I was recently asked for some recommendations of resources for learning about probability and statistics, for someone without a strong mathematical background. I did a little digging, and have collated what I found here in case it’s useful to anyone else. Add your own suggestions in the comments!
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Carnival of Maths 184
The next issue of the Carnival of Mathematics, rounding up blog posts from the month of July, is now online at Tom Rocks Maths.
The Carnival rounds up maths blog posts from all over the internet, including some from our own Aperiodical. See our Carnival of Mathematics page for more information.
nimsticks: LaTeX package for drawing Nim sticks and games
A while ago on this blog I shared a LaTeX macro I had written for drawing games of Nim. I have now taken the plunge and written this into a LaTeX package called nimsticks. (Why? What do you do to relax on a lazy Sunday morning?)
Here is the description of the nimsticks package:
This LaTeX package provides commands
\drawnimstickto draw a single nim stick and\nimgamewhich represents games of multi-pile Nim. Nim sticks are drawn with a little random wobble so they look ‘thrown together’ and not too regular.
What this does it allows commands such as \nimgame{5,3,4} which renders like this:
From the mailbag – circles of circles
Katie’s dad needs a little maths advice – so he’s asked his daughter for some help, and she’s used it as an excuse to go on about maths for a while, as usual.
Dear The Aperiodical,
I’ve been working on a scale model of an underground mine, which will be lit using fibre optics – thin cylindrical strands of clear material, which can transmit light from a source at one end and output light at points all over the model.
All the strands will come together behind the scenes and be pointed at a light source inside a box – but if I have 24 strands with circular cross-section, each 1.5mm in diameter, how big a hole would I need to drill in the box for all the strands to pass through?
Carnival of Maths 183
The next issue of the Carnival of Mathematics, rounding up blog posts from the month of June, is now online at Famous Mathematicians.
The Carnival rounds up maths blog posts from all over the internet, including some from our own Aperiodical. See our Carnival of Mathematics page for more information.
Mathematical Things To Do
If you find yourself at a loose end this month, want a break from focusing on work, or have younger mathematicians to entertain, here are some suggestions for online activities you can do/watch/attend. If you have any suggestions of your own, add them in the comments!
Prime Climb colouring in with LuaTeX
A while ago, my son did the Prime Climb colouring sheet.