Two Loves

This is a famous quote from Thelonius Monk that combines my twin loves of jazz and mathematics.

"All musicians are subconsciously mathematicians."

Youtube video of Thelonius Monk, with Charlie Rouse on Tenor Saxophone, playing the jazz classic Blue Monk.

Happy Birthday Mark Twain

Today is Mark Twain's 176th Birthday. The famous American author of many classics such as Tom Sawyer and the Adventures of Hucklberry Finn also made some interesting comments on mathematics and learning;

"We could use up two Eternities in learning all that is to be learned about our own world and the thousands of nations that have arisen and flourished and vanished from it. Mathematics alone would occupy me eight million years."

"Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please."

"Few things are harder to put up with than a good example."

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbour, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

Mark Twain (1835-1910)

Math or Maths

Here is an interesting article by Simon Kewin at DailyWritingTips

Is “math” or “maths” the correct word to use as the shortened or colloquial form of the word mathematics? The answer is that it depends on where you are.

To North American speakers of English, the word to use is “math”, as in “I majored in math”, and “maths” would sound wrong. Speakers of British English, however, would always say “maths”, as in “I took a degree in maths”. They would never say “math”.

There are logical arguments for both spellings. The word “mathematics” can be considered as a singular and as a plural noun. Both the Oxford and the Merriam-Webster dictionaries say the word is plural – hence the s on the end – but also that it is usually used as if it was a singular noun. So, most people would say “mathematics is my best subject” and not “mathematics are my best subject”. The shortened form “maths”, then, makes sense because the word is still a plural noun and so should still have the “s” on the end. On the other hand, it could be argued, “math” makes sense because it seems wrong to remove the letters “ematic” from the middle of the word and leave the final “s”.

There are a number of other plural nouns that are used as if they were singular – for example economics, ethics, politics, gymnastics, measles and dominoes. These words, however, are not habitually shortened, making math/maths rather an unusual word.

It’s sometimes surprising how much argument and disagreement small differences such as that single letter can make. Readers in the UK, for example, sometimes get very upset if someone writes “math” rather than “maths”. No doubt the reverse is true in the US. In practice, it’s simply worth being aware of the geographical differences so that you can use the correct form of the word in your writing.

GOOGLE's 13th Birthday

Today is Google's 13th birthday. How many QI facts do you know about the number 13?

How about this one to get you started -

13 (along with 5 and 563) is one of only three known Wilson primes. Named after English mathematician John Wilson, this is a prime number p such that p² divides (p − 1)! + 1, where "!" denotes the factorial function (ie. 13x12x11x10 ...x1).

i.e. (13-1)! + 1 / (13x13) is an integer

12! + 1 / 169 = 479001601 / 169 = 2834329

Try to come up with a list of interesting facts without using Wikipedia!

Happy Birthday

Today, Saturday 24th September, would have been Jim Henson's 75th Birthday. In honour of the creator of the Muppets and Sesame Street I bring you Count von Count!

The Count's main purpose is educating children on simple mathematical concepts, most notably counting. The Count has a love of counting (arithmomania); he will count anything and everything, regardless of size, amount, or how much annoyance he is causing the other Muppets or human cast.

The Count's favourite number is 34969 can you work out the prime factors of this number? Cookie Monster's favourite number is rumoured to be Pi. Is it possible to work out the prime factors of Pi? If so what are they, and if not why not?

Another Reason to Quit Smoking

People who smoke lose some of their everyday memory, a study by researchers at Northumbria University has suggested. However, it was also found that kicking the habit can restore the ability to recollect information restored to almost the same level as non-smokers. Academics asked people to remember a series of pre-determined tasks.

Smokers correctly identified 59%, compared to the 81% recollected by those who had never smoked. Those who had given up smoking remembered 74%.

The study, by academics from the University's Collaboration for Drug and Alcohol Research Group tested almost 100 people, split between the three groups. Dr Tom Heffernan, from the group, said: "Given that there are up to 10 million smokers in the UK and as many as 45 million in the United States, it's important to understand the effects smoking has on everyday cognitive function, of which prospective memory is an excellent example. "We already know that giving up smoking has huge health benefits for the body but this study also shows how stopping smoking can have knock-on benefits for cognitive function too."

This story was published on the BBC Website http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-15002150

Learn to Earn

It seems getting into algebra and long division is well worth the effort at school.
It's been found that people with maths ability to GCSE level earn on average £8,000 a year more. (source: Mirror Newspaper) Go figure!!

Congratulations to the following individuals who successfully gained a C grade or above in their GCSE exam this year (2011).

Ms. D. Shaw
Brennick Ord

Well done, I hope you reap the rewards!

Prize awarded for largest mathematical proof

Prize awarded for largest mathematical proof - physics-math - 09 September 2011 - New Scientist

In early November, Michael Aschbacher, an innovator in the abstract field of group theory at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena will receive the $75,000 Rolf Schock prize in mathematics from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for his pivotal role in proving the Classification Theorem of Finite Groups, aka the Enormous Theorem.

Solomon estimates that only a few mathematicians in the world (including Aschbacher) understand the complete proof. It was a punishing read, says Mark Ronan, an honorary professor of mathematics at University College London. "Some of Aschbacher's proofs were just diabolically difficult," he adds.

Pierre de Fermat's Last Theorem

"'I have discovered a truly remarkable proof but this margin is too small to contain it,' Pierre de Fermat famously wrote on margin of his copy of the Arithmetica by Diophantus of Alexandria back in 1637. The proof the French mathematician and lawyer was referring to was for his theorem in which he states that no three positive integers x, y, and z can satisfy the equation

where n is an integer greater than two.

Fermat's Last Theorem, also called Fermat's great theorem, was his best known work and to commemorate the 410th birth anniversary of the founder of the modern theory of numbers Google has put up a doodle inspired by the theorem."