...a companion blog to "Math-Frolic," specifically for interviews, book reviews, weekly-linkfests, and longer posts or commentary than usually found at the Math-Frolic site.

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"Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty – a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture, without appeal to any part of our weaker nature, without the gorgeous trappings of painting or music, yet sublimely pure, and capable of a stern perfection such as only the greatest art can show." ---Bertrand Russell (1907) Rob Gluck

"I have come to believe, though very reluctantly, that it [mathematics] consists of tautologies. I fear that, to a mind of sufficient intellectual power, the whole of mathematics would appear trivial, as trivial as the statement that a four-legged animal is an animal." ---Bertrand Russell (1957)

******************************************************************** Rob Gluck

Friday, September 4, 2015

Another Week, More Math...


ICYM any of these:

1)  More John Conway via Siobhan Roberts and Quanta Magazine:
https://www.quantamagazine.org/20150828-john-conway-a-life-in-games/

2)  Samantha Oestreicher writes of her journey to becoming a mathematician:
http://socialmathematics.net/2015/08/31/social-norms-and-other-challenges/

...in related matters, NPR reported this week on the math gender disparity issue in youngsters:
http://tinyurl.com/ocu8xqd

3)  Distinguishing between "a pattern" and a "repeating block" (when it comes to pi):
http://tinyurl.com/nelzwra

4) 
A new Numberphile video this week with Ed Frenkel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFkZGpN4wmM&feature=youtu.be

5) 
Joselle Kehoe takes a look at cognition by way of computers, mathematical proof, and foundational theory:
http://mathrising.com/?p=1322
 

6)  For the sake of "critical thinking," "everyone needs to take a class in statistics" (from Slate):
http://tinyurl.com/nbxsjr5

7)  NPR'
s "Science Friday" covered the replication-in-psychology controversy last Friday:
http://sciencefriday.com/segment/08/28/2015/putting-scientific-research-to-the-test.html


...and a few days ago I linked to Deborah Mayo's take on the brouhaha:
http://math-frolic.blogspot.com/2015/09/parsing-failure-to-replicate.html

8) 
h/t to Patrick Honner for passing along this interactive geometry game I'd not heard of (haven't explored it much, but if Patrick recommends it that's good enough for me):
http://isohedral.net/goodfences/

9) 
Once again, Ben Orlin grows a smile on my face... this time with Haikus! (which is your favorite?):
http://mathwithbaddrawings.com/2015/09/02/the-mathematicians-haiku-book/

 (...dare he try limericks next? ;-)

10) 
This "curious equality" from Futility Closet (via John Conway) got passed around a bit during the week: 
http://www.futilitycloset.com/2015/09/02/a-curious-equality/

11)  Robert Talbert discusses the classic 'Wason selection test' and the importance of context:
http://rtalbert.org/blog/2015/quick-puzzle/ 

12)  Interesting ecology/nature read... the mathematics of predator-prey relations (h/t Egan Chernoff):
http://tinyurl.com/opjr5lo

13)  Mike Lawler and his two able assistants did loads of math this week:
https://mikesmathpage.wordpress.com

14)  I'll end this week with Jason Rosenhouse's entry on political correctness while being a math professor:
http://scienceblogs.com/evolutionblog/2015/09/03/back-to-school/


Potpourri BONUS! (extra NON-mathematical links of interest):

a couple of 'cerebral' choices this week:

1)  h/t to Lior Pachter for pointing out this long, interesting piece on genetics and human variation:
http://cshperspectives.cshlp.org/content/7/9/a023358.full

2)  and h/t to David Montgomery for this David-Auerbach introduction to Wittgenstein:
http://tinyurl.com/qzeacu3


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