Double Maths First Thing could be Rotterdam or anywhere
Hello! My name is Colin and I am a mathematician on a mission to spread the joy and delight in doing maths.
I’m on a bit of a buzz at the moment – I went to my local open mic on Friday and had the sort of evening that reminds you what music is for, connecting with people and expressing yourself. It lit a fire under me to put the solo act back together.
Making connections, you say? That’s what links are for!
Links
Let’s start in the artistic sphere with a magnificent 17th-century book showing ‘all of the possible colours’. Meanwhile, John Carlos Baez has some background on a Manet that was once thought impossible.
Moving into music, who could have foreseen that a maths background would be useful when planning a complex musical? And you’ll certainly have noticed the resemblance between Conway’s Game Of Life and a synthesiser.
In “saying the quiet bit out loud” news, Kit Yates digs into what we used to call a ‘mulholland’ – an election bar chart based on… well, lying, it turns out. (Thanks to Barney Maunder-Taylor for spotting it and setting Kit on the case.) I’ve written on a similar topic before. Here’s a paper on how to debunk graphs effectively.
Next, we’re off to space with this lovely toot from Chad, pointing to his hacked-up Artemis II dashboard. I love the when you’re on the floor, get up attitude and I hope Chad is on the mend. Meanwhile, Mark Dominus has divided the world into 10-degree squares and found the biggest city in each.
I regret to inform you that Scroggs is at it again. No, not regret, the other thing. Am thrilled! On top of Wordle Tetris, as explained by Ayliean here, he’s also playing Wordle Pokémon and expects to be finished roughly when my now-ten-year-old is sitting his GCSEs.
Currently
My mathematically creative friends at the Finite Group have a range of special offers on at the moment, and I reckon it’s good value even without them. Here are some highlights of past live-streams. A monthly subscription is half-price in April with the offer code 3VMFN and I am not going to spend all day trying to figure out what it stands for. An annual subscription is also 20% off.
At press time, we’re still rolling up to Carnival 250, but you can submit pieces for the next one on the Carnival page, as always.
This month is apparently the month of maths: there’ll be a puzzle every couple of days starting mid-April (here are last year’s). Visit the project page to learn more and sign up.
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