Numbers, letters and exponential growth
Mixing slightly arbitrary abstract systems can be fun. The two systems that nearly everyone has to deal with are our systems for sound (the alphabet) and for quantity and order (numbers). So taking… Read More
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Five principles of the evil teaching guru
When you apply for a university job you include a “teaching philosophy”, depending on institution this can be ignored or taken seriously. I have a teaching philosophy. Though I am not sure I… Read More
Education Depression
Mathematics education is hard, in part because the skills it takes to understand mathematics and to teach mathematics are actually quite different. In addition, once grasped, many mathematical ideas switch in an instant… Read More
The 2×1 rectangle and Domes
Next week I am going to be at the Gathering for Gardner, an exciting meeting of mathematicians, magicians, puzzlers and others inspired by the life and work of Martin Gardner. This post is… Read More
Prime Phyllotaxis Spirals
The phyllotaxis spiral is one of the classical forms of mathematics, and there is a wonderland of resources available online both images and explanations. The basic idea is to put points round in… Read More
Word powers of ten
How do we understand the number of words on the internet? Its hard to even grasp how many there are, and the number is growing so rapidly. Trying to understand a similar problem,… Read More
Magnetic Klein Quartic
The Klein Quartic is a absolutely fascinating object and worthy of a post in its own right, or even a book. It is clear evidence of the explosion of imagination and creativity in… Read More
The Academy: Axiom 1
The rule This post is not trying to do anything clever. It is making a statement that seems self-evident: There are three ways to gain understanding of the world: Personal experience Systems of… Read More
Hexayurt dome details and models
Edit 4/8/12: Andrew Maxwell, Tracy Suskin, Ying Yang, students at SAIT polytechnic in Canada, have put together the engineering details for the tri-dome. People are now starting to build my tri-dome and quad-dome… Read More
In memorium: Foyle’s Mathematics room.
For years the mathematics books at Foyles bookshop in London had their own room. It was a strange place, to the uninitiated inexplicably yellow. It had its own quirks rules and legends. There… Read More
Arrange whatever pieces come your way
(with apologies to Virginia Wolff) A simple, classic puzzle is to give two shapes and ask if there is a way to cut one up so the pieces can be rearranged into the… Read More
