The Housekeeper and the Professor
Some time ago, I heard about a book from Japan called The Housekeeper and the Professor, written by Yoko Ogawa in 2003 and translated by Stephen Snyder last year. As the title suggests, the book centers on the relationship between a housekeeper, her son, and a math professor. The main conceit of the book is that the Professor suffered an accident some years before that impaired his memory, so that his short term memory only lasts around 80 minutes. In other words, every day the housekeeper and her son come to visit the professor, it is as if they are meeting him for the first time. He copes by clipping small notes to his clothing, and in spite of his disability he still dabbles in mathematics.
One part Memento, one part A Beautiful Mind, the book was named a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice, and was popular enough in Japan to warrant a film adaptation (the Japanese language trailer for which can be found below). Clearly, then, the book has resonated with people regardless...
Let’s Make a Deal with Paul the Octopus
As summer reaches its midpoint, we come to the end of another rousing year of World Cup soccer. As with any international sporting event, fans all over the world have undoubtedly had their share of ups and downs. Of all the countries in this year's tournament, however, I think Germany may be receiving the most attention, for even though they didn't make it into the finals, the Germans have one thing no other country has: a precognitive octopus.
At least, that is what the media would have us believe. For the past several weeks, Paul the Octopus has captured the hearts, minds, and stomachs of people around the world. He's a charming octopus, to be sure, but it isn't his good looks that have gotten him this far. Instead, it's his seeming ability to correctly predict the outcome of soccer matches. As time has gone on and Paul's predictions have continued to prove themselves accurate, the amount of press he has received has only increased. Articles about him are everywhere on the...
A New Birthday Problem
Last week, Slashdot posted an interesting link to a problem posed at the most recent Gathering 4 Gardner, a mathematical (or perhaps I should say mathemagical) convention created in honor of the late Martin Gardner. The question, posed by Gary Foshee, is as follows: you have a friend with two children, one of whom is a boy born on a Tuesday. What is the probability that the other child is a boy?
Forget about the Tuesday fact for a moment - if you have a friend with two children, one of whom is a boy, what is the probability that the other child is a boy? You might expect that the answer should be 50%, since the sex of one child shouldn't affect the sex of the other. But this is not quite right, because you're not told whether the boy is the older or younger child.
There are only four possibilities when one has two children, so the situation is easy to analyze. With two kids, the four possibilities are boy boy, boy girl, girl boy, and girl girl. If you know that one of the kids...
The Twilight Saga: A Mathematical Perspective
Living in Los Angeles, it's hard not to be aware of the fact that the new Twilight movie, Eclipse, arrives in theaters today. The series has developed an insatiable fan base of people willing to spend thousands of dollars to fly here in the hopes of scoring tickets to the premiere, which certainly indicates the film will be a success. But of course, the film's success was never in question: with the first two movies having grossed over $1 billion worldwide, the success of this latest entry in the franchise is a foregone conclusion.
Of course, the success of this franchise should not be viewed in isolation, but as just a part of the larger vampire pop culture renaissance. HBO's True Blood, also based on a book series involving a girl who knocks boots with the undead, is going strong into its third season this summer, and the CW's Vampire Diaries will return for a second season this fall. And just when I thought the market for vampire-themed programming had become saturated, ABC...
Happy Tau Day?
In the past, I've used this blog as a platform to make clear my mixed feelings about Pi Day, a math themed holiday celebrated every year on March 14th (3/14, har har) in honor of the beloved mathematical constant π. My thoughts on the subject can be found here.
It would seem that I am not alone in my frustration. Michael Hartl, an educator and entrepreneur (as well as a Ph.D. graduate from Caltech), has just today launched a website in favor of Tau Day as a replacement for Pi Day. However, his argument (based on a 2001 paper by Bob Palais) goes a step farther - he argues that π day shouldn't be celebrated because π isn't the fundamental constant we should be considering! Rather, he argues that the true fundamental constant is 2π, which is approximately 6.283185... . Hartl argues that this should be the fundamental constant of interest, and renames it τ (for reasons given on the website).
Why should this be viewed as a more fundamental constant? Recall how π is defined - it is...
Deep Sea Math Hunting
Every now and then an article pops up which highlights a link between mathematics and the animal kingdom, and I've been able to discuss several such links on this blog. The latest entry into this category concerns the movement of sharks (and other ocean creatures) as they hunt for food. A recent article in Nature has spawned a great deal of interest, and the topic has been discussed on the websites of Wired, Discovery, and Physics World.
What does the motion of sharks have to do with mathematics? Well, suppose you are a shark. Unfortunately, there are not yet any In-N-Out's under water, so when it comes to food you are on your own. What would be the best way to forage for your food? With your heightened senses, you would undoubtedly be a formidable opponent in an area rich with prey, but what if you are in a more sparsely populated area? What's the best way for you to search for nutrition? As it turns out, the best thing for you to do may be to follow a type of random motion...
Love and Marriage
I've previously discussed some mathematical approaches to dating. Specifically, we have seen how choosing a partner can be modeled as a type of secretary problem, and, if you like, you can estimate the number of candidates you should consider by using a modified Drake's equation. However, as you know, building a lasting relationship is about more than choosing the right partner; maintaining a happy relationship takes work. And even though most people go into a relationship believing they will not end up as a statistic, the unfortunate reality is that nearly half of all marriages in this country will end in divorce.
How can it be that despite the best intentions of many couples, such a significant proportion will not endure? As one always should, we can turn to mathematics for possible answers. In fact, José-Manuel Rey of the Department of Economic Analysis at the Universidad Complutense in Madrid has done just that, by proposing a mathematical model to explain the dynamics of...
RIP Martin Gardner
Not long ago, I wrote an article in commemoration of Martin Gardner's 95th birthday. Sadly, it seems this will be my last article in celebration of his birth, as he passed away late last month.
Through his passing, though, his influence has become even more apparent. Perhaps because he published mathematical games in Scientific American for 25 years, the magazine has been the most visible in its veneration of him. There are no less than six articles on Gardner at the SciAm website; while some are reprints of earlier articles, there is also new material from writers and mathematicians who were influenced in some way by Gardner's unique career. Since I can't do justice to Gardner the way others already have, let me summarize what you can find if you're interested in learning more about this stand-up fellow.
If you'd like to learn more about Gardner's life, SciAm has reprinted to earlier essays on the man: one is a profile written by Philip Yam, originally published in 1995, and one...
Patient Problem Solving
Last year, I remarked on a TED talk from mathemagician Arthur Benjamin, who argued for the displacement of Calculus by Statistics in the hierarchy of high school mathematics. This year, TED has sponsored a talk by high school math teacher Dan Meyer, who discusses what, in his view, are the major problems with the way mathematics is currently taught to kids, and what can be done to fix things.
His opening is spot on: "I teach high school math. I sell a product to a market that doesn't want it, but is forced by law to buy it." He goes on to argue that the problem with math education, a problem exacerbated by most textbooks, is that it discourages what he terms patient problem solving. Problems in textbooks rarely reflect the types of problems one encounters in real life: textbook problems usually supply you with just the right amount of information, and the question is frequently just a matter of plugging values into an appropriate formula. More complicated questions are frequently...
Jack Doesn't Know Jack
Late last month, HBO films premiered You Don't Know Jack, a biopic on assisted suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian. The casting of Al Pacino in the starring role turned out surprisingly well, and made for a film that was better than I had expected.
However, no film is perfect, and You Don't Know Jack has its share of faults. Unlike most films, though, one of You Don't Know Jack's problems falls into the realm of the mathematical.
As you may recall, Kevorkian escaped conviction for his assisted suicides a number of times. The film's reasoning for his acquittals is a mixture of good legal representation combined with heart-wrenching testimony from the families of the deceased, who made it clear how much suffering Kevorkian's patients endured before he helped them. Moreover, Kevorkian never administered any lethal injections himself; instead, he built mechanisms that his patients could activate themselves.
Kevorkian pressed his luck in the late 90s, however, when he allowed footage of...
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