...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.

*********************************************************************************************
"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, December 5, 2014

First Potpourri of December


Dig in....

1)  For the puzzle-minded, John Allen Paulos wrote up this clever one last weekend:
http://tinyurl.com/kungkts

2)   Evelyn Lamb experiences "existential angst" over music and integers... and that's a fascinating thing for the rest of us (but what would Sartre think? ;-):
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/roots-of-unity/2014/11/30/the-saddest-thing-i-know-about-the-integers/

3)  In praise of Inquiry-based Learning (IBL) (h/t to Patrick Honner for pointing out this AMS piece):
http://tinyurl.com/p4stnh8

4)   Laura at "Math For Grownups" wants to interview people about how they use math in their jobs/careers:
http://www.mathforgrownups.com/let-me-interview-you-for-a-math-at-work-monday-post/

5)  Matt Parker is excited about the Stern-Brocot sequence. See why, via Numberphile:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpwUVExX27E&feature=youtu.be

6)  Someone (I lost track of who) tweeted a link this week to this relatively new site that looks interesting (for sparking mathematical thought/ideas):
http://maththunks.weebly.com/

7)  Alexander Bogomolny reviewed "The Best Writing On Mathematics 2014" here:
http://tinyurl.com/p28acrz

8)  The fascinating case of a misprint in a 1970 math paper that gets Brian Hayes investigating:
http://bit-player.org/2014/four-fifths-a-fifth

9)  Not even exactly sure why, but a basic piece on prime numbers made it into the "Business Insider" yesterday:
http://www.businessinsider.com/prime-number-unsolved-problems-2014-12

10)  Per usual, you can check out MikesMathPage to see what Mike Lawler & the boys have been up to this week:  http://mikesmathpage.wordpress.com/
Since we're approaching gift-giving time, you might want to start with Mike's positive review of a recent new math board game from our fellow bloggers over at Math For Love:
http://tinyurl.com/pc6hxcu

11)  And lastly, I'm still curious (over at Math-Frolic) if anyone knows who "Andy Naughton" is and how did he end up reading minds? ;-) :
http://math-frolic.blogspot.com/2014/12/deja-vu-revisiting-flash-mind-reader.html

Have a good weekend all!....


No comments:

Post a Comment