Dec 23
We’re all outraged by the NSA’s invasions of privacy, sure—but we don’t perhaps understand exactly how it managed it. This video explains the maths behind the agency’s surveillance.
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Dec 20
We’ve all done it: stood in a library, looking around, we’ve been confronted by the fact that there are way, way too many books in existence for us to ever read. But when in history did that happen?
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Dec 17
We all know somebody with one of those faces. You know, the friend who always gets mistaken for someone else. They say, "I know I remember you from somewhere!" But they don’t. Turns out there’s a science to this sort of thing—and it could make your face more memorable.
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Dec 17
Binary lies at the heart of our technological lives: those strings of ones and zeroes are fundamental to the way all our digital devices function. But while the invention of binary is usually credited to German mathematician Gottfried Leibniz in the 18th Century, it turns out the Polynesians were using it as far back as 600 years ago.
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Dec 01
Connect Four might be a game that triggers childhood flashbacks, but it’s not simple stuff. In fact, Numberphile reports that there are more than 4 trillion unique ways to fill a standard board. But there’s only one way to guarantee a win every time.
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Nov 28
The Math Hidden in Futurama
Posted in: Today's ChiliYou might just watch Futurama and chuckle deeply to yourself—as you should!—but if you study it a little more closely, you’ll find that it’s stuffed full of numbers and math.
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Nov 28
Eggs and bacon? Eggs and sausage? Eggs and bacon and sausage? Sometimes the choices at breakfast can be paralyzing—but a Venn diagram can make that all better.
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Nov 26
This Is Why Imperial Units Suck
Posted in: Today's ChiliImperial units suck. They suck really, really hard. They’re archaic, irrelevant, difficult to work with, and, perhaps most stupidly, based on incredibly arbitrary reasoning. As this wonderful video explains.
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Nov 22
Raspberry Pi computers have already proven to be valuable educational tools, but they’re largely blank slates until teachers (and curious owners) find the right software. As of today, that software search just got a lot easier. The company has reached a deal to bundle Wolfram Research’s Mathematica app and its companion Wolfram Language with each copy of Raspbian Linux; every Raspberry Pi owner now has free tools for everything from learning math to sophisticated programming. The deal also brings a Remote Development Kit that lets tinkerers connect the Raspberry Pi to Mathematica on a regular PC. While the updated Raspbian download isn’t yet ready, all existing users can run a command to install Wolfram’s suite. Only some owners will need the bundle, but it could go a long way toward promoting math to a younger generation.
Filed under: Misc
Source: Raspberry Pi, Stephen Wolfram
Nov 19
If math brings you out in a cold sweat, then logarithms surely leave you in a sobbing heap. But no longer, thanks to the wonderful Vi Hart.
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