Archive for February, 2021

Mamikon’s Theorem and the area under a cycloid arch

Published February 25, 2021 Occasional Closed
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The cycloid, the locus of a point on the rim of a rolling disk.

The Cycloid

The cycloid is the locus of a point fixed to the rim of a circular disk that is rolling along a straight line (see figure). The parametric equations for the cycloid are

\displaystyle x = r (\theta - \sin\theta)\,, \qquad y = r (1 - \cos\theta ) \ \ \ \ \ (1)

where {\theta} is the angle through which the disk has rotated. The centre of the disk is at {(x_0,y_0) = (r\theta, r)}.

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That’s Maths II: A Ton of Wonders

by Peter Lynch now available.
Full details and links to suppliers at
http://logicpress.ie/2020-3/

>>  Review in The Irish Times  <<

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Machine Learning and Climate Change Prediction

Published February 18, 2021 Irish Times Closed
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Current climate prediction models are markedly defective, even in reproducing the changes that have already occurred. Given the great importance of climate change, we must identify the causes of model errors and reduce the uncertainty of climate predictions [TM205 or search for “thatsmaths” at irishtimes.com].

Schematic diagram of some key physical processes in the climate system.

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Apples and Lemons in a Doughnut

Published February 11, 2021 Occasional Closed

A ring torus (or, simply, torus) is a surface of revolution generated by rotating a circle about a coplanar axis that does not intersect it. We let {r} be the radius of the circle and {R} the distance from the axis to the centre of the circle, with {R>r}.

Generating a ring torus by rotating a circle of radius {r} about an axis at distance {R>r} from its centre.

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Complexity: are easily-checked problems also easily solved?

Published February 4, 2021 Irish Times Closed
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From the name of the Persian polymath Al Khwarizmi, who flourished in the early ninth century, comes the term algorithm. An algorithm is a set of simple steps that lead to the solution of a problem. An everyday example is a baking recipe, with instructions on what to do with ingredients (input) to produce a cake (output). For a computer algorithm, the inputs are the known numerical quantities and the output is the required solution [TM204 or search for “thatsmaths” at irishtimes.com].

Al Khwarizmi, Persian polymath (c. 780 – 850) [image, courtesy of Prof. Irfan Shahid].

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