Eberhardt Rechtin and the Barrier Course...
At present, at any rate, very little evidence exists that great mathematicians and calculating prodigies have been endowed with an exceptional neurobiological structure. Like the rest of us, experts in arithmetic have to struggle with long calculations and abstruse mathematical concepts. If they succeed,...
Protecting Valuable Intellectual Propert...
Posted by
John F. McGowan, Ph.D. in
Applied Math on
06 27th, 2011 |
4 Comments
Octave is a free, open-source high-level interpreted language, primarily intended for numerical computations that is mostly compatible with MATLAB. Octave is an excellent tool for the rapid research and development of new algorithms as well as performing simulations and data analysis. A mathematical software...
Genius, Breakthroughs, and the Manhattan...
Posted by
John F. McGowan, Ph.D. in
Applied Math on
06 20th, 2011 |
11 Comments
In an enterprise such as the building of the atomic bomb the difference between ideas, hopes, suggestions and theoretical calculations, and solid numbers based on measurement, is paramount. All the committees, the politicking and the plans would have come to naught if a few unpredictable nuclear cross...
But It Worked in the Computer Simulation...
Posted by
John F. McGowan, Ph.D. in
Applied Math on
06 6th, 2011 |
10 Comments
People often assume that theoretical mathematical calculations and computer simulations will work well enough that machines or experiments will work successfully the first time or at most within a few tries (or similar levels of performance in other contexts). This belief is often implicit in the promotion...
The Manhattan Project Considered as a Fl...
Posted by
John F. McGowan, Ph.D. in
Applied Math on
05 23rd, 2011 |
14 Comments
The Manhattan Project which developed the atomic bomb during World War II is the exemplar of modern Big Science. Numerous mostly unsuccessful modern scientific megaprojects have been promoted and justified by invoking the successful example of the Manhattan Project. Even sixty-six years after the first...
The Game of Life in Octave...
The Game of Life is a simple cellular automaton invented by mathematician John Conway. The Game of Life consists of a two dimensional grid of cells. Each cell can be “live” or “dead”, often represented mathematically by 1 and 0. The grid is updated periodically in discrete time steps...
Associative Arrays and Cellular Automata...
An associative array, also known as a dictionary, map, mapping, or hash table, is a powerful data structure that is built into many modern programming languages such as Python, Perl, Ruby, and many others. An associative array is a form of content addressable memory (CAM). For example, when you see...
Knowledge Is Power… Maybe...
At least since Sputnik in 1957, various tests and reports such as the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) have asserted that students in the United States perform surprisingly poorly in math and science compared to students in other nations. The poor state of education is a...
Plotting and Graphics in Octave...
Introduction
This is the fourth article in an occasional series of articles about Octave, a free open-source numerical programming environment that is mostly compatible with MATLAB. This series began with the article Octave: An Alternative to the High Cost of MATLAB. This article discusses plotting and...
Debating Deliberate Practice...
Outliers: The Story of Success (USA | UK | CANADA)
Malcolm Gladwell
Little, Brown, and Company, New York, 2008
309 pages
Outliers is the 2008 bestseller written by New Yorker magazine business and science writer Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point, Blink, and What the Dog Saw. Gladwell is...
