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Science News
September 6, 2003
Ivars Peterson |
Pennant Races and Magic Numbers It's getting close to the end of the regular baseball season. Fanatic fans track not only which team is in first place or in position for a wild-card berth in the playoffs but also the number of games a team must win to avoid elimination. The calculation of a "magic" number is interesting.   |
Science News
October 26, 2002
Ivars Peterson |
Tetris Is Hard As many computer- and video-game players have long known, the insanely addictive, immensely popular game of Tetris is tough. Now, researchers from MIT's Laboratory for Computer Science have analyzed Tetris from a computational perspective. |
Science News
March 1, 2003
Ivars Peterson |
Cracking Fermat Numbers Fermat numbers have what mathematicians sometimes describe as a "beautiful mathematical form," involving powers of 2. They were of interest 400 years ago and are now the subject of a wide-ranging worldwide computer search. |
Science News
November 3, 2001
Ivars Peterson |
Absolutely Abnormal Identifying the normal (or even the abnormal) in mathematics can pose serious difficulties... |
Science News
August 16, 2003
Ivars Peterson |
Golf Clubs and Driving Distance The last 20 years have seen remarkable changes in golf equipment: metal-headed drivers, forgiving irons, new putter variants, juiced golf balls, and more. Have these technology changes led to improved performance? |
Science News
September 27, 2003
Ivars Peterson |
The Bias of Random-Number Generators Researchers in Germany have provided some mathematical insight into why many random-number generators give wrong results in so-called cluster Monte Carlo simulations and related computational experiments. |
Science News
October 4, 2003
Ivars Peterson |
A Magic Knight's Tour For as long as chessboards have existed, there have been puzzles involving chessboards and chess pieces. Some of the most enduring conundrums involve knights. |
Science News
December 21, 2002
Ivars Peterson |
Lacing Shoes, Revisited What is the best way to lace your shoes? This seemingly simple question, rooted in everyday life, can provoke passionate argument -- and prompt a mathematical response. |
Science News
March 24, 2001
Ivars Peterson |
Buses on Quantum Schedules Anyone who has waited for a bus in the city has probably casually observed that, after an inordinately long wait, two or three buses often come along at the same time. The question of why such bunching seems to happen has prompted all sorts of speculation... |
Science News
May 3, 2003
Ivars Peterson |
A Geometric Superformula The notion of a simple equation that you can use to generate a wide variety of geometric shapes is an immensely appealing one. Johan Gielis of Antwerp, Belgium, proposes one such formula in the March American Journal of Botany. |
Science News
September 8, 2001
Ivars Peterson |
Waves of Congestion From a physicist's point of view, traffic flow can be regarded as a "many-body system of strongly interacting bodies." Various studies have revealed that such systems can show wavelike behavior and abrupt transitions from one state to another... |
Science News
November 24, 2001
Ivars Peterson |
Canary Songs Simply by manipulating air pressure and muscle tension in its vocal organ, or syrinx, a canary can generate an amazingly varied repertoire of trills, warbles, and other melodic syllables. This insight comes from a novel mathematical model of sound production in songbirds... |
Science News
April 26, 2003
Ivars Peterson |
Recycling Topology On the topology of an interesting form: the recycling symbol |
Science News
January 4, 2003
Ivars Peterson |
Sound-Byte Math Music Swedish composer Daniel Cummerow has created mathematical sound bytes belonging to a category known as algorithmic music. Each musical fragment is determined by a mathematical recipe -- a formula that links digits with musical notes and their duration... |
Science News
November 30, 2002
Ivars Peterson |
Fold-and-Cut Magic Accordion folds and judicious cutting can produce a string of paper dolls or a variety of geometric patterns. This activity also suggests a mathematical question. |
Science News
December 8, 2001
Ivars Peterson |
The Math Hatter and More Looking for a cool gift for someone mathematically inclined? An unusual, conversation-generating token of appreciation? The World Wide Web offers a number of intriguing possibilities -- if you know where to stop and shop... |
Science News
April 19, 2003
Ivars Peterson |
The Colors of an Equation's Roots A few artists have taken advantage of the techniques used to visualize mathematics to create aesthetically pleasing patterns and intriguing artworks. |
Science News
February 8, 2003
Ivars Peterson |
A Graceful Sculpture's Showy Snow Crash Brent Collins has spent more than two decades carving gracefully curvaceous sculptures out of wood. Collins is not a mathematician, yet his intuition and aesthetic sense have led him to explore patterns and shapes that have an underlying mathematical logic. |
Science News
April 5, 2003
Ivars Peterson |
Fractured Granite and Fractal Prints A fractured edge of granite tends to show the same degree of roughness at different magnifications. Indeed, nature features many irregular shapes that are self-similar -- that repeat themselves on different scales within the same object. |
Science News
February 9, 2002
Ivars Peterson |
Algebraic Hearts One of the marvels of mathematics is the way in which an austere equation can unexpectedly blossom into an appealing geometric shape when represented graphically... |
Science News
January 25, 2003
Ivars Peterson |
Chemical Dissections In recreational mathematics, a geometric dissection involves cutting a geometric figure into pieces that you can reassemble into another figure. Now, chemists have gotten into the dissection game, as a novel strategy for getting small objects to assemble themselves into different regular forms. |
IndustryWeek
February 1, 2007
David Blanchard |
How To Get Your Forecasts Wrong, In Ten Easy Lessons Learn what to do - and what not to do - from this list of "forecasting fallacies." |
Science News
June 30, 2001
Ivars Peterson |
Random Home Runs In the current issue of the Journal of Recreational Mathematics, economist Paul M. Sommers of Middlebury College, Vermont, addresses the question of whether top home-run sluggers knock out homers at random or whether they hit in streaks... |
Science News
July 14, 2001
Ivars Peterson |
Pursuing Pursuit Curves A pursuit curve is the path an object takes when chasing another object. Such a path might result from a fox pursuing a rabbit or a missile seeking a moving target. Plotting pursuit curves can produce fascinating patterns... |
Science News
July 7, 2001
Ivars Peterson |
Acoustic Residues There's a surprising mathematical ingredient in the sound of many performing artists and recording stars. It manifests itself in the form of clusters of panels hanging on the walls of recording studios, concert halls, nightclubs, and other venues... |
Science News
July 21, 2001
Ivars Peterson |
Art of Pursuit The simple mathematical concept of a pursuit curve can serve as the starting point for creating wonderfully intricate artistic designs... |
Information Today
January 6, 2011 |
National Archives Launches Online Public Access System The public portal provides access to digitized records, and information about the records. It also provides a centralized means of searching multiple National Archives resources at once. |
D-Lib
August 2008
Hagedorn & Santelli |
Google Still Not Indexing Hidden Web URLs Given the resulting numbers from our investigation, it seems that Google needs to do much more to gather hidden resources, not less. |
IndustryWeek
November 1, 2008
David Blanchard |
Top 10 Demand Planning Strategies Learn to trust the numbers and manage by exception. |
