On a recent snowy day, I took a stroll through the park at lunchtime. This lovely round stone caught my eye.
The snow here has accumulated as a spherical cap. I also like how the area under the stone, untouched by snow, is some kind of projection of the sphere. I wonder what we can say about the direction of the snowfall, based on this snowless projection?
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The way the snow collected on the fence reminded me of a histogram, though you might have to rotate your head 225 degrees to see it for yourself! As I took this in, I wondered why some chains of snow were longer than others. I also wondered what this representation of data said about the direction of snowfall.
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Today we celebrate a Permutation Day! I call days like today permutation days because the digits of the day and month can be rearranged to form the year.
Today is also a single-transposition day, since the each string can be formed by simply transposing the 0 and the 2 in the other string.
Celebrate Permutation Day by mixing things up! Try doing things in a different order today. Just remember, for some operations, order definitely matters!
I was excited to receive this month’s issue of Math Horizons, published by the Mathematical Association of America, which features my interview with Steven Strogatz!
Professor Strogatz and I had a lively and wide-ranging conversation about mathematics, teaching, writing, and the state of math education. He is an engaging, curious, and open person, and I think all of that comes through in the interview.
Our conversation was so wide-ranging, in fact, that the interview occupies four pages in the magazine, the Aftermath editorial section at the end of the issue, and a few pages at the Math Horizons blog!
It was a personal honor, both to interview Professor Strogatz in an official capacity, and to be published in the MAA’s Math Horizons.
You can read a sample of our conversation here. And get your copy of Math Horizons for the full interview!
