Mathemacomics

Three times already this week, I've seen people overgeneralizing from small samples. It's an epidemic!

US vs. UK: Who Grades Students?

The word "grade" belongs on that List of Words That Change Meaning Dramatically When You Cross the Pond.

Where do you draw the line between a disposable trick and an indispensable technique?

I have slept only scattered hours, eaten only bits of eraser and pencil shavings.

Can you summarize a whole branch of mathematics in one word?

I’ve encountered some surprising disparities, each of which prompts the obvious question: Which way is better, the British or the American?

I'd never thought of questions like fossil fuel. A nonrenewable resource. But the thought kept popping back up.

And so was born that tragicomedy of 21st-century life: young people trying to explain technology to their parents.

Sometimes I worry I listen too closely to the polls. Do we have any polling data on that?

Ring the bells, beat the drums, and summon the presidential candidates to “weigh in,” because your clocks will never be the same.