Happy New Year! And welcome to the first Carnival of Mathematics of 2014. The Carnival is a monthly roundup of blog posts on or related to mathematics, from all over the internet. Posts are submitted by authors and readers, and collated by the host, whose blog it’s posted on. This month, the Carnival has pulled in here at The Aperiodical, and we’re all ready with our party hats for the celebration of mathematical blogging that implies.
You're reading: Posts By Katie Steckles
Puzzlebomb – January 2014
Puzzlebomb – Issue 25 – January 2014
The solutions to Issue 25 can be found here:
Puzzlebomb – Issue 25 – January 2014 – Solutions
Previous issues of Puzzlebomb, and their solutions, can be found here.
Manchester MathsJam Recap, December-ish 2013
Since I haven’t written a MathsJam recap for a few months, due to extreme busyness, this post will recap things which happened at December’s MathsJam as well as some other things I found in the pile of scrap paper when I went to tidy it all away over New Year.
Tydlig, a nice calculator for iOS
[youtube url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbXaKxxUomE]
Closer to a computer algebra system than a traditional calculator, this new app for iOS (iPhone and iPad) allows you to make calculations and create graphs, and mess around with the values to see what that does to the output. It looks like this is achieved without using any (explicit) symbolics, which results in a neat and pretty interface, made even nicer by the fact that you can move calculations around the screen and arrange them as you want. The name, Tydlig, is the Swedish word for ‘clear’.
If anyone’s willing to download a copy ((TYDLIG is also the name of an induction hob sold by IKEA, and if anyone wants to buy and review that too, you’re welcome to, but not for this site.)) ($4.99 on the App Store) and try it out, we’d be interested to hear how easy it is to use, and what other nice tricks it’s got up its sleeve. Use the ‘Send something in’ link above to get in touch, or leave a comment below.
More information
Tydlig on Twitter.
Alan Turing receives Royal Pardon
It was announced this morning that mathematician and codebreaker Alan Turing has been posthumously granted a pardon for his conviction in 1952 for gross indecency. The pardon is issued under the Royal Prerogative of Mercy by the Queen, after intervention from justice secretary Chris Grayling. The conviction was at the time standard for persons found to be practising homosexuals, and was applied to more than 50,000 cases. Turing’s punishment was chemical castration, although many others in his situation were sent to prison.
Puzzlebomb – December 2013
Puzzlebomb is a monthly puzzle compendium. Issue 24 of Puzzlebomb, for December 2013, can be found here:
Puzzlebomb – Issue 24 – December 2013
The solutions to Issue 24 can be found here:
Puzzlebomb – Issue 24 – December 2013 – Solutions
Previous issues of Puzzlebomb, and their solutions, can be found here.
OEIS Foundation Appeal
If you’ve worked with or used any sequences of integers lately (and let’s face it, you have) you might have looked them up in the OEIS. I’ve used it twice today, and it’s still before 9.30am. As you may have gathered from our extensive banging on about it, we’re huge fans of the Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences.
If you have visited their site recently, you might have noticed an extra paragraph of red text near the top – yes, they’re doing a Wikipedia, and asking for their users (which is realistically everyone) to donate so they can keep going. It’s a hugely worthy cause, and here at the Aperiodical, we think it’s worth supporting. The OEIS is owned and maintained by The OEIS Foundation Inc., a nonprofit company.
Head over to the OEIS for lists of integers with various properties, and to find out more.