An Autobiography in Data

Stephen Wolfram has given the world Mathematica, MathWorld, and Wolfram Alpha.  His latest contribution to the evolution of mathematics is a highly compelling analysis of 20 years of personal data.

http://blog.stephenwolfram.com/2012/03/the-personal-analytics-of-my-life/

Wolfram has collected data on his emails, his phone calls, and even his keystrokes for the past two decades.  In the above piece, Wolfram takes a look at what that data has to say about his life.  Why did his sleeping habits change around 2002?  What time of day are you most likely to catch him on the phone?  What percentage of keystrokes over the past 20 years have been backspaces?

The results are interesting not merely because Wolfram is such a fascinating person, but because of the potential personal data collection has for all of us.  What sorts of data would tell your story?

What a wonderful idea to explore!  Thanks for sharing, Mr. Wolfram.  You’ve given us a lot to think about.

An Interesting Temperature

The installation of on-board viewscreens has really made flying a lot more fun for everyone.  But while most people enjoy watching movies or playing video games, I enjoy analyzing flight data.

As I tracked the numbers for this particular flight, I started to get excited in anticipation of the external temperature hitting -40 degrees.  This is a rather special temperature, as it is the unique temperature that is the same in Fahrenheit or Celsius!  Some simple algebra tells us so.

\frac{9}{5}x + 32 = x

\frac{4}{5}x=-32

x = -40

Unfortunately, as we started to descend, the temperature was changing more rapidly than the data was updating, so I missed it.

 

But if we assume temperature is a continuous function, at least we know it had to be -40 out there at some point!

Another Great Math Card Trick

This is another terrific mathematical card trick.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GS9AN3XwghA

It requires minimal set-up and no sleight of hand, relying only on a basic mathematical idea that a certain “shuffling”, when repeated three times, preserves the order of the cards.

Perfect for those of us who want to seem magical, but haven’t put the work in on our misdirection skills!

Here’s another card trick based entirely on mathematics.

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