Category: Mathematics

The wheel paradox that stumped Aristotle and Galileo

http://io9.com/the-wheel-paradox-that-stumped-aristotle-and-galileo-1507994415?utm_campaign=socialflow_io9_facebook&utm_source=io9_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

Head scratching math paradox as an appetizer before dinner this evening.

Enjoy! 

Posted from WordPress for Android via my Samsung smartphone. Please excuse any misspellings. Ciao, Jon

The 7 Most Intriguing Philosophical Arguments for the Existence of God

http://io9.com/the-7-most-intriguing-philosophical-arguments-for-the-e-1507393670?utm_campaign=socialflow_io9_facebook&utm_source=io9_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

I knew there was a reason I never pined to be a philosophy major in college.  Although Descartes gets my vote for being eminently mathematical and practical.

Posted from WordPress for Android via my Samsung smartphone. Please excuse any misspellings. Ciao, Jon

Addendum from my uncle:

There were five “proofs” in my day, and two arguments why there couldn’t be a God.

What all these arguments (pro and con) lack, even the ones which are “sufficient” is that they aren’t “necessary.” They might explain how God might be possible, or not possible, (some better than others) but they don’t PROVE the existence or nonexistence of God.

Therefore, they fail to accomplish what they purport to do: prove the existence of God.

Continue reading “The 7 Most Intriguing Philosophical Arguments for the Existence of God”

Tau-Day (yesterday)

Tau-Da!

I completely missed the celebration of tau yesterday as well as being completely ignorant of a movement among mathematicians to replace my favorite constant, pi.  I have spoken previously (once) here about pi and even use the first few digits of it as part of my username here at WordPress.   At least once a year, on Pi Day, which corresponds to March 14th (or as close to 3.14 as you can get on our calendars), I celebrate the never-repeating, endlessly enlightening expression of the ratio between a circle’s circumference and it’s diameter … or wait, is that it’s radius.

I received a Tweet that intrigued me, entitled ‘Mathematicians Want to Say Goodbye to Pi‘ with an accompanying link.  I read the article, but what really held my attention was an inserted YouTube video from someone named Kevin Houston (with a British, not Texan, accent).  If you enjoy math, take a few minutes to watch his video.

So, since Pi Day is celebrated on March 14th, and 2π is roughly 6.28, it follows that celebrating tau should occur on June 28th.   Or so the tau enthusiasts hope.

I’m still on the fence, preferring pi for the moment; although, I agree the use of tau has its merits in simplicity and beauty.

Constant Celebration

Can you guess what my favorite mathematical constant might be?  There is a clue in the URL address of my blog.  Still unsure?

This mathematical constant whose value is the ratio of any circle’s circumference to its diameter.  It is an irrational number, which means that its value cannot be expressed exactly as a fraction m/n, where m and n are integers. Consequently, its decimal representation never ends or repeats.  It is also a transcendental number, which implies, among other things, that no finite sequence of algebraic operations on integers (powers, roots, sums, etc.) can be equal to its value.

Yes, together with other math-loving geeks out there in the universe, I’m celebrating Pi Day.  And if WordPress behaves itself and publishes this as I’ve scheduled it to, at exactly 1:59 pm (Central time), I will have succeeded in my mathematically constant celebration.

Pi pie
Pi pie