Week's Additional Links

Some additional links to pass along, that I didn't already mention in blogposts this week:

1) just yesterday Sol Lederman linked to this recent Math StackExchange page of "Visually stunning math concepts which are easy to explain" -- that says it all:

http://tinyurl.com/pkxjzax

(nice examples and variety)

2) Long, interesting 1999 piece from Alfie Kohn (pointed out by "Matthew Maddux" this week) arguing for the "constructivist" approach to teaching mathematics.

http://www.alfiekohn.org/teaching/math.htm

3) Platonism vs. Nominalism vs. Aristotelian realism in mathematics… philosophical discussion from Aeon:

http://aeon.co/magazine/world-views/what-is-left-for-mathematics-to-be-about/

4) Lots of probability stuff via this webpage, "Chance News 98" (passed along by Steven Strogatz):

http://test.causeweb.org/wiki/chance/index.php/Chance_News_98

5) an older Quora question on paradoxes that just crossed my email this week; includes some interesting, mostly fairly standard, stuff:

http://tinyurl.com/laknlwt

6)  MIT takes first place in 2013 Putnam Contest:  http://tech.mit.edu/V134/N16/putnam.html

7) And for a last bit of entertainment, Cliff Pickover tweets this 3x3 magic square from Harry Nelson that is composed of ONLY consecutive primes (pretty impressive!):

https://twitter.com/pickover/status/454363196925554688/photo/1