This colorful Venn diagram was a lucky find in the dollar bin. Maybe it was so cheap because it only has 12 regions, instead of the 63 that six sets should generate.
I suppose it would be more realistic if everything outside the colored region was black, and the point at the very center was white.
Happy Right Triangle Day! Today, on 9/12/15, we celebrate a favorite triangle: the 9-12-15 right triangle.
We know this triangle is right because the side lengths satisfy the Pythagorean Theorem.
It’s actually been less than a month since we last celebrated a Right Triangle Day, but they are rare, so enjoy being right today!
I was quite surprised to find myself prominently featured in the New Yorker essay, “Cogito Ergo Summer“, by Siobhan Roberts.
The piece begins ominously:
Patrick Honner, a math teacher at Brooklyn Technical High School, arrived at a recent class seemingly unprepared. This was surprising, given that, days before, he had received a Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching.
“Cogito, Ergo, Summer” is about the important role recreation plays in studying mathematics and science. Summer is a time to relax and have fun, far from the responsibilities of the classroom and lab. But for mathematicians and scientists, it is also a time for serious play.
Roberts experienced this firsthand this summer at both the Bridges Math and Art conference and the MOVES conference at the Museum of Mathematics, where she spoke about her new book “Genius at Play: The Curious Mind of John Horton Conway“. Few know the value of mathematical play as well as Conway, which Roberts clearly captured in her work.
As summer comes to an end, it’s nice to reflect on a busy summer of serious play. And here’s hoping those experiences can fuel us through another busy academic year!
When I saw this question on the 2015 Common Core Geometry Regents exam, I couldn’t help but think of mathematician and author Steven Strogatz.
Strogatz wrote a popular series on math in the New York Times, and in his piece “Take it to the Limit“, he shares a beautiful and intuitive derivation of the formula for the area of a circle. That technique involves slicing the circle up into sectors and re-arranging them into a shape that approximates a rectangle.
I’m certain his piece inspired this question (which I like), just as it inspired me when I was cutting up my homemade pizza!
Maybe we can add test prep to the long list of reasons to be reading Steve’s work!
It’s 8/17/15, or as I like to think of it, Right Triangle Day!
Since
we know that 8, 15, and 17 are the lengths of the sides of a right triangle. Informally, we say this is true because of the Pythagorean Theorem, but technically it’s true because of the converse of the Pythagorean Theorem.
It’s been a while since we’ve celebrated a Right Triangle day, and it won’t be long before we get to celebrate another. To commemorate this numerical novelty, the Museum of Mathematics is teaming up with the Pacific Science Center to pythagorize Seattle’s Triangle Pub. They certainly had fun pythagorizing the Flatiron building in NYC on 5/12/13!
Enjoy being right today!
