The IntMath Newsletter - Feb 2007

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Interactive Mathematics.

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1. This month’s math tips
2. Chinese New Year
3. Latest Revisions
4. From the math blog
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THIS MONTH’S MATH TIP

To be successful in mathematics, you really need to practice your new skills until they become automatic.

But sometimes, it feels like ’drill and kill’. When you take a break, spend some time to read over:

(a) Where you came from. What you are doing in ’drill and kill’ will make a lot more sense if you read over the theory behind it, again.

(b) Where you are going. Knowing what is happening next with your new skill will help you to focus. It will help you to build stronger hooks to hang your new learning onto.

And most importantly, keep smilin’!

CHINESE NEW YEAR

Around 20% of the world’s population will be enjoying Chinese New Year over the next few weeks.

Did you know...?

• Chinese New Year starts with the New Moon on 18 Feb 2007 and ends on the full moon 15 days later.
• It will be the year of the (golden) pig.
• The date will be year 4705 (the number of years since Emperor Huangdi invented the Chinese calendar).
• While the Western (Gregorian) calendar is commonly used by the Chinese, the traditional calendar is still an important part of the culture.

Happy Lunar New Year!

LATEST REVISIONS

I am in the process of revising all chapters in the Interactive
Mathematics site. Some parts have been re-written, many images
have been dusted off and polished, and hopefully everything is
more user-friendly.

Recent updates have included these chapters:
Fourier Series
Trigonometric Graphs
Matrices and Determinants

Let me know if you have any further suggestions for improvement.

LATEST FROM THE MATH BLOG:

1) GAISMA - REAL-LIFE SINE GRAPHS
Gaisma has many interesting day/night graphs, which are (almost)
sine curves.

2) MATH OF THE MOORS
The Moors were Muslims who overtook Spain in the 8th century AD, bringing with them a Renaissance of learning. But the Spanish
have rewritten this history and the Moors get little recognition for their contributions to scientific thought in Europe.

3) HOURS DECEASED
A Portuguese math blog has an interesting post about a female mathematician.

4) INTERESTING SEMI-LOGARITHMIC GRAPH - YOUTUBE TRAFFIC RANK
YouTube has gone from obscurity to the 5th highest ranking website in just 18 months.

5) ALEXA WEB STATISTICS - SAY WHAT?
Some interesting Web statistics that don’t make much sense.

Enjoy reading

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