...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 13, 2016

Friday the 13th Potpourri (read at your own risk)


A somewhat short selection this week:

1)
  Steven Strogatz talking about math education (and being "stuck" in 1960s thinking) on "Innovation Hub" podcast:
https://soundcloud.com/innovationhub/should-we-teach-less-math

2)  ...and related to above, Jason Wilkes and Bob Sun on learning mathematics (12-min. podcast):
https://viewpointsradio.wordpress.com/2016/05/08/16-19-segment-2-the-formula-to-make-learning-math-easy/
...see my overview of Wilkes' new book here:
http://mathtango.blogspot.com/2016/05/feel-burn.html

3)  Some varieties of graphical representation considered, using gun violence as an example:
https://socialmathematics.net/2016/05/09/visualization-of-gun-laws-and-gun-violence/

4)  Of geometry, triangular cakes, and cuts (from DataGenetics):
http://datagenetics.com/blog/may12016/index.html

5)  A compendium of problems from Stephen Cavadino:
https://cavmaths.wordpress.com/puzzles-and-starters/

6)  Math teacher Fawn Nguyen's writing has always been touching to read... fun, thoughtful, moving, unpredictable; you never know what to expect. So it's a particular joy that for the month of May she has been posting most days at her blog "Finding Ways":
http://fawnnguyen.com

7)  Kids write the darnedest things:
http://indy100.independent.co.uk/article/this-kid-has-the-kind-of-genius-you-cant-teach-in-school--Wkg19SHPGW


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

1)  Crisis in replication in science... pharmaceutical giant Merck may want its money back:
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601348/merck-wants-its-money-back-if-university-research-is-wrong/

2)  and speaking of science, John Oliver had a few notable things to say last week -- pretty much went viral, but in case you were vacationing in Siberia and missed it:





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