...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, May 23, 2014

Friday Potpourri


Some links from the last 10 days or so (many of which I've tweeted, but not blog-posted about):

1)  The inimitable John Conway in conversation at Numberphile (at the end speaking almost reverentially of "the Monster group"):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOCe5HUObD4&feature=youtu.be

And Numberphile's own attempt to explain the Monster group here: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsSeoGpiWsw&feature=youtu.be

2) Robert Talbert continued his series about skepticism over "flipped" classrooms here:
http://tinyurl.com/lz8uqp2

3) Joselle Kehoe of "Mathematics Rising" on some of the details of the Jason Padgett "acquired savant" syndrome story:
http://mathrising.com/?p=1155

4) Monkeys, hypercubes, quaternions, and Vi Hart from Evelyn Lamb:
http://tinyurl.com/lrfqd6m

5) Some fun and interesting math history here:
http://mathematigal.com/home/2014/5/20/a-mathematical-history-tour

6) 3 camps of math students... "Muddling along," "completely lost," and "completely comfortable":
http://mathmisery.com/wp/2014/05/20/some-cute-integrals-intermission/

7) Some possible variations on the traditional "I (heart) Math" bumper sticker:
http://visualizingmath.tumblr.com/post/86363962441/i-mathematics

8) Commentary from Dan Meyer on futurists as "adaptive learning" enthusiasts:
http://tinyurl.com/odqt32y

9) Interesting post on the Friday get-togethers one university math dept. came up with to "inspire" and "hook" their math majors:
http://maamathedmatters.blogspot.com/2014/05/hooking-student_22.html

10) Lastly, a couple of probability conundrums from "Futility Closet" this week:
http://www.futilitycloset.com/2014/05/21/two-olive-problems/



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