This is just a quick post to tell you about a nice puzzle game I spotted on Mathstodon. It’s called Transposition, and it’s a sliding block puzzle in the vein of the popular game Rush Hour. You’re given a grid that’s almost full of rectangular blocks, and you have to slide them around each other…
Last November, under the banner of #Noethember, we helped organise an international drawing challenge themed around mathematician Emmy Noether. The project resulted in a huge number of drawings and a warm feeling among those who participated. For 30 days, people across Twitter shared their sketches illustrating facts about Noether’s life and work.
Over the weekend we heard the sad news that mathematician Sir Michael Atiyah has passed away on 11th January. One of the few mathematicians to have been awarded both a Fields medal and an Abel prize, Atiyah leaves behind an extensive mathematical legacy and will be missed by many.
A tribute to former President of the Royal Society Sir Michael Atiyah OM FRS (1929 – 2019), on the Royal Society website
Mathematician Sir Michael Atiyah dies aged 89, at BBC News
Michael Atiyah, Mathematician in Newton’s Footsteps, Dies at 89 at the New York Times
The next issue of the Carnival of Mathematics, rounding up blog posts from the month of December, is now online at Ganit Charcha. 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.
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.
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.
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.