10 Easy Ways to Fail a Ph.D. – Matt Might

Posted on January 3, 2013 by Tyler Clark

AMSBlogComputer Science professor at the University of Utah Matt Might has written an article titled 10 Easy Ways to Fail a Ph.D. He claims that this list relates to PhD’s in any discipline. Dr. Might’s list is as follows:

Continue reading →

Posted in Advice, General | Comments Off on 10 Easy Ways to Fail a Ph.D. – Matt Might

How do you eat your corn?

Posted on December 23, 2012 by Tyler Clark

corn-on-the-cob-smiley-emoticon

In August 2010, there was a post on a blog titled Analysis vs Algebra predicts eating corn? The author mentions an observation that analysts eat their corn a certain way and algebraists eat it a different way.

One way was to munch over the length of the corn in a straight line, back up, turn slightly, and do another row across. Kind of like how an old typewriter goes. The other way was to go around in a spiral. All of the analysts were eating in spirals, and the algebraists in rows.

I eat corn in straight lines (in fact, I was not aware there were multiple methods for eating corn). I also identify with the algebraist area more as my education progresses. Does the way you eat your corn match your preference for either analysis or algebra?

Posted in General, Math, Mathematics in Society | 3 Comments

Spongebob’s House

Posted on December 21, 2012 by Tyler Clark

I just ran across a video by Vi Hart titled Open Letter to Nickelodeon, Re: Spongebob’s Pineapple Under the Sea. (see the video below.) In this video, Vi brings up many interesting characteristics of pineapples. She also claims that it is mathematically impossible for Spongebob’s house to be an actual pineapple.

What do you think about Vi’s arguments? What other pop culture objects have you encountered that are mathematically impossible?

Posted in Math in Pop Culture, Mathematics in Society, Mathematics Online | Comments Off on Spongebob’s House

Adventures in Mathematical Knitting

Posted on December 20, 2012 by Maya Sharma

IMG_2644 resize

Two of my favorite things are math and knitting.  Perhaps surprisingly, there is a fair amount of overlap between them.  Continue reading →

Posted in General | Comments Off on Adventures in Mathematical Knitting

LaTeX Commands

Posted on December 17, 2012 by Tyler Clark

AMSBlogIn light of the popularity of my post entitled Top LaTeX Mistakes, I thought it might be nice to list some helpful commands that make typesetting quicker. If you are not familiar with defining commands, you would define them in your preamble as follows: newcommand{COMMANDNAME}[Number of expected arguments]{Command Info}

For example, you could use  newcommand{bb}[1]{mathbb{#1}}. This command allows you to type bb{R}$ to make a blackboard bold R (mathbb{R}) rather than mathbb{R}.

Below are my favorite commands.

Continue reading →

Posted in Advice, General, Technology & Math | Comments Off on LaTeX Commands