[vimeo url=https://vimeo.com/77330591]
This is enormously satisfying.
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You're reading: Posts By Christian Lawson-Perfect
The Magic Cube – a 3D logic puzzle
A chap called Jonathan Kinlay has innovented a Rubik’s cube variant which only has one colour, but six different integer sequences on its sides. As a colourblind integer sequence enthusiast, this basically has to be my ideal Christmas present, right?
Well, it’s currently looking for funding on Kickstarter in advance of actually existing, and the first units won’t be delivered before Christmas, but it’s a fun idea anyway.
Nirvana by Numbers
Alex Bellos has made another documentary for BBC Radio 4, this time about the number zero. It’s a pleasant bit of numerical tourism, as Alex travels to India to find the source of the number zero in a small shrine, with a diversion to talk about Vedic maths along the way.
You can listen to Nirvana by Numbers on the BBC iPlayer. It looks like it’s available indefinitely. If Alex has whetted your appetite for historical zeroes, the book Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea by Charles Seife is a cracking read.
Listen: Nirvana by Numbers on BBC Radio 4.
Eugenia Cheng is at it again
Dr Eugenia Cheng, category theorist, has accepted some money from Pizza Express in return for writing some nonsense about pizzas.
This doesn’t really merit a post here, apart from to point out that Dr Cheng very scrupulously denied taking any kind of payment the last time she got a “formula for the perfect X” story in the papers, linked to a clotted cream company.
Read: On the perfect size for a pizza, by Eugenia Cheng
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All Squared, Number 9: Miscellanea with CP and Cushing
We have an unusual All Squared podcast for you this time. My good friend David Cushing has been asking to do a podcast for absolutely ages. We couldn’t decide on a single topic to talk about, so instead I suggested we just sit down and chat about maths in general, like we do when there isn’t a microphone in front of us.
We talked for about an hour and a half, but because I’m completely stupid we lost a big chunk of it when the microphone switched off. To make things even worse, we recorded in a room with a ridiculously loud fan, so there’s that to contend with. Anyway, we talked about some fun stuff, so I think it’s worth listening to.
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Integer sequence review: A006720
A006720
Somos-4 sequence: $a(0)=a(1)=a(2)=a(3)=1$; for $n \geq 4$, $a(n)=(a(n-1)a(n-3)+a(n-2)^2)/a(n-4)$.1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 3, 7, 23, 59, 314, 1529, 8209, 83313, 620297, 7869898, 126742987, 1687054711, 47301104551, 1123424582771, 32606721084786, 1662315215971057, 61958046554226593, 4257998884448335457, 334806306946199122193, ...
All Squared, Number 8: Martin Gardner (Colm Mulcahy part 2)
This is the second and final part of our interview with Colm Mulcahy. Last week we talked about card magic; in this part we moved on to the subject of Martin Gardner and the gatherings of interesting people associated with his name.
We’ve tacked on some blather we recorded about the British Science Festival in Newcastle to the end of this podcast. Listen in to hear what we think about maths! (We’re broadly in favour of it.)
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