MetaFilter posts tagged with mathematics and math

Math Overflow

escabeche — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 12:28:26 -0800

Math Overflow is the first attempt to use the Stack Exchange platform, already popular with programmers, as a scientific research tool. Founded this month by a group of young mathematicians, including Scott Morrison and Ben Webster of the Secret Blogging Seminar, the site is already wrestling with hundreds of questions, ranging from the technical ("When is a map given by a word surjective?") to the historical ("Most interesting mathematics mistake?")

Figure 3. Basic model outbreak scenario. Susceptibles are quickly eradicated and zombies take over, infecting everyone.

brundlefly — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 12:03:37 -0800

When Zombies Attack!: Mathematical Modelling of an Outbreak of Zombie Infection [pdf] (via)

Gimme That Old Time Derivation

DU — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 05:37:41 -0800

The Cornell Historical Math Monographs archive has a great many famous papers, including works by De Morgan, Hamilton, Descartes (warning: French) and of course Lewis Carroll. Found while searching for this interesting paper.

Computable data* (conceivably knowable) about people

kliuless — Fri, 01 May 2009 06:42:19 -0800

Stephen Wolfram discusses Wolfram|Alpha: Computational Knowledge Engine - at the same time Google Adds Search to Public Data, viz: "Nobody really paid attention to the two hour snorecast" -- like a cross between designing for big data and a glossary of game theory terms -- on Wolfram|Alpha (previously), yet the veil is being lifted nonetheless: "[on] a platonic search engine, unearthing eternal truths that may never have been written down before," cf. hunch & cyc (and in other startup news...) [via] *boiling it down to that which can be computed (about the world)

Information doesn't want to be scale free

escabeche — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 22:48:33 -0800

"the scale-free network modeing paradigm is largely inconsistent with the engineered nature of the Internet..." For a decade it's been conventional wisdom that the Internet has a scale-free topology, in which the number of links emanating from a site obeys a power law. In other words, the Internet has a long tail; compared with a completely random network, its structure is dominated by a few very highly connected nodes, while the rest of the web consists of a gigantic list of sites attached to hardly anything. Among its other effects, this makes the web highly vulnerable to epidemics. The power law on the internet has inspired a vast array of research by computer scientists, mathematicians, and engineers. According to an article in this month's Notices of the American Math Society, it's all wrong. How could so many scientists make this kind of mistake? Statistician Cosma Shalizi explains how people see power laws when they aren't there: "Abusing linear regression makes the baby Gauss cry."

The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences

parudox — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 10:37:33 -0800

Ever wondered what comes next, and why? The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences has the answers. (Previously.)

MacTutor History of Mathematics archive

parudox — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 12:47:09 -0800

The MacTutor History of Mathematics archive is an astounding collection of historical material on mathematics, especially biographies. (Previously: 1 2 3 4.)

A vote for "The Indefatigable Frog" is a vote for posterity.

Minus215Cee — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 03:07:06 -0800

"Do you like fiction and mathematics? Are you interested in what our society thinks about mathematicians?" Paraphrased: "Of the many works of fiction that are published or filmed, very few involve mathematics or mathematicians. However, people who like mathematics (or are mathematicians ourselves) may especially enjoy reading/seeing those few that do. Moreover, mathematicians should be interested in these works of "mathematical fiction" even if we do not enjoy them because they both affect and reflect the non-mathematician's view of this subject." (previously, previously (5th link), previously, previously)

All Things Mathematical

piers — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 21:22:53 -0800

Somewhere between 538 and xkcd, Ask Doctor Math is an advice column for practical math questions. So far he's covered the meaning of "average", the statistics of being middle class (in response to this article at the NYT, previously), the Infinite Monkey Theorem, and the chance of Ruth Bader Ginsburg dying in the next 5 years, among other topics.

Exponential, what it do?

madamjujujive — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 10:01:38 -0800

Division: Work it out! - these girls be spittin the math.

Math Education: An Inconvenient Truth

davar — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 03:02:27 -0800

Math Education: An Inconvenient Truth. How children learn (or: don't learn) math today. The video explains the new ways children are taught division and multiplication and what is wrong with new new math (not to be confused with the new math that was taught in the sixties) or whole math. From the textbook in the video:The authors of Everyday Mathematics do not believe it is worth students’ time and effort to fully develop highly efficient paper-and-pencil algorithms for all possible whole-number, fraction, and decimal division problems. Mastery of the intricacies of such algorithms is a huge endeavor, one that experience tells us is doomed to failure for many students. It is simply counter-productive to invest many hours of precious class time on such algorithms. The mathematical payoff is not worth the cost, particularly because quotients can be found quickly and accurately with a calculator.

Bite me, Larry Summers.

kyrademon — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 22:42:19 -0800

No gender differences found in math performance. None. Not on average, at least in countries where the sexes are treated equally. And no, not at the highest, outlier levels of mathematical ability, either, despite what some believe. And not in number of undergrad math degrees earned. And not in terms of complex problem solving ability. Just plain not.

Rock the streets

Blazecock Pileon — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 23:47:21 -0800

Whether you want to learn to lace shoes, tie shoelaces, stop shoelaces from coming undone, calculate shoelace lengths or even repair aglets, Ian's Shoelace Site has the answer!

Behind Door Number One...

amyms — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 18:10:14 -0800

The Monty Hall Problem has struck again, and this time it’s not merely embarrassing mathematicians. If the calculations of a Yale economist are correct, there’s a sneaky logical fallacy in some of the most famous experiments in psychology." The NY Times' John Tierney reports on new research into cognitive dissonance as examined through the famous Monty Hall Problem. [A previous MetaFilter thread about the Monty Hall Problem: Let's Make A Deal!]

Would you like to play a game?

Blazecock Pileon — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 00:29:28 -0800

Fun and games with mathematics and mathematical puzzles (e.g. heart basket, Rubik's Cube, Rubik's Magic, hypercubes, and more) in both English and (with yet more content in) German.

Cut The Knot

parudox — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 23:52:10 -0800

Interactive mathematics miscellany and puzzles, including 75 proofs of the Pythagorean Theorem, an interactive column using Java applets, and eye-opening demonstrations. (Actually, much more.)

Life is complex: it has both real and imaginary components

Blazecock Pileon — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 05:31:50 -0800

More than fifty selected articles from The Princeton Companion of Mathematics (username: Guest, password: PCM) — a thematically-organized compendium of mathematics and mathematicians from Fields Medal-winner Tim Gowers. [via, previously]

Mathematics vs. Democracy: A Clear Winner or a Tie Game?

jonp72 — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 12:11:39 -0800

The Marquis de Condorcet and Admiral Jean-Charles de Borda were two men of the French Enlightenment who struggled with how to design voting systems that accurately reflected voters' preferences. Condorcet favored a method that required the winner in a multiparty election to win a series of head-to-head contests, but he also discovered that his method easily led to a paradoxes that produced no clear winners. The Borda method avoids the Condorcet paradox by requiring voters to rank choices numerically in order of preference, but this method is flawed because the withdrawal of a last-place candidate can reverse the election results. Mathematicians in the 19th century attempted to design better voting systems, including Lewis Carroll, who favored an early form of proportional representation. Economist Kenneth Arrow argued that designing a perfect voting system was futile, because his "impossibility theorem" proved that it's impossible to design a non-dictatorial voting system that fulfills five basic criteria of fairness. (more inside)

Math + Vishnu = Really Fast Math

frogan — Mon, 28 May 2007 00:12:34 -0800

What is the square of 85? In an instant, a 17-year-old boy said without blinking, "7,225." Kamlesh Shetty had used a trick from a quaint concept called Vedic math, a compilation of arithmetic shortcuts believed to have been written by ancient Indians who lived centuries before Christ, during a glorious period in Indian history called the Vedic Age. More on Vedic math. Still more. And there's a similar system called the Trachtenberg system, invented in a Nazi concentration camp. Where were these guys when I was in the third grade struggling with my times tables?

Mathematics in Movies

nthdegx — Sun, 06 May 2007 06:59:39 -0800

Mathematics in Movies.

Aptitude Schmaptitude!: innumeracy in America

jason's_planet — Thu, 03 May 2007 07:30:58 -0800

Aptitude Schmaptitude! While the state of mathematical incompetence in this country has been much lamented, most famously in Paulos's brilliant 1988 book Innumeracy, it is still tacitly accepted . . . Being incompetent in math has become not only acceptable in this widely innumerate culture, it has almost become a matter of pride. No one goes around showing off that he is illiterate, or has no athletic ability, but declarations of innumeracy are constantly made without any embarrassment or shame.

The Narrow Road

phrontist — Tue, 01 May 2007 13:46:26 -0800

The Narrow Road : in which a professional mathematician guides you through pure mathematics (and touches on tangential issues).

E8 Structure Decoded

ericb — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 16:50:51 -0800

Math Team Solves the Unsolvable E8
"If you thought writing calculations to describe 3-D objects in math class was hard, consider doing the same for one with 248 dimensions. Mathematicians call such an object E₈, a symmetrical structure whose mathematical calculation has long been considered an unsolvable problem. Yet an international team of math whizzes cracked E₈'s symmetrical code in a large-scale computing project, which produced about 60 gigabytes of data. If they were to show their handiwork on paper, the written equation would cover an area the size of Manhattan."

My blog is smarter than your blog.

escabeche — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 06:23:32 -0800

Alain Connes has a blog. Terry Tao also has a blog. Two Fields medalists blog on open problems, their views on mathematics, and Tomb Raider. Timothy Gowers doesn't have a blog, but does have a compendium of informal essays on topics like Why is multiplication commutative? If you prefer pictures to words: Faces of Mathematics.

In Soviet Russia, sponge soaks you

Blazecock Pileon — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 12:37:35 -0800

Dr. Jeannine Mosely finishes building a level-3 Menger sponge from business cards. You can also build your own, though Dr. Mosely warns, "[a] level 4 sponge would require almost a million cards and weigh over a ton. I do not believe it could support its own weight — so a level 3 is the biggest sponge we can hope to build." (related)