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:
https://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/11/test-yourself-math-jan-11-2012/
This problem is related to worldwide caviar production. What is the total worth of all the caviar produced in the world in one year?
This is a clear, concise, and fascinating overview of how some very advanced mathematical ideas are making their way into 3-D animation.
http://www1.ams.org/samplings/feature-column/fcarc-harmonic
Here’s the basic setup. In order to efficiently model a character, you approximate it with a frame that is built around a few important points. To move the character, you focus on moving just those points that define the frame. Thus, moving the character from point A to point B boils down to understanding where those handful of crucial points go.
The tricky part is figuring out a way to smoothly bring all those in-between points along for the ride, and that’s where the math comes in. The secret is to think of those in-between points as averages of the points that define the frame. The article explains how barycentric coordinates, harmonic functions. and a surprising amount of calculus are being used to pull off this movie magic!
This is an interesting report on the effect of writing on test-anxiety.
http://www.insidescience.org/research/1.1885
In one study, a periodic writing assignment improved the scores of women in a college physics course. In another, writing before a math exam improved the scores of high school and college students. In this second study, the most anxious students showed the most improvement.
The nature of the writing exercises is also interesting. In the first study, students were prompted to write something “values-affirming” (i.e., positive) at the beginning of the semester, and again several weeks in. In the second study, students were asked to write immediately before the exam, and they were prompted to write specifically about their anxieties. In both cases, writing had a positive impact for a significant number of students.
This is an awesome old-school style video demonstrating how simple cam-based mechanical systems can be implemented to process numbers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F7m02XDfvE
Calculating reciprocals, squares, and tangents using rotating disks: it’s amazing stuff! I wish I had seen (and appreciated) something like this as a young student. It might have made me appreciate engineering a little more.
Be sure to check out the barrel cam at the end that is used to compute gun elevation. I imagine something like this is at the heart of the mechanical calculators out there.
