Does 1 = 0.9999...?

Ask yourself the question first. What do YOU think about the question and why?

How about the other ninths?

Once you have puzzled over this question, please enjoy the following two videos from Numberphile and Vi Hart, two legends.

Puzzling needs to take at least five minutes.

Also, DP students, the previous post is very new with you in mind. All others are very welcome.

Vi Hart

Numberphile

teeny and HUGE Numbers

In Diploma Mathematical Studies we are starting the course looking at the story of Number and how we communicate all sorts of things with different types of Numbers.

You are all probably familiar with Natural Numbers and Integers but there are also Rational, Real and Imaginary numbers. When society needs more from mathematics to push through and develop in some way we develop new systems to make that possible.

Number types tell the story of society and its complexity.

Check out these sites:
FSU (where my dad did his doctorate) and their famous Powers of ten
and this famous video - it's old but the numbers are relevant



We have had these types of numbers in this blog before. Please visit or revisit for your mathematical enjoyment about the scale of the universe(s).

CLICK right here

Number Sense - Thanks Ajarn Dale

Hey there maths fans!

Ajarn Dale sent on some cool "Math Tricks". Some people think that these tricks are cheating, but in actual fact it's about understanding numbers and being able to make them work for YOU.

Check them out here in wisebread.com - thanks Ajarn Dale.
11 useful math tricks

Numbers in a City: New Haven / 1997 / SML by See-ming Lee licensed under CC by A SA

Maryam Mirzakhani - my new hero

This is a wonderful article about Maryam Mirzakhani, the first female recipient of the Fields Medal. Thanks to Ajarn Krysten for sharing this with me.

She used to think she couldn't do mathematics. Everyone can do mathematics.

Read it here and watch the video.

Interested in non-standard surfaces? Check out this TEDTalk on crocheting a life size coral reef.

Perseids Meteor Shower Peak soon - pretty skies

12-13 - Perseids Meteor Shower Peak - These meteors are leftovers from Swift-Tuttle comet and are a favorite among many skywatchers.
We missed the big show but the Super Moon would have made it tricky to see anyway. 

The shower can be visible from July 17th through August 24th, and will peak overnight on August 12th at 60 sightings per hour. Unfortunately, the light from the moon will wash out many of the meteors, though the brightest should still be visible.

You still have a chance to see this. Look up and enjoy.

You can also watch it online using slooh.com 
Check out membership to control their satellites to look into the universe. Cool!
http://live.slooh.com/stadium/live/special-highlight-the-perseids-sensation

Also NASA has recorded some of it (of course):
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/51306509

Welcome Back and BIG NEWS

The Fields Prize has been awarded to a woman for the first time.

"Iranian-born mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani on Wednesday became the first woman to be awarded the Fields Medal, mathematics' equivalent to the Nobel Prize." Please read more in the CBC online here. 

You can also read more in The Guardian - a nice interview piece and The Stanford University press release, where Maryam Mirzakhani is a Professor of Mathematics. 

Thanks to Ajarn Lana for sharing this with the Mathematics department.

We are all working with Stanford University this year to develop our Mathematics and a growth mindset and you can puzzle over the famous puzzle that ignited her mathematical curiosity.

Add all of the numbers from 1 to 100 with a system that isn't 1+2+3+4 <-- there is a shortcut (:

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