We staid till, it being darkish, we saw the fire as only one entire arch of fire from this to the other side the bridge, and in a bow up the hill for an arch of above a mile long: it made me weep to see it. The churches, houses, and all on fire and … Continue reading Cycloid
Austin TX Some people have favorite numbers. According to a global online poll, 7 is the world’s favorite. I admit I fancy 7, maybe because I have 6 siblings or because seven ate nine. Either way, there is a number I fancy more than 7. The number e has made an appearance in previous posts[1], most recently … Continue reading e
New Orleans LA In graduate school, I spent a fair amount of time getting familiar[z] with the Riemann zeta function. Courses in complex analysis and special functions along with reading a couple of pop math books[e] increased my familiarity with zeta as well as the Riemann hypothesis. In answer to the gentleman’s question in New Orleans, “It … Continue reading Riemann Zeta Function
Austin TX I was thinking about prime numbers this past summer. In Prime Parking, I mentioned the prime number theorem. It deserves a little more than the brief nod I gave it. Many great mathematicians worked on creating and proving a conjecture about how many primes can be found smaller than any given number. For … Continue reading Prime Number Theorem
Austin TX 2013/06/16 This post and the previous are sort of farewell gifts to my students who just finished their first year studying calculus. I love creating lectures (as you might imagine), but they hungered for something else. They challenged, inspired, and reminded me what I love about teaching. For me, the gift of teaching is … Continue reading Euler’s Formula
This post was in the works for over a month. The chalk happened in one evening, but the research and writing took time. Taylor series make for a meaty topic, and Brook Taylor had a full life. Plus, infinity took me on a few tangential journeys. The big idea here is approximation, in particular the evolution … Continue reading Taylor Series
Austin TX 2013/04/27 This post began as a rather ambitious endeavor. My hope was to introduce infinite series and then gracefully bounce onto power series on the way to Taylor series. It occurred to me this was too much. Like too many toppings on a pizza, the crust could only hold so much. You still … Continue reading Powers of One Half
Austin TX 2012/06/28 In December of 2009, I picked up a book by Steven Strogatz called The Calculus of Friendship.0 Reading the book, I found myself touched by the story of the author’s life-long relationship with his high school Calculus teacher, affectionately called Joff. They corresponded about interesting math problems for years as Strogatz went … Continue reading Sine Squared
Space Needle, Seattle WA 12/23/2011 Sitting in a coffee shop in 1959, Edward E. Carlson was imagining and sketching a tower of the future to stand tall above the 1962 World’s Fair in Seattle. After many iterations and the input of architect John Graham, the flying saucer-inspired shape we know (and, at least some of … Continue reading Angular Velocity
Footpath Math: Chalk it up to a math geek 