As 2018 drew to a close, we sadly lost several pioneering figures in mathematics. UPDATE: We have sadly also lost Rich Haberman, added 14/1/19.
You're reading: Main
- reading Jim’s extensive blog post on the subject
- watching Matt’s new YouTube video
- downloading Zoe’s new Think Maths classroom resource
- reading Evelyn Lamb’s Scientific American post
- looking at Ben Orlin’s bad drawings on the topic
- searching for ‘thirdsday’ on Twitter to see what people are up to
- Tim Harford, journalist and presenter of BBC Radio programme More or Less, appointed OBE for services to Improving Economic Understanding.
- Deirdre Houston, Deputy Principal, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, appointed OBE for services to Integrated Education in Randalstown.
- Valsa Koshy, Emeritus Professor, Brunel University and mathematics education researcher, appointed MBE for services to Education.
Happy Thirdsday!
Today is the third of January, and the third day of the year – and since this year it also falls on a Thursday, making for excellent pun opportunities, a group of mathematicians including Jim Propp, Evelyn Lamb, Zoe Griffiths, Ben Orlin, Matt Parker and several others have chosen to use today to celebrate the number $\frac{1}{3}$ (and in America, you’d even write the date as 1/3). Today is officially Thirdsday! Celebrate by:
I personally will be sketching the middle third Cantor set, as it’s my favourite fractal.
Not Mentioned on The Aperiodical, 2018
We’ve had a bit of a break over the holidays, but mathematical news stops for no mince pie. From new prime numbers to mathematical doodling challenges, here’s a round-up of some of the facts/stories that we’ve seen while trying not to do any work.
Particularly mathematical New Years Honours 2019
It’s that time of year when we take a look at the UK Government’s New Years Honours list for any particularly mathematical entries. Here is the selection for this year – any more, let us know in the comments and we’ll add to the list.
Get the full list here.
Aperiodvent, Day 24: The Equation for a Merry Xmas
Merry Christmas, Aperi-readers. Please enjoy this pleasing algebraic manipulation, and we’ll see you when we’ve finished eating all the mince pies!
This post is part of the Aperiodical’s 2018 Aperiodvent Calendar.
Aperiodvent, Day 23: Cellular Automata and Snowflakes
Friend of the site Andrew Taylor has a host of fun gadgets on his website, the Christmassiest of which has to be this Cellular Automata Snowflake Generator. It allows you to iterate two deterministic processes that model aspects of real snowflake generation, and create your own beautiful designs.
This post is part of the Aperiodical’s 2018 Aperiodvent Calendar.
Aperiodvent, Day 22: The Royal Statistical Society Christmas Quiz
For fans of outlandishly devious puzzles, the highlight of every Christmas is the RSS Quiz. No statistical knowledge is needed, but you will need all of your lateral thinking skills, extreme Google-fu and inspired leaps of pure intuition (these will form a set of what mathematicians call ‘necessary but not sufficient conditions’). You can’t win a prize if you’re not a member of the society, but since the questions are so preposterously difficult, this is unlikely to have a material effect.
Update: as RSS quizmaster Tim Paulden has pointed out in the comments, this year’s quiz has also been published by The Guardian, where there is a prize available to non-RSS-member teams.
This post is part of the Aperiodical’s 2018 Aperiodvent Calendar.