[vimeo url=https://vimeo.com/39648092]
Rhombus System by The Fundamental Group.
via NotCot.org
You're reading: Columns
Happy Birthday Euler!
Today is Euler’s $-306 \times e^{i \pi}$th birthday, and Google have chosen to celebrate (despite ignoring several other prominent mathematical birthdays, including Erdős’s centenary – see the @MathsHistory twitter feed for a full list) by creating a Google doodle on their homepage.
For anyone who isn’t aware, this is when Google changes the image above the search box on the homepage at Google.com, so it still says ‘Google’ but using an appropriate image, which sometimes has built-in interactive elements. I thought it was worth pointing out some of the fantastic maths they’ve included in today’s doodle.
The Number Project, by Brandon Wilson
Brandon Wilson is drawing a logo for a number each day this year. He started at 0 on the first of January, and he’ll finish with 365 on the first of January 2014 (or with 364 on the 31st of December. Not sure.) Sadly that means 367 – the largest number whose square’s digits form a strictly increasing sequence – misses out on a logo, but if your favourite number is a natural number at least a couple of units smaller than that, you’re in luck.
Brandon’s blog is NSFS — Not Safe For Synaesthetes — since numbers may appear different to how you imagine them.
More: The Number Project
A new place to hang my hat
I have moved my blog Travels in a Mathematical World to The Aperiodical!
Carnival of Mathematics 97
The next issue of the Carnival of Mathematics, rounding up blog posts from the month of March, is now online at Flying Colours Maths.
The Carnival rounds up maths blog posts from all over the internet, including some from our own Aperiodical. For more information about the Carnival of Mathematics, click here.
Puzzlebomb – April 2013
Puzzlebomb is a monthly puzzle compendium. Issue 16 of Puzzlebomb, for April 2013, can be found here:
Puzzlebomb – Issue 16 – April 2013
The solutions to Issue 16 can be found here:
Puzzlebomb – Issue 16 – April 2013 – Solutions
Previous issues of Puzzlebomb, and their solutions, can be found here.
Pale imitations: newcomers in the Math/Maths Podcast hiatus
Since the start of the year, the Math/Maths Podcast has been on hiatus. I’m very much enjoying the extra thesis-writing time but apparently this has left some missing their regular mathematical listen. Not infrequently I get an email from someone wishing me well with my thesis and asking when we’ll be back podcasting. Well, nature abhors a vacuum and here are three offerings that I’m aware are working to fill the void. (Oh, and “pale imitations” – I’m joking, of course!)
All Squared (RSS, iTunes)
My Aperiodical co-conspirators Katie Steckles and Christian Perfect started All Squared, a maths magazine podcast, in February. The description for the first episode (or “number”, as Katie and Christian have it) overtly points out the “unusual paucity of maths podcasts at the moment” and promises “a half-hour podcast featuring maths, guests, puzzles and links from the internet”. The name is designed to be recognisable to mathematicians, who might find themselves reporting that an expression is “all squared”. As someone who named a podcast as overtly as it is possible to be, “Math/Maths”, this obfuscation amuses me. The three episodes so far have been enjoyable with a guest and main topic in each. As far as I’m concerned, this is far more the Aperiodical podcast that should exist than is The Aperiodcast with that third guy.
TES Maths Podcast (iTunes)
This one started just before Samuel Hansen and I went on our hiatus, but if you enjoyed the teaching aspects of what we did you can get a lot more on the theme from Craig Barton and his guests on the TES Maths Podcast. Craig promises “to share the latest news, resources and ideas that are relevant to secondary/high-school maths teachers and general number enthusiasts”.
Wrong, but Useful (RSS)
Wrong, but Useful is a new podcast featuring “a mathematical conversation” between Colin Beveridge and Dave Gale that sets out its stall as a response to the lack of Math/Maths episodes. The title is another nod to the mathematically minded without being overt, referring to a quote from George Box and Norman Draper who wrote “essentially, all models are wrong, but some are useful” (Empirical Model-Building and Response Surfaces, 1987). Episode 1 sees Colin and Dave finding their feet in a rambling, wide-ranging mathematically-themed discussion. There were a couple of awkward moments that gave me Math/Maths early episode flashbacks but I’m looking forward to Colin and Dave getting into the swing for the next episode.
Happy listening!