Prof. Jonathan M. Borwein of the University of Newcastle in Australia (one of the present bloggers) will participate in a panel discussion at the World Science Festival, to be held on 3 Jun 2011 7:00pm in the Tishman Auditorium at the New School, 66 W 12th Street, New York City, USA. Other panelists are Keith Devlin (the “Math Guy” on National Public Radio and author of 30 books), Marcus du Sautoy (mathematician, author and BBC commentator) and Simon Singh (physicist, author and BBC TV producer). Tickets and other information are available at WSF website.
Here is a synopsis of the
Continue reading Borwein to participate in World Science Festival panel
Two IBM researchers, with the assistance of the present bloggers (Bailey and Borwein), have calculated binary digits of pi-squared beginning at the 60 trillionth binary digit. In addition, they calculated ternary (base-3) digits of pi-squared, beginning at the 60 trillionth digit, and binary digits of Catalan’s constant, beginning at the 120 trillionth digit. Other researchers have previously calculated binary digits of pi itself, beginning at the two quadrillionth binary digit.
These calculations would have taken a single computer processor unit (CPU) 1,500 years to calculate, but the researchers managed to complete this work in just a few months on IBM’s
Continue reading Researchers compute 60 trillionth binary digit of pi-squared
A Museum of Mathematics is slated to open in New York City in the fall of 2012.
This organization was formed in 2009 by Glen Whitney, formerly the algorithm manager for the $15 billion hedge fund firm Renaissance Technologies. Renaissance was founded by James Simons, who, like Whitney, was previously a professor of mathematics at the University of Michigan. As of April 2011, the museum has raised $22 million from various donors, including $2 million from Google.
When it opens, the “MoMath” museum will feature exhibits that “stimulate inquiry, spark curiosity, and reveal the wonders of mathematics,” according to
Continue reading Museum of Mathematics to be opened in NYC
John Milnor, the American mathematician known for his discovery of exotic hyperspheres, has been awarded the 2011 Abel Prize by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. The Abel Prize, which is accompanied by a cash award of USD$1 million, is generally regarded as the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in the field of mathematics.
Milnor’s principal field of study is the field of differential topology. One of Milnor’s discoveries was an exotic hypersphere in seven dimensions. Milnor showed that the solution of a problem such the propagation of waves or heat on this manifold could not be smoothly translated
Continue reading Milnor wins 2011 Abel prize
It’s official: IBM’s “Watson” computer system has defeated two of the brightest minds that our species could put forward for battle, namely legendary Jeopardy! champs Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. Ken Jennings, recognizing that Watson had an insurmountable lead heading into Final Jeopardy (the final question of the match), summed up the situation by writing on his computer slate below his final bid, “I for one welcome our new computer overlords.”
Unlike Tuesday’s round, at least Wednesday’s contest was not a runaway. Watson started out strong, but then stumbled on a variety of subjects. For example, Watson incorrectly answered “What
Continue reading IBM’s “Watson” victorious: Our new computer overlords?
Yes, the title is a bit strong, but there is no gentle way to say it: Jeopardy! champs Jennings and Rutter were destroyed by the IBM “Watson” computer system in today’s “Double Jeopardy” round. When the final totals were tallied after the “Final Jeopardy” question, Watson had $35,734, versus $10,400 for Brad Rutter and $4,800 for Ken Jennings.
Watson clearly established its dominance by being first to ring in on 25 of 30 answers in the Double Jeopardy round, and in getting 24 of the 25 correct. It now has a commanding lead as the contestants head to Wednesday’s
Continue reading Watson creams Jennings and Rutter in second day of Jeopardy!
Last night (in North America), the long-awaited match between IBM’s “Watson” question-answering computer system and legendary Jeopardy! champs Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter began. A good part of this first program was devoted to an overview of the Watson system and its development, so only a few minutes were devoted to actual competition.
However, even in this brief introduction, Watson performed very impressively. In fact, in the first few minutes of the match, Watson performed so well that it looked like it would be a runaway victory, with the machine making shambles of its human competitors. Even in arenas such
Continue reading After first day on Jeopardy!, Watson is tied for lead
The long-awaited day of reckoning has arrived for IBM’s Jeopardy!-playing computer named “Watson”. Beginning tonight (14 Feb 2011) in North America, Watson will compete on the quiz show Jeopardy! against legendary champs Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter.
Ken Jennings broke an all-time Jeopardy! record with 74 consecutive wins in 2004. Brad Rutter has never been beaten on Jeopardy!, and even beat Ken Jennings in a 2005 championship round. Both Jennings and Rutter have almost superhuman abilities to understand clues and instantly retrieve answers on an enormous range of topics.
From all accounts, they will need their superhuman abilities.
Continue reading IBM’s Watson system starts Jeopardy! competition today
Researchers from Emory University, the University of Wisconsin Madison, Yale, and the Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany have discovered that partition numbers behave like fractals, possessing an infinitely-repeating structure.
The partition number P(N) of an integer N is the number of distinct ways in which N can be written as a sum of positive integers. For instance, 6 = 6, 5+1, 4+2, 4+1+1, 3+3, 3+2+1, 3+1+1+1, 2+2+2, 2+2+1+1, 2+1+1+1+1, and 1+1+1+1+1+1, so that P(6) = 11. P(N) grows very rapidly with N. For instance, P(100) = 190,569,292.
Partition numbers have captured the imagination of mathematicians since the time of
Continue reading Researchers find fractal structure to partition function
As we mentioned in an earlier Blog, the US television show Jeopardy! has agreed to host a showdown between a new question-answering computer system developed by IBM and two former Jeopardy! champions. The new system, named “Watson” by IBM, accepts input in the form of natural English inquiries, and then responds with its best determination of the answer. For the Jeopardy! contest, of course, the roles of “question” and “answer” are reversed.
In a practice round conducted on 13 Jan 2011 at IBM’s Yorktown Heights Research Center, Watson defeated its human challengers (former Jeopardy! champions Ken Jennings and Brad
Continue reading IBM’s Watson Defeats Jeopardy champs in trial round
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