Andrew Hicks, a professor at Drexel University, has invented a new type of curved mirror which shows the reflection without inverting it left-right, as normal plane mirrors do. Although this effect can be achieved by placing two mirrors at right angles and looking at them both along the 45 degree bisector (as anyone who’ve ever stayed on a canal boat or similarly small bathroom which uses a double-mirror in the corner will attest – it’s mildly disconcerting), this new invention is a single curved piece of glass. Apparently, some maths is involved: Hicks has “design[ed] computer algorithms to cleverly manipulate the angles of curved mirror surfaces so distortions in the reflection are precisely controlled”.
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Keith Devlin’s 5-week survey of maths course is on YouTube
Keith Devlin, of enormous maths MOOC fame, tweeted that his survey course Mathematics: Making the Invisible Visible is now available on YouTube. Until now, it had only been available through iTunes University.
The course consists of five two-hour lectures, delivered over five weeks. Like Keith’s MOOC, it’s an “intro to maths for grown-ups” course to get people engaged in the subject.
Often described as the science of patterns, mathematics is arguably humanity’s most penetrating mental framework for uncovering the hidden patterns that lie behind everything we see, feel, and experience. Galileo described mathematics as the language in which the laws of the universe are written. Intended to give a broad overview of the field, these five illustrated lectures look at counting and arithmetic, shape and geometry, motion and calculus, and chance and probability, and end with a mind-stretching trip to infinity.
Mathematics: Making the Invisible Visible on YouTube.
Not mentioned on The Aperiodical this week
My name is Aperiodical, king of kings;
Look on my news queue, ye Mighty, and despair!
Among other lessons not heeded by your fearless editorial trio this week are those of queueing theory. Our news queue has got a bit out of hand, so it’s time to take drastic action. Here’s what we were going to cover this week, but didn’t get round to. Some of the stories have been stewing in the queue for quite a while, so hold your nose.
Math/Maths 124: Potato The Mathematicial Genius
A new episode of the Math/Maths Podcast has been released.
A conversation about mathematics between the UK and USA from Pulse-Project.org. This week Samuel and Peter spoke about: Chinese dog is ‘maths genius,’ according to owner; MoMath Opening; Burgess primary school report; Rushed maths leads to ‘superficial’ learning; TIMSS 2011 International Results in Mathematics; Millions of adults have maths skills of a nine year-old; Math formula gives new glimpse into the magical mind of Ramanujan; Learning to code: do I need to be good at maths?; Second set of findings from 2011 census released; river valleys; Alan Turing: Scientists call for pardon for codebreaker; Christmas equations; & more.
Get this episode: Math/Maths 124: Potato The Mathematicial Genius
MoMath is open!
On the twelfth of the twelfth of the twenty-twelfth, New York’s Museum of Mathematics had its big opening gala. George Hart, who has spent the past few years developing the stuff that would go in the museum, recorded a video in between schmoozing the museum’s first guests to show off the things it contains.
[youtube url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jK7xPo1YXzY]
All I want for Christmas is a ticket to New York!
If you’re in the enviable position of being able to visit the museum, have a look at their website. It opens to the public tomorrow, the 15th.
If you’re like me and you can’t get to New York in the foreseeable, the MoMath YouTube channel has many videos of their Math Encounters series of workshops and presentations.
Interview: Alan Turing Cryptography competition
The University of Manchester is holding another cryptography competition (as featured in this news post earlier this week). We spoke to Charles Walkden, one of the competition’s organisers, about the project.
Matt Parker’s Fractal Christmas Tree
Stand-up Mathematician and all-round maths lover Matt Parker has been busy again, and he’s made a set of free worksheets for teachers (and, of course, interested non-teachers) to assemble paper nets of 3D fractals, including a Menger sponge and Sierpinski tetrahedron (which I’ve just learned is also called a tetrix).
There’s also a sheet for making a delightfully festive/mathematical fractal Christmas tree, with a Menger sponge base, Sierpinski branches and a Koch Snowflake star on top. Presumably those interested can make Mandelbulb ornaments and Cantor Set tinsel to hang on it. Don’t ask me how that would work.
The worksheets can be downloaded from Matt’s Think Maths website.
Anyone who successfully builds the whole thing: send us a photo and we’ll post it here. Jokes about fractals taking a while to cut out/paint in the comments.