Math See

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"Real life" activities

Conversation in a bar on Friday:

(A friend of a friend): My brother picked up woodwork as a hobby. He is a software developer. He writes code all day long at work, so he wants to do something more for "real life" something with his hands in his free time.

(A mathematician): Hmm… I feel that I do something more for "real life" something with my hands when I write code for simulation occasionally…

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Wednesday observations:

I enjoy seeing triangulation everywhere: in my work,

at the Google background,

and especially on a tram.

PS: The design of the tram is by a Spanish contemporary artist Okuda San Miguel.

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Weekend creativity:

I was reading "Humble Pi: A Comedy of math errors" by Matt Parker and painted what would be my suggestion for the book cover. It reflects my three favorite "errors" from the book.

I am a big fan of this book:

First, it's hilarious.

Second, he shows the effect of math errors on advertising, building and architecture, computers, calendars, medicine, sports, postcodes, spaceships and aircraft, relationships, lotteries, elections, biology, music… What can be a better proof that math is everywhere?

And, third, I like his telling the truth: "half of the challenge of learning math is accepting that you may not be naturally good at it but, if you put the effort in, you can learn it."

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Slide and climb in TU Munich

Visiting the Technical University of Munich on Tuesday:

TU Munich has a special suggestion for students (and professors) tired after solving hard mathematical problems. They can go down the giant slide just inside the math building! I tried and I found it quite refreshing.

PS. For a professor approving the slide on the picture, I chose Constantin Carathéodory. He is a remarkable Greek mathematician who worked a lot in Germany and had a position at the University of Munich.

But my favorite thing at the campus is the boulder block. A metal construction next to it shows the edges of the boulder. I feel that it is a sculpture about mathematical abstractions.

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Triangular dance moves

Friday fun:

I needed to make a triangular mesh not completely uniform but slightly perturbed. Now I have some dancing triangulations:

And one triangulation going crazy:

Looking for music that fits their dance moves.

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Optimal control in lyrics

Silly thoughts on Wednesday:

The phrase "love me more than hate me all the time" from "Lost on You" by LP has potential as a mathematical optimal control problem.

You track two emotions (love and hate) and control your behavior to ensure your love level is always higher than the hate level.

(Maybe you can even use the L^p spaces…)

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Tuesday observation:

Do you see it? It looks like mathematical ghosts. I wanted to look outside through the glass wall, but there are formulas flying in front of my eyes.

The design of the mathematical institute of Orsay makes you see some mathematics in transparent.

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Counting bananas

Silly thoughts on Monday:

I feel silly today: I am happy to get more bananas than expected and thinking about numbers. At my work, I rarely see numbers. Only 0, 1, and 2 happen. Yet historically, counting beyond 2 was very influential. As Michael Brooks writes in "The Maths That Made Us":

"The first leap was to count to four, and eventually we found ourselves establishing civilizations. Once our brains are schooled in the art of 'more', they become able to cope with complicated abstractions."

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Fractal city of Coimbra

Friday conversation:

A mathematician: "Coimbra is a fractal city. If you connect any two points in the city with a route, you must walk uphill and downhill to follow this route."

Translation: "Coimbra is very hilly."

PS. The University of Coimbra is the oldest university in Portugal established in 1290. It is recommended to google the pictures - so beautiful. If I visit it someday, I will tell you more.

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Wednesday seminar:

Mathematical thinking is often about finding patterns.

My favorite environment for thinking about patterns is watching a crowd move. The ideal condition is to watch from above and from a distance such that you do not focus on individuals. We are looking for patterns, so we do not care about individuality. Mathematicians do not care that much that they think about "particles" instead of people. In my case: nice orange particles as in the videos.

Watching a crowd, you can see typical things. A group of people is waiting for something and people slightly wander around. We can call it a chaotic movement without a particular direction. Often people go in a specific direction, like all these people heading to a shop entrance. You can also look for a typical distance between people. Most people come close enough but not too close to each other for a chat.

There is a lot to observe and it is a good start for thinking about mathematical models for crowd motion models.

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Monday observation:

Noticed a wrong inequality at the train station in Brussels.

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Mathematical wonder-room

This blog is a cabinet of curiosities collected by a mathematician.

Every day I look for fun bits and pieces of the mathematical world to share. It can be jokes, quotes from dialogues with colleagues, mathematical ideas, or funny illustrations. I also share my optics on the world around me.

There is no serious educational or popular science stuff here. I am playing around with vaguely math-related content.

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Math Sea or must-see

The title "Math See" reflects my wish for everybody to see mathematics in everyday life and understand the beauty of mathematical ideas. But this blog is to collect math-related curiosities and jokes.