Part of Baker’s explanation of quadratic reciprocity using cards. Image: Matt Baker. Used with permission.
Currently the Riemann-Roch theorem is my nemesis, and I stumbled on Matt Baker’s math blog while I was looking for some help figuring out how to use it. The post I came across, Riemann-Roch for Graphs and Applications, was no [...]
Monthly archives for November, 2013
How Quadratic Reciprocity Is Like Dea...
Part of Baker’s explanation of quadratic reciprocity using cards. Image: Matt Baker. Used with permission.
Currently the Riemann-Roch theorem is my nemesis, and I stumbled on Matt Baker’s math blog while I was looking for some help figuring out how to use it. The post I came across, Riemann-Roch for Graphs and Applications, was no [...]
A Cuddly, Crocheted Klein Quartic Cur...
A cuddly Klein quartic made with crochet. Image copyright Daina Taimina. Used with permission.
Last week, mathematician and artist Daina Taimina shared her latest creation on Twitter. It’s a model of a surface called the Klein quartic. Isn’t it cute?
So what is it? The Klein quartic surface is a 2-dimensional object with 3 holes t [...]
Exploding Myths about the History of ...
An illustration from Kepler’s Mysterium Cosmographicum. This image from From the book, “The Science-History of the Universe” by Francis Rolt-Wheeler is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1923.
We want our heroes to be virtuous at all times, clear-thinking visionaries who neve [...]
How To Multiply By Seven on Your Fing...
When I tutored elementary school math, one of my favorite things to show the kids was how to multiply by 9 using their fingers. (I apologize, but this trick assumes that you have five fingers on each hand. Later you’ll see how to adapt it if you have nonstandard hands.)
Here’s how the finger rule works. Let’s say you want to [...]
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