Learning calculus at school, we soon find out that while differentiation is relatively easy, at least for simple functions, integration is hard. So hard indeed that, in many cases, it is impossible to find a nice function that is the integral (or anti-derivative) of a given one. Thus, given $latex {f(x)}&fg=000000$ we can usually find … Continue reading The Monte-Carlo Method
Month: May 2020
Changing the way that we look at the world
Albrecht Dürer was born in Nuremberg in 1471, third of a family of eighteen children. Were he still living, he would be celebrating his 549th birthday today. Dürer's artistic genius was clear from an early age, as evidenced by a self-portrait he painted when just thirteen [TM187; or search for “thatsmaths” at irishtimes.com ]. In 1494, … Continue reading Changing the way that we look at the world
A New Perspective on Perspective
The development of perspective in the early Italian Renaissance opened the doors of perception just a little wider. Perspective techniques enabled artists to create strikingly realistic images. Among the most notable were Piero della Francesca and Leon Battista Alberti, who invented the method of perspective drawing. For centuries, artists have painted scenes on a sheet … Continue reading A New Perspective on Perspective
John Casey: a Founder of Modern Geometry
Next Tuesday - 12th May - is the 200th anniversary of the birth of John Casey, a notable Irish geometer. Casey was born in 1820 in Kilbeheny, Co Limerick. He was educated in nearby Mitchelstown, where he showed great aptitude for mathematics and also had a gift for languages. He became a mathematics teacher, first … Continue reading John Casey: a Founder of Modern Geometry
ThatsMaths 