The That's Maths column in the Irish Times this week is about symmetry and group theory, and the possible link, through string theory, with the fundamental structure of the universe ( TM020 ). In the arts, symmetry is intimately associated with aesthetic appeal. In science, it provides insight into the properties of physical systems. In … Continue reading Monster Symmetry
Category: Irish Times
Articles in Irish Times
Spots and Stripes
How do leopards get their spots? Mathematics gives us a better answer than the one offered by Rudyard Kipling in Just So Stories. This is the topic of That's Maths this week ( TM019 ). Turing's Morphogenesis paper The information to form a fully-grown animal is encoded in its DNA, so there is a lot … Continue reading Spots and Stripes
Bayes Rules OK
This week, That's Maths ( TM018 ) deals with the "war" between Bayesians and frequentists, a long-running conflict that has now subsided. It is 250 years since the presentation of Bayes' results to the Royal Society in 1763. The column below was inspired by a book, The Theory that would not Die, by Sharon Bertsch … Continue reading Bayes Rules OK
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
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
The Swingin’ Spring
Oscillations surround us, pervading the universe from the vibrations of subatomic particles to fluctuations at galactic scales. Our hearts beat rhythmically and we are sensitive to the oscillations of light and sound. We are vibrating systems. An exhibition called Oscillator is running at the Trinity College Science Gallery and this week's ``That's Maths'' column ( … Continue reading The Swingin’ Spring
Computer Maths
Will computers ever be able to do mathematical research? Automatic computers have amazing power to analyze huge data bases and carry out extensive searches far beyond human capabilities. They can assist mathematicians in checking cases and evaluating functions at lightning speed, and they have been essential in producing proofs that depend on exhaustive searches. The … Continue reading Computer Maths
Topology Underground
That’s Maths in this week's Irish Times ( TM013 ) is about the branch of mathematics called topology, and treats the map of the London Underground network as a topological map. Topology is the area of mathematics dealing with basic properties of space, such as continuity and connectivity. It is a powerful unifying framework for … Continue reading Topology Underground
Archimedes uncovered
The That’s Maths column in this week's Irish Times ( TM012 ) describes the analysis of the ancient codex known as the Archimedes Palimpsest. Archimedes of Syracuse Archimedes (Ἀρχιμήδης, 287-212 BC) was a brilliant physicist, engineer and astronomer, and the greatest mathematician of antiquity. He is famed for founding hydrostatics, for formulating the law of … Continue reading Archimedes uncovered
Santa’s TSP Algorithm
This week's That's Maths column ( TM011 ) discusses the challenge faced by Santa Claus: he has about a billion homes to visit in one night, so he needs to be smart in picking his route. The challenge he faces is called the Travelling Salesman Problem, or TSP. Although he won't reveal his secret, Santa … Continue reading Santa’s TSP Algorithm
Ramanujan’s Lost Notebook
In the Irish Times column this week ( TM010 ), we tell how a collection of papers of Srinivasa Ramanujan turned up in the Wren Library in Cambridge and set the mathematical world ablaze. Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887—1920) Ramanujan was one of the greatest mathematical geniuses ever to emerge from India. Born into a poor Brahmin … Continue reading Ramanujan’s Lost Notebook
Where in the World?
Here's a conundrum: You buy a watch in Anchorage, Alaska (61°N). It keeps excellent time. Then you move to Singapore, on the Equator. Does the watch go fast or slow? For the answer to this puzzle, read on. The Global Positioning System In the Irish Times column this week ( TM009 ), we look at … Continue reading Where in the World?
A Mersennery Quest
The theme of That's Maths (TM008) this week is prime numbers. Almost all the largest primes found in recent years are of a particular form M(n) = 2n−1. They are called Mersenne primes. The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) is aimed at finding ever more prime numbers of this form. The search for the … Continue reading A Mersennery Quest
Carving up the Globe
This week, That’s Maths (TM007) describes various ways of dividing up the sphere. This is an important problem in geometry, biology, chemistry, astronomy, meteorology and climate modelling. The problem of defining a uniform distribution of points on the sphere has challenged mathematicians for centuries. The vertices of the five Platonic solids achieve this but, in … Continue reading Carving up the Globe
Contagion
This week, That’s Maths (TM006) describes the use of mathematical models to study the spread of infections like the SARS epidemic and swine flu. Simple models such as the SIR model of Kermack and McKendrick (1927) can simulate the broad features of epidemics, but much more sophisticated models have been developed using the same approach. … Continue reading Contagion
Khan Academy
This week, That's Maths (TM005) discusses the large range of maths education videos that are available free of charge from the Khan Academy website. There are about 3,200 tutorials, covering the whole range of second-level mathematics. Salman Khan's Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) presentation is available on-line: Let’s Use Video to Reinvent Education. There are … Continue reading Khan Academy
Packing & Stacking
In That's Maths this week (TM004), we look at the problem of packing goods of fixed size and shape in the most efficient way. Packing problems, concerned with storing objects as densely as possible in a container, have a long history, and have broad applications in engineering and industry. Johannes Kepler conjectured that the standard … Continue reading Packing & Stacking
Analemmatic Sundials
This week’s That’s Maths article, TM003, describes the analemmatic sundial on the East Pier in Dun Laoghaire. An article in Plus Magazine, by Chris Sangwin and Chris Budd, gives a description of the theory of these sundials and instructions on how to build one. A script to design an analemmatic sundial, written by Alexander R. Pruss, … Continue reading Analemmatic Sundials
Google PageRank
This week's That's Maths article, at TM002, describes how Google's PageRank software finds all those links when you enter a search word, by solving an enormous problem in linear algebra. A comprehensive description of PageRank is given in the book Google's PageRank and Beyond: The Science of Search Engine Rankings, by Amy N. Langville & … Continue reading Google PageRank
Irish Times Articles
"That's Maths", a new series of articles on mathematics and its importance in society, will be published in the Irish Times, starting on 19 July 2012. The initial article, at TM001, looks at the statistics of Usain Bolt's performance in the 100m and the prospects for a new record at the London Olympics. The column … Continue reading Irish Times Articles
ThatsMaths 