-
-
How much is $700 billion?
The short answer: a lot. The long answer: depends on how you look at it.
Whatever your viewpoint, here's how $700 billion - the figure inked in the initial dead-in-the-water government bailout bill for Wall Street - compares to other vast sums.
NASA in fiscal year 2009 will launch several missions into space and pay for hundreds of people to operate a host of space telescopes and even remote robots on Mars and run a PR and media department that puts most large corporations to shame. The agency's budget: $17.6 billion, or 2.5 percent of the bailout sum.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has an annual budget of...
Read The Rest at Link... The short answer: a lot. The long answer: depends on how you look at it. ... more -
Mathematicians discover new number
The researchers from UCLA used 75 computers running algorithms on Windows XP to discover a huge Prime number.
Prime numbers are divisible by only two whole positive numbers: themselves and one.
Famous Primes include: 1, 3, 7, 11.
This prime number has 13 million digits. The researchers from UCLA used 75 computers running algorithms on Windows XP to discover a huge Prime number. ... more -
UCLA mathematicians discover rare prime number
UCLA mathematicians appear to have won the $100,000 prize from the Electronic Frontier Foundation for discovering the first verified Mersenne prime number with more than 10 million digits.
The winning number has a whopping 12,978,189 digits. The new number is only the 46th known Mersenne prime.
Prime numbers are those, like three, seven and 11, that are divisible only by themselves and one. Mersenne primes, named after the 17th century French mathematician Marin Mersenne, who discovered them, take the form 2P - 1, where P is also a prime number.
In the new UCLA prime, P = 43,112,609.
Thousands of people around the world have been participating in the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search, or GIMPS, in which underused computing power is harnessed to perform the complex and tedious calculations needed to find and verify Mersenne primes.
Edson Smith and his UCLA colleagues harnessed the power of the 75 machines in the university's Program in Computing/Math Computer Lab, which is used by students for computer projects. Smith, a system administrator, realized that the lab was using only a fraction of its available CPU power. Rather than let it go to waste, he and his colleagues decided to use it for the GIMPS project.
The new Mersenne prime was discovered Aug. 23 on a Dell Optiplex 745 running Windows XP. The number was verified by a different computer system running a different algorithm. UCLA mathematicians appear to have won the $100,000 prize from the Electronic Frontier Foundation for discovering the first verified M... more -
Nintendo's Brain Training game boosts maths scores
Learning and Teaching Scotland - the main organisation for the development of the curriculum - analysed the effect of a "brain training" game.
The study involved more than 600 pupils in 32 schools across Scotland using the Brain Training from Dr Kawashima game on the Nintendo DS every day. The project followed a pilot study in Dundee last year.
LTS worked with Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education and the University of Dundee to see if the pilot results were replicated on a wider scale.
A group of pupils played the game, which included reading tests, problem-solving exercises and memory puzzles, for 20 minutes at the start of their class for nine weeks. A control group continued their lessons in a more traditional manner.
The pupils were tested at the beginning and then the end of the study.
Researchers found that while all groups had improved their scores, the group using the game had improved by a further 50%.
The time taken to complete the tests also dropped by five minutes, from 18.5 minutes to 13.5 minutes. The improvement in the games group was double that of the control group.
Less able children were found to be more likely to improve than the highest attainers and almost all pupils had an increased perception of their own ability.
The study also found that it made no difference if the children had the game at home and noted no difference in ability between girls or boys.
It found improvements in absence and lateness in some classes.
Derek Robertson, LTS's national adviser for emerging technologies and learning, said: "Computer games help flatten out the hierarchy that exists in schools - they are in the domain of the learner as opposed to the domain of the school." Learning and Teaching Scotland - the main organisation for the development of the curriculum - analysed the effect of a "brain tr... more -
Math in Career Technical Education
This is a video that I recently produced for the Lane Education Service District in Eugene, Oregon. It is a video about a program that pairs a math teacher with a career education professional to enhance their curriculum. The CTE teacher gets to embed math in their career subject, while the Math teachers gets "real world" examples of embedded math from actual career situations that the teacher can use in their math classes.
Haven't you ever heard the saying "When are we ever going to use this formula in real life?" Well this program shows you how to answer that question and amaze your students while keeping their interest.
Check it out and let me know what you think. This is a video that I recently produced for the Lane Education Service District in Eugene, Oregon. It is a video about a program that... more -
BBC NEWS | Science/Environment | Audio slideshow: The art of mathematics
To the untrained eye, these vivid images might appear to be random sets of colourful swirls and circles.
But they are in fact precise visual representations of mathematical theory known as dynamical systems.
Some of the images - created by mathematicians from across the world - have gone on display at the University of Liverpool.
Here, mathematician Lasse Rempe explains how they are made - and considers their artistic merits. To the untrained eye, these vivid images might appear to be random sets of colourful swirls and circles. ... more -
Founder Of The Secret Society Of Mathematicians
Henri Cartan, the founder of the Secret Society of Mathematicians, who published articles under the pen name "Nicolas Bourbaki." Cartan recently died at age 104, and his life is a fascinating story. Henri Cartan, the founder of the Secret Society of Mathematicians, who published articles under the pen name "Nicolas Bourbaki.&#... more
-
Alicia Boole Stott
Alicia Boole Stott was an Irish woman of the end of the 19th century who worked on four dimensional geometry. Although she never studied mathematics, nor went to a University, she learned herself to ``see'' the fourth dimension. She is remembered for finding all three dimensional sections of the four dimensional polytopes (i.e., the analogues of the Platonic solids in three dimensions), and for the discovery of many of the semi-regular polytopes. She built beautiful models of the sections of the polytopes. Due to her close collaboration with Professor P. H. Schoute of Groningen, a collection of some of her models is present at the University of Groningen.
Despite having no formal education in mathematics, she still possessed a great power of geometric visualization in hyperspace. From the age of seventeen until her death, she remained interested in regular and semi-regular four-dimensional polytopes and made several important discoveries in this area. For example, she showed that there were 6 regular polyhedra in 4-dimensional space and made physical models related to her work. Alicia Boole Stott was an Irish woman of the end of the 19th century who worked on four dimensional geometry. Although she never studi... more -
The 4th Dimension explained.
Nine chapters, two hours of maths, that take you gradually up to the fourth dimension. Mathematical vertigo guaranteed!
-
Elephants can count - and are good at simple maths
They are smart, being among a small, elite group of species - including humans, great apes, magpies and dolphins - that have the ability to recognise themselves in the mirror. They show compassion after a death of one of their own species, care about other elephants in distress and have a strong interest in the dead.
Now an Asian elephant named Ashya is among a small group to have shown they are wizards at simple mathematical sums.
When a trainer dropped three apples into one bucket and one apple into a second, then four more apples in the first and five more in the second, the pachyderm recognised that three plus four is greater than one plus five, and snacked on the seven apples.
"I even get confused when I'm dropping the bait," says Dr Naoko Irie-Sugimoto, a researcher at the University of Tokyo, Japan, speaking to NewScientist.com.
Dr Irie-Sugimoto presented her findings last week at the International Society for Behavioral Ecology's annual meeting in Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.
Moreover, Dr Irie-Sugimoto found that as well as summing small numbers with almost 90 per cent accuracy, elephants can discriminate between small numbers.
advertisement
They can tell similar quantities apart, when most species are best when there is a big difference.
The four elephants that she tested distinguished between five and six apples as well as they did between five and one. They picked the bucket with the most fruit three quarters of the time, on average, far above 50-50.
The skill now poses a question: why did they evolve the means to count? Mya Thompson, an ecologist at Cornell University who studies elephant communication, points out that studies in India by Raman Sukumar shows that Asian elephants live in close-knit groups of six to eight, and they may count one another to make sure the herd sticks to together. "You really don't want to lose your group members," she says.
"Elephants seem to know where family members are, for which counting them might be quite useful," adds Prof Friz Vollrath of Oxford University.
"These exciting new findings support the idea that numerical information is evolutionarily important and could provide an adaptive advantage in foraging.
"We also know from studies of lion prides and chimpanzee troupes that numerical information is used to decide whether to attack a threatening group - only attack when you outnum They are smart, being among a small, elite group of species - including humans, great apes, magpies and dolphins - that have the abili... more -
Elephants Can Do Math
An Asian elephant bests a science reporter at a simple counting game. Video courtesy of Naoko Irie/University of Tokyo
Elephants are famous for their supposedly superb memory. Now it seems that they are good at simple maths too.
Researchers at the University of Tokyo have found an Asian elephant named Ashya can add small quantities together and correctly identify which is larger.
For example, when researcher Naoko Irie-Sugimoto dropped three apples into one bucket and one apple into a second, then four more apples into the first and five into the second, Ashya correctly identified that the first bucket contained more apples and began munching on her tasty prize.
Ashya and her companions chose the correct bucket 74% of the time. "I even get confused when I'm dropping the bait," Irie told New Scientist magazine.
The elephants' counting abilities are far from unique. Chimps, salamanders and pigeons have shown numerical abilities in lab tests, but what is more impressive for the elephants is that their ability to distinguish between two figures does not get worse when those numbers are more similar. An Asian elephant bests a science reporter at a simple counting game. Video courtesy of Naoko Irie/University of Tokyo ... more -
Elephants Master Basic Math
Add elephants to the growing menagerie of animals that can count. The mathematical prowess of elephants may be a side effect of their bulging brains and an evolutionary kinship to other "smart" animals. Add elephants to the growing menagerie of animals that can count. The mathematical prowess of elephants may be a side effect of their ... more
-
Frational Dimensions
Things can exist in-between the whole number dimensions, they're fractals! That's so cool!
-
Student turns down £100,000 salary, to be a plasterer
A student has turned down a £100,000-a-year job offer so she can train as a plasterer.
Gemma McCoyd studied in the US graduating with a first-class masters degree in maths, but snubbed a chance to become an actuary at a top London firm.
Instead, the 24-year-old has enrolled on an advanced plastering course.
"If I was an actuary I could earn £100,000 a year. Instead I earn less than £6,000." A student has turned down a £100,000-a-year job offer so she can train as a plasterer. ... more -
Girls are just as good as Boys in Math
Girls are proving that when it comes to math they are just as tough as boys. In the largest study of its kind, girls measured up to boys in every grade, from second through 11th. The research was released Thursday in the journal Science.
Parents and teachers persist in thinking boys are simply better at math, said Janet Hyde, the University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher who led the study. And girls who grow up believing it wind up avoiding harder math classes.
"It keeps girls and women out of a lot of careers, particularly high-prestige, lucrative careers in science and technology," Hyde said. That's changing, though slowly.
For the class of 2007, the latest figures available, boys scored an average of 533 on the math section of the SAT, compared with 499 for girls.
Women are now earning 48 percent of undergraduate college degrees in math; they still lag far behind in physics and engineering. Girls are proving that when it comes to math they are just as tough as boys. In the largest study of its kind, girls measured up to bo... more -
Worms Use Calculus to Find Food
" Like humans with a nose for the best restaurants, roundworms also use their senses of taste and smell to navigate. Now, researchers may have found how a worm's brain does this: It performs calculus.
Worms calculate how much the strength of different tastes is changing — equivalent to the process of taking a derivative in calculus — to figure out if they are on their way toward food or should change direction and look elsewhere, says University of Oregon biologist Shawn Lockery, who thinks humans and other animals do the same thing.
This research could one day benefit some of the more than 200,000 Americans who detect a foul smell or taste that is actually pleasant or have a weakened or depleted ability to appreciate the scent of a lilac or savor the flavor of a juicy burger."
Go Math Worms, Go! " Like humans with a nose for the best restaurants, roundworms also use their senses of taste and smell to navigate. Now, researc... more -
How Many People Did What?
This is not for TV evidently. Just a little Math curiosity between you and me.
-
Nas uses the N-word a lot less lately (see Graph)
If you’re like me, you spend your weekends in a hammock listening to conscious rap while reading Scientific American.
So when rapper Nas released his new album, "Untitled," after much controversy surrounding its previous title, "Nigger," I naturally did what anyone else would do: I tallied the number of N-words Nas has dropped in each of his albums, and charted the results for your viewing pleasure. If you’re like me, you spend your weekends in a hammock listening to conscious rap while reading Scientific American. ... more -
The Math War: How schools have changed their lesson plans
"They call it the Math Wars: The debate, at times acrimonious, over which way is best to teach kids math. In its most black-and-white form, it pits schools hoping to prepare kids for a new world against reluctant parents who feel that the traditional way is best and that their kids are being shortchanged."
Apparently, more and more schools are teaching kids "conceptual math" or the concepts behind mathematics as opposed to the formulas themselves. Most parents aren't exactly angry about that, but frustrated that they can't help their kids with homework because they never learned this newfangled stuff.
Honestly, I probably would have done a LOT better at "concept" based math- a lot of people tend to either be math or english people, and I sucked horribly at math while passing english with my eyes closed. I wonder if conceptualizing math before learning formulas and things like that would have helped me to understand it and like it more than I did. "They call it the Math Wars: The debate, at times acrimonious, over which way is best to teach kids math. In its most black-and-w... more -
Capcom (game developer) Is Going To Teach Physics And Maths In Game Play.
Video game developer Capcom is working with a leading academic on an initiative to embed subliminal lessons about physics and maths in game play.
Nipan Maniar, a senior lecturer in creative technologies at the University of Portsmouth, who created the cultural awareness game C-Shock, is collaborating with Capcom to provide structured learning environments in games. Video game developer Capcom is working with a leading academic on an initiative to embed subliminal lessons about physics and maths in... more
-
related topics
Math
Contributors (145)
Math
