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.

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!

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.