I’m attending a conference in Berkeley, CA right now, at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, lovingly dubbed MSRI (pronounced “misery”). When I first started attending conferences I felt good if I understood the first half [...]
Link: Does one have to be a be genius to do math? Terry Tao, as much of a genius as we have, gives his answer. (Or is he just reblogging Jonathan Vos Post? Hard to say)
Link: Dance and Science! Together at last!
Link: What we learn in school I recently took on a remarkably talented tutee. Seeing the natural ease with which he, at 12 years old, sees deeply and sharply into all kinds of mathematical problems is a pleasure. For me, making sure this [...]
Link: “I was told there would be no math” When Sudoku came they said it didn’t involve any math, just logical thinking and pattern recognition. (No matter how we mathematicians claimed that logical thinking and pattern recognition [...]
Don’t just read it; fight it! Ask your own questions, look for your own examples, discover your own proofs. – Paul Halmos
Link: Teaching with the Socratic Method A professor of mine once said, speaking about his education, “If they had actually taught us anything, we’d all be geniuses!” And indeed, when I talk to people who hate/fear math, a bad [...]
Link: Awww…
Link: Hilbert’s Hotel I love this Waylay comic about Hilbert’s Hotel. She does a beautiful job of explaining the paradox succinctly, and of tapping into the sense of human (nonmathematician) frustration with the whole deal at the same [...]
It’s called “What I was working on today.” I come out and aggressively challenge the audience: “I’m Dan, and I’m a math student PhD, and tonight one of you is going to come up here and solve a math problem, because you’re not [...]
Link: A math op-ed, circa 1996 By Suzanne Sutton. Here’s a quote: It is among the greatest ironies of education that a subject so graceful and elegant, so able to inspire and bolster confidence, and so useful for living a joyous and [...]
First of all, the math dance piece went quite well (at least, I had some positive feedback). In part of it I ask for questions from the audience, and I’m not sure I answered them all as well as I could have, but I was able to spiral [...]
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