# Category Archives: Math

## Mathematics from arts?

In which I write about the wonderful mathematics that I learned inspired by a graphics design student I met at a Halloween party.

## Solvitur Ambulando

An algebraist, a finitist, and a determinist walk into a statistics classroom. They are all the same person and worse: the teacher, so the joke is on the students. For reasons still partly obscure to me, my department has given … Continue reading

## What is an Infinitesimal?

A guest post from Reginald Anderson at Kansas State University. First-time learners of calculus often struggle with the notion of an infinitesimal, and considering $\frac{dy}{dx}$ literally as a fraction can lead students astray in Calculus III and differential equations, when … Continue reading

A Lipschitz map (/function) is one that does not extend distances by more than a pre-assigned factor: $f: X \longrightarrow Y$ is Lipschitz if there exists an $L \in \mathbb{R}$ such that  \forall x, \ \  \forall y \ … Continue reading
Algebraic number theory is a really interesting subject, but unlike some other subjects, it’s not 100% clear what objects people study. This post provides an introduction to the class group of a finite dimensional field extension of $\mathbb{Q}$, an object often … Continue reading