Some cognitive scientists have done an experiment on some people in Papua New Guinea to test the hypothesis that the number line is based on an in-built intuition that all humans share. They concluded that it isn’t, and that you can use cardinal numbers without placing them mentally on a line.
Trace Heavens by James Nizam
Trace Heavens by James Nizam:
Puzzlebomb – May 2012
Puzzlebomb is a monthly puzzle compendium. Issue 5 of Puzzlebomb, for May 2012, can be found here: Puzzlebomb – Issue 5 – May 2012 The solutions to Issue 5 can be found here: Puzzlebomb – Issue 5 – May 2012 – Solutions Previous issues of Puzzlebomb, and their solutions, can be found here.
The Cryptographer by Raw Color
The Cryptographer by Raw Color:
Math/Maths 95: Massively Multiplayer Online Mathematics
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: Math Massive Open Online Course (MOOC); A-level sciences ‘lack the maths students need’; School maths should be more practical, say (some) teenagers; College Dropout Became Mathematical Genius…
Matt Parker’s maths problem page in The Telegraph
Matt’s latest set of puzzles, as part of the Make Britain Count campaign, are online at The Telegraph. This round of puzzles is all about factors, and there have been previous puzzle sets about consecutive numbers and prime numbers.
“Futurama theorem” slightly improved
The “Futurama theorem”, also known as Keeler’s Theorem after its creator, was a bit of maths invented for the Futurama episode The Prisoner of Benda, to solve a problem where the characters get their heads mixed up and need to swap them back without any one pair swapping heads twice. It was enthusiastically reported by the geeky press, and…