Links

01
Nov
2012
Relatively prime – Stories from the mathematical domain

Relatively prime – Stories from the mathematical domain

Yesterday I listened to an episode of Relatively prime called Chinook. And it has been one of the most compelling stories I have ever heard. It was a fantastic but also sad story about checkers and man against machine, a battle that lasted two decades.

Relatively Prime is a series of eight shows all about the stories behind mathematics that was funded through Kickstarter. I promoted it here on the blog back then, but I never got around to backing it. I was too reluctant to the kickstarter idea, which was completely new to me. Something I sincerely regret today. Continue reading →

Posted by Kristian in Other, 2 comments
13
Aug
2012
Monday links

Monday links

Another Monday is upon us, and another batch of links is due. This week I’m going to focus on Dynamic Programming (or DP for short). The reason is that upcoming Project Euler problems are DP- and memoization heavy. Another reason is that DP problems are quite popular, so it’s definitely a good skill to have.

First up is a TopCoder Algorithm Tutorial, namely Dynamic Programming: From novice to advanced. This is a good “first look” at DP. It’s a bit heavy in the end, but that part can be skipped.

After you’ve read that, you should take a look at Bruce Merry‘s introduction to Dynamic programming. It’s got a really great step-by-step approach to solving a DP problem, which in my experience works quite well. Continue reading →

Posted by Bjarki Ágúst in Other, 5 comments
30
Jul
2012
Monday links

Monday links

This Monday I have a couple of links lined up, both math related and non-math related.

First up is a Wikibook titled High School Mathematics Extensions. It contains over 140 pages covering topics like Primes, Modular Arithmetic, Logic, Discrete Probability, Mathematical Programming, and more. It also has exercises and projects for each topic. It’s directed towards 14 to 18 year olds who are interested in mathematics, but this is a good and solid introduction for anyone interested in the aforementioned topics, and can also be a good refresher for more advanced students. The Wikibook is still under construction, so if you have anything to add to it, I encourage you to do so! Continue reading →

Posted by Bjarki Ágúst in Other, 5 comments
20
Sep
2011
This week’s links

This week’s links

I have a few links for you this week that I have chewed through and found interesting. First I found a few papers that I think are really nice recreational mathematics

A paper titled The Prime Facts: From Euclid to AKS which is going through different aspects of prime numbers and not least their importance in public key encryption. Something which the society relies heavily on today. Continue reading →

Posted by Kristian in Other, 0 comments
29
Aug
2011
Monday links

Monday links

The links I will post today is a bit on the lighter side of mathematics. But hey mathematics is not about being bored it is about having fun all the way through.

First I have found a few games that requires some logic thinking and in one of the cases knowledge of how functions evolve. Continue reading →

Posted by Kristian in Other, 1 comment
15
Aug
2011
Monday links

Monday links

I often post some links to interesting sites on Twitter, and once in a while I take the links I have collected and post them here as well for you to take a look at.  Here are a few links I have collected over the last few weeks.

Explanation of imaginary numbers. First of all I found an excellent explanation of what imaginary numbers are. The website is called betterexplained.com and I must say it lives up to the name.

Explanation of e: From the same site as before, a really good explanation of continuous growth and where e comes from.

Explanation of Euler’s formula: I read the two previous articles as a preparation for the sites explanation of Euler’s formula which states .

Then I have a link to a small note on evaluating infinite sums. Goes through different kinds of series and how to evaluate them

Then I found a blog post with the title “The weirdness of infinity“, which talks about the mathematics of parallel mirrors. It is a rather interesting read.

That was it for now. I hope you enjoy the reading.

The photo is taken by Etrusia UK and shared under Creative commons license. The cropping I have made is shared under the same conditions.

Posted by Kristian in Other, 2 comments
01
Aug
2011

Relatively prime – Stories from the Mathematical Domain

Samuel Hansen has come up with the great proposal of making an 8 part podcast called Relatively prime which he describes as

Relatively Prime will be an 8 episode audio podcast featuring stories from the world of mathematics. Tackling questions like: is it true that you are only 7 seven handshakes from the President, what exactly is a micromort, and how did 39 people commenting on a blog manage to prove a deep theorem. Relatively Prime will feature interviews with leaders of mathematics, as well as the unsung foot soldiers that push the mathematical machine forward. With each episode structured around topics such as: The Shape of Things, Risk, and Calculus Wars, Relatively Prime will illuminate each area by delving into the history, applications, and people that underlie the subject that is the foundation of all science.

Continue reading →

Posted by Kristian in Other, 5 comments
25
Jul
2011

Monday link ramblings

Like I have done once before, here are a few chosen links I have stumbled upon over the last few weeks. The only requirement for the links is that I found them interesting and they relate to math or science somewhat. Continue reading →

Posted by Kristian in Other, 5 comments