Antonio Cangiano | Math-Blog

In-Depth Book Review: The Computer as Cr...

Posted by Antonio Cangiano in Applied Math, Suggested Reading, Unsolved Problems on 07 23rd, 2010 | No Comments

Title: The Computer as CrucibleAuthors: Jonathan Borwein and Keith DevlinTrue pp.: 154Publisher: A K Peters LtdPublished on: November 2008ISBN-13: 978-1568813431Rating: 8/10 Jonathan Borwein and Keith Devlin are well-known mathematicians who have a strong appreciation of, and expertise in, experimental...

Forget Pi, here comes Tau...

Posted by Antonio Cangiano in Featured Articles, Math News, Math Websites on 06 28th, 2010 | 17 Comments

Some readers may be familiar with Bob Palais’ article “π Is Wrong”. Within it Palais argues that π is the wrong choice of circle constant. This quote, from the author’s website, summarizes his main argument: As noted in the last page of the pdf, I suggest calling the alternate...

Posted by Antonio Cangiano in Math Education on 04 12th, 2010 | Comments Off

In this interview we chat with with Marcus du Sautoy, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford, Simonyi Professor for the public understanding of science, Fellow of New College, ESPRC Senior Media Fellow, Berwick Prize winner, Officer of the Order of the British Empire, TED speaker, and a...

Posted by Antonio Cangiano in General on 03 22nd, 2010 | Comments Off

This is just a brief post to let my readers know that I’m switching from Feedburner Email’s service to AWeber to handle sending out my posts via email. Why am I switching from a free service to a commercial one? Because AWeber offers countless features that I plan to use, plus it’s a lot more flexible...

Posted by Antonio Cangiano in Suggested Reading on 03 15th, 2010 | 6 Comments

It is with great pleasure that I announce something that we have been working on for a while. We just published a Math Books page, containing what we consider to be some of the best books on various areas of mathematics. The list is not exhaustive by any stretch, capping at a total of 52 books so far, but it...

Happy Pi Day!...

Posted by Antonio Cangiano in Math News on 03 14th, 2010 | 6 Comments

Pi is a remarkable number and represents, in the collective mind, the field of mathematics better than any other number. Today is March 14 (or 3/14 when written in the generally used American date format), a day that is celebrated by many as Pi Day. This date is important not so much because we are obsessed...

Posted by Antonio Cangiano in Featured Articles, Math Websites on 03 12th, 2010 | 1 Comment

StackOverflow is a popular community that was launched by two famous programmers: Joel Spolsky (of Joel on Software fame) and Jeff Atwood (of Coding Horror fame). The aim of this site is to provide a fun environment in which to discuss programming subjects and ask coding and software engineering...

Posted by Antonio Cangiano in Essential Math, Suggested Reading on 10 12th, 2009 | 4 Comments

In this interview we sit down with author and mathematician Derrick Niederman to discuss his engaging, recently published book about the first two hundred natural numbers, ‘Number Freak: From 1 to 200, The Hidden Language of Numbers Revealed’. 1. Some of our readers are likely familiar with your...

Posted by Antonio Cangiano in Essential Math, Probability Theory and Statistics on 08 24th, 2009 | 27 Comments

Misconceptions about probability theory and statistics have major repercussions on society. From seemingly minor things like the excessive sensationalism of some headlines, all the way to the jailing of innocent people based on “statistical evidence”. One of the most common misconceptions is the...

Posted by Antonio Cangiano in Applied Math, Math Websites, Software on 08 19th, 2009 | 6 Comments

Project Euler can be an addictive site for people who are passionate about mathematics and programming. You don’t need to be an expert in either of these two disciplines to participate in it’s challenges, but any such skills you may already possess will be an asset. The author of the site,...