February 27, 2004
FACT: Africa is the birthplace of humanity.YET, today the word "black" is associated with all that is bad and evil - black magic, the devil, darkness, evil, death and much more. The word "white" on the other hand is associated with all that is pure and clean, angels, innocence, and goodness - even white lies are good lies. Thomas Jefferson, the 3rd president of the United States of America coined the famous phrase that "All men are created equal" - a phrase written into the US Declaration of Independence. What he actually meant was that "All white men are created equal". He did not believe that white women were equal to white men, nor did he believe that black men were created equal to white men. He published a book - "Notes on Virginia" - where he explained that white men were intellectually superior to black men and that it would be impossible for a black person to understand the mathematical formulae explained in Euclid's book "The Elements". How is it that white people have "greater mathematical aptitudes" than Africans when it's a known fact that civilisation began in Africa? And just to prove that Thomas Jefferson was an idiot, it turns out that the very Euclid he praised as the greatest mathematician of all times, never travelled outside of Africa, that he was born, raised and educated in Africa - even though the "White Encyclopaedias" depict him as a "white man". I strongly believe that the great Euclid was a black man, an African man. We should familiarise ourselves with the works of the great Cheikh Anta Diop, the pharaoh of African knowledge who dedicated his life to re-identifying African identity. FACT: Africa is the birthplace of humanity. |
February 27, 2004
Georgia calculates ways to boost math IQDANA TOFIG While evolution and the Civil War have grabbed the attention, the biggest changes in the state's proposed curriculum are in mathematics. And with good reason. Georgia's public school students struggle in math. In fact, students who took the state's curriculum exams last year did the poorest in math. And Georgia had the lowest math SAT score of any state in the union last year — 491 out of a possible 800. So, most teachers are welcoming a radical makeover in the way math would be taught to public school students. Middle school students are perhaps the biggest concern when it comes to math. The state's elementary school students seem to do all right — last school year, nearly three-quarters of the state's fourth-graders passed the math portion of the state's curriculum exam, known as the CRCT. But as students move into middle school, math performance seems to drop off. Last year, less than two-thirds of the state's eighth-graders passed the math curriculum exam. "The students are seeing the connection of math to real life. It's not isolated," said Baldree. "Algebra and geometry go together." "I don't think it's going to change overnight," she said. "But I think we're heading in the right direction." Georgia calculates ways to boost math IQ |
February 25, 2004
Is there an age of reason for love?An 80-year-old mathematician has calculated the best age for an individual to stop playing the field, romantically, and settle down with one mate. Dennis Lindley reckons the key point is 32 for men, 27 for women. He himself married another mathematician at age 24. They're still together, but that - as he would admit - isn't statistically significant proof of anything. Lindley's calculations, based on some fairly un-testable assumptions, aim to measure the stage at which a person's marketability begins to diminish. At some point, as you get more likely to end up "on the shelf," you have to stop seeking the perfect mate and settle for one you can get. Is there an age of reason for love? |
February 25, 2004
Shmuzzle Puzzles Flex Math MusclesBy Marc Levenson Feb. 25— If jigsaw puzzles ever puzzled you, watch out. They're about to Shmuzzle you. And if a Shmuzzle ends up stumping you, just blame Stanford University economics professor Sam Savage. Shmuzzles are a different kind of picture puzzle. Unlike traditional jigsaw puzzles, the cutout pieces are shaped like a salamander, mathematically designed so "heads," "tails," "arms," and "legs" of the pieces are all the same shape. "I think that it's a very innate part of human behavior to want to put things together," Savage said. "The obsessive compulsive types who want to get the picture back together, they can spend their time putting the picture back together." "When I cut the first Shmuzzle using the mathematical formulas, it was fun. And it was the first fun I'd had in three or four years," Savage recalls. The formulas Savage stumbled upon — for irregular tessellating hexagons (www.shmuzzle.com/formula.htm) — had been created some 60 years earlier. But they were new to Savage, and new to making puzzles. Shmuzzle Puzzles Flex Math Muscles |
February 25, 2004
Maths crisisBy John Clare It was vital that society fully recognised the importance of mathematics, the government-appointed inquiry into the subject said yesterday. Maths was important for its own sake, as an intellectual discipline. It was important for the knowledge economy, for science, technology and engineering. And it was important for the workplace and the individual citizen. Yet we currently faced a situation of long-term decline in the numbers of young people continuing to study maths after the age of 16. Illustrating the extent of this crisis were "shocking" statistics showing that less than 10 per cent of GCSE pupils went on to take A-level maths, and only 10 per cent of those chose maths at degree level. Maths crisis |
February 25, 2004
Prime time entertainmentMarcus du Sautoy I always feel a mixture of relish and dread when my neighbour at a party asks: "So what do you do?" Finding out that I am a mathematician invariably elicits a response about how terrible the guest was at maths. Despite a recent advert showing a beautiful woman rapt by her nerdy neighbour's description of the wonders of bacteria, the mention of mathematics conjures up Friday afternoons filled with sines and cosines and meaningless formulae. But it gives me a chance to stand on my soapbox and explain why mathematicians are a misunderstood breed. Our education system has failed to show that there is so much more to mathematics than the technical exercises of the classroom. If we taught children to play a musical instrument by just teaching scales and arpeggios and never playing them some of the wonderful music they can aspire to play or even one day to compose, most children would be forever bitter about the tortures of learning music. Pupils deserve to hear something of the wonderful mathematical music that I listen to and play every day. Mathematics' other abiding strength is that it is also a useful science. The primes are the perfect illustration. The security of e-commerce currently relies on codes constructed using these indivisible numbers: what better to excite pupils' interest in the subject than the prospect of becoming the ultimate computer hacker, if they understand these numbers. Prime time entertainment |
February 25, 2004
The big question: how long is a piece of string theory?The inherent uncertainty of mathematics means we will never fully understand our world, writes Paul Davies. The world about us looks so bewilderingly complex, it seems impossible that humans could ever understand it completely. But dig deeper, and the richness and variety of nature are found to stem from just a handful of underlying mathematical principles. So rapid has been the advance of science in elucidating this hidden subtext of nature that many scientists, especially theoretical physicists, believe we are on the verge of formulating a "theory of everything". Today we know atoms are not the elementary particles the Greek philosophers supposed, but composite bodies with bits inside. However, this hasn't scuppered the essential idea that a bottom level of structure exists on a small enough scale. Physicists have been busy peering into the innards of atoms to expose what they hope is the definitive set of truly primitive entities from which everything in the universe is built. The best guess is that the ultimate building blocks of matter are not particles at all, but little loops of vibrating string about 20 powers of 10 smaller than an atomic nucleus. String theory has been enormously beguiling, and occupies the attention of physicists and mathematicians. It promises to describe correctly not only the inventory of familiar particles but the forces that act between them, like electromagnetism and gravity. It could even explain the existence of space and time, too. Godel showed that however elaborate mathematics becomes, there will always exist some statements (not the above ones though) that can never be proved true or false. They are fundamentally undecidable. Hence mathematics will always be incomplete and in a sense uncertain. Because physical theories are cast in the language of mathematics, they are subject to the limitations of Godel's theorem. Many physicists have remarked that this will preclude a truly complete theory of everything. Now it seems Hawking has joined their ranks. The big question: how long is a piece of string theory? |
February 24, 2004
The sci-fi sound of PythagorasIvan Hewett lends an ear to the octachord, a bizarre new musical instrument. You might think that, with the triumph of digital technology, the era of the lone instrument inventor would be well and truly over. Not so. Tucked away in workshops and studios round the world there's a whole network of people in rebellion against the perfection and predictability of mass-produced musical hardware and software. Pravda was born in Novi Sad, a bleak modern city in the former Yugoslavia where resources were thin on the ground. As a student, he would roam junkyards for materials, inventing mechanical devices controlled by old Commodore computers. "I wanted to create my own monochord. I imagined a sound that was a combination of rapid strumming, full of harmonics. So I created a system of revolving plectrums driven by motors, which agitated a long string. The sound was interesting, but not rich enough." "I'm not the first person to be fascinated by Pythagoras's ideas. Marcel Duchamp created something similar with the inside of grand piano, and there's a recording of him making a sound quite similar to my octachord." Why eight strings? "Well, eight is a good number, and you can tune each string to the pitch of many different scales." Dan Dare and Barbarella meets Pythagoras's Music of the Spheres - now that might be worth hearing. The sci-fi sound of Pythagoras |
February 24, 2004
Mathematicians call for actionBy Gary Eason Mathematicians have called for a concerted and ongoing effort to reverse the "downward spiral" in school mathematics highlighted in Prof Adrian Smith's report. Sir Chris Llewellyn Smith, said: "We are less and less numerate as a nation, just at the time we need mathematical skills to stay competitive in the global market." He said it was crucial that teachers should have access to continuing professional development. Maths and the techniques we use to teach it are changing constantly. The general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, David Hart, said radical action was needed to halt the decline in mathematics and to start to restore it to the crucial position it held some years ago. "It seems quite extraordinary that English and maths are compulsory performance elements at 11 and at 14, but disappear at 16." The mathematics writer and broadcaster Simon Singh also highlighted Prof Smith's "considerable concern" over the severe shortage of teachers. "We have some great maths teachers in Britain, but simply not enough," he said. TV presenter and mathematician Carol Vorderman said: "Whether or not you enjoy maths, no one would disagree that it is of paramount importance in any basic education. "For an economy driven by technology, mathematics education can mean the difference between a successful future and that of mediocrity. "I have a sense that mathematics lags behind in its teaching creativity - we have to keep up in a world in which kids are used to multimedia and surfing the web." Mathematicians call for action |
February 23, 2004
Artist Hans Erni celebrates 95th birthdayOne of Switzerland's most famous artists, Hans Erni, is celebrating his 95th birthday. To mark the occasion, Erni - who still paints - spoke to swissinfo about the past, the boycott of his work and the future. Born in 1909, Erni first gained international attention when he created a 100m by 5m mural for the 1939 Swiss National Exhibition in Zurich. Erni, who celebrated his birthday on February 21, later branched out into other mediums, such as mosaics and graphics, as well as designing posters and stamps. swissinfo: You are famous for your use of geometric lines in your paintings. Is this style something that you invented or is it a part of your personality? H.E.: This style, as you call it, goes back to my apprenticeship as a surveyor when I learned that the triangulation [measuring] of the world could only be achieved by using geometry. Artist Hans Erni celebrates 95th birthday |
February 22, 2004
Mathematician explains parting of Red SeaTOM PARFITT IN MOSCOW A RUSSIAN mathematician claims to have discovered a scientific explanation for Moses' parting of the Red Sea, one of the Bible's most celebrated miracles. Naum Voltsinger used differential equations to show that strong winds and a hidden underwater reef would have allowed more than half a million Jews to flee to the Promised Land - without getting their feet wet. Scholars have long speculated that natural causes were responsible for the Old Testament story. "This shows that God rules the world through the laws of physics," he told Scotland on Sunday. Voltsinger and his colleague Alexei Androsov based their research on earlier meteorological studies that concentrate on one of the most likely spots for the crossing of the Red Sea, a narrow stretch in the Gulf of Suez. Titled 'Modelling of the hydrodynamic situation during the Exodus', their study has been published in an official bulletin of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The scientists found that certain tidal conditions combined with a steady wind speed of 30 metres per second could have exposed the hidden reef under the sea for about four hours, allowing hundreds of thousands of frightened Jews to march to safety across the tongue of raised seabed. "The returning wave would have been so powerful and swift as to instantly capsize and sink the pursuing Egyptian chariots," said Voltsinger, a senior researcher at the St Petersburg branch of the Russian Institute of Oceanology. The mathematician, a Christian, stressed that his discovery was not incompatible with religious faith. "Science does not contradict religion," he said. "The situation itself is physically explainable, and it happened. God simply influenced the course of history. The divine miracle is that the Jews arrived at the water at the moment they did." Mathematician explains parting of Red Sea |
February 21, 2004
Physicist uses math to figure God's aliveKaren R. Long Stephen Unwin calculates the probability that God exists at 67 percent. The idea of math favoring God by a 2-to-1 margin is cheeky. So is the subtitle to Unwin's new book, "A Simple Calculation That Proves the Ultimate Truth," a flourish from Crown Forum's marketing department that makes the author wince. As a scientist who earned a doctorate in quantum gravity from the University of Manchester, Unwin likes numbers. "If you have a hammer, you tend to see every problem in terms of a nail," he said jokingly over coffee Friday morning. "As a theoretical physicist, my bias is to want to work the numbers in some way. Answering a problem otherwise seems like working with a numberless bank statement, trivial and insubstantial." Boldly, Unwin plugs evidence of God into this theorem. He points out, for instance, that giving money to the homeless with no thought of reciprocal reward is evidence of good - and good is more likely to occur if God is in the universe. At another point, Unwin weighs natural disasters - such as earthquakes, tornadoes and cancer - to swing the equation against the probability of God. After six sets of evidence consideration - ranging from the existence of evil to the case for miracles - the probability comes out at 67. For those who want to run their own version and set their own probabilities, his book includes a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet for individual tabulation. Some of Unwin's most ferocious critics have been proponents of Intelligent Design, demanding to know why it is absent from Unwin's equations. The author looks at the arguments and concludes that religion and science best occupy separate planes. "To plagiarize and adapt from the best," Unwin writes, "render unto the physical world those things that are physical and render unto God those things that are God's." Working the Bayesian theorem into his own spiritual life gives Unwin the pleasure that comes from clarity. It also helps when he calculates 40 years more of Sunday church attendance. It adds up to about 3,000 hours of one's life. Unwin measures his personal sense of God at around 95 percent certainty. The 28 percent improvement over the mathematical probability is what Unwin calls his faith. To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: Physicist uses math to figure God's alive |
February 20, 2004
Computation's New Leaf |
February 20, 2004
Has Text-porn finally made computers 'human'?By Mark Ward At first glance spam, pornographic text messages and video games are not contributing much to human development. But a good case can be made for regarding all three as some of the smartest artificial intelligences around. Some may even have beaten the legendary "Turing Test" by convincing thousands of people that they are human. The test was dreamed up pioneering mathematician Alan Turing as a way to judge machine intelligence. It revolves around people and machines communicating via typed messages. The machine would be judged intelligent if it could trick a human into thinking they were swapping text with another person. Turing thought that a machine could beat the Turing test by 2000. He was wrong, but only by a few years. Occasionally though a message will arrive that eschews the usual tricks and fools you into opening it with a clever or enticing subject line. Congratulations, you've just been outsmarted by a computer. But the best candidate for passing the Turing test is the Natachata program that conducts smutty conversations via text messages. "Most people do not realise it's a computer and are quite happy chatting with it," said Mr Luttrell. Of course these examples could be taken as humans failing the Turing test rather than machines passing it. Has Text-porn finally made computers 'human'? |
February 20, 2004
Maths exams 'fail at all levels'By Gary Eason The country "shot itself in both feet" in the reform of A-levels, says the man leading the government's maths inquiry. The changes had increased the shortage of maths specialists, said Professor Adrian Smith, Principal of Queen Mary College, London. He also told BBC News Online that current GCSE courses demoralised the less able one third of students and did not stretch the brightest 10%. He argued for "significant but affordable" extra resources for maths. Prof Smith said existing incentives to encourage people to train as teachers were general - maths needed its own special focus. There might have to be enhanced training for graduates in, say, physics and engineering to convert them to maths teachers. "The existence of confident, competent, charismatic teachers on the ground is the key to it all." Maths exams 'fail at all levels' |
February 19, 2004
Fumbling with chopsticks? Use some mathsLucy Andrew A mathematical formula can help fans of Peking duck or sweet and sour pork learn to eat with chopsticks, say U.K. researchers. Dr Jim Al-Khalili and Dr Qiang Zhao from the University of Surrey have developed a formula to help their fellow Britons master a skill Chinese people have been using for 5000 years. "Chopsticks are officially the U.K.'s most troublesome utensil," said the international food company that commissioned the research. The formula calculated how easy it was to use chopsticks to eat different types of food, which the researchers called the 'comfort level' (C). A comfort level close to zero meant the food was very difficult to eat while a value of 100 meant the food was easy to eat. Fumbling with chopsticks? Use some maths |
February 19, 2004
Bio Students Get By With Minimal Math RequirementsCLAIRE G. FRIEDMAN and JOSHUA D. GOTTLIEB As Harvard faculty continue to emphasize the importance of interdisciplinary study, some biology students are learning the hard way that one field is often not enough. Some biology students say that their concentration's mathematics requirements failed to prepare them for advanced work in biology. And their instructors agree that now, more than ever, new advances in biology require a solid background in mathematics. "Biology is becoming a quantitative science, where not only analysis but also theory and predictions require use of sophisticated use of sophisticated mathematical analysis," says Maria A. Neimark, a TF for MCB 111, Mathematics in Biology. "Biology students should be prepared to carry out in silico (computer) experiments to compliment in vitro and in vivo experiments," NAS reports. Among other concepts, the report indicates that students should know multi-variable calculus, linear algebra, probability and statistics and some computer science. Bio Students Get By With Minimal Math Requirements |
February 19, 2004
Program works to help kids master math for new state testsBy Kate York VINCENT - Warren High School is raising its mathematics standards in an attempt to get more students to take high-level math courses and pass state testing. More area schools are preparing to take the same approach. Warren High School began using the program's algebra curriculum at the start of the school year. The school will likely also begin to require students to pass geometry before graduation by next school year and use the program in geometry courses. "We're really trying to raise the bar and raise the standards for students," said Warren High School Principal Dan Leffingwell. "We're already seeing positive results." Each module includes three tests, which are evaluated and retaken by students so they can learn from their mistakes. "A lot more kids are learning at a greater rate," said Leffingwell. "We didn't anticipate that 100 percent would be successful right off the bat." Program works to help kids master math for new state tests |
February 17, 2004
What's the right equation?By Carolyn Bower Groups of four or five fourth-graders edged toward consensus about how to design graphs as part of a recent math lesson at Hanna Woods Elementary School in west St. Louis County. Some groups sketched bar charts. One group drew symbols - circles, triangles, squares and hearts. One opted for traditional lines. There's no one way to do it, said Gayle Wheeler, their teacher with 31 years of experience in the Parkway School District. The important thing, she said, is that the students learn the algebraic concept of collecting information, plotting the data and presenting the results. Just how to best teach math has been a hot topic for generations of students, teachers and parents. Learning math early is important because research indicates that basic skills learned by eighth grade are linked to an adult's earning power. And the federal No Child Left Behind Act requires students in grades three through eight to show improvement in math each year. Marnati said whichever text the Parkway School Board chooses, teachers will teach both computation and understanding. "We ask much more of today's children," she said. "Geometry is a much bigger part of life than 10 or 12 years ago. People don't want to see change, but change is happening to all of us. We are living in a society where the Internet has made it so fast to pull up information. What's the right equation? |
February 17, 2004
Revolutionary biologists begin to ask how the pieces they've studied for decades fit together to make life workBy Gareth Cook, Globe Staff To understand the story of biology, and the crucial turning point the field has reached, consider the rose. A 19th-century botanist would have sketched the wine-hued bloom, noted the pattern of thorns winding its stem, and studied the lines on its jagged leaves. A generation later, scientists would use the new tools of chemistry to extract the compounds that lend the rose its distinctive perfume. In recent years, a scientist interested in roses might look at the sequence of its genetic code. For more than a century, the way forward has largely been to study smaller and smaller pieces of the whole. Now, quite suddenly, biology is being consumed by a fast-moving intellectual revolution that could profoundly change the course of science -- and medicine -- in the new century. Called "systems biology," it is an audacious attempt to transcend molecular biology and understand organisms as complex interacting systems that are more than the sum of their parts -- that the best way to understand ants, for instance, is to study colonies rather than just the individual insects. Powered by flexible, automated laboratory equipment and new computers and mathematical techniques, scientists are now able to gather and interpret more data than anyone could have imagined even a decade ago. At least as daunting are the cultural and institutional obstacles. Systems biology will require researchers from many fields, including mathematics and engineering and computer science, but today's universities are divided into disciplines that jealously guard their turf. While Hood and the new Broad Institute are heavily involved in exploring the genetic machinery of cells, there are other popular approaches, too. For example, a team led by Marc Kirschner recently created a detailed mathematical model for an important cellular messaging route called the "Wnt pathway." Disruptions in the route can lead a frog embryo to develop two heads, and are known to be behind colon cancer, one of the nation's top killers. Revolutionary biologists begin to ask how the pieces they've studied for decades fit together to make life work |
February 17, 2004
Arab-Israeli painter portrays raw emotions of Palestinians who long to go homeCourtney C. Radsch WASHINGTON: The figures in Zahi Khamis' paintings have twisted necks, their almond-shaped eyes peering upside down, tragically staring out at a land they will never know. The visual experience of the exhibit Of Exile and Return replicates the emotional experience of pain, love, longing and fear that Palestinians feel as they struggle to define themselves. Khamis, a Palestinian who has lived in the US for 22 years, sees his paintings as a commentary not only on Palestinians exiled from their homeland, but on humanity as a whole, for whom home plays a central role in defining the self. Born in 1959 in a small village outside of Nazareth, Khamis emigrated to Europe and then the US in his early 20s. Khamis said he was inspired by Picasso and Matisse, as well as Mexican muralists he studied in San Diego. Some of his works incorporate designs and shapes in which complex Islamic patterns meet simple, Occidental designs. The simplicity he perceives in the Western experience clashes with the innate complexity of Islamic and Oriental designs. Khamis said the simplicity of Western patterns is a condemnation of Western experience. The influence of geometry and math is most apparent in his 2000 works, a time when he taught geometry and Islamic architecture in San Diego. Khamis earned a degree in Mathematics at San Diego State University and teaches math to junior high school students, although he said he wishes he could teach them art. Arab-Israeli painter portrays raw emotions of Palestinians who long to go home |
February 17, 2004
Nobel winner Engle shares his secretsby Iliya Tabakov NYU professor Robert Engle, who won last year's Nobel Prize in economics, explained the theories that made him famous to students, professors and business professionals at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences on Thursday. Engle discussed the Standard & Poor's 100 and the London Stock Exchange's roles in decreasing and increasing market conditions. The lecture, titled "Dynamical Conditional Correlation Models of Tail Dependence," was part of Courant's annual Mathematical Finance Seminar. "The Math Finance Program at Courant focuses on the emerging discipline of financial mathematics, wherein mathematical tools are used to model financial markets and solve problems in the field of finance," Lilibeth Gecale, a College of Arts and Science junior and co-organizer of the event, wrote in an e-mail. Engle spoke about his more famous models and some models in development. One forecasting model, the "copula," is a method that offers the probability of two assets being at their highest or lowest values at the same time. Engle averaged present and past market conditions, with current data carrying more weight than past data, to present a mathematical formula predicting the behavior of assets. Nobel winner Engle shares his secrets |
February 16, 2004
Improved medical treatment of serious heart problems focus of UH-led groupHOUSTON, Feb. 16, 2004 – Suncica Canic, University of Houston mathematics professor, and her research group are presenting new findings related to the medical treatment of two serious heart problems at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting in Seattle at 8 a.m. P.S.T., Monday, Feb. 16. The main goal of her work is to help cardiologists gain deeper insight into the behavior of vascular prostheses, called stents, used in the treatment of aortic abdominal aneurysm (AAA) and in coronary angioplasty. The project is the result of an interdisciplinary collaboration Canic initiated between experts in cardiology, mathematics, biology, engineering and scientific computing to work on several problems related to the medical treatment of AAA and the treatment of coronary artery disease (CAD). "Mathematical equations can be used to describe various physical, biological and physiological phenomena," Canic said. "Interaction between mathematics, engineering, biology and medicine has existed for a long time, but it has been only recently that state-of-the-art computer technology and scientific computing enabled true collaboration and full benefits to all the involved disciplines, as well as now bringing it to the human application stage. This is the first time in history that many complicated functions of the human body can not only be approximated with complicated mathematical equations, but also that solutions to those equations that cannot be found by hand can be calculated and visualized using super powerful computers." Improved medical treatment of serious heart problems focus of UH-led group |
February 16, 2004
How many M&M's are in this jar?By Michael Stroh If you've ever wondered how many grains it takes to top off a salt shaker or why a new box of cereal often arrives half empty, step into the Princeton University laboratory of Salvatore Torquato and Paul Chaikin. The researchers have spent more than 15 years pondering one of the oldest and most elemental riddles in mathematics: What's the best way to cram the most amount of stuff into the least amount of space? They're called packing problems. Since mathematicians started working on them 400 years ago, they have played a role in scientific endeavors that range from the study of human cells to the design of high-speed computer modems. Their report, in the current issue of Science, could lead to everything from advanced new manufacturing materials to more economical ways of packing and shipping goods, said Torquato. Economics is one of the reasons scientists became interested in packing. "It's an ancient problem," says Torquato. For thousands of years, people settled debts and paid their taxes with a sack of grain or salt. Shrewd merchants knew enough to give the sack a good shaking before they accepted it as payment. In a 24-page treatise on snow crystals published in 1611, The Six-Cornered Snowflake, Kepler offhandedly proposed a solution to the cannonball question. The most efficient method for arranging spheres is the way a grocer stacks oranges -- in a pyramid. In mathematical terms, it's called face-centered cubic packing. It took mathematicians 387 years to prove that the theory -- known as the Kepler Conjecture -- was correct. By carefully stacking cannonballs in the ship's hold as Kepler proposed, Raleigh could fill slightly more than 74 percent of the space with ammunition. Space between the balls would account for the rest of the volume. With several hundred dollars worth of plain and mini-M&M's in hand, the scientists set to work. To determine the candies' packing density, Torquato and Chaikin filled a plastic five-liter flask with the candies. Each time the candies reached the brim, the researchers jiggled the container until the M&M's settled. Then they put in more. When no more would fit, the scientists calculated how densely the candies were crammed, using the volumes of both the container and a single M&M to figure the answer. Each five-liter flask, it turned out, held roughly 7,500 regular M&M's or 23,000 minis. More importantly, the M&M's filled 68 percent of the container -- four percentage points more than the randomly packed ball bearings would. A computer simulation showed that if they flattened the M&M shape a bit, they could have packed in more. How many M&M's are in this jar? |
February 16, 2004
UA professor uses experience for explorationBy Natasha Bhuyan Those who can't do, teach. But what about those who can do? Robin Ward worked for seven years as an aerospace engineer for NASA, General Electric Company and the Software Engineering Institute. But she said she grew tired of the "rat race" and made the life-altering decision to leave her job and pursue a doctorate in mathematics education. When Ward was an assistant professor at California Polytechnic State University, she was asked by a colleague to create a Web site for NASA. The site, for NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, contains a mixture of K-12 math lesson plans and describes the mathematics used by scientists at NASA. Nicole Talamantes, an elementary education senior, finds Ward's NASA Dryden Flight Research Center Web site especially useful. "She always provides useful resources for us to access and use post-semester while we are student teaching," Talamantes said. "There are college professors. Then there is Dr. Ward, who goes the extra mile." Ward takes her students on geometry walks to locate polygons and tessellations in nature. Students are encouraged to explore math through the use of tools like Base 10 Blocks and color tiles to identify real-life applications. Students are also asked to integrate children's literature into math. Ward said she uses such investigative methods to create a thought-provoking classroom environment. Despite the impressive resumé and demanding workload, Ward remains modest about her accomplishments. "I'm happy with my past, but I still intend to forge new relations and continue to better myself as an educator." UA professor uses experience for exploration |
February 15, 2004
The meta manBy Gaile Robinson Joseph Mallord William Turner was dazzled by light. Throughout his life, the British painter attempted to capture its elusive and luminous qualities. When Turner died in 1851 at age 76, his work ensured a kind of immortality. He left his vast collection of artwork to the British nation. Nearly 300 paintings and more than 20,000 works on paper, including drawings, watercolors and sketches, were found in his studio. This trove became known as the Turner Bequest, the largest donation ever given to the national museum. With it came his directive that his savings were to build "alms houses for derelict artists." Turner's biographer, Eric Shanes, writes: "Turner saw a profound linkage between man-made architecture and natural architecture, not only believing that the principles of the one are based upon the laws of the other, but even that a universal, metaphysical geometry underlies both. This belief was fueled from the mid-1790s onwards by a close reading of poetry, most particularly the verse of Mark Akenside, whose long poem The Pleasures of the Imagination states a Platonic idealism with which Turner completely identified, with momentous results for his art." The meta man |
February 15, 2004
Why are so many of us not good at maths?By Carl Gilchrist Observer staff reporter If students from the traditional high schools were poor in Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) mathematics, those from the technical high schools were disastrous. In 1997, for example, the average pass rate in mathematics for technical high school students was 14 per cent, with some schools registering single-digit passes. The fact that the students spent only three years preparing for the examination, as against four or five years for traditional grammar schools, was no consolation. Neither was the fact that technical high school students did well in vocational subjects such as electrical installation, clothing & textiles, food & nutrition, secretarial studies and accounts. Mathematics, along with English language, was a necessity for the furtherance of studies beyond the high school scenario and such low passes were unacceptable. "If anybody were to suggest that the problem is simple then it would be false. The problems that we face are, in fact, complex," asserted Lemonius. "One, we have the situation of the teacher's competence being in question. There are some teachers who, for years, never ever moved from where they were before and if you're not moving, you actually get worse because things are actually moving past you. Relatively, you're falling behind." Lemonius also identified a lack of research. "One of the things we hear least among students, and sometimes teachers of maths, is research. We believe that we don't have to research maths, that you don't go and sit down and be analytic, sift out this piece of information and that piece of information; so you have no content, there is no basis on which you function," he argued. Kelly identified the "fear factor" as having negative effects on both sides of the fence. Many teachers, she argued, were "afraid of mathematics" because of how it was taught to them. Success for the programme so far has been based on certain strategies, involving the facilitators working with the teachers during the holidays to acquire competencies, after which the teachers collaborate in planning, preparing and working with the students outside of the timetable sessions. Why are so many of us not good at maths? |
February 14, 2004
Hunting eIvars Peterson Of the irrational, transcendental numbers, pi seems to get all the attention. Web sites and books celebrate its quirks and quandaries. Its digits have been computed to 1,241,100,000,000 decimal places. Lagging far behind in the celebrity sweepstakes is the number known as e. Carried to 20 decimal places, e is 2.71828 18284 59045 23536. Only 1,250,000,000 of its decimal digits have been computed so far—though there appears to be an unverified computation of 1.7 billion digits. People can't even agree on its proper name. It's been called the logarithmic constant, Napier's number, Euler's constant, and the natural logarithmic base. In 1998, two math buffs, inventor Harlan J. Brothers and meteorologist John A. Knox, discovered new, amazingly simple formulas for calculating e. "The logarithmic constant e is famous for turning up whenever natural beauty and mathematical elegance commingle," Brothers and Knox concluded in an article in the Mathematical Intelligencer describing their 1998 discoveries. "Our work provides a new glimpse of its austere charm." The continuing fascination with e may indeed signal an improved, updated image for this venerable, under-appreciated number. Hunting e |
February 14, 2004
Award-winning mathematician: Math is funSeiji Hasegawa There's some overlap between the fields of art and math," said mathematician Heisuke Hironaka, 72, who won France's most prestigious award, the Ordre National de la Legion d'Honneur, last month for his contribution to the development of mathematics. His next goal is to fight a widespread aversion to mathematics among Japanese children. He wants to go back to the principles of mathematics and put it into practice by starting to teach at an art college as well as a primary school in April. "I want to have art students create the world's most amusing math textbooks for primary school students," he said. Hoping to "stimulate the minds of young people," Hironaka has held seminar camps for high school students and others in the past 25 years. Although he has seen his projects produce new leaders, he still feels uneasy about the growing mathphobia among children. "Why do we study math? Simply because it's fun," he said. "We have to convey how amazing and fun math is to the next generation by helping them go back to the principles of the field. It involves trying to understand the numbers, figures and mechanics of nature." Award-winning mathematician: Math is fun |
February 13, 2004
Love lasts when the maths is rightMark Horstman in Seattle Forget about whether you and your Valentine share chemistry. It's the maths you should be worrying about, say U.S. researchers. A mathematician and psychologist say they can predict whether a marriage will last just by listening to a 15 minute conversation. The researchers discussed their work today at the opening of the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Seattle. Dr James Murray is Emeritus Professor of mathematics at the universities of Oxford and Washington. For the past 25 years, he has been applying maths to biomedical science, making models that describe how wounds heal, tumours grow and rabies spreads. Over the same period, Emeritus Professor of psychology Dr John Gottman has been recording the interactions of people in his 'love lab', the Relationship Research Institute at the University of Washington, Seattle. The researchers used calculus based on some simple assumptions to develop a non-linear dynamic model. These techniques are used to describe complex phenomena with only a few parameters, such as weather forecasting. Gottman was impressed by the power of mathematical modelling. "Maths revealed something that we didn't know before: that people are mismatched because of differences in how they influence each other." Love lasts when the maths is right |
February 13, 2004
Tutoring program figures in as substitute's dream with studentsGENE STOWE Navarre Intermediate Center eighth-grader Erik Root could think of any number of things he'd rather do on a Saturday morning. Going to math tutoring was not No. 1. But Erik took his math book and notebook to the St. Joseph County Public Library last Saturday, and in a few minutes tutor Megan Sulok had him smiling. Notre Dame student Andy Sawyer was helping St. Joseph's High School junior Rick Gunyon get more practice with sophisticated math skills. "Right now we're going over logarithms, rational functions, factoring polynomials," Rick said. "My parents told me about it because my math grades were kind of slipping. "I understand it now, as opposed to not." Erik was understanding more after the session, too. "He said he liked math at the end," Sulok said. "When he left at the end, he said. 'I'm going to come back next week if my mom will let me.'" Tutoring program figures in as substitute's dream with students |
February 13, 2004
Census changes could affect affirmative actionPatricia Daukantas Minority workers holding computer and mathematical jobs increased their share by 8.8 percent during the 1990s, according to a preliminary analysis of Census 2000 occupational data. Women, however, lost a bit of their share of the IT workforce pool during the same period. Those demographic changes could affect the affirmative action plans of federal contractors, who must adjust their goals based on the available labor pool for their metropolitan areas. Census changes could affect affirmative action |
February 13, 2004
Russellville student on winning math teamHOT SPRINGS A Russellville student was a member of a team from Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts that was one of nine school teams from across the country to earn a National Outstanding designation for the sixth annual High School Mathematical COMAP Modeling (HiMCM). This is the fifth year in a row that an ACMSA team has achieved the ranking. Only two other schools in the country have placed in the National Outstanding category each of the last five years. We're going up against the top schools in the country and we're right there competing with them, said Bruce Turkal, who teaches the math modeling class at ASMSA. There's not a level we can't compete on mathematically. I'll put these kids up against anyone in the nation. Russellville student on winning math team |
February 12, 2004
New Exhibits at Stedman GalleryNews from Rutgers The Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts has opened two innovative exhibits at the Stedman Gallery. The work of more than 30 artists whose art demonstrates various mathematical principles will be featured in the exhibition New Math: Contemporary Art and the Mathematical Instinct at the Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts' Stedman Gallery. Organized by the Tweed Museum of Art in Duluth, Minn., the collection is on display through March 27, on the Rutgers-Camden campus. More than 50 pieces, including sculpture, painting, photography, and computer-generated imagery, will be shown, all reflecting four major themes: algorithms, geometry, probability and statistics, and cultural and historical mathematics. New Exhibits at Stedman Gallery |
February 12, 2004
Sweet science: Common candies yield physics discoveryResearch using M&Ms sheds light on particle-packing problemFor most people, a regular lunch of M&M's and coffee would lead to no good. For Princeton physicist Paul Chaikin and collaborators, it spurred fundamental insights into an age-old problem in mathematics and physics. Chaikin and Princeton chemist Salvatore Torquato used the candies to investigate the physical and mathematical principles that come into play when particles are poured randomly into a vessel. While seemingly simple, the question of how particles pack together has been a persistent scientific problem for hundreds of years and has implications for fields such as the design of high-density ceramic materials for use in aerospace or other applications. The researchers discovered that oblate spheroids, the shape of M&M's Chocolate Candies®, pack surprisingly more densely than regular spheres when poured randomly and shaken. Extending the work with further experiments and sophisticated computer simulations, they found that a related shape, the ellipsoid, packs at random even more densely than the tightest possible, perfectly ordered arrangement of spheres. Previously, scientists did not know that randomly assembled particles could pack so densely. Sweet science: Common candies yield physics discovery |
February 12, 2004
Student creations: From pop cans to the Queen of Hearts Geometry class comes up with its own pieces for this year's Wearable Art showBy KORRY KEEKER For Juneau-Douglas High School geometry teacher Mary-Lou Gervais, the annual wearable art show is a rite of passage to spring. "It gets me through January and February," she said. For a team of students in each of her three classes, it's turned out to be a lesson in geometry. Gervais challenged each class to come up with a mathematically inspired idea for the show. She evaluated the ideas on content, feasibility and geometric application. Then she let the classes decide which projects to construct. Geometry class comes up with its own pieces for this year's Wearable Art show |
February 12, 2004
Guest Opinion: Blacks are integral part of American historyDANNY L. WHITE A well-known dictum reminds us that "those who forget their history are destined to relive it." Without the least bit of contradiction, it is safe to say no one of African-American descent would want to relive life in America 50 years ago, let alone 100 years. February is African-American History Awareness Month, a time not only to remember the accomplishments of men and women of African-American heritage in the past, but more important, a time to inspire the masses of youth for generations to come. A black man named Benjamin Banneker, a mathematician, astronomer, and surveyor, constructed the first clock in the New World in 1761, published annual almanacs and defined the boundary line and layout of the streets of the nation's capital. Celebrate African-American history. It is American history. Guest Opinion: Blacks are integral part of American history |
February 12, 2004
Colleges aim to up odds on getting into gamingBy Tony Perry LOS ANGELES TIMES SAN DIEGO - Here in the American Indian gaming capital of California, the casino and the campus have entered into a marriage of mutual financial benefit. Two local institutions of higher learning are planning certificate programs in gambling-ology to prepare students for jobs in one of the few growth industries in the state: Indian casinos. According to an economic analysis done by the county government, the casinos attract more than 40,000 gamblers a day, have a cumulative payroll exceeding $270 million a year, spend $263 million a year on goods and services, employ more than 12,000 people -- and have become major players in local politics and charities. "It's not going to be theoretical," he said. "It's going to be very practical." For example, Byxbee said, the slot machine class would explore the complexities of how to make a slot attractive to the public. It's more difficult than one might imagine, he said. "It's a whole mathematical construction, determining how much money has to be paid to make people want to play." Colleges aim to up odds on getting into gaming |
February 11, 2004
Cowbell Stages 6th National Mathematics CompetitionBayo Adeleke Lagos The sixth edition of the National Secondary Schools Mathematics Competition organised by Promasidor Nigerial Limited, makers of Cowbell milk took place weekend in 126 centers throughout the country. The competition accommodates both the JSS3 and SS2 Secondary Schools Students throughout the country and Abuja. The atmosphere at the Immaculate Heart Comprehensive Senior Secondary School, Maryland, Lagos, one of the six centers in the state were peaceful as students whose Secondary Schools fall within the area were allowed to write the examination upon presentation of letters of invitation earlier given to all accredited schools in the state by the Ministry of Education. The Principal of the school, Mrs Cecilia F. Egbedeyi, who spoke to THISDAY during the course of the accreditation described the initiative as beautiful, adding that it has helped students to work hard and also gingered their interest and love for Mathematics and other subjects. The centre hosted schools from Ikorodu, Ikeja, Shomolu, Ketu and the environs. Miss Oluranti Dosa, Head of Department of Mathematics, Orishigun High School, Ketu, who spoke on the preparedness of her students for the competition said the students are well prepared and they are counting on the special grace of God for success. She said since it was not possible to exceed their best, they did what they could to ensure the students were fully prepared. Cowbell Stages 6th National Mathematics Competition |
February 11, 2004
Learning adds up: Math Wizards sharpen their skills in WestwoodBy Sarah MacDonald WESTWOOD -- Picture dozens of children staying after school to add, subtract, multiply and divide. And it's not a punishment. That's Math Wizards Club, designed to make math exciting for elementary students, using games to sharpen their problem-solving and strategy skills. The program, a collaboration between parents and teachers, has proved wildly popular among students. "Math Wizards Club was fun because of the games," said Hanlon School fourth-grader Katie DeAngelis. "It helped me learn how to think of different strategies and how to do long divisions," she said, referring to the game "Count Down." "I like the games because they were challenging," said Katie's brother Austin, who attended three sessions at Hanlon. "(Teachers) were good. They are kind of smart." The committee, spearheaded by Parna Sarkar-Basu, has hired consultant Mike Finegold to implement a schoolwide enrichment program, which will reach more than 900 students. Finegold, a Princeton University graduate, uses popular sports like football and baseball to explain averages, fractions and probability, among other concepts. "I feel the grant is very worthwhile," said WEF member Tricia DeAngelis. "It touches all of the schools by creating a very dynamic, hands-on math program. I am glad we were able to fund it" Learning adds up: Math Wizards sharpen their skills in Westwood |
February 11, 2004
8 teachers awarded $5K grants from PCOGBy Oyaol Ngirairikl Rowena Dimla will use her money to help her students and their parents learn math together. Fellow teacher Martin Ishizaki wants to use his money to help students better cope with the transition from elementary school to middle school. The Pangasinan Community of Guam, one of the largest Filipino organizations on Guam, celebrated the dedication of Guam's educators at the event where they awarded $40,000 in grants. Dimla, a teacher at D.L. Perez Elementary School in Yigo, was among the eight teachers who each received $5,000 each. "I'm going to use my grant to purchase math software and math books for my elementary students and their parents," Dimla said, adding that it can be difficult to make math an engaging subject for students. "With this program, parents will be able to use our computers to do math activities or math homework." 8 teachers awarded $5K grants from PCOG |
February 10, 2004
Math tests don't add up for N.S. studentsHalifax Hundreds of high school students in Nova Scotia are worried they won't get into university or qualify for scholarships after they failed provincial math exams. Grade 12 students wrote the tests last month, the first time in Nova Scotia for more than three decades. The exams count for 30 per cent of the graduating students' final grades. And as the results begin returning this week, students at some schools are discovering they fared poorly. At Sir John A. Macdonald High School just outside Halifax, for example, 52 of 60 students failed. In Wolfville, one-third of the students at Horton High School failed, and attained an average grade of 54 per cent. Bill Estabrooks, NDP member of the provincial legislature and a former teacher and principal, said the exam appears to be flawed, so the Department of Education should "throw the test out." Math tests don't add up for N.S. students |
February 9, 2004
Guilloché PatternsEd Pegg Jr. A guilloché pattern might be very close to you at the moment. Paper banknotes, passports, identification cards, certificates, checks, bonds, and warranties all frequently feature guilloché pattern. You may have made a guilloché pattern yourself. In 1962, Denys Fisher was designing bomb detonators for NATO, and his research inspired him to invent spirograph (I frankly don't see the connection, myself). Although considered a child's toy, the spirograph has some serious math behind it. The patterns the toy produces, called epitrochoids, have been studied by Dürer, Desargues, Leibniz, Newton, L'Hospital, Bernoulli, and Euler. They belong to a class of curves called roulettes. Guilloché Patterns |
February 9, 2004
The Case for Doing Business By NumbersKevin Mayhew Johannesburg Academics team up and devise mathematical solutions to a range of problems experienced by companies. LARGE and small South African business is overlooking the potential of mathematics to provide business solutions to the entire production and distribution process involved in successful companies. To rectify this, six local tertiary education institutions combined to stage the first annual Mathematics in Industry Study Group SA, which was held at the University of the Witwatersrand recently. It included input from Australian and British academics. "The objective of the study group was to involve domestic industry in a process of problemsolving outside of the use of empirical research. By calling for actual South African industrial problems early last year, we could present a strong case for considering the more theory-based mathematical alternative," says Prof David Mason of the Wits School of Computational and Applied Mathematics. Better links between industry and academic mathematics will also improve university education of mathematicians through expanded employment prospects for graduates in the mathematical sciences, new research problems for mathematicians, and introduce innovative material for teaching, Mason says. "What we hope company management will see, from the spread of problems we have tackled in this first study group meeting, that there are no limitations to what we can undertake using mathematics," says Prof Fazal Mahomed, of the Wits School of Computational and Applied Mathematics. "It includes large mining applications, product production, line efficiency to even the supply chain and stocking imperatives for the smallest product." The Case for Doing Business By Numbers |
February 9, 2004
Women converge at UNL for math conferenceBy YULIA HOLKO Women mathematicians from across the country visited Nebraska this weekend, coming from places as far away as Canada, Puerto Rico and Ireland despite the snow. The Sixth Annual Nebraska Conference for Undergraduate Women in Mathematics brought math students and educators to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Allan Donsig, co-chairman of the committee, said increasing the number of women who go to graduate school is one way of attacking a gender inequity problem in mathematics departments. Mathematics is often perceived as a dry science, Donsig said, but "being a mathematician doesn't mean isolation of thinking mathematics all the time." A panel discussion called "Enjoying life (as a Mathematician)" suggested ways to fight stereotypes of women mathematicians. Some people may think mathematicians let math interfere with their personal lives, panel members said, but many mathematicians also have families as well as other hobbies. UNL's Department of Mathematics organized the conference with the support of the National Security Agency, a government cryptology organization, and the National Science Foundation. Women converge at UNL for math conference |
February 7, 2004
Turning a Snowball Inside OutIvars Peterson Turning a sphere inside out without allowing any sharp creases along the way is a tricky mathematical maneuver. Carving an intricate snow sculpture depicting a crucial step in this twisty transformation presents its own difficulties. This was the challenge facing a team led by mathematician Stan Wagon of Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., last month at the 14th International Snow Sculpture Championship in Breckenridge, Colo. In the end, after 5 days of arduous labor, the team managed to shape a 12-foot-high block of snow into a daring, prize-winning creation. Imagine a ball made of a ghostly membrane that can stretch, bend, and pass through itself. The idea is to turn such a sphere inside out without puncturing, ripping, or creasing it. No one knew if a sphere eversion was even possible until 1959, when Stephen Smale proved a theorem that indirectly leads to the proposition that it could be done. However, Smale's step-by-step path for accomplishing a sphere eversion was so complicated that no one could visualize his procedure. Out of the 14 entries in this year's competition, Turning a Snowball Inside Out earned an honorable mention for "most ambitious" sculpture. That's a fine showing for an intricate, challenging piece of mathematics! Turning a Snowball Inside Out |
February 6, 2004
Russian scientist may have solved famous math problemThe Seattle Time By Douglas Birch The Baltimore Sun MOSCOW — In his office overlooking the faded pastel mansions along a St. Petersburg canal, a young Russian mathematician spent eight solitary years grappling with the Poincaré Conjecture, one of the most famous and frustrating conundrums in math. Now, colleagues say, Grigori Perelman may not only have solved the century-old riddle. He may have helped advance many areas of math and physics, and made it possible to better understand the shape of the universe. "It seems like a very beautiful idea," one American colleague said. If "Grisha" Perelman's proof of the Poincaré is correct — and many mathematicians suspect it is — it will seal his transformation from an obscure researcher into one of the world's leading scientists. Partly, Perelman is probably leery of prematurely claiming victory. Dozens of researchers have tackled the Poincaré Conjecture. It goes to the heart of topology, or the mathematical study of surfaces, which holds that the world consists of two basic shapes, the sphere and the doughnut. Poincaré speculated, in effect, that certain rules governing these three-dimensional shapes also apply to the same shapes projected into four and more dimensions. Experts say it could take another six months to a year to verify Perelman's work, which is being scrutinized by teams around the world. But the work appears to have avoided the pitfalls of past efforts. Colleagues say even if his proof has hidden flaws, it represents a major advance in math. Russian scientist may have solved famous math problem |
February 6, 2004
Maths helps boost industryThe might of mathematics made a strong impression on the varied industries that joined the country's top mathematicians for the week-long Maths in Industry brainstorm in Auckland recently. The Mathematics in Industry Study Group (MISG 2004) is the initiative of the University's Centre for Mathematics in Industry. For the first time, the annual event involving mathematicians from Australasia, Asia and the Northern Hemisphere, was held in New Zealand. The industrial researchers and mathematicians spent five days in intense collaboration on the projects presented, seeking solutions and working towards the development of mathematical models. The value of this exercise has been gaining much wider recognition and this year participation was greater than ever before. "It was fantastic to have so many bright people all working on our project at once," says NZ Steel's Product Technology Manager Philip Bagshaw. "At one stage there were 18 mathematicians considering our project – that represents incredible intellectual horsepower. Maths helps boost industry |
February 6 2004
Volcano visit gives students an edgeTaking the temperature of a very active volcano and living off the land Survivor-style offered an experience of a lifetime for a group of postgraduate geology students. The students were there to map the geology of Lopevi and to work out the "plumbing" of the volcano, which is similar in some ways to Mt Taranaki. An annually erupting volcano since the 1960s, Dr Cronin had been on Lopevi in June 2003 when it erupted with full force. The team spent more than a week traipsing over and around the island, collecting rocks and deposits, taking measurements and mapping the ever-changing landscape. He says there are similarities between what is happening in Lopevi now and what has happened at Taranaki in the past. The samples they took and the data collected will be used to calibrate mathematical models of lava flows and ash falls. "We can test a number of different theories on how this volcano works then use that information to validate models that have been developed from past eruptions at Mt Taranaki." He says with a better understanding on how Lopevi 'works' they can develop a better model for hazard prediction for Mt Taranaki. Volcano visit gives students an edge |
February 5, 2004
Catapult Makers: Rock Stars of AntiquityBrian Handwerk Ancient catapults were state-of-the-art weapons of unequalled power—but how powerful were the military engineers who created them? "Both the engineers and their achievements were an important part of ancient society," writes Serafina Cuomo, of Imperial College London's Centre for the History of Science. "In antiquity," she added, "catapults not only changed the art of war, but also inaugurated a new era in the relations between political power and technical experts." The fearsome machines terrorized battlefields and sieges until the proliferation of gunpowder. Their power was impressive and terrifying. Roman catapults could hurl 60-pound (27-kilogram) boulders some 500 feet (150 meters). Archimedes' machines were said to have been able to throw stones three times as heavy. The origins of the catapult are unknown. They appear in the historical record as early as a 9th-century B.C. relief from Nimrud in modern-day Iraq. Through long experience the ancients identified a basic principle of catapult construction. It stated that all parts of the machine, including the stone or projectile, were proportional to the size of the torsion springs. The establishment of this principle had a dramatic effect. "Whereas in the old days of trial-and-error, results could never be guaranteed, the introduction of proportionality and thus mathematics allowed catapult construction to be almost standardized," Cuomo writes in Science. "Tables of specification were compiled for quick and easy reference." Catapult Makers: Rock Stars of Antiquity |
February 4, 2004
Ruling is risky businessDavid Ignatius PARIS -- If I could set the American political agenda for a day, I would ask President Bush and his Democratic presidential challengers to explain how they think about risk. The issue goes to some of the central questions that ought to be debated in this campaign, starting with our difficulties in Iraq. Iraq teaches us that even when we think we have the relevant facts -- we don't. That's the message from David Kay's inability to find the weapons of mass destruction that were almost universally expected. I've been sampling some of the papers presented at a Pentagon conference on risk, and they make provocative reading. A wise contrarian analysis of risk comes from a Lebanese-born mathematician and financial trader named Nassim Nicholas Taleb, who wrote a best-selling book called "Fooled by Randomness." He presented a remarkable paper to the Pentagon conference called "The Black Swan: Why Don't We Learn That We Don't Learn?" Taleb's basic point is that the events that drive history are outliers -- "black swans" that don't meet our expectations because we've only seen white ones. We tend to assume risks are distributed with the same type of randomness as height, weight or blood pressure. But the events that really matter don't follow those predictable rules at all. They embody what Taleb calls the "power law" of all or nothing. "Our ability to predict large-scale deviations that change history has been close to zero," he notes. We tend to get our guidance about what to do in the future from our experience of the past -- which is actually irrelevant. Ruling is risky business |
February 4, 2004
Maths help for defective babiesBy MICHELLE PAINE A MATHEMATICIAN may have new hope for babies with a particular intestinal defect. Kerry Landman is working with embryologists at Royal Melbourne Children's Hospital on Hirschsprung's disease, which prevents nerve cells developing in the last part of the intestine. Associate Professor Landman, of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Melbourne, presented a paper at this week's Applied Mathematics Conference in Hobart. With Graeme Pettet and Don Newgreen, she is studying cells that migrate down the intestine as the embryo develops. Her mathematical model looks at how long it takes a "wave of cells to colonise tissue" and if they can do so while the tissue itself is growing. She said maths had played a key part of tumour growth research and tissue engineering would be the next area for maths -- helping create ways to grow new bone or muscle." Maths can also be used to model how blood vessels grow in a diseased heart, taking over from arteries that do not work properly. Maths help for defective babies |
February 4, 2004
The physics of haute couturePHILIP BALL Equations that predict how fabric will fold could be a boon for animators and clothes designers. L. Maha Mahadevan of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and colleagues have come up with equations that predict the number and shape of folds in a draped sheet1. The equations could be applied to anything from skirts to curtains. The physics of haute couture |
February 4, 2004
Math professor Guterman diesby Brian Loeb After a nearly two-year battle with esophageal cancer, math professor Martin Guterman passed away last Sunday. Guterman was 62 years old, and he had been a member of the faculty since 1966. Guterman specialized in algebra and group theory, and he created several of the math department's courses, including Math of Symmetry and Math of Social Choice. He was "very highly regarded for his teaching by his students and his colleagues," Math Department Chair Christoph Börgers said. Börgers, who joined the department in 1994, said Guterman was "almost like part of a family for us." Math professor Guterman dies |
February 3, 2004
Math puts on its poker faceBy Aaron Hougham Most card players will say that all you need for an enjoyable night of Texas Hold'em is a good poker face, some good luck and a good cigar. Today at 4 p.m. in Kidder Hall Room 350, another, more fundamental aspect of the game will be discussed -- mathematics. The OSU Department of Mathematics is sponsoring a free lecture entitled "Quit Work, Play Poker, Sleep 'Til Noon" as part of their weekly colloquia series highlighting different areas of mathematics. The talk will outline an "unbeatable" bluffing strategy using one of Game Theory's fundamental results, Von Neumann's Minimax theorem, and David Sklansky's Fundamental Theorem of Poker. The presenter is Steve Bleiler, a poker player and mathematics professor at Portland State University. Bleiler has been playing poker for nearly 30 years. He is a self-described "mathematical poker player," and was named the Pacific Northwest Mathematics Association of America's Distinguished Teacher for 2003. Math puts on its poker face |
February 3, 2004
Fleeting glances and perceptionsBy Stephen Alleyne The time available to assimilate information or observe events as they unfold can have a profound effect on the conclusions we draw from the information or events. Of course, the shorter the time period the higher the probability of erring. Case in point. Last week a friend presented me with what he called a brain-teaser, but what, in my opinion at the time, was a run-of-the-mill problem. He asked me to add eight simple numbers as quickly as I could without the aid of a calculator or pencil and paper, and give him the answer. Being reasonably good at mental arithmetic, I happily accepted the challenge. A piece of cake? Not so. I will not tell you what total I got. All I will say is that it was the expected, but wrong answer. Since then I gave the same problem to 12 individuals, one of whom holds an upper second class honours degree in mathematics, and they all got the predicted, but wrong answer. The question is reproduced below for the mathematically inclined. Go right ahead and try it. Take 1 000 and add 40 to it. Now add another 1 000. Now add 30. Add another 1 000. Now add 20. Now add another 1 000. Now add 10. What is the answer? Don't be ashamed to reach for your calculator and check the answer. Fleeting glances and perceptions |
February 2, 2004
Stock Market Game Program(TM) Receives $150,000 From the McGraw-Hill Companies For 'Math Behind the Market' Teachers' GuideNEW YORK, Feb. 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Foundation for Investor Education today announced that The McGraw-Hill Companies contributed $150,000 to sponsor Math Behind the Market, a new curriculum guide for use by teachers participating in The Stock Market Game Program. "The Stock Market Game Program inherently helps students grasp essential math concepts," said Donna C. Peterman, the foundation's chair and senior vice president, PNC Financial Services Group. "The McGraw-Hill Companies' generous grant will provide teachers with the necessary lesson plans to link mathematics concepts to the program and engage students in the excitement of investing while teaching them math concepts that can raise their level of academic achievement." "This grant is part of The McGraw-Hill Companies' long standing commitment to support financial literacy programs," said Harold McGraw III, chairman, chief executive officer, and president of The McGraw-Hill Companies. "Financial literacy is an important life-skill. Being financially literate means having the skills necessary to make informed decisions, such as how to invest wisely. In large part, it's about preparing young people to succeed in life." Stock Market Game Program(TM) Receives $150,000 From the McGraw-Hill Companies For 'Math Behind the Market' Teachers' Guide |
February 2, 2004
India's role in maths vitalPATNA: India's contribution to the development of mathematical concepts is least understood and most understudied. So says Kim Plofker from the department of History of Mathematics, Brown University, USA. She is in Patna in search of manuscripts related to mathematics and astronomy and delivered a talk at the K P Jayaswal Research Institute on Sunday. "Indian mathematical science is extremely important and has had a significant effect on the world's knowledge as it is today. There is severe deficiency in western historiography about the Indian contribution. The lack of available resources have kept us underinformed about the developments that have taken place in India," she said. India's role in maths vital |
February 1, 2004
Reading between Peru's Nazca Lines reveals damageDREW BENSON NAZCA, Peru (AP) - Standing inside the maze of mysterious lines and figures that put this arid region on the tourist map, state archeologist Alberto Urbano surveys a football field-sized spread of ankle-deep trash. In many ways the damage reflects Peru's inability to protect its myriad of pre-Columbian archeological gems. Located 400 kilometres south of Lima, the lines have puzzled scientists, drawn mystics and even inspired an eccentric German mathematician to devote the last five decades of her life to studying and protecting them. Each year, about 80,000 tourists fly over the pictographs. Since German mathematician Maria Reich died in 1998 at age 95, watching over the site has fallen upon a handful of men she once employed - and Urbano, the lone state archeologist. Reading between Peru's Nazca Lines reveals damage |
February 1, 2004
The New Math: Make a WishBy Allan Sloan Bush's "cut the deficit in half in five years" goal is a piece of cake, and makes attacks by Democrats and by conservative Republicans look small-minded. The CBO says that the deficit in the current year will be $478 billion, and five years from now—fiscal 2009—it will be $268 billion. That $268 billion assumes we're spending about $100 billion in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since that's most unlikely—at least I'm hoping it's unlikely—you can see how it's a snap to come up with a 2009 budget-deficit projection that's less than half of this year's. (The target becomes even easier if Bush, as expected, comes in with a bigger deficit number now, using what I call "big-bath math." You take a bath by assuming everything goes bad this year, making future years look better by comparison.) The New Math: Make a Wish |
February 1, 2004
Maths experts do their sums - and head overseasBy Kate Nancarrow Australia's maths graduates are being lured overseas by organisations hungry for analysis of everything from banking and insurance risk to shopping trends. Associate professor of maths at the University of NSW Jim Franklin said the commercial world "has long understood what mathematicians can do for them" and many of the country's brightest maths graduates were pursuing careers on Wall Street or in London. He said international demand for mathematicians would only increase as banks around the world implemented the Basel II protocol, which would set an international standard for banks to set aside capital for risk. "Graduates will be able to pick any country to work in . . . There will be enormous employment opportunities for this as it must be implemented by 2006." Mathematicians were also needed worldwide for "data mining", which involves isolating statistical trends. This growing worldwide demand for maths graduates, and the local shortage these overseas opportunities create, have prompted the Federal Government to pour $7.8 million into a specialised maths learning centre founded by the Bracks Government at the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute in Carlton. Maths experts do their sums - and head overseas |
January 30, 2004
Md. computer testers cast a vote: Election boxes easy to mess withBy Stephanie Desmon For a week, the computer whizzes laid abuse - both high- and low-tech - on the six new briefcase-sized electronic voting machines sent over by the state. One guy picked the locks protecting the internal printers and memory cards. Another figured out how to vote more than once - and get away with it. Still another launched a dial-up attack, using his modem to slither through an electronic hole in the State Board of Elections software. Once inside, he could easily change vote totals that come in on Election Day. "My guess is we've only scratched the surface," said Michael A. Wertheimer, who spent 21 years as a cryptologic mathematician at the National Security Agency. Md. computer testers cast a vote: Election boxes easy to mess with |
January 29, 2004
Trash, tourists threaten Peru's ancient desert linesBut not just trash and smalltime gold diggers threaten Peru's fragile Nazca Lines. Grave robbers, tractor trailers and tourists also have left their mark on the mammoth designs carved more than a 1000 ago along a 56km stretch of desert. Located 400km south of Lima, the lines have puzzled scientists, drawn mystics and even inspired an eccentric German mathematician to devote the last five decades of her life to studying and protecting them. Each year, about 80000 tourists fly over the pictographs. But loosely guarded by day, the site is wide open by night. Since German mathematician Maria Reich died in 1998 at age 95, watching over the site has fallen upon a handful of men she once employed and Urbano, the lone state archaeologist. Reich's remaining guards finance their operations by charging tourists less than $2 to climb up a metal observation tower beside the Pan-American Highway, which itself cuts through the site and an unlucky lizard figure. Trash, tourists threaten Peru's ancient desert lines |
January 29, 2004
3,700 Students for Maths Exam NationwideFrom Juliana Taiwo in Abuja A total of 3,700 students from the 36 states, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), are to participate in Saturday's January 31, National Mathematical Centre (NMC) and Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) National Competitive Examination in Mathematics and Incentive Scheme. "The evaluation is expected to provide further data for analytical interpretation of specific measurement indices in the teaching and learning of Mathematics. Speaking on behalf of the Executive Secretary of PTDF, Yusuf Hamisu Abubakar, Mr. Jide Adebulehin, Chief Officer Planning and Monitoring Department, promised PTDF's continuous support for the Centre because of its mandate and determination to develop technology and human capital in the oil and gas sector. "There is no way professionals in this field can be produced without mathematics and mathematical scientists. We want to catch them young right from the Secondary School level", he said. 3,700 Students for Maths Exam Nationwide |
January 29, 2004
German Scientists and Educators Work to Develop Children's Inborn MusicalityCarina Frey FRANKFURT (dpa) Beethoven played the piano at the age of four and Mozart was giving concerts by the time he was six. Today even small babies are learning melodies and how to keep time in musical groups. "Children have a kind of musical gene, they are born for musicality," according to Hans-Günther Bastian, professor at the Institute for Educational Music at the University of Frankfurt. Bastian believes that making music promotes the brain's spatial and mathematical faculties. In a long-term study, Bastian compared children who were educated in a primary school with a musical emphasis with their peers at a school without music. "In the case of the children enjoying a musical schooling, the IQ score increased relative to the others," he says. But Altenmüller cannot confirm this from his research. "We can only surmise that making music promotes mathematical abilities, as those who do finger exercises and struggle with different rhythms, like sixteenths, triplets and so on have effectively internalized several basic mathematical operations," he says. German Scientists and Educators Work to Develop Children's Inborn Musicality |
29 January, 2004
Bird flu is a major threat to humans, experts warnBy TOM PAULSON Once again, public health officials are on the alert worldwide for an infectious respiratory illness spreading out of Asia that has the potential of exploding into a major pandemic. The concern is that the bird virus might change its tune and become a human flu bug. One of the worst flu pandemics on record, the Spanish flu of 1918, killed an estimated 20 million people. For now, "This is basically an information war," said Carl Bergstrom, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Washington who studies how viruses evolve. Bergstrom and his colleagues recently published a paper in Nature in which they aimed to quantify mathematically how viruses evolve in order to jump from one species to another. "What we found is that relatively small changes can have a big impact on whether a disease evolves into a good spreader among humans," he said. Bird flu is a major threat to humans, experts warn |
January 28, 2004
In Conversation with Nobel Laureate Professor Klaus von KlitzingHello and a warm welcome to 'The Singapore Scene'. This week, a conversation with 1985 Nobel winner for Physics, Professor Klaus von Klitzing who visited Singapore recently. Awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for the discovery of the Quantum Hall Effect, Professor Klaus von Klitzing's findings have had an impact on many other areas of research in the world of physics. His discovery not only established precise steps in the behaviour of electrons, but also had wide implications for the field of computers and modern technology. You said earlier on that your interest in science actually started at the age of five. Now, maybe you can tell me a little bit about your childhood days – how did science came about in your life? KVK: "Okay – already, at the first year at school, it was clear that I was interested in mathematics. And my parents supported me to do some calculations and I have always looked for problems to solve by myself. So, mathematics was always something interesting. But finally, I discover that physics is a very nice field to apply mathematics and really to use it in a very efficient way. So, at the university, I was a little bit disappointed how dire mathematics may be – you have no connection, sometimes, to the real world. And therefore, I changed the direction of physics. And today, nano-science is the modern word and the nice thing about nano-science is that physics, chemistry, biology come together and you have everything in nature, which is built up by nano-science. And to understand the nature, therefore, I enjoy very much to work in this field of nano-electronics. Now what would you say have been the greatest challenge in your life so far, I mean, you have done so much things… you have achieved the Nobel Prize? KVK: "I am really fighting to challenge the education to understand mathematics as it is very important. and I think our children do not know much about this field, which are necessary to survive in our world and so, I am supporting the education at a young age. Already, at the age of kindergarten or five years, you should influence the young children to understand natural science. So, I think this is very important for our future and I am doing a lot of public lectures and education to encourage people to think about, to understand science. In Conversation with Nobel Laureate Professor Klaus von Klitzing |
January 28, 2004
Antiterrorism grants give Tulane $4.4 million, LSU $1.8 millionThe Associated Press NEW ORLEANS (AP) Antiterrorism grants have brought more than $6 million to two Louisiana universities $4.4 million for bioterrorism research at Tulane and $1.8 million for computer research at LSU. LSU computer science professor Peter Chen got $1.8 million from the National Science Foundation to study ways to help track or identify terrorists, serial killers and other threats to homeland and local security. At the heart of his work are a complex mathematical model and "smart linkage" a way to find hidden relationships in data. He said the mathematical model will help cut the work and time needed to narrow lists of thousands of potential suspects down to perhaps 100 or 1,000. Antiterrorism grants give Tulane $4.4 million, LSU $1.8 million |
27 January, 2004
Book explains maths mysteriesA new book attempts to explain to the non-specialist the seven most important unsolved problems in mathematics. A million dollar prize - put forward by a US organisation - awaits the individual who can solve any of the so-called Millennium Problems. The updated paperback - also called The Millennium Problems - is written by Keith Devlin, executive director of the Centre for the Study of Language and Information at Stanford University. "It was an enormous challenge for me in writing the book," Dr Devlin told BBC World Service's Outlook programme. An original set of 23 mathematical problems was outlined by Prussian mathematician David Hilbert in 1900. By 2000, only three of these remained to be solved, although a Swedish student Elin Oxenhielm claimed recently to have partially solved one of them. Her solution was later withdrawn. Although the problems primarily mean little to non-mathematicians, they do have important practical use. "There are weird analogies between this very pure-sounding mathematical problem and some very deep and beautiful problems in physics," said Professor Sir Michael Berry, of Bristol University, UK, and a physicist who has worked on the Riemann hypothesis for 20 years. Book explains maths mysteries |
January 26, 2004
Just how many of us are dying?Kerry Cullinan The current controversy over the accuracy of Aids statistics sparked by Malan's article is actually a debate about how many deaths we can expect in the next 10 years, but it does nothing to address our present reality in which at least 4.5 million South Africans are living with HIV. The controversy hinges on two issues: whether Aids deaths have been exaggerated and whether there is a conspiracy to deliberately distort these deaths to ensure that huge resources are allocated to Aids. "Actuaries do the best they can with the information available at the time," says Dorrington. "This means that models are changing constantly as we learn more about the epidemic. The new ASSA models are based on the latest research and ASSA is certainly not part of any conspiracy to exaggerate numbers or to 'quietly retire' our models." Actuaries use mathematical modelling which is based on making various assumptions about available data. The main sources of their Aids predictions have been the annual HIV prevalence survey of pregnant women collected by the Department of Health and the estimates of deaths produced by the Medical research Council. Based on 12 sets of "data", including sets with hard data such as death registration and antenatal clinic data, Van Aardt says his demographic-research division estimated an overall 2003 HIV-prevalence rate of 14.87 percent although he says that the HIV epidemic is at a different stage in every province so it is more useful to look at provincial figures than one national figure. Just how many of us are dying? |
January 25, 2004
Dr. Olga Ladyzhenskaya, 81, Mathematician, DiesBy JEREMY PEARCE Dr. Olga Ladyzhenskaya, a mathematician whose work with differential equations contributed to advances in the study of fluid dynamics in areas like weather forecasting, oceanography, aerodynamics and cardiovascular science, died on Jan. 12 in St. Petersburg, Russia. She was 81. Her primary work was on calculations that were developed in the 19th century to explain the behavior of fluids and known as Navier-Stokes equations. As a researcher first at St. Petersburg University and later at the Steklov Institute of Mathematics, also in St. Petersburg, she worked through the solutions for the equations, which show how a number of variables relate in time and space. Dr. Marshall Slemrod, a mathematician with the University of Wisconsin, said Dr. Ladyzhenskaya had an American counterpart in John Nash, the Princeton mathematician and Nobel laureate whose life is depicted in the film "A Beautiful Mind," and who also studied partial differential equations. "She was perhaps the premier worker on the Russian side," Dr. Slemrod said. "If you believe your weather forecast, you have to solve the exact equations that she studied." Dr. Olga Ladyzhenskaya, 81, Mathematician, Dies |
January 23, 2004
Bernard F. Pracko, II - Represented by SympatHis decision to develop as an artist came after he studied at the Tomatis Center in Phoenix. Dr. Alfred A. Tomatis was a French ear, nose and throat specialist who developed a revolutionary program for people with disabilities like autism, dyslexia and ADD. The Tomatis Method helps students tune out white noise and other distracting stimuli to listen more effectively with both the inner ear and the entire body. There, Pracko honed his listening skills to harvest sound from various sources. The Greek mathematician Pythagoras described this phenomenon of sounds and divine harmonies as the "Music of the Spheres." He believed that the planets in orbit, and by extension all of nature's cycles and rhythms, emit inaudible sounds and music in perfect harmony, which reveal the highest universal realities. Pythagoras described these harmonies mathematically. In Bernard Pracko's artwork, he illustrates his experience of the divine in colors he associates with such sonance. For example, in his work Untitled 92/6P, Pracko recalls hearing bells tinkling, and his bright, crystalline forms appear to represent the sound. Incredibly, Pracko is color-blind. His solution is to paint colors he sees – purples, blues, yellows, black and red appear often in his work. One obvious inspiration for Pracko is the work of the Color-Field painters – Helen Frankenthaler, Morris Louis, Mark Rothko, Paul Jenkins and Sam Francis. Pracko saturates his canvases with layer after layer of acrylic paint, creating an atmospheric quality like gaseous, light-filled nebulae and black holes of deep space. Kandinsky warned that artwork divorced from spirituality is merely decorative. "In each artistic circle are thousands of such artists, of whom the majority seek only for some new technical manner, and who produce millions of works of art without enthusiasm, with cold hearts and souls asleep," Kandinsky says. Clearly, Pracko is in the minority, and he seeks a higher end for himself – to produce artworks that resonate with spiritual truth. Bernard F. Pracko, II - Represented by Sympat |
January 23, 2004
Hollins event connects teenage girls to mathThe Sonia Kovalevsky Mathematics Day is named after the first woman believed to have received a doctorate in math.Carilion Health System By Mike Allen Huddled in groups of three at the front of Babcock Auditorium at Hollins University, 15 eighth -grade girls wrestled with math problems as two university students looked on. The girls weren't being tested. Rather, they were solving puzzles as part of a scavenger hunt. The occasion was the first-ever Sonia Kovalevsky Mathematics Day at Hollins, a grant-funded event intended to encourage teenage girls' interest in college-level math. Kovalevsky, a Russian mathematician born in 1850, was the first woman to earn a doctorate in mathematics, said event founder Trish Hammer, an associate professor of mathematics at Hollins. About 60 girls taking high school math courses at Andrew Lewis and Read Mountain middle schools attended the event. Beside the scavenger hunt, activities included some basic code-cracking, using computers to create geometric figures called fractals and studying mathematical patterns using piles of candy. The program's purpose is to make math more interesting and less intimidating for young women. Some of the women who enroll as freshmen at Hollins tell faculty that math scares them, Hammer said. Hollins event connects teenage girls to math |
January 22, 2004
Cancer modelling |
January 22, 2004
He's confident system can stop any virusBY DAVE LUNDY It sounds impossible, but Bodacion Technologies' Eric Uner claims to have discovered the holy grail of Internet security. Starting at a cool $17,000, businesses can buy Bodacion's "HYDRA" system to protect their Internet servers from every single virus, worm, or Trojan horse on earth. If you don't believe it, you could have tried to penetrate HYDRA to win Bodacion's $100,000 hacker prize. Tens of thousands of people signed up, but no one could, Uner says. The secret sauce in almost everything we do is these algorithms we developed. We call them "bodacions." The algorithms generate special numbers that have no connection to each other and no pattern. This is the holy grail of mathematics and very important to cryptography. We have used them in projects from remote programming, ISDN cameras, and in our government-approved cryptography for generating very random numbers. He's confident system can stop any virus |
January 22, 2004
What's the answer, Professor?Maths is in crisis in our schools and universities. Now, an official inquiry is to propose some controversial changes. In an exclusive interview, Professor Adrian Smith tells Sarah Cassidy how he plans to turn young people on to numbers A national panic about the state of mathematics was sparked by the catastrophic AS level results in 2001. Almost one third of candidates for the new exam failed - putting a generation of sixth-formers off maths. Since then, the numbers putting in for A-level maths has plummeted by 20 per cent, prompting warnings of a crisis in the subject. Numbers fell by more than 13,000 between 2000 and 2002, from 67,036 to 53,940, but bounced back slightly to 55,917 this summer. Mathematicians believe that their subject is trapped in a vicious circle. Many pupils don't enjoy school maths lessons, so few sixth-formers apply to study the subject at university, so few graduate, meaning the pool from which maths teachers can be recruited is small, so there are few qualified teachers, leading to more pupils having unhappy experiences of mathematics. What's the answer, Professor? |
January 22, 2004
12-year-old genius set to take matriculation examBy STUART WINER The Education Ministry confirmed on Wednesday that a gifted 12-year-old boy will be allowed to take the mathematics matriculation examination despite his young age. Chen Kupperman first displayed his extraordinary talent at the age of two when he pointed out to his mother that the television channel display counted in groups of 10. At age three, he began reading newspapers and once complained of a spelling mistake in the name of the famous physicist on the Rehov Einstein street sign in his home town of Haifa. Today Kupperman, who learned to speak French and Arabic in his spare time, and plays the piano and the flute, is studying for degrees in mathematics and computer science with the Open University. Whereas his first matriculation exam is scheduled for next week, this Thursday the youngster is taking a test to gain points for his mathematics degree. "He is very charismatic," said his mother. "He has a lot of drive and he is very focused. There is not a dull moment in his life." 12-year-old genius set to take matriculation exam |
January 22, 2004
Prof. Cohen Appointed to National Committee on Information Technology02:22 Jan 22, '04 / 28 Tevet 5764 Prof. Miriam Cohen from the Ben-Gurion University Department of Mathematics was appointed to the National Committee on Information Technology. Created under the auspices of the Prime Minister's Office, the new Committee's mandate is to establish policies and national goals that integrate information technologies for the benefit of all of Israel's citizens. During Prof. Cohen's tenure as the Dean of BGU's Faculty of Natural Sciences, she initiated many cutting-edge interdisciplinary programs particularly in bioinformatics and nanotechnology and was among the founders of the University's Center for Advanced Studies in Mathematics. She is a former president of the Israel Mathematical Union and has served as the Israeli delegate to the Council of the European Mathematical Society. Prof. Cohen Appointed to National Committee on Information Technology |
January 21, 2004
Warner announces Outstanding Faculty AwardsGovernor Mark R. Warner today announced the 11 recipients of the TIAA-CREF Virginia Outstanding Faculty Awards, the Commonwealth's highest honor for faculty at Virginia's colleges and universities. Della D. Fenster, an associate professor of mathematics at the University of Richmond, was among the recipients, who were were recognized as the finest among Virginia's college faculty for their demonstrated excellence in teaching, research and public service. In 2003, Fenster received UR's Distinguished Educator Award for her seamless blend of outstanding teaching and world-class scholarship. Her writing has appeared in major refereed international journals, well-known collective works and in 2001, she was invited to participate in a special conference at the Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach (the Research Institute of the German Mathematics Society) in Oberwolfach, Germany, the premier site in Europe for conferences on all aspects of mathematics. Warner announces Outstanding Faculty Awards |
January 19, 2004
Code that can't be crackedM. COREY GOLDMAN Want to win a million bucks and a high-paying job for life? That's what Mississauga-based Certicom Corp. is offering anyone who can crack the code to its products and patents surrounding Elliptic Curve Cryptology (ECC) — a combination of algebra and algorithms that ensure everything from cellphone chatter to wireless e-mail sent and received on an Internet-enabled phone or a Blackberry PDA can't be hacked. ."Our technology is based on a very difficult mathematical problem, so we're challenging people to solve the mathematical problem," said Scott Vanstone, a professor of math and computer science at the University of Waterloo and Certicom's founder, explaining the $1 million challenge. A much smaller 224-bit ECC key offers the same level of encryption as 2048-bit key in the competing RSA format. In other words, a company would need 16 times stronger encryption to get the same level of protection that Certicom offers in the ECC format. That's why Certicom is convinced its technology will eventually replace RSA as the standard for transmitting information securely. And that's why it has spent the better part of 18 years securing more than 130 ECC-related patents around the world and making ECC a new standard of wireless security. As for cracking the code, don't start spending the money yet. One team headed by a group of mathematicians at Notre Dame University did manage to crack one of the lower-end "keys" that keep ECC communications secure. It took 10,000 computers running 24 hours a day for a year and a half to do it. The group, headed by Chris Monico, won $10,000 (U.S.) for figuring out the 109-bit standard. Certicom is offering $20,000 to anyone who can crack the next level — a 163-bit standard, and $1 million to anyone who can figure out how to decipher ECC completely. Code that can't be cracked |
January 18, 2004
The Moors' last sighSunday January 18, 2004 The Observer Robert Irwin projects his own passions onto Europe's greatest Muslim monument in his history of the Alhambra... Central to it all is an understanding of mathematics and its artistic partner, music. The proportions of the courtyards of the Alhambra are all based on rectangles generated by irrational numbers such as the square roots of two, three, five and seven. Irwin believes the builders of these palaces were inspired by the Brethren of Purity, an intellectual brotherhood based in Basra in the tenth or eleventh century, who celebrated the purity of certain numbers; four and seven, the perfect numbers, were of particular significance to them. This mathematical spirituality found its full expression in music, which suggested the blissful world of the music of the heavenly spheres above. The lute or oud, with its four strings, expressed an essential truth about the structure and the perfection of God's universe. Like everyone else, Irwin projects his passions on to the Alhambra. Where some see it as a decadent fairytale pleasure palace, he would have it as a deeply intellectual mathematical masterpiece. There is a verse from Ibn al-Katib carved in a niche in the Hall of the Ambassadors that suggests he knew that people would take from the Alhambra what they needed to satisfy their spiritual longing. 'If someone comes to me with a thirst, my fountain will give him pure, clear sweet water.' Mathematical spirituality
See also:
M.C. Escher: Inspired by the Alhambra |
January 15, 2004
Is mathematics overrated?Kerstina Boctor Opinion It has occurred to me over the past few years that math has become quite the overrated subject. Mathematicians, for some odd reason, have an innate idea that they are superior to the average Joe, but I have yet to find out why this might be. Today I spent the better part of half an hour waiting for my calculus prof to show up, while arguing with a friend that the world can still spin without the magical powers of math. As a first year science student, I debated my firm belief that Science does not need math and therefore neither do we; as a math and stats student she begged to differ. ... Therefore, let me refine my argument that science does need math to give it meaning; however, without science, math would have no reason to exist. Without science math has no use due to the fact that there would be nothing to explain, and without math, science cannot progress, and the world cannot better itself. ... Note when God created the world He first created science and then He created math to explain science. If you read the Bible it similarly says, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth… God called the light 'day,' and the darkness he called 'night.' And there was evening, and there was morning the first day" (Genesis 1: 1-5). Math is important but not more than science, history, music or the other subjects that make our world. Is mathematics overrated? |
January 15, 2004
Tennis stars serve up performance grounded in mathematical theoryBy Steve Connor, Science Editor When Andy Roddick returns a 149mph serve, he is performing a feat normally reserved for the best mathematical brains, according to a study into the science of tennis. Scientists have found that the sort of movements and judgements performed by the world's No 1 tennis player closely match a mathematical principle first formulated in the 18th century. The study demonstrated that tennis players unconsciously follow the 1763 theorem of the Rev Thomas Bayes, whose rules of probability state that the likelihood of an event occurring depends on prior knowledge. A statistical method, called Bayesian integration, gauges the probability of something taking place based on the known probability of something happening before it. This is precisely how the brain of an experienced player judges the position of a fast-moving tennis ball that can hardly be seen, he said. Tennis stars serve up performance grounded in mathematical theory |
January 14, 2004
Campaigners have pointed the finger at phone masts for certain so-called "cancer clusters".By Michael Blastland Campaigners have pointed the finger at phone masts for certain so-called "cancer clusters". More or Less on BBC Radio 4 has been looking at a possible mathematical explanation. Toss a coin 30 times and how many heads or tails in a row would you typically expect? In experiments, people seem to plump for no more than three before they think it is time for the other side. In fact, says maths writer Rob Eastaway on BBC Radio 4's More or Less, you commonly get a run of five or even six, sometimes seven or eight. The maths tells us that in respect of probability, people are much like tosses of a coin: we will see occasional clusters, even of cancer... Tell that to the residents of Wishaw near Sutton Coldfield where a huge mobile phone mast overshadowed 35 of the houses, until someone pulled it down one bonfire night. The site is now guarded 24 hours a day and it is become a little like Greenham Common airbase, almost a shrine to protesters, one of whom is Eileen O'Conor. Patterns in Randomness |
January 14, 2004
Experts have their cake and share itWednesday January 14, 2004 The Guardian Economists claim to have found a new way to share the cake fairly. More importantly, everybody will think it fair. As well as cake, the method would apply to inherited goods, land in legal disputes or any other product from which everybody demands a slice. There have been several solutions to the cake dilemma, including one which allows each sharer to believe he or she has had more than a fair share. Mathematicians have served up such answers as the pancake theorem and the ham sandwich theorem. But Steven Brams, a political scientist at New York University, and mathematician and economist colleagues, say sharing is perfect only if it is efficient, equitable and envy-free. Efficient means that the slice cannot be bigger for any one cake-eater while still remaining at least as good for the others. Equitable means that every cake-eater appreciates his or her share as much as the others value theirs. And envy-free means that each person is convinced that he or she either has the best bit, or one of several equally good slices. Dividing a cake, even between two people, is not simple, on the evidence of a solution submitted to the American Mathematical Monthly. Experts have their cake and share it |
January 14, 2004
Researchers develop model to help control West Nile outbreakA University of Alberta researcher has developed the first model to predict risk of West Nile virus in North America--a tool that could help prevent the infectious disease from becoming an outbreak. Dr. Marjorie Wonham and her research team from the Centre for Mathematical Biology at the University of Alberta, created a simple mathematical model using the dead bird counts collected in New York in 2000. Her research is published in the current issue of the Royal Society of London's journal Proceedings B. Tomas de-Camino Beck and Mark Lewis are co-authors on the paper. West Nile virus is an emerging infectious disease in North America that spreads primarily through contact between birds and mosquitoes. It can be lethal to birds, horses and humans. One of the key findings from Wonham's work is that chance of a virus outbreak is decreased by removing mosquitoes but is actually increased by removing birds. The model provides a new analytical method for determining necessary mosquito control levels. Researchers develop model to help control West Nile outbreak |
January 13, 2004
Earthquakes Can Be Predicted Months In AdvanceMajor earthquakes can be predicted months in advance, argues UCLA seismologist and mathematical geophysicist Vladimir Keilis-Borok. "We have made a major breakthrough, discovering the possibility of making predictions months ahead of time, instead of years, as in previously known methods," Keilis-Borok said. "This discovery was not generated by an instant inspiration, but culminates 20 years of multinational, interdisciplinary collaboration by a team of scientists from Russia, the United States, Western Europe, Japan and Canada." At the most recent stage of the research, four members of the team worked at UCLA on the "tail wags the dog" method for short-term prediction: Keilis-Borok; Peter Shebalin, geophysicist from the Russian Academy of Sciences and Institute of the Physics of the Earth in Paris; Purdue University mathematician and geophysicist Andrei Gabrielov; and UCLA researcher Ilya Zaliapin, whose field is analysis of complex systems. Earthquakes Can Be Predicted Months In Advance |
January 13, 2004
Researchers Show Evolutionary Theory Adds UpDr. Peter Antonelli and a former post-doctoral student of his, Dr. Solange Rutz, used an original mathematical modeling system and software program to evaluate and compare the two main theories of biological evolution. "I haven't always been trying to develop a unified theory, but as we have been putting pieces together, study by study, I can see now that's it's possible," said Antonelli, who has mentored more than 35 post-doctoral students and sits as an editor for eight journals. Antonelli uses differential equations to explain social interactions and biological behaviours, and he laments that more biologists aren't attuned to this type of research. "What we do is new and not a lot of people understand it yet," he said. "I've published in biology journals before, but most biologists don't read these articles because of the mathematics involved. We've got to convince [biologists] that it's worth the effort to learn the mathematics." Researchers Show Evolutionary Theory Adds Up |
January 13, 2004
The shape of thingsIN THE WORLD of topology, the science of surfaces, the difference between a doughnut and an apple can be explained with a rubber band. The rubber band can be removed from an apple without breaking; that's not the case if it is wrapped in, around and through a doughnut. That's why the surface of an apple is "simply connected" and the doughnut's is not. About 100 years ago, the French mathematician Jules Henri Poincaré wondered if this same property of connectivity pertained to the geometry of a three-dimensional space... It's as difficult as, say, putting a man on Mars. If it's taken eight years for Mr. Perelman, working mostly in isolation, to prove Poincaré's Conjecture, mathematicians across the country have spent the past two years scrutinizing his proof.. In 50 years, there may be a half-dozen major advances in math and science, and solving the Poincaré Conjecture would be one. If Mr. Perelman's work proves conclusive, researchers say he will have gone further than any other human on the planet in understanding the shape of the universe. And that's one we can't rightly get our hands around. The shape of things |
January 12, 2004
Splitting Terrorist CellsHow can you tell if enough members of a terrorist cell have been captured or killed so there's a high probability that the cell can no longer carry out an attack? A mathematical model of terrorist organizations might provide some clues. The question is what sort of mathematical model would work best. One way to describe a terrorist organization is in terms of a graph—a web of lines linking nodes. In this model, each node would represent an individual member of a given cell, and a line linking two nodes would indicate direct communication between those two members. When a cell member is captured or killed, the corresponding node is removed from the graph. It's possible to assess the impact of such losses on a cell's effectiveness by considering how the links among the cell's members are affected. Removing enough nodes leads to disruption. Mathematically, you could ask the question: How many nodes must you remove from a given graph before it splits into two or more separate pieces? Farley has proposed an alternative approach that better reflects an organization's hierarchy. "My method uses order theory to quantify the degree to which a terrorist network is still able to function," he says. In this case, the relationship of one individual to another in a cell becomes important. Leaders are represented by the topmost nodes in a diagram of the ordered set representing a cell and foot soldiers are nodes at the bottom. Disrupting the organization would be equivalent to disrupting the chain of command, which allows orders to pass from leaders to foot soldiers.... Splitting Terrorist Cells |
Gennaio 8, 2004
Rientra il primo "cervello", il prof. Cuccagna all'Università di Modena e ReggioREGGIO EMILIA (8 gen. 2004) - Trieste, Virginia e ritorno in Italia, facendo meta a Reggio Emilia. Si può riassumere così l' Il prof. Cuccagna, oggi trentottenne, si è laureato in Matematica nella sua città natale, Trieste, dove ha conseguito anche un master presso la Scuola Internazionale di Studi Avanzati (SISSA). Dal 1990 vive e lavora negli Stati Uniti. Fino a prima di accettare la proposta, giuntagli dall'Università degli studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia, è stato professore di Matematica all'Università Charlottesville nello Stato della Virginia. Rientra il primo "cervello", il prof. Cuccagna all'Università di Modena e Reggio |
January 7, 2004
The Poincare Conjecture - Publicity-shy Russian may have solved great math mysteryPAUL ELIAS, Associated Press Writer A publicity-shy Russian researcher who labors in near-seclusion may have solved one of mathematics' oldest and most abstruse problems, the Poincare Conjecture. Evidence has been mounting since November 2002 that Grigori "Grisha" Perelman has cracked the 100-year-old problem, which seeks to explain the geometry of three-dimensional space. If Perelman succeeded, he could be eligible for a $1 million prize offered by the Cambridge, Mass.-based Clay Mathematics Institute, formed to identify the world's seven toughest math problems. ... Perelman is a researcher at St. Peterburg-based Steklov Institute of Mathematics of the Russian Academy. Colleagues describe him as brilliant and say he spent his formative years in the United States, then spent eight years quietly working in Russia without publishing any of his works in science journals. The Poincare Conjecture - Publicity-shy Russian may have solved great math mystery |
January 7, 2004
Internet math class may serve as prototype.By VICKI FERSTEL BAKER -- An experimental Advanced Placement calculus class at Baker High School may pave the way for math teachers to use interactive video-conference technology over the Internet to reach students in rural and other underserved schools. For LSU graduate student Kevin Zito, the experiment is an opportunity to develop new teaching techniques that work with the new technology... Zito makes frequent classroom visits so the students get accustomed to interacting with him. He begins each class with casual conversations and encourages humor to break the students' fear of the camera. "I love it," senior Laci Pittman said of the class. "It makes me think, and that's what I like. I like a challenge, and I like being a guinea pig. It feels like we're important because we're setting the standards for everybody else." Fazzio agreed. "I like math, so it's fun. But it's cool to do it over the TV." Internet math class may serve as prototype |
January 6, 2004
Mathematicians relish the quest - Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search.By Fernando Q. Gouvea It took hundreds of thousands of computers and several years of work, but they got it. "They" are the participants in the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search. "It" is one more very large prime number, a monster with six million digits, part of a sequence of numbers known as "Mersenne primes" that is expected (but not known) to go on forever... When asked why they do what they do, some resort to George Mallory's answer: "Because it's there." Perhaps John F. Kennedy's explanation is even closer: "We … do these things... because they are hard." At the core, however, is the desire to know and understand, to track the monsters to their lairs, to see how ideas fit together and why... Mathematicians relish the quest - Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search |
January 6, 2004
The mathematics of human thought.by Keith Devlin This year marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of the book that set the scene for the introduction of the computer a century later: George Boole's The Laws of Thought, first published in 1854. The dramatic breakthrough that the book represented is reflected today in our use of the terms "boolean logic" or "boolean algebra" to mean the combination of ideas using the operations AND, OR, and NOT, and our use of the term "boolean search" to mean a database or Web search involving combinations of key words using AND, OR, and NOT. (The fact that we generally do not capitalize "boole" in those contexts indicates just how pervasive Boole's influence has been.)... Boole's idea was to try to reduce logical thought to the solution of equations -- a logical holy grail ever since the German mathematician Gottfried Leibniz had tried to do it in the 17th century. Leibniz attempted to develop an "algebra of concepts", in which algebraic symbols had denoted concepts, such as big, red, man, woman, unicorn, but he had met with only limited success.... The mathematics of human thought |
January 5, 2004Girls closing gender gap in math.Programs like Nova Southeastern's Project MIND are changing how some girls think of math -- and improving their performance.BY MARY ELLEN FLANNERY November's National Assessment of Educational Progress and last year's Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test show that boys and girls are scoring at about the same levels on many math tests, and other studies show that women actually do better than men in college math exams. Educators point to a few reasons girls are becoming equally able mathematicians. One: Programs like Nova Southeastern University's Project MIND help get all students more interested in math while removing ''math phobia,'' its creator said. Two: They're taking more math classes, and practice makes perfect. Last year in Florida, boys outnumbered girls in advanced placement calculus AB by 13 percent -- 4,431 male exam-takers compared with 3,918 females. And, the disparity grows wider as the math gets more advanced: 59 percent in calculus BC; 107 percent in physics B; 145 percent in physics C; 608 percent in computer science AB; and a whopping 1,013 percent difference in computer science BC -- just 22 girls across the state of Florida took that exam. This is also where Project MIND (Math Is Not Difficult) comes in. The math program, developed by NSU Professor Hui Fan Huang ''Angie'' Su in 1988 when she was an elementary math teacher in Delray Beach, uses games and competitions to get kids more excited about math. Programs like Nova Southeastern's Project MIND are changing how some girls think of math -- and improving their performance. |
January 5, 2004Shouldn't Every President Know Math? A List of Proposed Quiz Questions.Commentary by John Allen Paulos ...Professional myopia may be part of the reason for my writing about this topic again, perhaps, but I do believe that some feel for mathematics (not algebraic topology or partial differential equations, but arithmetic) is essential to being an effective president. After all, almost every political issue has a large quantitative aspect: medicare and social security, the environment, military spending, tax and service cuts, social security, crime, and education, to name a few. A candidate who could answer, or at least reasonably respond to most of the following questions would, I think, be sufficiently numerate to hold the job... Arithmetic and the Candidates. Shouldn't Every President Know Math? A List of Proposed Quiz Questions |
January 4, 2004Users warned of "dubious" crypto apps.By Chris Williams PGP advocate and developer of security and privacy related software, Dr. Nat Queen, has this month published an informative article on modern cryptography. The article is a gentle introduction to anyone interested in exploring and using today's cryptographic techniques and covers public-key based encryption systems and the strength of modern ciphers. It also includes a section on 'snake oil', a term used in security circles that refers to "dubious encryption products" that cannot be trusted to ensure complete security and privacy. Users warned of "dubious" crypto apps Modern Cryptography |
January 4, 2004Kentucky has focused many efforts on increasing literacy, but few programs have covered arithmetic, and students' scores on national tests show there is much room to improve.By NANCY C. RODRIGUEZ ...Kentucky has focused many efforts on increasing literacy, but few programs have covered arithmetic, and students' scores on national tests show there is much room to improve. Reading has received most of the attention from schools, the public and politicians, who argue that literacy is essential to success in all subjects, including math. In the past 13 years, Kentucky has given out millions of dollars in state and federal grants to schools, which have helped raise CATS scores in reading into the high 70s and 80s. A score of 100 out of 140 on the test is proficient — a goal that all schools must meet in both reading and math, as well as other subjects, such as science and social studies, by 2014. In contrast, there have been only a handful of efforts, funded through federal grants, aimed at improving math instruction, despite the state's poor showing. Kentucky students on average scored 20 points worse in math than in reading on CATS exams, despite recent math gains... Kentucky has focused many efforts on increasing literacy, but few programs have covered arithmetic, and students' scores on national tests show there is much room to improve. |
January 3, 2004India News: Ailing little genius stuns with maths abilities.Indo-Asian News Service Kolkata, India (IANS) He can't read and write yet, but three-year-old Ritesh Sarangi can do the toughest of calculations all right! The little genius goes about solving mathematical problems, amazing everyone, oblivious to his ailment. He suffers from congenital heart disease - one of his cardiac valves is defective. India News: Ailing little genius stuns with maths abilities |
January 2, 2004Is there a connection between insanity and mathematics? Is it really true that a special kind of person is drawn to mathematics?'Proof' comes to Arts Center THOMASTON -- The Thomaston Opera House Arts center will open its 2004 season with David Auburn's "Proof." An enormous success on Broadway, the play won Tony Awards for Best Director, Best Actress, Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2001. "Proof" centers around Catherine, a troubled young woman who has spent years caring for her brilliant but unstable father, a famous mathematician. Is there a connection between insanity and mathematics? Is it really true that a special kind of person is drawn to mathematics? |
January 2, 2004Will 'Everyday Math' add up to trouble?...Everyday Math is a pre-K-6 curriculum developed by the University of Chicago School Mathematics Project to implement the educational philosophy of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics as described in the organization's 1989 statement. It depends on children constructing their own mental framework for understanding mathematics. That means it's heavy on hands-on activities, cooperative learning, mathematical games, problem-solving, critical thinking and the like - none of them bad things, obviously, but likely in practice to displace the mastery of basic skills that are the foundation of future proficiency in mathematics. In fact the curriculum is so allergic to the explicit teaching of standard procedures for calculations such as subtraction and multiplication that it presents several different ways to do a computation in the hope that children will understand and remember one of them. Will 'Everyday Math' add up to trouble? |
December 30, 2003The Poincare Conjecture. Century-old math problem may have been solved.By Jascha Hoffman, Globe Correspondent After a decade of isolation in St. Petersburg, over the last year Grigory Perelman posted a few papers to an online archive. Although he has no known plans to publish them, his work has sent shock waves through what is usually a quiet field. The Poincare Conjecture, named after the Frenchman who proposed it in 1904, is the question that essentially founded the field of topology, the "rubber-sheet geometry" that looks at the properties of surfaces that don't change no matter how much you stretch or bend them. Century-old math problem may have been solved Slashdot - Has the Poincare Conjecture be solved? |
December 27, 2003Cambridge changed its rules for Ramanujam.Sriniwas Ramanujam, the mathematics genius of India , was the first and only person in the history for whom the Cambridge University amended its constitution and awarded him a BA degree on the basis of his research on mathematics, so that he could be made a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRA), the highest honour a mathematician could dream of. Cambridge changed its rules for Ramanujam |
December 17, 2003World's most mysterious book may be a hoax. The Voynich manuscript may be elegant gibberish.JOHN WHITFIELD A strange sixteenth-century book may be cunningly crafted nonsense, says a computer scientist. Gordon Rugg has used the techniques of Elizabethan espionage to recreate the Voynich manuscript, which has stumped code-breakers and linguists for nearly a century... But this complexity could have been produced easily, Rugg demonstrates, with an encryption device invented around 1550 called a Cardan grille. This is a table of characters. Moving a piece of card with holes cut in it over the table makes words. Gaps in the table ensure different-length words. World's most mysterious book may be a hoax. The Voynich manuscript may be elegant gibberish. |
December 16, 2003Mathematics could stabilize peace treaties. Game theory might help draw up war settlements.PHILIP BALL A political scientist at the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico has devised a mathematical method that could help civil-war negotiators to find the most stable peace treaties... This doesn't guarantee that neither party will fight on in the hope of gaining more. But it may lead them to decide that further fighting will not substantially improve the eventual outcome. Mathematics could stabilize peace treaties. Game theory might help draw up war settlements. |
December 13, 2003Tricky Crossings.Ivars Peterson Have you heard the one about an itinerant entertainer traveling with a wolf, a goat, and a basket of cabbages? The showman comes to a river and finds a small boat that holds only himself and one passenger. For obvious reasons, he can't leave the wolf alone with the goat, or the goat with the cabbages. How does he get his cargo safely to the other side? Tricky Crossings |
December 5, 2003Hilbert's 16th - Landmark 'proof' under heavy fire.News from Norway Elin Oxenhielm, a 22-year-old mathematics student at Stockholm University made headlines after submitting a solution to one of the great mathematics problems - Hilbert's 16th, posed in 1900. Oxenhielm's adviser and other experts have blasted the work but it remains online pending publication by prestigious scientific publisher Elsevier. Landmark 'proof' under heavy fire Elin Oxenhielm's Website |
December 1, 2003
Vedic, Chinese cures for maths phobiaMATHEMATICS has forever been the 'monster' scaring generations of students. The fact that most of the students in Indian schools who fail, fail in maths, explains why the subject has never been in the good books of students. The age-old Vedic Mathematics is being looked upon as a new-age solution. "Vedic maths uses a completely different approach and was invented centuries ago by Indian mathematicians like Bhaskaracharya. The last five years have seen the rediscovery of Vedic Mathematics as a scientific, faster and more interesting approach to solving problems. R M Hadpad, director, Universal Concept in Mental Arithmetic (UCMAS), says he has found a solution for the maths phobia in the Chinese system of Abacus. It is done using a simple apparatus with strings and beads and even the biggest sums can be solved on 10 fingers," he claims, elaborating, The basic concept in this method is to achieve a balance between the left and right halves of the brain. The western methods always concentrate on just the left side of brain, letting the right brain diminish over the years. Vedic, Chinese cures for maths phobia |
December 1, 2003John von Neumann: The Father of the Modern Computer.Devlin's Angle by Keith Devlin Later this month (28th December) marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of John von Neumann, the Hungarian born American mathematician who, among his many accomplishments, was the originator of the basic principle of computer design known as the "von Neumann architecture." Von Neumann computers are the ancestors of today's desktop and laptop PCs... John was intellectually precocious and had a photographic memory. As a young child he learned to speak German, French, and classical Greek, and amassed an encyclopaedic knowledge of historical events. A favorite party trick of his was to memorize a page of the telephone book. He would ask a visitor to the Neumann household to select a page of the book, which he would then read through a few times. He would then hand the book back to the visitor and ask them to quiz him on the page, say by giving him a name and asking for the phone number, or getting him to recite a sequence of names, addresses and numbers in order. He was rarely wrong... John von Neumann: The Father of the Modern Computer |