Flickr: Mathematics Photos
As an artistic diversion, I decided to search Flickr for the words “mathematics”, “math”, and “probability” on Creative Commons licensed photographs. The results were wonderful. Some of my favorites...
View ArticleBackgammon and the 21st Century
In 1997, chess champion Gary Kasparov was beaten in a 6-point match against a computer. It was the first time this had ever happened. The computer, named Deep Blue, was developed by IBM after some...
View ArticleGame Theory, Money, and Rationality
Ars Technica has an interesting article today about a paper about to be released in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) about variations to an experiment in Game Theory called...
View ArticleThe Summit of Math Education: Statistics, not Calculus
The following TED video, given by mathemagician and professor Arthur Benjamin (about whom I’ve previously blogged about here), embodies the best idea I’ve heard about math education in a LONG time....
View ArticleCarnival of Mathematics @ Todd and Vishal’s Blog
I rarely post to issues of the Carnival of Mathematics from my blog, and I really don’t have a good reason for it. The 54th edition was released yesterday on Todd and Vishal’s blog here, and there are...
View ArticleMathematical Typesetting in Wolfram Alpha
I came across a great little tip on David Bau’s blog today about using Wolfram Alpha to create quick GIF images of mathematical formulae to be included in a blog. For example, by typing “integrate sin...
View ArticleEdgar Allan Poe and Cryptography
I’m trying to fill this autumn with plenty of seasonal activities, and so I’ve decided to try to read the complete works of Edgar Allan Poe during the month of October. I’ve also been reading some...
View ArticleApology to Alan Turing
I’m rather late on the draw in regard to this note, but I just wanted to say that I was profoundly glad to hear that the Prime Minister of England released a letter of apology on September 10...
View ArticleComics and Math
There have been a few posts I’ve seen recently about math related comics. First, Boing Boing clued me into The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage, which is pretty much exactly what is sounds...
View ArticleBook Review: Logicomix
Ever since I heard about Logicomix, a graphic novel about the 20th century search for the foundations of mathematics, I was extremely excited to read it. And I’m happy to say that now I’ve finished it,...
View ArticleBabbage’s Difference Engine
My mother-in-law made me privy to a story that aired on NPR about a group of people who built a copy of Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine using only materials available from the Victorian age, which...
View ArticleAlice, Wonderland, and Math
Having just completed both of Lewis Carol’s books concerning Alice and her adventures in Wonderland, the recent Boing Boing post about Melanie Bayley and her research into the idea that scenes were...
View ArticleSelf-Interacting Machines
As I look through articles that I’ve bookmarked over the last many months, I realized that I had saved two that concerned machines that were built to interact with themselves in novel ways. I find this...
View ArticleCrossword Puzzle Copies?
Matt Gaffney, a 15 year veteran of professional crossword puzzle writing, wrote an article in late November for Slate about the likeliness of two crossword puzzle creators replicating the same, or...
View ArticlePoincaré Conjecture: Controversy and Eccentricity
Evidently there’s a newish biography out about Grigori Perelman, the man primarily responsible for solving the Poincaré Conjecture. Masha Gessen, a Russian journalist and author, has released “Perfect...
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