Archive for October, 2007
Sunday, October 28th, 2007
Ok, it's trivia time. How many of these questions can you answer?
What do mathematicians call a regular polygon with eight sides?
What mathematical symbol did math whiz Ferdinand von Lindemann determine to be a transcendental number in 1882?
What number is an improper fraction always greater than?
How many equal sides ...
Posted in Trivia | 12 Comments »
Friday, October 26th, 2007
One followed by 3 zeros is called a thousand.
One followed by 6 zeros is a million.
One followed by 9 zeros is a billion.
Can you keep going?
Answers at the Tricks and Trivia page.
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Posted in Trivia | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 24th, 2007
The Blogosphere contains a number of Math-related blogs. One that caught my attention was The Math Less Traveled (an obvious pun on "The Road Less Traveled"). Author Brent Yorgey is a software developer and former Math and Computer Science instructor. Yorgey's blog has a number of delightful posts that arouse ...
Posted in Blogroll | No Comments »
Monday, October 22nd, 2007
"As long as algebra is taught in school, there will be prayer in school. " -- Cokie Roberts
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Posted in Humor | No Comments »
Friday, October 19th, 2007
Since writing my last post I got a copy of Mark Wahl's Math for Humans: Teaching Math Through 7 Intelligences. Wahl is brilliant. He provides inspiration, explanation, and techniques (with plenty of examples) for using Gardner's Multiple Intelligences to teach Math to students who may excel in one kind of ...
Posted in Education, Tutoring | 2 Comments »
Monday, October 15th, 2007
Some of you reading this blog might wonder how anyone could like Math. Or, maybe you really enjoy Math but a friend, child, or student of yours hates Math. What can you do to increase your appreciation and enjoyment of Math or to help someone else increase their appreciation?
Here are ...
Posted in Education | 3 Comments »
Saturday, October 13th, 2007
Harvey Mudd College is renowned for its Math department and for its overall education. Harvey Mudd students perform remarkably well on the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition, a very grueling 6-hour 6-question exam taken by roughly 3,600 undergrads in the U.S. and Canada every year.
Given Mudd's commitment to excellence in ...
Posted in Exploration, Web Sites | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, October 10th, 2007
Phi, also known as the golden ratio or the divine proportion, is one of the great mathematical constants. It is equal to a little more than 1.6 and is a most interesting irrational (but not transcendental) number. Phi has a fascinating connection with the Fibonacci series, it can be derived ...
Posted in Beauty, Art, Geometry, Web Sites | No Comments »
Monday, October 8th, 2007
How many of you remember doing geometry proofs in High School? How many of you enjoyed writing them? I don’t know about you but I’ve always preferred pictures to words when it comes to understanding how something works.
“Proofs Without Words: Exercises in Visual Thinking” by Roger B. Nelsen is a ...
Posted in Fun, Beauty, Geometry, Algebra, Books | No Comments »
Monday, October 8th, 2007
Well, this post is not so “mathy.” It’s about anagrams, which are permutations of the letters of one or more words, and about a fun site to play with generating anagrams.
If you take the letters of my name, Sol Lederman, and rearrange them one of the many possible phrases is ...
Posted in Word Fun | 3 Comments »
