Mathematics, v. 2013
A new thread for discussion of mathematics, continued from the previous one.
Date: December 15, 2013
Categories: The Universe, Things We like
Friday, 26 April 2024
Life, the universe, pies, hot-pink bunnies, world domination, and everything
A new thread for discussion of mathematics, continued from the previous one.
Date: December 15, 2013
Categories: The Universe, Things We like
What math books have you enjoyed? Some of my favorites are Ivars Peterson’s The Mathematical Tourist, The Man Who Loved Only Numbers by Paul Hoffman, and The Number Devil by Hans Magnus Enzenberger. The first and last of those are similar, in a way. Both are a generalized coverage of interesting topics in math, but The Number Devil is written in the form of a story. It was one of my favorite books in fifth grade. The Mathematical Tourist (written by a former Muse columnist!) has a bit of a denser tone, but it is still readable.
The Man Who Loved Only Numbers is a different sort of book. It is biographical, and brings to light the life of Paul Erdös, the mathematician’s Kevin Bacon.
I have a calculus exam on Wednesday and this thread is guilt-tripping me so hard *slinks off to peruse textbooks*
I have a discrete math exam in approximately 15 hours and I am on this thread instead of studying more…
update 13 hours
“something to think about: hailstone numbers – do they terminate (hint: yes.)”
actual quote from the class notes I took
thank you Ivars Peterson for teaching me about hailstone numbers
they aren’t going to be on the final though, you know, probably
guess who needs to sleep
hint: me
Good suggestions, Oxlin! I’d be very interested in reading something by Ivars Peterson again. I always loved his Muse columns.
On the subject of math books, I read “The Joy of X” by Steven Strogatz a few weeks ago. The subtitle is “A Guided Tour of Math, from One to Infinity”, and it really does just that, with short explanations and little stories about everything from the origins of numbers to different sizes of infinity. It’s for a general audience, seeming to especially aim at people who didn’t like math much in school or didn’t go very far with it, to share some of the interesting applications and bits of beauty in the subject. I would recommend it even for MuseBloggers with more math, though, and it’s a quick read.
I also just ordered a book called “Introductory Calculus For Infants” by Omi Inouye as a Christmas present for my family’s stuffed animals. It sounds adorable and I’m really excited.
Has anyone read “The Housekeeper and the Professor” by Yoko Ogawa? It’s not exactly a math book but math is an important part of the story. It’s about a housekeeper and her young son who work for a brilliant math professor who unfortunately has short-term memory that lasts for only 80 minutes as the result of an accident.
I’ve heard of it! Sounds intriguing.
Oh my gosh! I love math! I am interested by algebra… anyone know the subject well enough to help?
Help with what? I’d love to chat about math! If you want to read a book about strange topics in math, you might enjoy The Number Devil by Hans Magnus Enzenberger. That book has a weird tendency to use non-standard words but the index will tell you what the standard word is for each thing. The other problem with it is that it is rather lacking in female characters. But it is a wonderful description of many mathematical concepts.
I’m just fascinated by math. I wish there could be a time where I didn’t even have to stop and think…
Cool! Then I recommend The Number Devil or videos by Vi Hart (should be find-able on youtube.)
The Number Devil was my favorite book for a good long while, probably from second until fourth grade.
I will definitely be checking out the recommendations from this thread!
If anyone is interested in pure math, I have a recommendation: A Concise Introduction to Pure Mathematics by Martin Liebeck. It’s accessible to those with a high school mathematics background (no calculus required!). It is a (short) textbook, and I used it for a class last semester, but it’s something I wish I had in high school to supplement the plug-n-chug monotony of some of my classes. And it has answers to odd-numbered problems in the back (with explanations in many cases, as the answers are often in the form of proofs).
Ooh! I’ve been looking for things to read. I’ve gotten quite a list. I’m at a weird level, as I’ve taken up to calculus (twice, heh) but not beyond. I also already have a BA, so it isn’t like I’m going to college for math anytime soon. (Not that second BAs aren’t a thing. They totally are! They just cost money.) I’m currently looking to learn more math as cheaply as possible.
I’ve been taking multivariable calculus through MIT’s open courseware, and an intro to algebraic topology course through the University of New South Wales (they’ve put it on youtube for free!) I’ve been reading many books, including Ivars Peterson’s the Mathematical Tourist, and a biography of Erdös called The Man Who Loved Only Numbers.
I’d love to hear more suggestions!
Since I don’t think I’ve posted about it here yet, I’d like to recommend to all of you the website of Bridges, a conference in math and art. They have archives where you can read past papers (including some by Vi Hart and some others by one of my college professors.) The papers cover all sorts of intersections of math and art and I can spend hours browsing them!
Does anyone remember a video by ViHart (I think it involved snakes) that included coloring in certain types of graphs with only two colors? Because for some reason, I think it might be possible to color planar Euler Graphs with only two colors instead of four (or five) but it’s been several years and I can’t find the video anymore.
www. youtube.com/watch ?v=heKK95DAKms
This one talks about doodling snakes, I didn’t watch it through so I don’t know if it also talks aobut color graphs with only two colors……
oh, I think I remember that one. It had to do with overlapping lines and such? She used ouroboroses as examples. The video was called “Snakes and Graphs” and, assuming GAPA approval, here is the link: http :// www .youtube. com/watch?v=heKK95DAKms&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PLF7CBA45AEBAD18B8
That sounds like one of the early Math Doodles ones. I don’t remember what it was called, but I think it was one of the first four or so, so it can’t be that hard to find.