Hobbes: “A new decade is coming up.” Calvin: “Yeah, big deal! Hmph. Where are the flying cars? Where are the moon colonies? Where are the personal robots and the zero-gravity boots, huh? You call this a new decade?! You call this the future?? HA! Where are the rocket packs? Where are the...

The word “mathematics” comes from the Greek μάθημα (máthema) meaning lesson and the verb μαθαίνω (mathéno) meaning “to learn”. It could be argued that math anxiety is anxiety about learning in general but that’s probably stretching things a bit. Although math is...

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...

Last weekend I had a chance to read Math for Moms and Dads, which I received from Kaplan as a review copy. This book aims to providing a friendly guide for parents of children ages ten and up, who are struggling with mathematics. Many parents face the challenge of helping their children with math homework,...

I’m hip-deep in the teaching of Mathematics 152, a discrete mathematics course titled “The Mathematics of Symmetry” designed by Paul Bamberg and taught at Harvard University. The course is seminar-style: the students take turns presenting the material in 5-to-15-minute assigned topics...

Cheat sheets can be very useful and make for great posters around your room. The following is a collection of 13 cheat sheets for several mathematical topics and programs: General Math Cheat Sheet (iPaper and other formats) Elementary Algebra Cheat Sheet (PDF) Trigonometry Cheat Sheet (PDF) Calculus Cheat...

Mathematics is the queen of science and the language of nature. Its importance should be clear to any reasonable person. It is easy however to diminish the value of certain areas of research because they’re currently thought as having little practical use. Evolutionary needs brought our mind to prefer...

Since I began this blog, and from the time when the first of its posts started to grow in popularity, I’ve simultaneously received numerous emails from people who are deeply interested in math. If we exclude entirely nonsensical and almost comical rants from folks whose sanity is, at best,...

1. The Tenth Dimension 2. Outside in (Turning a sphere inside out) 3. Flatland the film (Trailer) The full movie is available on DVD, and of course, you can also get “Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions”, dirt cheap (a classic geek novel for less than 4 bucks). If you prefer, you could...

Last week “Digg effect” had quite an impact on my hosting provider. So much so that they kindly (sic) pulled the site off the web after 10 minutes of Digg love, without even bothering to send me a warning or any notification. When I complained they told me, “let us know when you are off...