Here’s a tale of a rational (or irrational?) legal battle from the 1990s re: Cantor’s diagonal argument. Cantor’s diagonal argument from 1891 was truly revolutionary: an ingenious way to demonstrate that no matter what proposed list of all real numbers (or, say, just those between $0$ and $1$) is put forth, it’s easy to find…
Carnival of Mathematics 86
The next issue of the Carnival of Mathematics, rounding up blog posts from the month of April, is now online at The Math Less Travelled. The Carnival rounds up maths blog posts from all over the internet, including some from our own Aperiodical. For more information about the Carnival of Mathematics, click here.
The number line is not an intuitive concept
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…