I’ve never see a restaurant go so far to ensure its customers understand the geometric and mathematical ramifications of their decisions.
Somewhere out there, the author of terribly contrived math textbook questions is saying “See! Places like this do exist!”.
This is an interesting article about a young mathematician who is using techniques from seismology to build crime-prediction models.
http://www.wmbfnews.com/story/13492456/man-uses-math-to-thrwart-crime
The basic idea is that crimes are more likely to be committed in geographical clusters, much like how afterschocks of earthquakes occur around the epicenter of the original quake. Such patterns have already been identified in burglaries and gang violence.
By looking at the data from crime reports and 911-calls, better predictions can be made about where and when crimes might occur. That way resources–police officers, in particular–can be deployed more efficiently.
As usual, I wasn’t thrilled when my landlord told me about this year’s rent increase. As someone familiar with how exponential growth works, I understand the power of the small, consistent percent increase.
After some mild protests, the landlord came back with some good news: he was going to reduce my increase by $25 per month! I wasn’t exactly thrilled with that, either, but it’s a gesture. And I thought to myself “At least I won’t be paying future increases on that $25!”
Which got me thinking: if my rent goes up 3% every year, how much of a difference will that $25 make? The answer: not much. In my lifetime, anyway.
At 3% per year, the $25 difference in rent now will be a $30 difference in 5 years. In 15 years, the difference in the two rents will be around $40. And if I stick around for 50 years, the difference will be about $90.
If I could stay here for 200 years, I’d see a big difference: almost $10,000! But then again, my rent would be around $1 million per month.
I’ll have to be content knowing that, while in the short term I don’t see much benefit, I win out as t goes to infinity.
I am lover of crossword puzzles. I do the NYT crossword puzzle regularly, I’ve competed in the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, and I’ve even dabbled in constructing puzzles myself.
There’s a great deal of crossover between math lovers and crossword puzzle lovers, and one example of this crossover is Matthew Ginsberg. Ginsberg is a regular puzzle constructor, has a PhD in math from Oxford, and is an expert in artificial intelligence.
Not a huge stretch, then, that he has developed a rather effective crossword puzzle solving robot, Dr. Fill, that is now challenging the top human performers .
Ginsberg runs a company that produces software for the Air Force that helps calculate the most efficient flight path for airplanes. Here’s the cool part: “Some of the statistical techniques [used to calculate optimal paths of airplanes] are also handy, it turns out, for solving crossword puzzles.”
Yet another example of how statistical reasoning is emerging as primary tool in modern science and society!
This is an excellent, in-depth video on the mathematics of juggling, from Cornell University professor (and world-class juggler) Allen Knutson.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38rf9FLhl-8
This hour-long video covers the mathematical notation developed to classify and communicate juggling patterns, and Knutson explains how that inherent mathematical structure can be used to create new patterns.
There’s a lot of very sophisticated math here, which may surprise some people. But as Knutson says at the beginning, “Anything that is sufficiently understood … there should be a mathematics of that thing.”
There’s also some good juggling in here, too!