Archive for October, 2009
Friday, October 30th, 2009
Random.org selected Ken Lareau as the winner for MMM #38. Congratulations, Ken! Here's what the problem was:
Prove or disprove: The product of any four consecutive integers is always one less than a perfect square.
Don’t assume the integers are all positive.
Here's Ken's solution:
The ...
Posted in Monday Math Madness! | 4 Comments »
Thursday, October 29th, 2009
Every now and then I like to buy old Math books. I buy them on Ebay. Most of the books I buy are from the early 1900's or the tail end of the 1800's. Yesterday, I happened upon this book:
Yes, it's from 1863. Yes, I paid $6.50 for it ...
Posted in Books | 2 Comments »
Thursday, October 29th, 2009
A couple of days ago I posted a very brief article, Dismantling the calculus pyramid. The post has been seen 2,746 times, thanks mostly to being noticed by 'timwiseman' who posted a link to the article at Y Combinator Hacker News. The posting at Y Combinator has gotten 45 comments ...
Posted in Education | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009
Here's a quick 3 minute TED video by Mathemagician Arthur Benjamin. The topic: Benjamin's idea about how to change Math education. He makes the point that Math education is like a pyramid with all classes (e.g. algebra, geometry, trigonometry) building up to calculus. But, he argues, calculus is not very ...
Posted in Calculus | 8 Comments »
Tuesday, October 13th, 2009
From time to time a publisher offers me a review copy of a book. I always say yes unless I don't think I'll find something positive to say about the book. If, when I receive the book, I can't find something good to say then I won't review it.
Princeton University ...
Posted in Book Review | 3 Comments »
