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Category Archives: mathematics
Cute Math Problem
This came up in a Math Ed discussion at LinkedIn. Here A, B, and C are three finite sets. If half of the As are Bs and half of the Bs are Cs and half of the Cs are As, … Continue reading
Posted in education, mathematics
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A Mindful Beauty – Math and Poetry
I have nothing to add to this, just want to keep the link.
Posted in literature, mathematics
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Patterns of Change – Calculus as a Critical Literacy
Stephen Downes’ introductory blog posting for the second week of the Critical Literacies Online Course ( CritLit2010 ) deals mainly with how we describe change, and in fact it would (with some minor edits) be the basis of a good … Continue reading
Why People Hate Mathematics and Atheists
Jason Green’s response to the readings for Week 1 of the Downes&Kop Critical Literacies course concludes with the question “how does one think critically without it coming across as a baseline of distrust?” I actually think that a “baseline of … Continue reading
LRB · Joseph Stiglitz · The Non-Existent Hand
LRB · Joseph Stiglitz · The Non-Existent Hand. One comment in particular rang a bell for me. Often the use of a mathematical model is considered as giving predictions greater credibility when all it really does is ensure that they … Continue reading
Have a Heart!
It is always interesting when a probability question produces a counter-intuitive result, and the following “glimpse a heart” question is a wonderful example of that:-
Posted in mathematics
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Hard Problems
hardproblemsmovie.com is the website of a documentary made about the US team in the 2006 International Math Olympiad. << Although American students on the whole rank well behind many countries in mathematics, American math Olympiad teams regularly finish among the … Continue reading
Posted in education, mathematics
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Why Math?
A couple of recent additions to the arsenal of reasons for promoting mathematics education are this recent article by Ian Stewart in the UK Telegraph and the collection of ‘Math Matters – Apply It’ posters developed by SIAM (the Society … Continue reading
Posted in education, mathematics
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A Widening Gap
The Back Page article by Joseph Ganem in this month’s APS News suggests that nominal content and student capability outcomes in US high school mathematics are moving in opposite directions – and attributes this largely to attempts to introduce abstract … Continue reading
Posted in education, mathematics
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Blog Action Day
This year’s Blog Action Day is devoted to the theme of Climate Change and an understanding of mathematics is certainly essential for anyone involved in making making decisions about how to respond to this issue (which in a democracy is … Continue reading
Posted in climate, mathematics, web
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How to remember trig ratios
Inventing cute mnemonics is fun, and the process of inventing and checking them may help reinforce the definitions, but beyond that they really are useless – and I believe they do more harm than good when people actually try to … Continue reading
Posted in education, mathematics
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Born on a Blue Day
Coincidentally I read ‘Born on a Blue day’ just yesterday – i.e. one day before zac at squareCircleZ posted his summary review – (having been led to the order the book after watching a video posted – also at SqCZ … Continue reading
What is 0^0 equal to? – squareCircleZ
This post at squareCircleZ (a very nice enrichment and support website for students and teachers of mathematics) raises the conundrum of how to define 0^0 if all positive x give x^0=1 and 0^x=0.
By The Numbers
This article discusses the latest round of changes in the WNCP Math Curriculum. Somehow, after seeing perhaps half a dozen rounds of this game, the rhetoric of revolutionary change wears a bit thin.
TIMSS 2007 – How are we all doing in math? – squareCircleZ
The part I find most encouraging in Murray Bourne’s discussion of the latest TIMSS 2007 report on mathematics performance around the world is the distribution of gender differences – in particular the fact that the relative performance of females is … Continue reading
Archimedes and the area of a parabolic segment – squareCircleZ
Archimedes and the area of a parabolic segment – squareCircleZ
Posted in mathematics
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Trigonometry tips @ squareCircleZ
Murray Bourne’s IntMath Newsletter this week includes a nice preamble to the study of Trigonometry. I’d like to be able to link to that item specifically when introducing the topic, so maybe I’ll ask him to isolate it if he … Continue reading
Computer Algebra Systems
(This posting was prompted in part by a brief mention of the issue in squareCircleZ ) It is often claimed that Computer Algebra Systems will (or already do) eliminate the need for much of what is taught in high school … Continue reading
Posted in education, mathematics
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It Ain’t No Repeated Addition Ain’t It?
I don’t hold back from challenging the way mathematics is taught in schools myself, but Keith Devlin’s recent MAAonline column is off base and out of line.
Posted in education, mathematics
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Resource: Mathematics Illuminated
Resource: Mathematics Illuminated This looks interesting – must check what costs are and how much is open access
Posted in education, mathematics
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