Mathematics

You are currently browsing the archive for the Mathematics category.

Todays "Link of the Day" is about the old competition of naming the biggest number one can imagine:

You have fifteen seconds. Using standard math notation, English words, or both, name a single whole number—not an infinity—on a blank index card. Be precise enough for any reasonable modern mathematician to determine exactly what number you’ve named, by consulting only your card and, if necessary, the published literature.

The follwing discussion starts by gowing from Addition to Multiplication to Exponentiation etc. Then in introduces the concept of Turing machines and computability. Finally it show that there are non-computable functions which grow even faster.

This page should be readable and enjoyable for mathematicias nad non-mathematicians alike.

Scott Aaronson, Who Can Name the Bigger Number?

I'm back at home. Picture will be gradually uploaded to flickr, as I sort, delete, crop and retouch them (of course, the ones I delete won't be uploaded). I now have a flickr pro acount, so putting a lot of pictures there is no problem, as opposed to here, where I have a 500MB limit. Having to wade though more than 900 pictures, this process will take some time...

In the last weeks the Austrian teams at the ÖPMW (Austrian-Polish Mathemartical Competition) an IMO (International Mathematical Olympiad) did remarkable well. Congratualtions!

It is always fun too see what journalist do with numbers, especially when they represent probabilities. Today's Kurier writes that the "probability [to win in Lotto] is 1.800.000". So let's all run to the next "Annahmestelle" and buy a "Lotto-Schein". When you hand it in, your are not only sure to win, but you will win with a 1.8 * 10^8 % chance!

Speaking of numbers and newspapers. A while back the Standard wrote that "10^50 is an enormous number - a one with 49 zeros at end".

I uploaded some pictures from the ÖMO (Austrian Mathematical Olypmiad) and IMO (International Mathematical Olympiad) 2003. I know, it is already 2005, but better late than never.

Some of these pictures were already available at oemo.at

While the rain here all day long may be a bit depressing (especially, when you have to rely on public transport), it has also its beautiful side - especially from the right side of the window. Nevertheless, I did stick my nose out of the window and took these pictures. (also on flickr)

While waiting for the sun's comeback, you could also watch these videos by the Clay Mathematics Institute. Even Non-Mathematicians might want to see this one on the Importance of Mathematics and ongoing Math students should definately hear this talk by Andrew Wiles.

Even with the danger of only producing a higher ranking for it on google, I just have to post a link to Algebrator. It gave me (as a math student) a good laugh. The thing is supposed to be a "cutting edge program", that solves "any problem from your algebra textbook", "if you are an algebra student struggling with your homework". Don't believe me? Read the "special promotion" page (notice the "linear equation" in the last screenshot!) and how it compares to other CAS. Why buy Mathematica or Maple, when you can get Algebrator for only $67? Very entertaining stuff!

Unter dem Menüpunkt Mathematik oben, gibt es jetzt eine Zusammenstellung verschiedener Texte, die mit meinem Studium der Technischen Mathematik zusammenhängen. Momentan befinden sich dort eine Zusammenstellung der Notationen die in den aktuellen Linare Algebra 1 und Analysis 1 Vorlesungen auf der TU Wien verwendet werden (wird unregelmäßig aktualisiert) und eine kurze Ausarbeitung über eine Verallgemeinerung des Riemanschen Umordnungsatzes für Reihen.

Here is an online archive of courses by Donald Knuth an Stanford University. But I just don't understand why they use Windows Media Format. This unfortunately makes the page unaccesible from Linux.

Newer entries »