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September 2007 by Opher Liba, an educator, researcher and author. LinkedIn.com is not ● Ideas & Human Rights
Danny Clarke said: ● Mathematics 24x7
the kind of social network where you would post a photo of your pet cat. It operates more [this is good] read
more ● Live Nature Life
like an online CV or resume, with some incidental features for networking with other
on ● Norwegian Research
professionals. It does provide about a dozen third party applications, such as sharing Cool_Physics_Of_Heat
Powerpoint presentations, or posts from your blog, but these slow down the website.
Bob Mathews said:
Alternative meeting places in cyberspace for mathematics enthusiasts include: Thanks. I can access MY GROUPS
the Scribd one. When I
http://mathematics24x7.ning.com/ (almost 300 members) and Mathematics/Mathematik got the first message Freethinkers
from Google Docs, I Updated: 8 minutes ago
in German and English on Xing.com (almost 2000 members). These sites are free of
clicked on the... read
charge, with optional extras for paying members. Facebook has discussion groups like I more Ecology
on Math Accessibility Updated: 1 hour ago
HEART MATHEMATICS (over 2700 members), with discussions such as "Funny Math T- Online - An Open
Discussion
Shirts." The Facebook group Mathematicians ONLY! has over 1300 members, some of Social Media Group
Updated: Yesterday
whom are brave enough to discuss the "Definition of a Mathematician". Colin McAllister said:
Bob, I have updated my
Post a comment Tags: math, mathematics, maths, mathematik blog post, adding a link View my groups
to a PDF version of the
document on
scribd.com. If... read NEIGHBORHOOD
more
Everything You Need to Know About Black on Math Accessibility Snowy
Online - An Open Updated: Yesterday
Holes - One Week Late Discussion
Oct 28, 2009 Post a comment Team Vox
Updated: Nov 18, 2009
A lecturer asked me to recommend a web site PHOTOS
Bob Mathews
where students could read online news about
Updated: Jul 24, 2009
Information Technology. One site that comes to
LeMathadore
mind is eWeek.com. It provides a good digest of Updated: Jun 29, 2009
recent ICT news, but I have heard it described
opherel
as "Everything you need to know - One week Updated: Jan 8, 2009
late."
Explore friends, family, friends &
family, or entire neighborhood.
A useful feature of eWeek is the list of “Most Generated by www.PDFonFly.com at 12/3/2009 6:07:54 PM
View my neighbors
Read” stories, which is currently: View more of my photos URL: http://cmcallister.vox.com/
Collision_of_Spiral_Galaxies ● Microsoft's Big Windows 7 Week. Microsoft's TAGS
RECENT ADDITIONS
2006-2007 release of Windows Vista was
borneo cluetrain
reported as disappointing; causing many PC users to stick with Windows XP, so The Trouble With
Physics: T... education equation
the release of Windows 7 has been widely anticipated. by Lee Smolin freedom geometry internet
● NASA Space Funding Reaches Critical Point. NASA is planning the future of markup math
New Europe
space travel against a background of controversial decisions, such as: whether to by Michael Palin mathematics
use the Moon as a stepping stone to Mars, whether to use humans or robots to maths motorcycle
Blogging northern ireland nw200
explore space, and whether space travel should be a commercial or government by Jill Walker Rettberg
physics portrush
funded venture.
sarawak science
Digital Culture, Play, seaside software
● Why the Droid Can Challenge the iPhone. Should mobile phones be locked to and ...
applications and services that Apple Inc. permits, or should you have a free choice by View my tags
parts), has become a cost effective and more reliable alternative. ● August 2009 (2)
● Tilera Talks 100-Core Processor. Some calculations, such as simulating the BOOKS ● July 2009 (5)
collision between two black holes, would be too dangerous to try as experiments ● June 2009 (7)
(1) and too complex to solve on an office PC, so scientists use dozens of ● 2009 (26)
computers on a single silicon chip, to complete their calculations in days rather ● 2008 (13)
than years. This new technology makes supercomputers available for business
applications.
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My comment (1) about making black holes collide is just a joke, as scientists do not have Subscribe to a feed of these
posts
the ability to perform such an experiment. I explain the joke, because some people were
needlessly worried by speculation that the Large Hadron Collider experiments could
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create a black hole. To observe the collision of two black holes would be a physicists
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dream, and it will eventually happen at some vast distance from our galaxy, and release Gardner
enough energy to be detected on Earth. Scientists can simulate a collison of black holes Use this theme
using super computers, since it is described by Einstein's equations of general relativity.
The above NASA image, showing two spiral galaxies colliding is somewhat relevant, as it
demonstrates that cosmological events 100's of millions of light-years away can be viewed Feedjit Live
from Earth. Blog Stats
Post a comment Tags: computer, pc, science, software, physics, astronomy, cosmology, ict …
People who haven't had the right opportunity to learn math have something in common
with people who were born before math was invented. Perhaps some of the techniques of
Euclidean geometry could be revived in a format that is more accessible today.
Specifically, the ancient tools of straight-edge and compass, could be reinvented to suit
today's teaching needs. Take this geometry problem: What is the largest area of the
semi-circle that can be inscribed in a square of edge length 1 unit? That was the question
posted by harpreet in the topic " maxima & minima" on a Mathematics forum on
Orkut.com. Some mathematics enthusiasts took a team approach to this problem on the
Mathematics24x7 social network, Christian drew a diagram of the solution and Steve
calculated the radius of the semicircle. We calculated the radius as 2-sqrt(2) and the area
as pi*(3-2*sqrt(2)) .(sqrt() represents the square root.) Danny proposed a less abstract
expression of the problem, which would be more interesting to students. "I have been
asked to help paint a mural on the outside wall of a grocery store in my neighborhood. My
task is to create the background for the mural. The instructions are to create the largest
possible semicircle on the wall, with the semicircle touching all 4 sides. The wall is square
with 10 feet on each side. I need to find out how to position the semicircle to satisfy the
instructions. I also need to know the radius and center of the semicircle. How can I figure
this out with the basic math that I know?" In the discussion Straight Edge and Compass
Construction For Developmental Math, I described a method of drawing the mural using a
long plank, lengths of rope, a few pegs and some chalk. Use the rope to extend the base
of the wall, to the right, by its width, and mark the point with a peg. This defines an
imaginary square that is side by side with, and on the right of the square wall. Draw a
diagonal on the original square, because we know that the solution is symmetrical about
the diagonal. Mark a diagonal on the imaginary square by stretching a rope from the peg
to the top right corner of the square wall. This is a way of calculating the square root of
two. Using the peg as the center point and the rope as a radius, follow an arc down to the
base of the wall, and mark the point where the arc intersects the base. The distance of
that point from the left wall is 2-sqrt(2), which is the radius of the semicircle. Draw a
perpendicular from that point, and where it meets the diagonal, peg the center point of the
semicircle. Attaching a length of rope to the peg, stretch it to the furthest wall, and with
chalk held fixed on the rope, draw the semicircle. I also described the construction in
more abstract terms, and used the GeoGebra geometry software to demonstrate.(See the
diagram, where the biggest semicircle that fits in the square is positioned diagonally in the
top left of the diagram.) Draw the square as a 4 sided regular polygon. Draw an identical
square to its right Draw the diagonals of the right hand square and use them as radii of
arcs that intersect the left hand square. Create points where the arcs intersect the base
and top side of the left hand square. Join these two points with a vertical line. Its
intersection with the diagonal of the left hand square defines the centre of the semicircle.
Draw the semicircle through any one point on the square and notice that it touches or
intersects the square at 4 points. Draw the base of the semicircle through the two
intersection points. (I mistakenly drew the wall as 11 feet instead of 10, but that does not
detract from the construction.) Constructive geometry involves no measurement of length,
except use of the compass as a tool to copy a length and duplicate it somewhere else on
the plane. It also involves no algebra. We multiply a length by extending it with additional Generated by www.PDFonFly.com at 12/3/2009 6:07:54 PM
URL: http://cmcallister.vox.com/
equal lengths. We draw the diagonal of a square without realising that we are calculating
the square root of two. Constructive geometry is available to people who don't do algebra.
They can solve ancient problems, rediscover the history of mathematics and apply it to
their own environment. Straight-edge and compass problems range in difficulty from
simply drawing a hexagon to the more complex procedure for drawing a regular pentagon.
Refer to comment below for public domain geometry files of this example.
This story is dedicated to the many individuals who are persecuted for publishing their
ideas, a few of whom I mention on my blog at http://cmcallister.blog.friendster.com/.
Links:
Social network: http://mathematics24x7.ning.com/ created by Rashmi Kathuria
#mathchat, hosted weekly by Maria Droujkova at http://twitter.com/mariadroujkova
Math Markup wiki: http://onlinemathematicsaccess.wikispaces.com/
Math, Math Education, Math Culture, managed by Opher Liba, at Generated by www.PDFonFly.com at 12/3/2009 6:07:54 PM
URL: http://cmcallister.vox.com/
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=33207
Math 2.0 Interest Group, managed by by Maria Droujkova, at
http://mathfuture.wikispaces.com/
Quadratic_Solutions
and used blue to identify irrational parts and red to identify negative terms. The mapping is
not clear cut, because one term is plus-or-minus, and it is only the result of the square
root that is irrational.
Quadratic_solution_coloured
The benefits of colouring may not be apparent for a single equation. I suggest that you try
it the next time you need to present a long and tedious algebraic evaluation. The low-tech
approach would be to use coloured highlighting pens to mark up a printed copy of the
equations. This is not a new idea, accountants have been using red ink to represent
negative numbers for generations.
For the benefit anyone who is unable to view the images, the equation shown by the above
images is:
Another application of colouring is to present each digit in its standard resistor colour
code. The pattern of repeating decimals for certain fractions becomes much more
memorable. For example 264/999:
264over999
Generated by www.PDFonFly.com at 12/3/2009 6:07:54 PM
URL: http://cmcallister.vox.com/
This was generated from the LaTeX code:
\pagecolor{gray}\uc{red}{2}\uc{blue}{6}\uc{yellow}{4}/\uc{white}9\uc{white}9\uc{white}9 =
0.\uc{red}{2}\uc{blue}{6}\uc{yellow}{4}\uc{red}{2}\uc{blue}{6}\uc{yellow}{4}\uc{red}{2}\uc
{blue}{6}\uc{yellow}{4}\uc{red}{2}\uc{blue}{6}\uc{yellow}{4}...
Ref 1: The book Sparks of Genius, By Robert Scott Root-Bernstein. The page containing
Feynman's description may be viewed in Google Books.
Post a comment Tags: math, mathematics, physics, education, synesthesia, maths, markup, equation
…
The open discussion about support for mathematics on Web 2.0 and social networking
sites, is now taking place on the public wiki,
http://onlinemathematicsaccess.wikispaces.com/.
You are invited to add your comments to the following Discussions:
The first version of this wiki was a document, available as Math Accessibility Online
(PDF), or as a Microsoft Word Document on Scribd.com.
I wish to thank Maria Droujkova for organising the weekly math events, including 22nd July
online meeting at Mathfuture on this topic, and for asking the above questions. I created
the wiki in lieu of my participation in her scheduled weekly discussions.
Twitter hashtag: #mathmarkup, for LaTeX, MathML and related topics about mathematics
markup.
2 comments Tags: math, mathematics, science, education, collaboration, maths, markup, algebra …
You are welcome to join the new "Math Problem Solving" group at
Mathematics24x7.ning.com. Rashmi Kathuria, creator of the Mathematics24x7 social
network, has kindly permitted me to add the discussion group. The social network has
145 members including maths teachers and maths enthusiasts. I'm sure that some of
them will be happy to join you in discussing and solving maths problems. Pose your
maths problems there, or add comments that lead towards a solution or understanding.
Embed equations in your text as images, if they improve the presentation of your
discussion. Mathematics24x7 has diverse blog posts and topics about teaching
mathematics at all stages.
Although I am not a mathematician, I have added three problems to get the discussion
Generated by www.PDFonFly.com at 12/3/2009 6:07:54 PM
started: URL: http://cmcallister.vox.com/
Algebra and Graph Theory
Combine Resistors to Achieve Minimum Current
and save the planet!
Based on Ohm's Law, Kirchhoff's Rules and 10% tolerance resistors.
The Combine Resistors problem is my own design. The other two problems are borrowed
from maths groups on Friendster.com and Orkut.com, and have hyperlinks to those
groups for reference.
Problems may range from Kindergarten to Postgraduate level and may cover any subject
involving mathematics. Discussions on Ning.com social networks support images
embedded within the text, which is useful for algebra. You may render equations as
images, using an on line equation editor, and upload them into your discussion.
Post a comment Tags: electronics, math, mathematics, science, geometry, teacher, physics, education
…
Post a comment Tags: math, mathematics, science, space, astronomy, education, fractal, maths …
The Nesin Mathematics Village, or Nesin Matematik Koyu, in Turkey arose from
controversial beginnings. I first read the story "Mathematics under arrest" of its
controversial beginnings in 2007, when Professor Ali Nesin was unfairly charged as a
criminal for operating an unauthorised summer school. Closure of the school by
authorities in 2007 was condemned by mathematicians around the world, including
Alexandre Borovik, of Manchester, England. I recalled that story while contemplating what
it means to be a mathematician and the waste that occurs when authorities deny
mathematicians that role, as in the case of Chen Jinrun, when criticised by rebels during
the Communist Revolution in China. A quick search of the web shows that Professor Ali
Nesin's small school has grown into a heartening success, an educational village
dedicated to giving young people the opportunity to focus on mathematics. "Nesin
Mathematics Village, random faces" by Alexandre Borovik shows that the village is
Generated by www.PDFonFly.com at 12/3/2009 6:07:54 PM
thriving, and includes a photo of the founder, Ali Nesin. A maths undergraduate in England URL: http://cmcallister.vox.com/
tells more of the story, in "Nesin Mathematics Village in Turkey", and shows interest in
beginning something similar.
Post a comment Tags: math, mathematics, school, education, turkey, maths, matematik …
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