Double Maths First Thing doesn’t know where to start
Hello! My name is Colin and I am a mathematician on a mission to spread the joy and delight that comes from working things through and wrapping them up with a neat mathematical bow.
Before anything else, a quick correction: last time out I credited Kate Holmes with the escape rooms rather than Kate Farrell. Apologies to both.
Over half term, I spent a few days in Kent, visiting Rochester Guildhall Museum and Hever Castle, most of which time I spent making “then I saw her face, now Anne Boleyn, Hever” jokes that don’t quite work. (Liked the water maze, though.) Slightly annoyingly, both places had some missed opportunities for maths exploration.
Links
Maths in museums, you say? Tom Briggs has a piece about that. I feel like it understates just how awful one of the graphs is.
A quick literature review of the week: Jonathan Gratus doing differential geometry in pictures (arXiv), Petra Schwer on what it means to do maths (arXiv), Ekaterina Ludgren et al on not being too ambitious (arXiv) and David Cushing et al on an optimal strategy for Guess Who involving paradoxes (Mathematical Gazette) – I gather from Editor Peter Rowlett, they’re always on the lookout for submissions and reviewers.
Loyal DMFT readers will know that I love a deep dive into something that seems unimportant at first glance. Here’s (the) Simon Tatham on a shell history that showed up for a fraction of a second in Tron Legacy.
There’s space here for things I admire but DO NOT LIKE AT ALL. Such as, for instance, Christian Walther’s absolutely cursed QR code.
Also from mastodon, I loved this from Dan Fixes Coin-Ops about how systems fit together (in the middle of an enormous thread about the awesomeness of solar panels): “If all the little bits work how we want them to then the big thing has no choice but to work how we want it to.” I mean, that’s questionable (I’ve worked in software), but Dan’s sheer joy and energy almost has me convinced.
Currently
Fans of aperiodic tilings and beaches, your time is nigh: you want to be in Whitley Bay this weekend (June 6th and 7th) covering the beach with spectres. Check out what’s going on here.
At press time, Fractal Kitty was still putting together Carnival of Mathematics 252 (but by now, who knows? It might be the top post there.) The Carnival takes a month off in the summer, and #253 will be out in early August courtesy of Robin Whitty at Theorem of the Day. You can submit items as always via the Carnival page – and if you’re interested in hosting, please drop me a message. It’s always good to have volunteers rather than to be twisting arms.
That’s all I’ve got for this week. If you have friends and/or colleagues who would enjoy Double Maths First Thing, do send them the link to sign up – they’ll be very welcome here.
If you’ve missed the previous issues of DMFT or – somehow – this one, you can find the archive courtesy of my dear friends at the Aperiodical.
Meanwhile, if there’s something I should know about, you can find me on Mathstodon as @icecolbeveridge, or at my personal website. You can also just reply to this email if there’s something you want to tell me.
Until next time,
C