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Opinions expressed on these pages were the views of the writers and did not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the American Mathematical Society.
Author Archives: bfinegold
Mathematicians Talk (Really, they do)
We all know the joke: “What is the difference between an extroverted mathematician and an introverted one? The extroverted one looks at your shoes, rather than at his own shoes.” Well, the interviews on Math Tango go a long ways … Continue reading
Rankings, Standards, and Inquiry, Oh my!
Ranking As concern for K-12 standards in public education has come to a head, the quality of teaching and learning in our public universities has also come under public scrutiny. Recently, President Obama announced that he wanted to rework the … Continue reading
Posted in Issues in Higher Education, K-12 Mathematics, Math Education
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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
Posted in Applied Math, Biomath, Theoretical Mathematics
Tagged Biomath, Category Theory, Cognitive Science, Math Rising, Philosophy, science
1 Comment
Dancing Mathy Masters
Creating or finding patterns, reasoning spatially, tending to aesthetics, being precise, and creating in a universal idiom—these are acts common to both math and dance. Not everyone is exposed to mathematics via art, especially a performing art. As a … Continue reading
String Art, Bezier Curves, Picasso, and me
Going through some old boxes at my parents house the other day I ran across some line drawings I made as a teenager. At the time I found it fascinating that just by drawing straight lines I could create beautiful … Continue reading
Narrowing the Gap
A group of seasoned mathematicians including Terence Tao are working to improve on Yitang Zhang’s exciting recent proof that there are infinitely many pairs of consecutive primes separated by no more than 70 million. A glance at the polymath8 wiki … Continue reading
Posted in Number Theory, Theoretical Mathematics
Tagged number theory, Polymath, Terence Tao, Twin Primes Conjecture, Yitang Zhang
4 Comments
World Science Festival is happening now! (And there’s a lot about math going on)
A Physicist, two Mathematicians and a Philosopher walk into a room and start to discuss infinity. This sounds like the set up to a great joke. But it’s actually one of the events that will occur tonight at 8:00PM EST … Continue reading
Posted in Events, Math Education, Mathematics and the Arts, Recreational Mathematics, Theoretical Mathematics
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Building the World Digital Mathematical Library
Last year over 60 new mathematical articles were appearing on arXiv every day! What if every mathematics research article were freely available online? What format would you want this World Digital Mathematical Library (WDML) to take on other than a gigantic … Continue reading
Win at Math!
As the end of the semester draws near, I find myself looking for quick ways to procrastinate. And playing a little game won’t take up that much time, right? Like, say, we could play a friendly game of Tic-Tac-Toe… (Courtesy … Continue reading