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Category Archives: Mathematics
Different surfaces have different n-color map theorems
Via Cliff Pickover’s entertaining and educational Twitter timeline, we discovered this beautiful essay by Evelyn Lamb, a promising postdoc at the University of Utah. Dr Lamb describes the fascinating and paradoxical topology of a strange surface–the Möbius strip–a surface with … Continue reading
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Prime number update
A prime number (or a prime) is a natural number greater than 1 that has no positive divisors other than 1 and itself. The number 3, for example, is a prime number. Now the update: The Great Internet Mersenne Prime … Continue reading
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“Shortest paper ever published in a serious Math Journal”
The one-page paper is titled “Can n2 + 1 unit equilateral triangles cover an equilateral triangle of side > n, say n + ε?,” authored by John H. Conway and Alexander Soifer, and you can find it here, along with … Continue reading
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So when is Cheryl’s birthday?
Happy Birthday in advance, Cheryl! #trickquestion #treatquestion rewards.singtel.com/rewards/deligh… http://t.co/BJFim48rWi— (@Singtel) April 13, 2015
Cartoon functions
Functional Dance Moves pic.twitter.com/0Nu7CkY2Ib — Simon Pampena (@mathemaniac) March 1, 2015
A solution to Newcomb’s problem
Although “it’s not entirely clear that [Newcomb’s paradox] is well-posed” (see video at 8:11), Professor NJ Wildberger presents an elegant mathematical solution to this probabilistic problem in the video above.
In defense of simple models
We just found a 1963 reprint of W.W. Sawyer’s little book Mathematician’s Delight at Mostly Books, a family-owned bookstore on 529 Bainbridge Street in Philadelphia. In chapter 2 of his book, which was first published in 1943, Prof. Sawyer notes “the connexion between reason and imagination,” stating … Continue reading
Posted in Mathematics, Philosophy
Tagged Abstraction, Reduction, Simple Models, W.W. Sawyer
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prior probability 