What if base-10 arithmetic had been discovered earlier?

By admin, on July 27th, 2011%

[Note: A condensed and revised version of this article was published here in The Conversation, an online forum of academic research headquartered in Melbourne, Australia.]

Introduction

Monumental inventions of history can be grouped into three categories: (a) those whose origin is well known and well appreciated; (b) those whose origin is completely lost to history; . . . → Read More: What if base-10 arithmetic had been discovered earlier?

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Turning IBM’s Watson into a maths genius

By Jon Borwein, on July 23rd, 2011%

The Conversation  is a recently established web journal dedicated to making academic and related policy issues accessible to an informed public. The editors write:

The Conversation is an independent source of information, analysis and commentary from the university and research sector – written by acknowledged experts and delivered directly to the public. As professional journalists, . . . → Read More: Turning IBM’s Watson into a maths genius

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PIIGS, BRICs and STRAW

By admin, on July 23rd, 2011%

Acronyms have been used lately to describe various groups of world nations. Readers may be familiar with “PIIGS”, namely Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain, which are the nations now teetering on default after years of lax fiscal policies, and unrealistic expectations for the Euro. Readers may also have heard of “BRIC”, namely Brazil, Russia, . . . → Read More: PIIGS, BRICs and STRAW

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An Introduction to Modern Mathematical Computing

By admin, on July 22nd, 2011%

A new book, co-authored by one of the present bloggers is now available: An Introduction to Modern Mathematical Computing: With Maple, authored by Jonathan M. Borwein and Matthew P. Skerritt, published by Springer, 2011. Here is a brief synopsis:

Thirty years ago, mathematical computation was difficult to perform and thus used sparingly. However, mathematical computation . . . → Read More: An Introduction to Modern Mathematical Computing

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Merchants of Doubt

By admin, on July 17th, 2011%

In a previous blog post, we addressed the perplexing phenomenon that whereas the scientific community years ago reached a strong consensus regarding the fact of global warming and the very likely human contribution to global warming, the public continues to believe that there is significant uncertainty and disagreement in the scientific community.

For example, in . . . → Read More: Merchants of Doubt

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