Monthly archives for August, 2013
The Most Breathtaking Video of the We...
Last Monday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released a video of the past 10 years of weather in the Americas. The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite GOES-12, which had monitored the weather in North and South America since April 2003, was retired on August 16. This video shows one photo a day from th [...]
You Get Calculus! And You Get Calculu...
Gabriel’s Horn, which has infinite surface area and finite volume and is one of my favorite examples in calculus. Image: Public domain, by RokerHRO via Wikimedia Commons.
Textbooks are too expensive. The price is often “what the consumer will bear,” and the student is stuck bearing outrageous prices because the alternative i [...]
Tangled Up in Low-Dimensional Topolog...
Knots and tangles. In a post about “tangle machines,” Daniel Moskovich imagines trying to explain to an educated non-mathematician what he studies: “Why knots? Do I want to tie ships to their moorings more securely?”Image: public domain, from Nordisk Familjebok, via Projekt Runeberg, and Wikimedia Commons.
Low Dimensio [...]
What Is the Funniest Number?
“There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one’s own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more m [...]
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