperbolic curvature in kale leaves. Botanica Mathematica, “a textile taxonomy of mathematical plant forms,” takes mathematical-botanical correspondences like these [...]
Award-Winning Teachers Put Math on Ha...
A mathematical hat made by Patrick Honner’s students as part of an award-winning lesson plan. Image: Patrick Honner.
Many math teachers have a hands-on approach to their subject, but those hands aren’t usually covered in finger paint. Scott Goldthorp, however, sometimes teaches messy math classes. Goldthorp, a teacher at Rosa Internatio [...]
Big Numbers Are Big
Image: xkcd
So if you’re worried that human creativity is worthless because every possible piece of literature, the MP3 of every song anyone will ever sing, the choreography of every ballet, along with the DNA of every person who will ever perform it, is encoded in pi, don’t despair. No one with any sense will be switching to a pi-mining stra [...]
Your Life in Pi
At Slate, I wrote about a pi meme that’s been going around for a few months, most recently shared by George Takei’s facebook page.
We don’t know for sure that pi contains all possible strings of decimal digits, but on a deeper level, the meme is right. And if it gets you pondering the mysteries of infinity, so much the bett [...]
Mathy Ladies to Follow on Twitter
Image: Design Shack
In the current issue of the Association for Women in Mathematics newsletter(password required), Anne Carlill asks where the female mathematicians are on Twitter:
“I found that the only female mathematicians or math educators I followed were Nalini Joshi in Sydney and Fawn Nguyen in California. In contrast there are about 1 [...]
Wear Your Geeky Heart on Your Sleeve,...
Over at Roots of Unity, I wrote about a “geek chic” fabric design contest.
I had been aware of Spoonflower for a while, but I really got excited about fabric design at the Joint Mathematics Meetings in January. I attended a talk by Frank Farris, a mathematician at Santa Clara University, in which he described how he used Spoonflo [...]
March Madness Math: Are the “Dr...
This post has become painful for me following Baylor’s premature elimination from the women’s tournament, but I present it here anyway.
The opening tip of the 2012 NCAA women’s basketball championship game, played April 3, 2012. My Baylor Lady Bears, led by #42 Brittney Griner and #0 Odyssey Sims, defeated Notre Dame 80-61. [...]
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