Professor Jonathan M. Borwein delivered the keynote talk Teaching and Researching with Collaboration Tools and Technology as part of the 2011 Australian Learning and Teaching Council workshop, “Effective Teaching, Effective Learning in the Quantitative Disciplines,” held 29-30 Sep 2011 at the University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia. This practical, hands-on and interactive workshop immediately followed the . . . → Read More: Borwein gives talk on teaching and learning
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Loving and Hating Mathematics (Princeton University Press, 2010) is the child of two passionate scholars: a mathematician (Reuben Hersh) and a social scientist (Vera John-Steiner). Reuben Hersh has written for many articles for the Intelligencer, as well as earlier books such as The Mathematical Experience, coauthored with Davis and Marchisotto, and What is Mathematics Really?. . . . → Read More: Review of “Loving and Hating Mathematics” [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 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 . . . → 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? [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? 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 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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