I have attended the two Maths Jam conferences – 2010 near Stone and 2011 near Crewe. At each I gave two talks, one of each I have written up over at Second-Rate Minds, the mathematics writing blog Samuel Hansen and I share over at ACMEScience.com. Most recently I wrote up my 2011 talk Why the…
Interesting Esoterica Summation
I’m going to try collecting additions to my Interesting Esoterica collection in let’s-say-weekly posts. I’ll link to each item, maybe paste its abstract, and write a sentence or two about it. Let’s see if it catches on. I’m not sure if I’ll have the will to do this regularly. I’m in a bit of a…
Rashad Alakbarov Paints with Shadows and Light
Rashad Alakbarov Paints with Shadows and Light:
Why the hot light bulb annoys me
A new post is available over at Second-Rate Minds by Peter Rowlett. The light bulb puzzle presents you with three switches, one of which controls a light bulb inside a closed room. You are permitted to flip switches as much as you like, then you must open the door and say which switch controls the…
Favourite popular mathematics books
I consider popular mathematics writing to be a good thing. I even tried a little myself and would be keen to try more. I am not, however, an expert in this genre. I certainly read popular maths and science books as a teenager and I remember fondly, along with a couple of physics books and…
E-Learning in Mathematical Subjects
In 2005 I was asked to attend a meeting at Nottingham Trent University with some fellow PhD students. I explained my topic, e-learning in university mathematics, to one student who said, “oh, you should go and talk to Mike in Physics; he’s interested in that sort of thing”. When I found him, it turned out…
Paula Swisheer
Paula Swisheer: She literally got her art in my maths!