From Numberphile: “Sinuosity is a measure of how ‘bendy’ a river is. It is the length of the river divided by the direct route. Featuring Dr. James Grime.”
After posting this video, Dr. Grimes and Lawrence Roberts began collecting and analyzing data about real-world rivers. It turns out the pi theory of sinuosity is too simple. Read about their results:
From Numberphile: “How accurately can we calculate Pi using hundreds of REAL pies? This video features Matt Parker, who believes this is the world’s most accurate pie-based Pi calculation.”
Pi Day is coming soon. Maybe you’d like to try a pi project with your family? Check out my Pi Day Roundup of links.
From Numberphile: “Some stuff about Pi, the ‘celebrity number’. This video features maths-loving author Alex Bellos and Professor Roger Bowley from the University of Nottingham.”
Did you notice the error? It was supposed to be “a”…
The new Math Teachers at Play math education blog carnival is up for your browsing pleasure. Each month, we feature activities, lessons, and games about math topics from preschool through high school. Check it out!
[Photo by Steve Bowbrick. (CC BY 2.0)]
Hello, and welcome to the 83rd Edition of the monthly blog carnival “Math(s) Teachers at Play”.
It is traditional to start with some number facts around the edition number, 83 is pretty cool, as it happens. Its prime, which sets it apart from all those lesser compound numbers. Not only that, its a safe prime, a Chen prime and even a Sophie Germain prime, you can’t get much cool than that can you? Well yes, yes you can, because 83 is also an Eisenstein prime!!!!
Those of you who work in base 36 will know it for its famous appearance in Shakespeare’s Hamlet: “83, or not 83, that is the question…..”
[Feature photo above by Texas A&M University (CC BY 2.0) via Flickr.]
Note to Readers: Please help me improve this list! Add your suggestions or additions in the comment section below…
What does it mean to think like a mathematician? From the very beginning of my education, I can do these things to some degree. And I am always learning to do them better.
Only dead mathematics can be taught where competition prevails: living mathematics must always be a communal possession.
— Mary Everest Boole
CREDITS: Today’s quote is from Mary Everest Boole. Background photo courtesy of State Library of Queensland, Australia (no known copyright restrictions) via Flickr.
I found this delightful animation today:
The ball is traveling around a shape that can’t exist in our real world: the Penrose triangle. This illusion is the basis for some cool art, like Escher’s Waterfall. And I’m using it in my Math You Can Play books as a design on the back of my playing cards:
Here’s a few links so you can try it for yourself:
I’ve sent the first two Math You Can Play books to a copy editor (she edits the text part), so my focus this month is on finishing the illustrations and downloadable game boards. And designing the book covers — I think I’ll call this latest iteration done.
If everything stays on schedule, both Counting & Number Bonds and Addition & Subtraction should be available by mid- to late-spring. Fingers crossed…
Get in the math car with a list of destinations and no map. Take whatever route you want, and marvel at the things you discover along the way.
— Nick Harris
CREDITS: Today’s quote is from @Mr_Harris_Math, via Twitter. Background photo courtesy of Forrest Cavale (CC0 1.0) via Unsplash.
The January math education blog carnival is now posted for your browsing pleasure, featuring 23 playful ways to explore mathematics from preschool to high school:
Highlights include:
Young children making bar graphs.
A wide variety of math games.
Fractions on a clothesline.
Quadrilaterals on social media.
Non-transitive dice.
Writing in math class.
Negative number calculations made physical.
Inverse trig graphing.
Function operations.
And much more!
There are two ways to do great mathematics. The first is to be smarter than everybody else. The second way is to be stupider than everybody else — but persistent.
— Raoul Bott
CREDITS: Today’s quote is from Raoul Bott, via The MacTutor History of Mathematics archive. Background photo courtesy of Swedish National Heritage Board (no known copyright restrictions) via Flickr.
Denise Gaskins' Let's Play Math 