MetaFilter posts tagged with Logic

Computerized Math, Formal Proofs and Alternative Logic

kliuless — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 15:33:01 -0800

Using computer systems for doing mathematical proofs - "With the proliferation of computer-assisted proofs that are all but impossible to check by hand, Hales thinks computers must become the judge."

Three years ago, Vladimir Voevodsky, one of the organizers of a new program on the foundations of mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., discovered that a formal logic system that was developed by computer scientists, called "type theory" could be used to re-create the entire mathematical universe from scratch. Type theory is consistent with the mathematical axioms, but couched in the language of computers. Voevodsky believes this alternative way to formalize mathematics, which he has renamed the univalent foundations of mathematics, will streamline the process of formal theorem proving. Voevodsky and his team are adapting a program named Coq, which was designed to formally verify computer algorithms, for use in abstract mathematics.

also btw, speaking of mathematical revolutions, from a historical perspective, check out The Man of Numbers: Fibonacci's Arithmetic Revolution - "Before the 13th century Europeans used Roman numerals to do arithmetic. Leonardo of Pisa, better known today as Fibonacci, is largely responsible for the adoption of the Hindu–Arabic numeral system in Europe, which revolutionized not only mathematics but commerce and trade as well. How did the system spread from the Arab world to Europe, and what would our lives be without it?"

Making Math Fun

netbros — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 16:34:21 -0800

Is your elementary school youngster struggling with math? Are they a visual person? Would math games and videos help them learn? Enter Math Playground, to assist with problem solving and real world math. Try the enticing logic game Sugar, Sugar or beef up your math word problem skills. There are plenty of games to help educate while entertaining.

bons mots, poems, math, knitting and logic

nickyskye — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 20:00:52 -0800

Entertaining, collected bon mots and surprisingly interesting, collected poems by various authors. From a likable math brainiac's site, Dr T.E. Forster, a Cambridge University lecturer. He also knits and writes about Buddhist logic [pdf]. Bonus, there's a fun gif.

FFFMMMMMMVVVVVV

lemuring — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 11:57:24 -0800

FFF: MMMMMM is a flash game that takes the game mechanics of the indie hit VVVVVV and transforms them from a fast-twitch platform game to a puzzle platformer.

The game consists of one map.

The rules of gravity have a discernible logic, though they may seem strange at first.

The ending is a simple ending screen.

All the cool kids know their logical fallacies!

Miko — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 09:01:55 -0800

Your Logical Fallacy Is... complete with free downloadable infographic poster.

The problem with slippery slope arguments is that once you start using them you quickly move on to other fallacies

DRMacIver — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 05:07:11 -0800

An illustrated guide to common logical fallacies as well as well as a very nice worked example of the fallacies involved in Cardinal Keith O'Brien's recent(ish) article against gay marriage.

Critical thinking for kids

latkes — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 12:28:10 -0800

A series of short animations explaining critical thinking. Created for children and pretty good for adults too.

Caution: Intense geekery inside

bitmage — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 13:55:38 -0800

Pipe Logic "Suppose the null-byte is an electron. Then, /dev/zero provides an infinite supply of electrons and /dev/null has an infinite appetite for them..." Modeling transistors and logic gates using Unix pipes.

Evil influence? Only for your productivity.

The Winsome Parker Lewis — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 08:35:31 -0800

Masyu, also known as Pearls, is an NP-complete logic puzzle created by the makers of Sudoku. Brandon McPhail provides a few free puzzles to get your feet wet on his web site (Java applet). Once you've mastered those, UCLICK Games offers a free daily puzzle (Flash) with the past month of archives available too. If you have an iOS device, TootSweet's free Masyu app includes a large number of puzzles. The company also makes an easy collection and a challenging one, both free as well.

Thinking Machine

twoleftfeet — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 02:50:35 -0800

Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, Ph.D., LL.D., F.R.S., M.D., M.D.S.^* is a fictional character in a series of detective short stories and two novels by Jacques Futrelle. Van Dusen was also known as "The Thinking Machine" for his application of logic to any and all situations. Most of Futrelle's stories are online. Futrelle himself went down with the Titanic.

G.H. Hardy reviews Principia Mathematica

escabeche — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 14:37:37 -0800

"Perhaps twenty or thirty people in England may be expected to read this book." G.H. Hardy's review of Whitehead and Russell's Principia Mathematica, published in the Times Literary Supplement 100 years ago last week. "The time has passed when a philosopher can afford to be ignorant of mathematics, and a little perseverance will be well rewarded. It will be something to learn how many of the spectres that have haunted philosophers modern mathematics has finally laid to rest."

"Mr. Cortex, We Love You!"

overeducated_alligator — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 09:20:25 -0800

In the early 1960s, actor/comedian/writer/composer/TV-star Steve Allen recorded How to Think, an educational album about the brain and the mind. Appropriately bicameral, one side of the record consisted of spoken-word vignettes and jazzy jingles about the various parts of the brain. The other side gave listeners an introduction to logical reasoning and how to be a responsible thinker. Allen, a lifelong skeptic and activist for secular humanism, composed the music and narrated, joined by his wife, Jayne Meadows, and their young son Bill. Songs and topics include: - "Thank Goodness That You've Got a Cerebellum" - "Look for the Evidence" - the difference between fact and opinion - the difference between concrete and abstract - why it's important to control your emotions Another online source for this record, which includes a transcription of the liner notes, can be found here: http://www.bargainclownmart.com/howToThink/howToThink.html

Kill Math

naight — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 06:47:20 -0800

Bret Victor on WorryDream The power to understand and predict the quantities of the world should not be restricted to those with a freakish knack for manipulating abstract symbols. When most people speak of Math, what they have in mind is more its mechanism than its essence. This "Math" consists of assigning meaning to a set of symbols, blindly shuffling around these symbols according to arcane rules, and then interpreting a meaning from the shuffled result. The process is not unlike casting lots.

Logic. Do you speak it?

lemuring — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 07:30:46 -0800

Impasse is a simple flash-based puzzle game that involves getting your object from point A to B.
Notes:

Levels you complete can be scrolled through using "x" to move to the next level and "d" to return the level select button to the first level.

The browser saves your progress, so you can close your tab/browser and return to it later.

What is the title of this post?

Trurl — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 19:42:55 -0800

92 years young, the delightful Raymond Smullyan is a mathematician, logician, magician, concert pianist, and Taoist philosopher - who also pioneered retrograde chess problems.

Big Kids Will Love Them Too

bwg — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 04:43:17 -0800

"Cubelets is a robot construction kit; by combining sensor, logic and actuator blocks, young kids can create simple reconfigurable robots that exhibit surprisingly complex behavior." Watch the Cubelets Engineering Prototypes demo (1.01) on Vimeo. "The cubelets standard kit comes with 20 magnetic blocks that can be snapped together to make an endless variety of robots with no programming and no wires. You can build robots that drive around on a tabletop, respond to light, sound, and temperature, and have surprisingly lifelike behavior. But instead of programming that behavior, you snap the cubelets together and watch the behavior emerge like with a flock of birds or a swarm of bees." "Each cubelet in the kit has different equipment on board and a different default behavior. There are Sense Blocks that act like our eyes and ears, Action blocks, and Think blocks. Just like with people, the senses are the inputs to the system."

I shall call it... NAWNCO.

lemuring — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 13:39:08 -0800

A logic puzzle called NAWNCO.

Picma Squared

Ufez Jones — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 15:29:10 -0800

Picma Squared (flash, game) "You got your Picross in my Minesweeper!" "You got your Minesweeper in my Picross!" Kongregate version with badges. Previous MeFi post for the original version of Picma.

My name is Modus Tollens, and I help you spot cheaters.

fartknocker — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 09:40:46 -0800

Subjects don't need formal logic training. They don't need math or philosophy. Fewer than 10 percent of the participants got it right when Peter Cathcart Wason performed his 1966 study, the Wason Selection Task. But according to an essay by Bruce Schneier referencing the work of evolutionary psychologists Leda Cosmides and John Tooby, that number improves, by 65 to 80 percent "...when the rule has to do with cheating and privilege."

All glasses see Sun, therefore all glasses are sunglasses

twoleftfeet — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 03:15:37 -0800

Logical fallacies: 1, 2, 4, 7, 9, 16.

DOES. NOT. COMPUTE!

Horace Rumpole — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 13:59:08 -0800

The next time your computer won't do what you want, just give it a stern talking-to.

Logical literacy is essential to mathematical fluency.

jjray — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 17:50:45 -0800

Logical literacy is an awareness and understanding of the metalanguage in which propositions, conjectures, lemmas and theorems are written.

Each of us a cell of awareness, imperfect and incomplete

jtron — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 08:49:03 -0800

Rhetorical analysis of Rush's "Free Will"

Online statistics textbook

AceRock — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 09:23:30 -0800

Interested in teaching yourself some statistics? Here is an excellent online and interactive statistics textbook developed at UC Berkeley, and also used at CUNY, UCSC, SJSU, and Bard. Here is the syllabus for the course at Berkeley. And here are some insightful reflections from the professor on developing Berkeley's first fully approved online course.

Logic Puzzles

flatluigi — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 14:37:33 -0800

Since 1980, Nikoli^{^} has been in the business of creating many different variations of logic puzzles (such as the very popular Sudoku and Kakuro). Unfortunately, as they're stationed in Tokyo, their magazine is unavailable to most Americans.

Luckily, over the decades they've inspired quite a few people to make their own puzzles and variants, including:

The Art of Puzzles, by Thomas Snyder (updated weekly, plus bonuses)
A Cleverly-Titled Logic Puzzle Blog, by Grant Fikes (updated several times a week)
Melon's Puzzles, by Palmer Mebane (updated daily)
Detuned Radio, by Tom Collyer (updated weekly)