Goal: 400 words researched and written in half and hour. For me, for practice. Corrections welcome in the comments. This time I try to answer a question from Ruby Childs: “why did you study mathematics?” Recently we recorded a Math/Maths Podcast with Ruby as a special guest and we discussed issues around this question. Why…
400 words in 30 minutes on sexy primes
Goal: 400 words researched and written in half and hour. For me, for practice. Corrections welcome in the comments. ∞ With Valentine’s Day upon us a seemingly appropriate mathematical topic is sexy primes. These numbers surely have some attraction to those in the mood for love.In fact, the “sexy” in “sexy primes” is a reference…
400 words in 30 minutes on chaos and the weather
Goal: 400 words researched and written in half and hour. For me, for practice. Corrections welcome in the comments. ∞ Why does the weather forecast only go a few days into the future, and why are they so often wrong about what will happen in a couple of days time? If they know where the…
Pedantry on Euler and masts
I listened to the second episode of A Brief History of Mathematics on Euler yesterday. I was quite taken with a quote from Euler which, to me, says something of the potential dangers of the application of mathematics to the real world. The relevant section of the programme is:
Cosmic-Ray Research Centre and Cold War Helter-Skelter in Secret Cave City
Samuel Hansen directed me to this article: “The secret cave city under Nottingham“. The article is highlighting The Nottingham Caves Survey, who offer: The Nottingham Caves Survey is in the process of recording all of Nottingham’s 450+ sandstone caves. The project is now underway and we are surveying caves even as you read this. Keep…
Math/Maths in Google Books Ngrams
Google Books Ngram Viewer is a Google labs product for comparing terms in books between 1500 and 2008. The idea seems to be to track trends in language. An interesting idea. Anyway, both Christian Perfect (@christianp) and Daniel Demski (@dranorter) sent me the Ngram comparing “math” with “maths”. Christian observed: “bad news: it looks like…
Intros to the Math/Maths Podcast
Could you record an introduction to the Math/Maths Podcast? In recent weeks you’ll have heard intros by Matt Parker, James Grime and Alex Corner. We’re going to cycle through them each week but I’m keen to increase the number of these, particularly from listeners. The basic format is: “This is Fred {from wherever(.com)}. You’re listening…