In 1859, the English mathematician Arthur Cayley published a note in the Philosophical Magazine, entitled On Contour and Slope Lines, in which he examined the structure of topographical patterns. In a follow-up article, On Hills and Dales, James Clark Maxwell continued the discussion. He derived a result relating the number of maxima and minima on … Continue reading Peaks, Pits & Passes
Month: March 2013
The Pitch Drop Experiment
Later this year a big black blob of sticky pitch will plummet from a funnel and plop into a beaker. The story is recounted in this week's That's Maths ( TM017 ) column in the Irish Times. In one of the longest-running physics experiments, the slow-flowing pitch, under a bell-jar in the University of Queensland … Continue reading The Pitch Drop Experiment
Happy Pi Day 2013
Today, 14th March, is Pi Day. In the month/day format it is 3/14, corresponding to 3.14, the first three digits of π. So, have a Happy Pi Day. Larry Shaw of San Francisco's Exploratorium came up with the Pi Day idea in 1988. About ten years later, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution … Continue reading Happy Pi Day 2013
CT Scans and the Radon Transform
Last December, Dublin's Tallaght Hosptal acquired a new CT scanner, a Toshiba Aquilon Prime, the first of its type in the country. The state-of-the-art scanner is housed in a room with a 'sky ceiling' that allows patients to enjoy an attractive outdoor image during the scanning process. This equipment, which cost €600,000 will undoubtedly result … Continue reading CT Scans and the Radon Transform
More Equal than Others
In his scientific best-seller, A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking remarked that every equation he included would halve sales of the book, so he put only one in it, Einstein's equation relating mass and energy, E=mc2. There is no doubt that mathematical equations strike terror in the hearts of many readers. This is regrettable, … Continue reading More Equal than Others
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