Wild About Math!

An information theory puzzle

My brother shared this puzzle with me this morning. He heard it on the radio but no solution was offered. Neither of us know what the answer is so I’m looking forward to one of you posting the answer in the comments. Here’s the puzzle:

Bob and Alice are both millionaires. They’re both curious to know who is richer but they don’t want to tell the other one how much money they have. Without engaging a trusted third party, how can they both know who is richer?

I wonder if the solution has something to do with public and private keys and/or authentication.

So, what’s the answer?

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Nonplussed! Review

“Nonplus” is not a particularly common English word so I looked it up on dictionary.com.

–verb (used with object)
1. to render utterly perplexed; puzzle completely.
–noun
2. a state of utter perplexity.

“Nonplussed” is a book full of perplexing facts, and solid Math to explain the perplexities. In other words, this book is about mathematically provable facts that don’t actually seem to be true.

Here is a great example of the state of being nonplussed and my favorite part of the book. Chapter 13 is all about Friday the 13th. Many of know that every year has at least one Friday the 13th. But, did you know that the 13th day of any month falls more frequently on a Friday than on any other day of the week? Did you know that the first day of any year ending in “01″ (e.g. 1901, 2001) cannot fall on a Friday (or Wednesday or Sunday either)? These are some interested facts explored and proven in this one of fourteen chapters.

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How the St. Louis Arch got its shape

I found this wonderful short video on Science Friday by mathematician Robert Osserman on the Math behind the St. Louis Gateway Arch. This video is a great testament to the beauty of mathematics. Watch it and tell us if you agree.

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Intel Partners with President Obama and Commits $200 Million for Math and Science Education

I received this email from Intel yesterday and thought many of you would be interested:

Today, as part of President Obama’s “Educate to Innovate” Campaign, Intel joined with the President to honor America’s best math and science teachers and committed $200 million to help improve math and science achievement in the US. As part of this commitment, Intel will provide math and science training to more than 100,000 U.S. teachers over the next 3 years.

At Intel, it is commonly said that computers aren’t magic, teachers are. And that’s why Intel continues to provide teachers with the knowledge, tools and resources they need to help their students excel in math and science and succeed in an innovation-driven society.

Today’s commitment includes:

1. The expansion of Intel Math – an intensive 80-hour professional development math course for elementary school teachers – to school districts in all 50 states at no cost.
2. New Web-based instruction and collaboration tools for science teachers of all grades as part of the Intel Teach program.

Intel is also continuing its investment in the Intel Science Talent Search and the Intel International Engineering Fair, which inspire more than 600,000 American students each year to pursue math and science research. In fact, next Wednesday, 300 high school seniors will be honored as semifinalists in the Intel Science Talent Search. The 40 finalists, who will be announced on January 27, will compete for the top prize of $100,000 in Washington, D.C. from March 11-16.

See Intel’s press release for more information.

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Mini review: One Wolf HOWLS

A while ago I was contacted by Sylvan Dell Publishing, asking me if I’d be willing to review one of their books. The company publishes science and Math books for children. I didn’t think that Wild About Math! wouldn’t be a particularly good match for a review since my audience is older than Sylvan Dell’s audience. I don’t accept books for review that I don’t think are appropriate for this blog. I explained this to the publisher and they were still interested in my proceeding with reviewing one of their books.

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Winner: Cool caption crafting contest

Happy New Year Everyone!

A week before Christmas I posted a contest asking folks to come up with the best caption for this picture (click to enlarge.)

Well, I got 63 submissions and I had the tough job of picking the one I liked most. What I did was read each caption and mentally note how hard I laughed. Scientific approach, wasn’t it?

I laughed hardest at JJC’s submission so he or she gets the $20 Amazon gift card:

Welcome to Undergrad Physics in One Semester. I don’t expect you to understand anything on the board, just the Calc behind it.

Here are a bunch of the other submissions that cracked me up:

“Any questions?” - by Anais

…and that wraps up #2. Any questions? Good. Numbers 3 to 10 for homework. Careful, #7 is less straightforward. - by John Golden

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Have a symmetrical object named after you

I became a big fan of Marcus du Sautoy when I read his books Symmetry, and Music of the Primes.

   

Then I discovered the TED video, Symmetry: reality’s riddle.

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Cool caption crafting contest

Happy Holidays, everyone!

I’ll give $20 as an Amazon gift card (or PayPal cash) to whoever, in my opinion, comes up with the best caption for the image below. Click on the image to gain the full, mind-boggling, effect. The small piece of the image you see here doesn’t do the picture justice.

Leave your submission as a comment and make sure to put your email in the email field of the comment form so I can contact you if I like your caption best.

Contest ends 12/31/2009. Have fun!

Hat tip to Cliff Pickover for the tweet pointing to the image.

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Crewton Ramone teaches multiplication with manipulatives

Crewton Ramone’s Blog of Math has a couple of videos that show the power of using manipulatives to do multiplication. I’ve always been pretty decent at multiplication yet I enjoyed seeing how manipulatives can really help students to get grounded into what multiplication really means. His videos demystify the cross-multiplication tricks that I and others present. And, Crewton does a great job of showing how to do visual multiplication using symbols so you don’t need need to even buy any manipulatives. For small kids, it’s great because they get to turn multiplication into counting! And, best of all, Crewton has a nice enthusiasm about teaching the basics to kids as you’ll see if you peruse his blog.

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Review: An Imaginary Tale

An Imaginary Tale is an enjoyable historical and hands-on exploration of imaginary numbers. One Amazon reviewer, K. Jazayeri, characterized the book perfectly:

You may think of it as an “appetizer sampler” for the topic - “A Splash From The Complex Plane” - to quote the title of a diagram in the final pages of the book.

And a great sampler it is. Seven chapters, six appendices, and numerous illustrations provide a nice and deep introduction to the subject.

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