Archive for the ‘Mathematics’ Category

Came across this software just now: MathTalk. It combines Dragon Naturally Speaking and Scientific Notebook so that you can create mathematics on SNB using your voice. It also allows a braille translation. Their demos look surprisingly like my math video efforts with SNB. Be the first to comment below.

Maple have released an interesting add-on which is supposed to provide "interactive math over the Web". MapleNet works by creating a document using Maple 10 and then embedding it within an HTML page and publishing it on a MapleNet server. This gives java applets that the user can interact with by changing parameters. The resulting […]

Some mathematics that has made Google the richest (in results and $) search engine... Google talks about "solving an equation of more than 500 million variables and 2 billion terms" for determining the PageRank of a particular Web page. PageRank is the process Google uses to determine the position of a Web page in a […]

This is an interesting 'real-life' application. There are currently about 90,000 patients waiting for a kidney donation in the US. Donated kidneys cannot be given to anyone who wants them - there are many factors in compatability, including physical distance between donor and recipient. This article shows an interesting algorithm that has been developed to […]

In her book "Math Wars, A Guide for Parents and Teachers", Carmen Latterell desribes the 'math wars' as the struggle between an ever-swinging pendulum. On one hand, you have the "back to basics" crowd who want to drill mathematical facts and techniques into every student, and on the other you have the "new math" crowd […]

Dan Brown's 1998 effort, "Digital Fortress" was a fun read. The publishers make a big deal of his new-found fame via "The Da Vinci Code", with the following emblazoned prominently on the cover: #1 New York Times Bestselling Author of The Da Vinci Code . That's okay, but clearly his skills have improved since the […]

A fractal version of the Yin and Yang symbol

Flickr, that clever photo gallery site, has an interesting section entitled "squared circles" with some great photos that appealed to me (of course!). I'll make a contribution one of these days... Flickr is a great site, since you can upload photos there for free and then write your blogger entry from within Flickr. Very convenient! […]

Here's a beautiful spiral fractal - made using complex numbers.

There have been some embarrassments involving suspension bridges - the Tacoma Narrows bridge in the US spectacularly fell down in the 1940s because when the wind hit it at a certain velocity, it began to oscillate at its natural frequency. It kept vibrating until it shook itself to pieces. The solution was to build bridges […]