Double Maths First Thing cannot currently take your call. Please leave a message after the beep. Beep.
Hello! My name is Colin and I am a mathematician on a mission to spread mathematical joy and delight. This week, I am mainly swearing at Scroggs and his fiendish crossnumber in the current issue of Chalkdust Magazine. He’s also written an article about how to set the cursed things, but it offers no clues (at least to me) about solving them.
But fine, I shall tear myself from tearing out what little hair I have remaining to share with you this week’s links.
Links!
Let’s start with the best title of the week: The Mathematics of Burger Flipping. I am a big fan of papers that take a reasonable question to unreasonable extremes.
Another reasonable question is, “how does GPS work?”. Ankur Mohan has a deeper dive than you could plausibly need.
A less reasonable question is, “can I link all 72 scientists named on the Eiffel Tower to pi?”. However unreasonable, since it was Pi Day, Katie Steckles had a creditable attempt, no matter how tenuous some of the suggestions are. Can you find a connection between Jacques Sturm and circles? Let her know if so.
(Incidentally — if you have reasonable questions that need a freelance mathematician to answer or explain, you can hire me at a rate which is also — you’ve guessed it — perfectly reasonable.)
I mentioned Perlin noise all the way back in issue 2; James Wilkins has a tutorial on how to use it to generate anything from landscapes to dungeons. This is on my still-to-read list, but looks awesome.
And let’s finish with a lovely bit of dataviz from Information is Beautiful, answering another reasonable question: how true are “based on a true story” films?
Currently!
I didn’t mention in last week’s issue that I had a poem in the MathsJam Shout. I don’t remember writing it, but it’s the sort of thing I would do. It was a Pi-ku (a poem of three lines, the first having three syllables, the second one and the third four — 3-1-4, sort of like pi.) It read:
Rational?
Pi?
Mumbo-jumbo!
I don’t have any upcoming events on my radar (if there’s something you’d like me to mention, do let me know). As always, you should be hanging out in the Finite Group Discord, keeping an eye on Talking Maths In Public, and telling anyone who will listen about the maths you find interesting. Go to!
That’s all I’ve got for this week. If you have friends and/or colleagues who would enjoy Double Maths First Thing, do send them the link to sign up — they’ll be very welcome here.
If you’ve missed the previous issues of DMFT or — somehow — this one, you can find the archive courtesy of my dear friends at the Aperiodical.
Meanwhile, if there’s something I should know about, you can find me on Mathstodon as @icecolbeveridge, or at my personal website. You can also just reply to this email if there’s something you want to tell me.
Until next time,
C