The fascination of Maths thread

[BrilloPad]

I did do the maths of the fusion taurus in 3rd year applied - that was fun.

the maths of how weather works is great too...

[sasguru]

I'm well into second bottle - but as I mentioned, I did do a degree in pure maths, and some of it seems to have stuck. In chapters 7 to 12 of Penrose's book, I occasionally see something that links to what I learned at university. It makes me think - ah, now that's what they were on about...

it really is amazing stuff - if only they'd told us about this when we were at school... which is why I'm happy that my 16 year old son is working through my university calculus book because he's bored with the set curriculum.

( btw - if you need help on the above stuff about convergence, let me know, and I'll try to explain it sober... )

Just looking up power series now - think I've got the concept. I went to a crappy inner city comp where our Maths teacher at A-level was actually the English teacher (there being no one else qualified to teach Maths) and I recall having to help her out when she got stuck with a proof.
Still got an A though. Probably the achievement of my life. Wish I had carried it on.

[BrilloPad]

the maths of how weather works is great too...

and I did finite element stress analysis of Russian tanks for the MOD

[cailin maith]

I bloody hated maths.... I hated the smelly old maths teacher and I hated that my parents knew I was thick and made me have grindes for 2 fecking years.... 3 times a week....

[sasguru]

I bloody hated maths.... I hated the smelly old maths teacher and I hated that my parents knew I was thick and made me have grindes for 2 fliping years.... 3 times a week....

Thats a shame. Maths is beautiful and can blow your mind.

[BrilloPad]

I did maths tutoring when I was 23. One of pupils was a very nice 16 year old girl. I only lasted 2 weeks...

[cailin maith]

Thats a shame. Maths is beautiful and can blow your mind.

my mind is far too fragile to be blown

[moorfield]

Another favourite maths discussion of mine ...

If you are stupid enough to play the national lottery, what numbers would you pick and why? Discuss.

[BrilloPad]

Another favourite maths discussion of mine ...

If you are stupid enough to play the national lottery, what numbers would you pick and why? Discuss.

The most random you can think of. So if you win you get the most money.

Apparently 10,000 people a week pick 123456!

Obviously keep away from numbers 31 down - alot of people pick birthdays. And never do anything like a straight line on the entry form.

[bored]

Once I was asked during an interview (for a developer role) to prove that a complex function which is analytic on the whole plane and bounded must be constant.

Makes a nice change from "describe your greatest weaknesses" and "where do you see yourself in 5 years"...