Archive for the ‘Fun’ Category

Monday Math Madness contest #3 ending soon

Saturday, April 5th, 2008

If you've not gotten your entry in for contest #3 you've only got through Monday night to do so. We've only gotten 10 correct submissions for this contest so far, so your chances of winning the prize are better than they were for the last contest. SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Monday Math Madness contest ...

The future of Google?

Tuesday, April 1st, 2008

Those of you who are interested in search engine technology, or just want a good April Fools' Day laugh, might enjoy this post on one of my other blogs. SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "The future of Google?", url: "http://wildaboutmath.com/2008/04/01/the-future-of-google/" });

Proof: all April fools’ jokes are interesting

Tuesday, April 1st, 2008

Do you get inundated with April fools' jokes every year? They all seem interesting, don't they? Have you ever wondered if someday you'll encounter an uninteresting April fools' joke? As it turns out, all of them are interesting. Here's the proof. This will be an indirect proof. We'll assume that there ...

It’s Monday Math Madness time! (contest #3)

Monday, March 31st, 2008

We've completed two Monday Math Madness contests. Last Friday Blinkdagger announced that Joshua Zucker, director at Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival, was randomly selected as the winner of the 2nd contest. Now it's my turn to post a contest problem. Those of you who are astute readers may have noticed that ...

Mathematician David Gale leaves legacy

Wednesday, March 26th, 2008

Earlier this month UC Berkeley professor emeritus of mathematics David Gale passed away. Gale made a number of significant contributions to mathematics and he loved puzzles, games, and finding beauty in mathematics. Gale's daughter had this to say: SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Mathematician David Gale leaves legacy", url: "http://wildaboutmath.com/2008/03/26/mathematician-david-gale-leaves-legacy/" });

A very clever way to solve the first Monday Math Madness problem

Sunday, March 23rd, 2008

On March 3rd Blinkdagger and I posted the first Monday Math Madness problem. On March 11th, after the first contest ended, I posted a couple of different solutions to the problem. Pat Ballew, even though he wasn't picked as the random winner, impressed me with a very clever solution to ...

Monday Math Madness #2 now at Blinkdagger

Monday, March 17th, 2008

Blinkdagger has posted the second Monday Math Madness contest. It has a fun St. Patrick's Day theme. Check it out! You've got a week to solve this problem and send in your well-explained solution. The Blinkdagger guys are giving out $10 in Amazon gift certificate cash to a randomly-selected winner. April 7th ...

I’ve been memed: “7 things about me you’d not likely guess”

Saturday, March 15th, 2008

We interrupt your regularly scheduled blog for a non-Math post ... It's Saturday night here, I was just memed by Robert at Reason-4-Smile, I don't feel like doing any productive work so I'll answer the meme and launch it further into the blogosphere. The meme asks me to give a link to ...

It’s pi day!

Friday, March 14th, 2008

Today is March 14th, or 3/14 as Americans write dates. Think that pi is roughly 3.14 and you'll see why today is Pi Day. Denise at Let's Play Math does a superb job of writing about this special day. She's got a Pi poem, lots of links to pi-related pages and ...

Monday Math Madness: We have a winner!

Tuesday, March 11th, 2008

For the very first Monday Math Madness contest we got 13 submissions. Of the 13, 6 were correct. For the record, I solved the problem by enumerating the various cases where 3 categories were represented and computing and adding their probabilities. I also verified my solution to the problem by ...