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Introduction During a lunch in the summer of 1950, physicists Enrico Fermi, Edward Teller and Herbert York were chatting about a recent New Yorker cartoon depicting aliens abducting trash cans in flying saucers. Suddenly, Fermi suddenly blurted out, “Where is everybody?” Behind Fermi’s question was this line of reasoning: Since there are likely many other . . . → Read More: Where is everybody? The Conversation, an online forum from the Australian academic research community and aimed at the interested public, has featured an essay written by the present bloggers. Entitled “Magic numbers: the beauty of decimal notation,” it is available here: Conversation article. This piece briefly mentions the history of positional decimal arithmetic, from its original discovery by . . . → Read More: Magic numbers The “nature versus nurture” debate refers to discussions of the relative importance of a person’s innate qualities (“nature”) versus the importance of upbringing and experience (“nurture”). Such debates have been ongoing for centuries. Shakespeare even referred to such a debate in his play The Tempest (4:1). The phrase “nature versus nurture” in the current sense . . . → Read More: Is math ability inborn or developed? One of the most fascinating aspects of modern mathematics is the extent to which developments in “pure” mathematics are subsequently, and often quite unexpectedly, found to have direct relevance to the physical world. Albert Einstein asked, “How is it possible that mathematics, a product of human thought that is independent of experience, fits so excellently . . . → Read More: Is mathematics invented or discovered? 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; and (c) those who origin may be known, at least in general terms, but which are not very well appreciated in modern society. Among those . . . → Read More: What if base-10 arithmetic had been discovered earlier? 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 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 As we have argued in an earlier blog, our modern system of positional decimal notation with zero, together with efficient algorithms for computation, which were discovered in India some time prior to 500 CE, certainly must rank among the most significant achievements of all time. As Pierre-Simon Laplace explained: Its very simplicity . . . → Read More: Ancient Indian square roots The proliferation of the Internet and the pressure to make headlines has led to a number of recent self announcements of impressive-looking new mathematical results, often noted in press reports and blogs. This phenomenon is neither entirely new nor always without merit. Some genuine breakthroughs have been announced this way — one example is the . . . → Read More: Quick tests for checking whether a new math result is plausible Semiotic fiddling while a digital Rome burns “So to summarise, according to the citation count, in order of descent, the authors are listening to themselves, dead philosophers, other specialists in semiotic work in mathematics education research, other mathematics education research researchers and then just occasionally to social scientists but almost never to other . . . → Read More: Semiotic fiddling while a digital Rome burns |
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