Mariah Carey Is not a Mathematician
This may come as a surprise to some of you, but it has come to my attention that Mariah Carey is not, in fact, a mathematician. Moreover, I'm fairly certain she is not a physicist, either.
The evidence is fairly compelling. According to this article from sfgate.com, the famous crooner misappropriated Einstein's famous mass energy equivalence formula E = mc2:
In interviews to promote the record, the singer's eleventh studio release, Carey told reporters she re-interpreted the equation to stand for "emancipation equals Mariah Carey times two."
Forgetting for a moment the question of what it means for Mariah Carey to be one half of emancipation, there is the arguably more important issue of her not understanding the difference between mc2 and mc × 2. Granted, Mariah Carey didn't get this far based on her math skills, but by botching what many consider to be the most famous equation in mankind's body of knowledge, it's hard not to shake your head a little bit.
Perhaps the interviewer...
Math Gets Around: Holiday Treats
At this time of year, many people push their studies to the side in favor of roasted animals and pie. However, the activities of enlarging your waistline and mastering some mathematics need not be mutually exclusive. For evidence of this claim, I need only turn your attention to the culmination of thousands of years of human evolution: the Pecan Pie-cosahedron.
This masterful work of craftsmanship was created by an individual known by the pseudonym of turkey tek over at instructables.com. The pie is so named because it has the shape of an icosahedron, arguably the most beautiful of the five1 Platonic Solids (so named because of the Greek philosopher, not because the solids are just good friends). Even better, this isn't turkey tek's first foray into mathematically inspired baked goods: also on display is the formiddable Giant Fractal Pecan Pie.
Such seminal work naturally gives rise to the question: In what other...
Math in the News: Are Math Teachers Really Only One Chapter Ahead?
It looks like middle school math teachers can't catch a break. According to a recent study, a significant percentage of math teachers in grades 5-8 do not have a degree or a certification in math. Sadly, the numbers are even worse for schools in low income areas. While it's certainly true that you don't need a math degree to teach middle school math effectively, the data does suggest that there is a significant bloc of underqualified math teachers trying to impart essential knowledge to these young students.
Of course, I doubt this is all the teachers' fault - elementary and middle school teachers are a rare commodity in this country, and kids need someone to teach them math. An understaffed school will do what it takes to make sure there's somebody at the front of the classroom. And I certainly don't envy those teachers out there who may not feel so confident in their math ability, but are nevertheless trying to impart all that mathematical know-how because nobody else will.
One thing...
Math in the Movies: Pi
In 1998, Darren Aronofsky shot to success with his independent film, Pi. The film was widely heralded as an excellent film, and earned Mr. Aronofsky the 1998 Directing Award at the Sundance Film Festival. He then went on to direct the similarly successful Requiem for a Dream, followed by the less well-received 2006 film The Fountain. His latest film, the Mickey Rourke vehicle called The Wrestler, opens soon.
The story of Pi centers on a mathematician named Max Cohen, a self professed number theorist - although he never specifies what qualifies him for this title - who spends his days analyzing the stock market and wiping the blood off of his upper lip (I know what you're thinking, and no, he's not a cage fighter - that would've made the film way better). As he comes closer to "unlocking the secrets" of the stock market (whatever that means), several interested parties begin to come out of the woodwork, all with their own self-interest at heart.
From a math perspective, how does this...
Math in the News: Elephants are Smarter than your Babies
I missed the memo on this one, but apparently worms aren't the only animals capable of doing math. A recent experiment coming out of the University of Tokyo suggests that Asian elephants have an unexpected aptitude for arithmetic. While many animals have a rudimentary counting ability, and are able to distinguish between sets with only a few elements, it seems that elephants are able to take things a step further, and can consistently differentiate between larger numbers such as 5 and 6.
Is this difference significant? Within the animal kingdom, it would seem so. Here's how it breaks down, courtesy of this article:
A theory held by some is that humans and other animals share a basic neural system called an "accumulator" that can clearly distinguish numbers of objects less than three or four but that cannot reliably discriminate between bigger numbers. This accumulator is active in animals and, perhaps, in human infants, the theory contends. Higher-order number abilities require...
Math in the News: Are Mathematicians the Reason Why You're Broke?
As you may have heard, the economy is in a bit of trouble. People continue to debate the root cause of the current crisis: some blame so-called predatory lenders for pushing mortgages on people who couldn't afford them, some blame the borrowers themselves for recklessly taking on loans to try and live beyond their means. And of course, as with any problem, there are those who try to shift the blame to mathematicians.
Why mathematicians? Proponents of this theory assert that our current financial collapse is the fault of the math whiz kids hired to work on Wall Street or manage hedge funds. It is no secret that investment banks have been hiring bright mathematical minds for years, then squeezing that brainpower into models for trading.
The use of mathematics in this case isn't the problem (indeed, when could using mathematics ever be a problem?). The problem, the critics cry, is that nobody understood the models that were developed - not the economists, not the credit ratings bureau...
Math Gets Around: Politics, Part 3
As promised, in this thrilling final installment to the relationship between math and voting (the first two parts can be found here and here), we will look at what many people see as the holy grail of voting systems: Range voting.
The concept of range voting is simple. Given a set of candidates, in a range voting system you simply put a score next to each name that reflects how strongly you support that candidate. Of course, this is quite different from our current voting system, where we only get to vote for one candidate, but more importantly, it differs significantly from other voting systems where you are just asked to rank candidates in order of preference, because a ranking gives no information about the degree to which your support varies from candidate to candidate.
For example, if Anna, Bob, and Charlie are all running for President, you and I may both prefer Anna to Bob, and Bob to Charlie. However, I may LOVE Anna and HATE Charlie, while you may be relatively indifferent...
Math Goes Trick or Treating
Update (Octoboer 2010): 2010 costume ideas can be found here!
Update (October 2009): I've written a follow-up article with more math themed costume ideas. With Halloween but a few short days away, many of you with a love for both dress-up and mathematics are probably thinking hard about what you should be this year. I thought it would be fun to find some good math inspired Halloween costumes using the transformative power of the internet, but unfortunately there really wasn't much to get excited about. After spending some time scouring, the only costume ideas that were even tangentially related to math that I could find were the following:
By far the most offensive of these costume choices. Of course, this offers a broader stereotype than that of the mathematician, but the mathematician and the nerd trade at about the same cultural currency value.
What's most disappointing is the fact that this isn't even a top quality impersonation of your stereotypical...
Math in the News: Is U.S. Culture Crushing Potential Mathletes?
Earlier this month, the New York Times ran an article about the dearth of U.S. students with strong skills in mathematics. While this is not quite a revelation, it is made more timely by the recent release of a study that looked at data from Putnam exams, International Mathematical Olympiads, and data from other programs meant to nurture younger students in mathematics.
This type of data is more powerful than looking at SAT scores, for instance, because exams administered in a mathematics competition are notoriously difficult. There are thousands of students who will score an 800 on the math section of the SAT, and so this test offers no way to distinguish between them. Looking at this other data, however, allows us to gain a much deeper insight into the abilities of students in the U.S. with an aptitude for mathematics.
The data suggests a couple of things. First, contrary to the Gender Gap theory I have discussed before, there are many women who perform extremely well on these exams...
Math as Your Wingman: Mail Goggles
As many of you with Gmail accounts may already know, Google launched a feature last week that aims to put arithmetic squarely in the shoes of your most trusted wingman. The feature, dubbed Mail Goggles, is explained in the Official Gmail Blog.
In summary, the Mail Goggles feature allows you to make Gmail aware of certain hours during the week when you should not be sending e-mail (due to exhaustion, inebriation, or the side effects of whatever other illicit things you do in your personal life). Once these hours are set, should you decide to send an e-mail during one of these highlighted times, you will first be prompted to answer a series of math questions, in an attempt to prove to Gmail that you have sufficient mental faculties to be sending e-mail.
A noble pursuit, to be sure. A trustworthy internet wingman may be just the thing for those among us who may enjoy their night life a bit too much, only to make decisions they regret in the morning. And while a wingman tied to your...
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