Monthly Archives: March 2016

A conversation with The Accidental Mathematician

Izabella Laba is a fantastic blogger. She is also a professor at the University of British Columbia. She is widely published in harmonic analysis, geoemtric measure theory and additive combinatorics. And most recently, she is one of the founding editors … Continue reading

Posted in people in math, women in math | Tagged | 2 Comments

All the P-values Fit to Print

I feel like I’ve seen news stories or blog posts about p-values every day this month. First, Andrew Gelman reported that the editor of the journal Psychological Science, famous to some for publishing dubious findings on the strength of p<0.05, will be … Continue reading

Posted in Statistics | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Algebra: It’s More Than Just Parabolas

Our old pal Andrew Hacker is back at it again. With the publication of his new book and a spate of recent media appearances, he is a man on a mission. A professor emeritus in the Department of Political Science … Continue reading

Posted in K-12 Mathematics, Math Education | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

The Creativity of Approximation

As a mathematician, I am frequently frustrated with the world’s stubborn refusal to mirror mathematical perfection. No “circle” made of atoms actually has a circumference-to-diameter ratio of π; no population’s growth is exactly an exponential function. The overwhelming approximate-ness of … Continue reading

Posted in Mathematics and the Arts | Tagged , , | 1 Comment