Through Math for America, I am part of an on-going collaboration with the New York Times Learning Network. My latest contribution, a Test Yourself quiz-question, can be found here:
http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/24/test-yourself-math-jan-24-2011/
This problem is based on the recent Times Infographic America By The Numbers, which displaye a selection of U.S. Census-related data. My question deals with how much red meat Americans consume per year.
On the face of it, it’s hard to imagine two things as unrelated as mathematics and knitting. And yet, here we have a website devoted to mathematical knitting:
http://www.toroidalsnark.net/mathknit.html
A Klein-bottle hat (seen at right)? A Mobius scarf? Ingenious stuff, and a testament to our unlimited creativity and resourcefulness, if not our practicality.
The Klein bottle hat actually reminds me of the Klein bottle one of my students made out of plaster.
This is an innovative and intriguing idea: a graphic novel based on the infamous struggles to articulate the foundations of mathematics.
The story is apparently narrated by the great mathematician and philosopher Bertrand Russell, and the cast of characters includes Georg Cantor, Kurt Godel, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and many other prominent figures from mathematics and logic. A review in the New York Times can be found here.
The philosophy of mathematics is extremely interesting (start by asking yourself “What is a number?”), and this particular tale is truly a fascinating one. I am eager to see how these graphic artists tell the story.
I recently invited readers to try to guess the total value of the coins in this piggy bank. I’ll share that data shortly, but I wondered how accurately someone could estimate the total value of the piggy bank if they knew the weight?
So, I weighed my pig.
The full piggy bank weighed out to around 2996 grams. I took some other weighings to find that a penny weighs approximately 2.7 g; a nickel is approximately 4.9 g; a dime is approximately 2.3 g; and a quarter is approximately 5.6 g.
Armed with this information, how much more accurate might the estimates be?
I’m not sure I believe this is the ultimate intelligence test, but this series of mental challenges is [mostly] enjoyable.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19592-take-the-ultimate-intelligence-test/
The “test”, which really seems more like a sophisticated data collection tool for someone doing research in psychology or cognitive science, consists of twelve ‘games’ that test various brain functions, like memory, planning, categorizing, and the like. They are mostly fun, but be warned: it can be a fairly taxing process.
It takes around 30 minutes to complete all the tests, and when you are finished (and complete a short survey), your results, and your relative rankings among all test-takers, are displayed for every activity. In addition, the authors explain what they think each exercise is really testing.
It’s definitely a fun way to waste half-an-hour. Just make sure you are well-rested!