What is Zero? Getting Something from Nothing – with Hannah Fry “Is zero really a number? How did it come about? Hannah Fry tells the story of how zero went from nothing to something.”
Link via Schockwellenreiter.
Category Archives: Mathematics
The Nobel prize of Mathematics
NPR: Professor Who Solved Fermat’s Last Theorem Wins Math’s Abel Prize.
“The mathematics problem he solved had been lingering since 1637 — and he first read about it when he was just 10 years old. This week, British professor Andrew Wiles, 62, got prestigious recognition for his feat, winning the Abel Prize from the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters for providing a proof for Fermat’s Last Theorem.”
Physics on YouTube
Some YouTube channels I check out from time to time, with a recommended example:
Smarter Every Day: Slow Motion Flipping Cat Physics.
Physics Girl: Look at the crazy pool vortex!
Minute Physics: Why It’s Impossible to Tune a Piano.
Veritasium: An Astronaut’s View of Earth, a chat with Chris Hadfield.
It’s a puzzle consisting of puzzles
MeFi Projects: Fractal Jigsaw Puzzle. “A jigsaw puzzle in which the pieces are jigsaw puzzles. Runs in your browser.”
The finished image is, of course, from one of the most famous fractals, the Mandelbrot set.
Warning: This is addicting! To quote the author: “There are a lot of pieces in this puzzle. I don’t expect anyone to finish it.” You might just find yourself trying to prove him wrong.
In about half an hour last night, I finished 11 of the 29 puzzle pieces that make up the whole image – or is it just one piece of the next level?!
Update: Here’s the MetaFilter thread: “There are a lot of pieces in this puzzle.“ .
Maths and physics visualizations
Lucas Vieira Barbosa: “Below is a mostly comprehensive gallery of all images — illustrations, diagrams and animations — that I have created for Wikipedia over the years, some of which have been selected as featured pictures, or even picture of the day. As you’ll probably notice, they’re mostly related to physics and mathematics, which are my main areas of interest.”
See for example the sine curve drawing process, cosine, sine and the unit circle, coupled oscillators. I often use these in my lessons, but have usually drawn them on the (chalk)board. My school is getting interactive whiteboards in more classrooms now, so these animations will come in very handy.
Matt Henderson publishes his animations on his Math and Science Blog matthen. Did you know that The focus of a rolling parabola traces out a catenary, the curve of a hanging chain held by its ends?
Links via MetaFilter.