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Author Archives: tpc
Multitasking with studying
Another report on how students don’t learn as well when they attempt to multi-task.
Posted in Learning, Technology
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What’s an eigenface?
With the recent korean wave, we get to see lots of Korean pop, tv, movie stars in the media. But I found that I can never tell them apart. Especially, the ladies, tall, thin, beautiful but too homogenous. (Of course, … Continue reading
Posted in Applications, Fun Stuff, Linear Algebra
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How Not To Excel
Apparently a couple of influential papers — by two world famous economists Reinhart and Rogoff from Harvard — that were quoted by politicians to shape policies contain serious errors that invalidated their claims. They made the common mistake of not … Continue reading
Posted in General, Technology
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According to Socrates
… it is no true wisdom that you offer your disciples, but only its semblance, for by telling them of many things without teaching them you will make them seem to know much, while for the most part they know … Continue reading
Posted in Quotes/People, Teaching, Technology
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Can computers write proofs
that human being can understand? By that I mean not those formal logic nonsense. Tim Gowers is doing an interesting experiment to get readers to judge proofs of exercises in metric space theory. The three proofs are supposed to be … Continue reading
Posted in Geometry/Topology, Problems, Technology
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Whither the golden ratio
According to this report from the Guardian, someone claims that the golden ratio pleases the eye because of scanning ratios, i.e. how fast the eye scans things horizontally versus vertically. The actual paper is supposed to be free access (with … Continue reading
Posted in Fun Stuff
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Speed Index
A clearly written page explaining how one can measure the speed in which a website loads by integrating the area under the curve. link
Posted in Applications, Calculus/Analysis, Web
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3D printing
seems to be the rage these days, and the natural question is that if there is anything that you cannot print. The short answer is NO. Thanks to Fubini’s Theorem.
Posted in Applications, Calculus/Analysis
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Mathematical Sense Making
I like the following problem. It was shown by Alan Schoenfeld in his talk yesterday in Singapore. Among the many things he touched upon, he introduced the Mathematics Assessment Project which has a package of lessons for grades 6 till … Continue reading
Posted in Learning, Problems, Teaching
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Fake curves
Interesting post on how a supposed trig function is actually not trig. I have to admit I used to do things like this and use the arc tool (on powerpoint) to create curves that only look vaguely like the actual … Continue reading
Posted in Calculus/Analysis, Teaching, Technology, Trigonometry
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125th Anniversary of Ramanujan’s Birth
It was a privilege to be in Delhi, India to celebrate the 125th Anniversary of the birth of Ramanujan. It was a good conference with good talks by many speakers. Personally for me I didn’t get any new ideas or … Continue reading
Posted in Number Theory, Quotes/People
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Polya and Ramanujan
Taken from the introduction to Bruce Berndt’s Ramanujan’s Notebooks Part I. In notes left by B. M. Wilson, he tells us how George Polya was captivated by Ramanujan’s formulas. One day in 1925 while Polya was visiting Oxford, he borrowed … Continue reading
Posted in Quotes/People
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Social interactions and the development of control strategies
Is a sub section in Schoenfeld’s Mathematical Problem Solving. The argument is that when two students work together, this interaction can spur cognitive development resulting in approaches to the problem being solved that are qualitatively different than those taken by … Continue reading
Posted in Learning, Problems
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Collective Nouns for Mathematicians
A creative colleague got me started and I just can’t stop. Of course the most apt term would be “a set of mathematicians”. But how about others, according to their fields? Ignoring the obvious alliterative ones like “a set of … Continue reading
Posted in Fun Stuff
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Is 0 even?
I first saw this from BBC news. The aftermath of hurricane Sandy resulted in a shortage of fuel and New York City had to implement an odd-even system. The following is taken from their press release: 1) Vehicles with license … Continue reading
Posted in Number Theory, Probability, Teaching
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Geometry Puzzle
A neat little puzzle from John Mason. How are the blue and red area related?
Posted in Geometry/Topology, Problems
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Paraphrasing Russell
William Mueller in his 2001 article in the American Mathematical Monthly suggested that we could take Bertrand Russell’s quote* on philosophy and substitute it with pedagogy. So here goes Pedagogy is to be studied, not for the sake of any … Continue reading
Posted in Quotes/People, Teaching
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4 clicks to Mathematics
I learn this game from watching Tim Chartier’s video. (The original game was 5 clicks to Jesus but in this age of religious sensitivity … ) So this is the game, go to Wikipedia and click random article on the … Continue reading
Posted in Fun Stuff, Technology, Web
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Why are Finland’s Schools Successful?
is an insightful article by LynNell Hancock published in the Smithsonian magazine in Sept 2011. It was recently republished in a local newspaper (strangely without reference to the original publication) and circulated by a colleague. I particularly love this para: … Continue reading
Posted in Learning, Teaching
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What is real world mathematics?
According to Tim Gowers, real world mathematics is not really about disguising equations into apples and pears.
Posted in Applications, Learning, Problems, Teaching
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