Math Reading Challenge 2021
Even though I didn’t complete last year’s Math Reading Challenge (the shame!), I’m back at it again this year. Below are 12 prompts to guide your math-related reading in the coming year. Feel free to interpret the prompts in any way you wish and count one book for multiple prompts if that’s your style. I’ve set up a public G [...]
Kim, Rudyard Kipling
I recently listened to the audiobook of Kim by Rudyard Kipling as part of my Nobel literature project. Kipling won the prize in 1907, so he is currently the earliest Nobel laureate I have read. I think I read The Jungle Book and Just So Stories as a kid (or had them read to me), but this was my first time reading Kipling as an adult. I had se [...]
The Wild Iris, Louise Glück
I’ve been trying to read more poetry, and I happened to read Louise Glück’s collection The Wild Iris shortly before she won the Nobel Prize in literature this year. I don’t feel qualified to write anything about poetry. I don’t know a lot about poetry, so I often feel like I’m missing references and things about [...]
Memento Mori: A Cemetery Game
During this strange time when we are staying distant from each other, a long walk is a good way to get some exercise and a change of scenery. Cemeteries are great places to go for walks because they are peaceful and usually not too crowded. We have been going for a lot of walks in our local cemetery, and I put together this scavenger hunt for [...]
The Math Reading Challenge 2020
I was one of those kids who always had a book at the table or on a road trip, and although I’m now too polite to read over dinner with people, I’m still an avid reader. I try to read books from a wide range of authors, genres, and time periods. For a few years now, I have used the Popsugar Reading Challenge as a way to inspire me to read outs [...]
Math Reading Challenge 2020 tracker
Here is a pdf you can download and print out to keep track of your progress in the MathReadingChallenge2020.
Eight Degrees North
Eight degrees doesn’t sound like much. It’s only 1/45 of the way around a circle. On a globe, it’s about nine percent of the angular distance between the Equator and the North Pole.
Today, I live eight degrees farther north than where I grew up. As one would expect, the climate is a bit different. Latitude is part of that: on any given day, i [...]
The Ditherer’s Mean
So you’ve got some numbers, and you want to produce one number that represents their typical value. If you’ve taken a little bit of math or statistics, you might reach for the mean—the arithmetic mean, to be precise. Add the numbers together and divide by the number of numbers you have. Easy enough.
But perhaps you’re a bit of a Chidi, and fu [...]
A Mathematical Companion for Your Yea...
If you’re looking for a holiday gift for a mathematician, STEM student, teacher, or other math-interested person in your life (including yourself), I’ve got good news for you! I am excited to announce the availability of a product I am particularly proud of: the AMS Page-a-day calendar, published by the American Mathematical Society. You can [...]
Self-Referential Podcasting
This post originally appeared at scientificamerican.com.
On our most recent episode of My Favorite Theorem, Kevin Knudson and I talked with University of Nebraska mathematician Judy Walker, who works in the field of coding theory. You can find the audio, transcript, and show notes at kpknudson.com.
Walker’s field, coding theory, is about how [...]
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