MetaFilter posts tagged with mathematics

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?")

cosmic spiral visuals

nickyskye — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 07:56:21 -0800

The Anatomy of Spiral Arms, shows how galaxies naturally evolve to form grand-design two-arm spirals. The Hubble Ultra Deep Field in 3D. A Visual Dictionary of Special Plane Curves. Spiral galaxies make up approximately 60% of galaxies in the local Universe. The Equiangular Spiral Grand Design Spiral Galaxy M81 l Barred Spiral Galaxies Are Latecomers to the Universe From SpiralZoom, an intriguing tidbit on spiral consciousness, from I am a Strange Loop Previously.

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)

3D Mapping

netbros — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 17:44:55 -0800

Durango Bill's Home Page. With topics that include: 3D end-to-end tour of the Grand Canyon, the origin and formation of the Colorado River, and examples of river systems that cut through mountain ranges instead of taking easier routes around them in Ancestral Rivers of the World. But if geology and 3D mapping isn't your thing, Bill also entertains and informs with his evaluations of creationism and religious cultists, an energy/oil analysis, gaming probability analysis, graph and number theories and applied mathematics. Durango Bill is a busy dude.

Surely not joking, Mr. Feynman

hindmost — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:21:53 -0800

"I can see the audience tonight, so I can see also from the size of it that there must many of you here who are not thoroughly familiar with physics, and also a number that are not too versed in mathematics- and I don't doubt that there are some who know neither physics nor mathematics very well. That puts a considerable challenge on a speaker who is going to speak on the relation of physics and mathematics- a challenge which I, however, will not accept: I published the title of the talk in clear and precise language, and didn't make it sound like it was something it wasn't- it's the relation of physics and mathematics - and if you find that in some spots it assumes some minor knowledge of physics or mathematics, I cannot help it. It was named." The Feynman Messenger series at Cornell has been made available online for the first time thanks to Bill Gates.

Algorithmic Music

netbros — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 08:21:35 -0800

The principles of Harmonics were discovered by Pythagoras c.587-c.507 B.C. during travels to Egypt and throughout the ancient world. Hans Kayser made a profound philosophic study of harmonics in the 20th century. Algorithmic composition is the technique of using harmonic algorithms to create music. Drew Lesso has been creating algorithmic music since 1975. Samples like Crystal, Constellations, or Planet Earth demonstrate the math behind the music. Over the years, Lesso has collaborated with many other musicians and poets to create an airy, evolutionary legacy.

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.

He laughed like an irresponsible foetus

TheophileEscargot — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 02:30:17 -0800

Parts 1, 2, 3 of a 1959 interview with philosopher, mathematician and peace campaigner Bertrand Russell (1872-1970). Works and pictures online include Anti-suffragist Anxieties, Why I am not a Christian, the Russell-Einstein Manifesto against nuclear weapons and the book The Conquest of Happiness. Russell is also known for his pithy quotes, his teapot and was the subject of poem Mr Apollinax by T.S. Eliot.

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)

I See Your "The Watchmen," and I Raise You "Logicomix"

incompressible — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 16:42:50 -0800

Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth by Apostolos Doxiadis, Christos H. Papadimitriou, Alecos Papadatos, and Annie Di Donna. Covering a span of sixty years, the graphic novel Logicomix was inspired by the epic story of the quest for the Foundations of Mathematics. This is another kind of epic battle that does not quite lead where the characters thought it would take them. Featuring Bertrand Russell as narrator and the awesome might of the villain (of sorts) Incompleteness. Themes include the high personal price paid for knowledge.

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 H&FJ Institute for Unapplied Mathematics

netbros — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 08:27:28 -0800

Joe Palca, a science correspondent for NPR's Morning Edition, was meditating on the best way to convey the magnitude of the world's largest known prime number, 2^43112609-1. He contacted H&FJ at Typography.com to discuss the implications of typesetting a number with more than twelve million digits. Crunching of numbers and fonts ensued.

Fun for all ages, dimensions.

Eideteker — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 06:15:05 -0800

Topology and Geometry Software by Jeff Weeks.

Does Your Answer Seem Right?

Electric Dragon — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 03:41:39 -0800

NYT Guesstimation Quiz. Enrico Fermi estimated the yield of the Trinity A-bomb test by dropping some shredded paper. He also asked his students to estimate unusual quantities like the number of piano tuners in Chicago - to show that just about anything can be estimated without detailed knowledge.

dY dVorce = ?

UbuRoivas — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 15:48:54 -0800

Oxford Professor & Fellow of the Royal Society James Murray uses mathematical modelling to predict whether a marriage will survive or end in divorce, with 94% accuracy. His lecture to the Royal Society will be available for view on demand within two days.

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)

Homework Helper

netbros — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 21:39:07 -0800

World of Science contains budding encyclopedias of astronomy, scientific biography, chemistry, and physics. This resource has been assembled over more than a decade by internet encyclopedist Eric Weisstein with assistance from the internet community. MeFi visited Weisstein's Mathworld a couple years ago.

Real mathematics is (or at least should be) algorithmic. The axiomatic method is like machine language or a Turing machine or a Tuxedo. It is very stifling.

orthogonality — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 09:32:54 -0800

One night, very late, I was browsing the internet, using my current computer, Shalosh B. Ekhad, III. I was searching for "Ekhad". All of a sudden, to my amazement, I chanced on a website whose last update was Sept. 30, 2050, and found this little Elementary Geometry textbook. This text may seem a bit strange to 2001 humans. It appears that there are no proofs, only statements, in Maple, using English-based names for the definitions and theorems. But THE STATEMENT IS THE PROOF, ready to be run on Maple, that will output "true" if the proof-statement is correct, and "false" otherwise. Example: Napoleon's theorem, involves two definitions: ItIsEquilateral and CET. ItIsEquilateral involves DeSq. DeSq is primitive. CET uses Circumcenter, Circumcenter involves the primitive definitions Ce, and Center. Hence in order to understand the statement of Napoleon's theorem you only need to look up the definitions: Ce, Center, CET, Circumcenter, DeSq and ItIsEquilateral, and get a completely self-contained statement of the so-called Napoleon Theorem. Then to prove it, first download RENE, then get into Maple by typing: "maple" (without the quotes); once inside Maple, type: "read RENE;" (without the quotes), and then "Napoleon();" (without the quotes). You should immediately get the response of the computer: true.

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.

The Spherical Wave Structure of Matter in Space

netbros — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 16:05:00 -0800

On Truth and Reality. Despite several thousand years of failure to correctly understand physical reality (hence the current postmodern view that this is impossible) it is actually very simple to work out how matter exists and moves about in Space. The rules of Science (Occam's Razor / Simplicity) and Metaphysics (Dynamic Unity of Reality) require that reality be described from only one single source existing, as Leibniz wrote: "because of the interconnection of all things with one another." The Four Main Purposes of this Website 1. To help people understand truth and reality 2. To realize that we are structures of the universe 3. To solve the central problems of knowledge 4. To share this knowledge with others Deduce the most simple science theory of reality, the wave structure of matter in Space, then deduce from this to show that it works. There is no opinion involved - it shows that science does work - we just needed the correct (most simple) foundations. Given the Wave Structure of Matter in Space it is now possible to explain what mathematics is, how it can exist in the universe, and thus why it is so well suited for describing physical quantities (mathematical physics). We can simplify Einstein's foundations of representing matter as continuous fields in space-time, to waves in continuous space. It does lead to a very simple, sensible foundation for understanding physical reality, and thus how you exist in the universe. This article basically explains the main subjects of quantum theory from a Wave Structure of Matter foundation (wave mechanics). If you prefer shorter summaries just browse the quantum physics links on either side of the page. The purpose of the Cosmology page is to simply explain the two cosmology theories that are consistent with current observations. You will need a basic understanding of the Wave Structure of Matter (WSM) before you read it. This WSM cosmology is actually describing what you really are, how you exist in this space of the universe and interact with everything around you. There is a revolution coming in the foundations of our knowledge because we have solved the central problem of metaphysics, of what exists (space) that causes and connects the many things we experience (waves in space that form matter, the discrete and separate particle an illusion of our limited senses). Matter is large, a structure of space, and this truth about reality will change humanity. If we are to discuss God and Religion, it is obvious that we must clearly define the meaning of these words (as all words are human constructions). In Philosophy God is generally referred to as the One thing that exists, infinite and eternal, that causes and connects the many things. Likewise, Religion, from Latin 'religare' meaning 'to bind', describes our connection to God as the One thing which exists. From this foundation we then see the clear connection between the sciences of philosophy, physics, metaphysics, and theology, as they are all founded on this Reality of One thing existing. As humans have evolved from Nature they ultimately depend upon Nature for their survival. Until we understand what we are as humans (what matter is) and how we are connected to the universe (reality), it is impossible for humanity to be wise, and to be able to evolve cultural knowledge that enables us to live in harmony with Nature. It is well known that our senses are deceptive, that when we see things as being separate and discrete bodies this is an illusion. Using science terminology then all we are really talking about is evolution and ecology. That all things in the universe (including life on earth) are interconnected and changing (the dynamic unity of reality). Teaching people how to think correctly and to use language carefully (to work out the truth for themselves) is a pretty good start for education (i.e. by teaching philosophy to students from a young age). If we are to improve human societies (which has become an urgent problem) we must consider the forces that determine their evolution. And four of the most significant factors are market economics, politics, education (the knowledge foundations of the people) and Nature.

Exponential, what it do?

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

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

You and Your Research

parudox — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 19:23:16 -0800

You and Your Research was a talk given by Richard Hamming in 1986. Read it if you have an interest in doing first-class work.

art and science folded together

nickyskye — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 13:54:29 -0800

MetaFilter's Eric Gjerde has just come out with a book, Origami Tessellations: Awe-Inspiring Geometric Designs. Eric also makes really unusual, complex and mathematically interesting origami. His site has all kinds of cool things to look at and explore, like Owen Jones' The Grammar of Ornament, Joel Cooper's amazing paper sculptures and Ernst Haeckel's awesome book, Kunst-Formen der Natur. Previously.