The hardest part of mathematics is counting. I don’t mean 1-2-3-4-can-I-have-a-little-more counting. I mean counting groups. Collections. Possibilities.
Category: Math
The Mathematician and the Unfinished Coffee
My wife never finishes her coffee. She’ll sip, sip, take it home, sip, sip, microwave it, and sip some more, all day long. Only rarely does she glimpse the bottom of the cup.
Big, Bigger, and Big-Big-Bigger
"What's the biggest number you know?" "Well, here's a pretty big one: 10^10^10^10."
12 Days of Christmas, the Hard Way
Once there was a song. It was maddeningly repetitive and endlessly parodied. It endorsed “quantity over quality” in gift-giving. It advocated buying for our loved ones not a good book, or a nice pair of pajamas, or even a scented candle, but teeming masses of geese, each one actively laying eggs. The song proposed, dubiously, that … Continue reading 12 Days of Christmas, the Hard Way
The Humor Writers and the Too-Big Sofa
“What do numbers even mean, anyway?” said David. “I say we try it.” So, being idiots, we did.
The Kaufman Decimals
You never know where conversations will turn with Jeff Kaufman. He goes barefoot, hates cucumbers, and donates fantastic chunks of his Google salary to charity.
0.999…. and the Debate that Repeats Forever
Adrian led a pack of disbelievers in the claim that 0.999… = 1. “You’re crazy, Orlin,” he said. “You’ve lost your grip on reality. Snap out of it.” With my sanity under challenge (for neither the first nor the last time), I pushed back by offering the standard proof of the fact.
Iron Man 3 Outsold the Entire Book-Publishing Industry
On May 3rd, more Americans bought tickets to Iron Man 3 than bought books. I mean all books. Combined.
A Fight with Euclid
I had a fight with Euclid on the nature of the primes. It got a little heated - you know how the tension climbs.
How Fast is Exponential Growth? (Or, Yao Ming Confronts the Vastness of the Universe)
By Yao’s shins (12 inches), the graph is over 300 feet tall – a little higher than the Tribune Tower in Oakland.
Math with Bad Drawings 