Category Archives: Theoretical Mathematics

Discovering Proofs

Patrick Stevens is an undergraduate mathematics student at the University of Cambridge, and I’ve really been enjoying his blog recently. He’s been doing a series of posts about discovering proofs of standard real analysis theorems. He writes that the series … Continue reading

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Awesome K-12 Math Teachers Exist! And they have blogs.

I sometimes get tired of hearing about how “teachers (meaning K-12 teachers) just don’t understand this or that, or won’t try doing something new,” or are deficient in some way or another.  We often advise teachers to let go of … Continue reading

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Geometry and the Imagination

If you like geometric group theory or amazing pictures (but especially geometric group theory), you might want to start reading Geometry and the Imagination, written by University of Chicago mathematician Danny Calegari. I’ve been following it for a while, but … Continue reading

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Why Should We Fund Math Research?

As my co-blogger Brie Finegold mentioned last month, Cathy O’Neil of mathbabe.org has been writing about how MOOCs might change the face of math departments and, ultimately, how math research gets funded. O’Neil is concerned that without calculus classes to … Continue reading

Posted in Applied Math, Issues in Higher Education, people in math, Theoretical Mathematics | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Job Security Calculus: Reasoning about our futures

Most academics have a love/hate relationship to teaching, and especially teaching Calculus.  Prior to the first exam of the semester, it seems that everyone in the class is there for learning’s sake, discussing ideas, engaging in problem-solving.  But we worry … Continue reading

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Winter Break Reading: Baking and Math

If you, like me, like both food and math, then maybe you should check out Yen Duong’s blog Baking and Math. Duong is a graduate student studying geometric group theory at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her blog mostly … Continue reading

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I’ve always resonated with Mobius bands — but now I know signals do too!

So here I am, trained as a topologist and geometric group theorist, starting a job that involves mainly digital signal processing. Today I was perusing the magazines on the shelf at my new job, and what do I see?  The … Continue reading

Posted in Applied Math, Math Education, Mathematics and the Arts, Recreational Mathematics, Theoretical Mathematics | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

How Quadratic Reciprocity Is Like Dealing Cards

Currently the Riemann-Roch theorem is my nemesis, and I stumbled on Matt Baker’s math blog while I was looking for some help figuring out how to use it. The post I came across, Riemann-Roch for Graphs and Applications, was not … Continue reading

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See Math, See Math Run

To me, the formula for the volume of a cone says “Did you know that 3 copies of the same cone occupy the same space as the smallest cylinder that contains one of them?” This fact relates (see picture) to … Continue reading

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This is your brain. This is your brain on category theory!

I often ponder whether mathematics is lying around waiting to be discovered or is non-existent until we invent it.  One of the most recent posts at Math Rising  led me to a similar question concerning the brain.  Has the physical … Continue reading

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