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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: evelynjlamb
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
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
Beyond Banneker: Resources for Learning about Black Mathematicians
Part of the reason Erica Walker wrote Beyond Banneker: Black Mathematicians and the Paths to Excellence was that she was tired of hearing the response “Are there any?” when she talked with people about her research on Black mathematicians. On … Continue reading
Posted in people in math
Tagged #blackandSTEM, African American history, African American mathematicians, Beyond Banneker, black history month, black mathematicians, Erica Walker
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Look Around You: Spherical Videos and Möbius Transformations
I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve watched the short video “Möbius transformations revealed” by Douglas Arnold and Jonathan Rogness. It is a beautiful tribute to beautiful functions. As a complex analysis and hyperbolic geometry fangirl, I am … Continue reading
Posted in Math Communication, Mathematics and the Arts
Tagged Andrea Hawksley, droste effect, eleVR, Emily Eifler, henry segerman, Moebius transformations, spherical video, Vi Hart, virtual reality
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Diagonalization and Other Mathematical Wonders
It’s only a slight exaggeration to say I’m a mathematician because of Cantor’s diagonalization arguments (both the proof that the rationals are countable and the proof that the reals aren’t). I was already enjoying my intro to proofs class when … Continue reading
Posted in Math Communication
Tagged diagonalization, Kevin Knudson, Mike Lawler, nostalgia, smbc comics
4 Comments
Blogging Counterexamples
I can’t believe someone has been blogging about counterexamples since July of last year and I just found out! Luckily, the Aperiodical Advent Calendar alerted me to it yesterday, and now Math Counterexamples is the newest addition to my blog feed. … Continue reading
Posted in Math Education
Tagged algebra, analysis, counterexamples, Jean-Pierre Merx, topology
3 Comments
How Math Can Help You Avoid Talking about Politics at the Holidays
Happy Thanksgiving! I’m sure your wonderful family is the exception, but sometimes holiday dinner conversations can veer into unpleasant territory. If you don’t have Adele to bail you out, math blogs are here to help. (When your only tool is a … Continue reading
Posted in Events
Tagged holiday math, holidays, linkfest, math, mathematics
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Hot Hands and Tuesday’s Children
People, especially sports fans, seem to believe that players can get “hot,” that they will hit more baskets (or succeed in whatever metric is of interest in their sport) more after a series of hits than after a series of … Continue reading
Posted in Math Communication, Statistics
Tagged Andrew Gelman, fallacy of the hot hand fallacy, hot hand, hot hand fallacy, Jordan Ellenberg, probability, sons born on Tuesday, Tanya Khovanova
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Blogging in Math Class: A Q&A with Casey Douglas
Last year, I had my math history students write a blog. The course counts as a writing credit, so blog posts seemed like good short writing assignments. But what about blogging in a math class that’s just a math class? … Continue reading
Grad School, Blogged
A few months ago, I stumbled on Tai-Danae Bradley’s excellent blog Math3ma. Bradley is a math graduate student at CUNY, and she writes about the kinds of topics that show up in first-year graduate courses and later on the qualifying … Continue reading
Posted in Math Communication
Tagged algebra, analysis, graduate school, math, mathematics, Tai-Danae Bradley, topology
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