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# Posts

### November 27, 2014

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By now, most of us know that girls have great math skills. Still, there are some folks out there who are holding on to the bias that boys naturally have better math abilities than girls. In my latest Math Manifesto video, I go through some of the recent research on gender and math. It’s good news […]
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1 * 1 = 2 * 7 / 14 1 * 1 / 2 = 7 / 14 Also: 11 - 2 - 7 = 1 * √4 Also: 11 = 2 + 7 + (1 * √4)
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Quick Math is a simple quiz game where players need to click on the correct operation for problems such as “9 ? 3 = 3″  or “0 ? 1 = 0″.  It has a fast paced music track and counters to keep track of points earned and time remaining, which will motivate players to complete the […] The post Review of Quick Math (pc/mac/iPad/Android) appeared first on autismpluslande.
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I am taking the day off for Thanksgiving.  Well, I'm going to work and relax.In the morning I am going to partake in the national sport of recreational mathematicians - fishing!  You may not be aware of this recent trend in recreation for recreational mathematics, but if you think about it and learn one secret you can easily understand why it has become so popular.  I get my pole and tackle box together and walk down to the lake and grab a spot on the end of the dock.  Then […]
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belovedlotus: everything in existence is based on sacred geometry For the phyllotaxis fans out there
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mahhhvelousscaaarvelis: Spirograph, developed by British engineer Denys Fisher and first sold in 1965.

### November 26, 2014

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“The majority of mathematics education games do not support game learning of new topics: they only increase fluency of already learned topics.  Our ambition is to build a game that people can use to learn what they do not yet know.” - Maria Droujkova, Math Content Expert & Game Designer     Platinum Math Demo Video […] The post Platinum Math: An Online Formative Assessment Math Game appeared first on autismpluslande.
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This week, we will not be releasing a new Problem From Heck.  Nor are we going to release the solution for Problem From Heck # 93: Thanksgiving Edition.  Since Thanksgiving is tomorrow, we decided to hold off on posting a new problem.We are also, not going to release the solutions for Problem From Heck # 93: Thanksgiving Edition since there are some instructors out there that are having their students try to solve it over the Thanksgiving break!Thanks for your understanding! [...]
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The NFL guarantees a playoff spot for the best team in each division. We ask: what’s the mathematically worst record a team could have and still make the playoffs? There is actually a bit of graph theory in this calculation, and the pigeonhole principle also makes an appearance! This video explains how a team with […]
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(via WikimediaCommons)*****************************"If the only prayer that you say your whole life is 'thank you'that would suffice."~~ Meister Eckhart*****************************
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A long time ago, I had this idea in mind: if I could be a better cooker I could make people around me understand more about geometry (2D, 3D shapes or higher dimensions). I believe that food has a way … Continue reading →
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(1 + 1) / 2 = 6 - 1 - 4 Also: 11 - 2 - 6 + 1 = 4 Also: 1 + 1 = |(2 * 6) - 14| Also: |11 - (2 * 6)| = 1^4
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I needed an activity for the last day before Thanksgiving with snow on the way -- and I gave a test yesterday. New topics are useless. Most approaches to working today won't work. So I adapted my first Thanksgiving comic (below) to make it an inequality, which is the topic we most recently covered, and lightened the colors to make it more copier-friendly. I asked them to create their own Thanksgiving-themed math comic on the bottom of the page (which didn't have to be about inequalities), and […]
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Change We Can Believe In? Or Delta-Y We Can Verify Empirically? Continue reading →
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This simple problem often stumps people who are good at math. Try it out with your friends and you’ll be surprised how many people get it wrong. A math problem even geniuses can get wrong I do know people who get this right. But many of my friends with math, engineering and computer science degrees […]

### November 25, 2014

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[...]
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(Click on the comic if you can't see the full image.) (C)Copyright 2014, C. Burke.Is that an inequality? Confound it!
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Apparently, NBC has a new TV show called Constantine, which they claim is based more on the Hellblazer comic books than the lamentable Keanu Reeves movie.  However, after a mere 5 episodes, I can conclusively say that NBC’s Constantine is … Continue reading →
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No summary available for this post.
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Ed Frenkel has a stirring tribute to "visionary" Alexander Grothendieck in the NY Times today, hitting on some of the highlights of the reclusive mathematician's life, and ending as follows:"A party of one, he was unafraid to be himself and to speak his truth. The man who had advanced mathematics in the most profound ways did not believe that math was the answer to everything. He taught us that life is more valuable than any equation."And at MathTango yesterday I (aided by Keith Devlin) […]
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(1 + 1) / 2 = (5 * 1) - 4 Also: 11 - 2 - 5 = 1 * 4 Also: 1 + 1 = 2 + 5 - 1 - 4
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Solution to Fridays Brain-O Quiz.1.  Mules can’t have babies.2.  Y […]
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With Thanksgiving coming up, I am sharing a fun board game that I think you’ll enjoy. It’s called Ultimate Tic-Tac-Toe, and it’s an interesting variation on a classic game. The board is composed of a 3×3 grid of Big Squares. Inside of each Big Square is another 3×3 grid, so there are 9 Small Squares […]
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enformat: Wikipedia’s amusingly captioned illustrations of the hairy ball theorem.
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The Collatz Conjecture The Collatz conjecture was originally proposed by Lothar Collatz in 1937 and is as follows: Pick any natural number n When n is even divide it by two (n/2) When n is odd multiply it by three and add one  (3n + 1) If you repeat the steps indefinitely, you will eventually reach one.  For example, let’s say that n is six:    6/2 = 3 -> 3(3) + 1 = 10 -> 10/2 = 5 -> 3(5) + 1 = 16 -> 16/2 = 8 -> 8/2 = 4   -> 4/2 = 2 -> 2/2 = 1 This graph demonstrates the conjecture […]

### November 24, 2014

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Such serendipitous timing (and inspiration) once again from Dr. Keith Devlin. I was in the process of writing a post about "knowing" or "proof" in mathematics... and along comes Dr. D. to finish my post off for me! First, the preliminary bit I'd been working on: We'll start with an old joke that most readers are familiar with.... An engineer, a physicist, and a mathematician are riding a
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Yesterday was 23/11, also known in some parts as 11/23, and you may recognise this as being a date made of the first four Fibonacci numbers. (Such numerical date-based Fibonacci coincidences haven’t been as exciting since 5/8/13, but at least this is one we can celebrate annually.) This meant that mathematicians everywhere got excited about #FibonacciDay, and spent... Read more »
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No summary available for this post.
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Here’s a small collection of links to articles about Alexandre Grothendieck, French/German mathematician and algebraic geometer, who died on Wednesday 13 November aged 86. He was a pioneer in the field, and has been described as ‘the greatest mathematician of the 20th century’. His obituary in The Telegraph The AMS announcement A New York Times obituary An obituary at Liberation and another obituary... Read more »