Here is a newsletter about math in the real world' - it is free to
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Keep checking here for details on World Math Day. As soon as I get the details, I will share them. Kim
Subject: Latest news from Plus magazine! - http://plus.maths.org
In this newsletter:
* Support Plus
* Latest news
* Mathematical moments
* Browse with Plus
* Live maths
* The Plus new writers award 2009
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Support Plus - make a difference to mathematics
http://plus.maths.org/support.html?nl=1
We are continuing our campaign to raise the funds we need for the
continued
development and production of Plus beyond 2009. As you may know, Plus
receives no statutory funding and is entirely supported by grants and
donations from organisations and individuals committed to the public
understanding of mathematics. If you're interested in helping us, then
please visit http://plus.maths.org/support.html?nl=1 where you'll find
three easy ways to give to Plus.
Thank you for your support!
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Latest news
* The cost of failing our maths students
Innumeracy costs UK taxpayers up to £2.4 billion a year
http://plus.maths.org/latestnews/jan-apr09/innumeracy/index.html?nl=1
* Book review: Is god a mathematician?
A new book asking big questions
http://plus.maths.org/issue49/reviews/book5/index.html?nl=1
* Building trust in statistics
The UK Statistics Authority fulfills its duty to keep the government
honest
http://plus.maths.org/latestnews/sep-dec08/statistics/index.html?nl=1
* Automated mathematics
Human versus machine: who's better at proving theorems?
http://plus.maths.org/latestnews/sep-dec08/proof/index.html?nl=1
Plus... read more on the Plus blog and have a look at some maths
cartoons http://plus.maths.org/blog?nl=1
And for all the Plus podcasts, see: http://plus.maths.org/podcasts/
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Mathematical moments
Alfred Tarski
Born on the 14th of January 1902 in Warsaw, Poland
Died on the 26th October 1983 in Berkeley, California, USA
If you've ever heard Tarski's name before, it was probably in connection
with one of the most counter-intuitive results maths has to offer, known
as the Banach-Tarski paradox. Despite being called a paradox it's actually
an irreproachable mathematical theorem. It says that a sphere can be cut
into as few as five pieces which can then be reassembled to make a much
bigger sphere. This sounds as if mathematicians have mastered what humankind
has dreamt of since the beginning of time: to make something out of nothing.
But they haven't, not quite. The pieces the sphere needs to be cut into
could not possibly exist in physical reality. They're "unmeasurable
sets"; sets so complex that no sort of measure, like area or length, can be
meaningfully applied to them. It's possibly to construct these sets
abstractly, though a sequence of geometric steps, but no-one could ever
achieve them with a pair of scissors.
Given the strangeness of this result, it'll come as no surprise that the
vast majority of Tarski's work involved contortions of the mind. Having
set out to be become a biologist, his encounters at university with
mathematicians including Sierpinski (he of the fractal carpet and
triangle) soon interested him in logic. He wrote a number of celebrated works on
the very foundations of mathematics: the nature of truth, deductive
reasoning, and the limitation of mathematics as an axiomatic system. He came into
contact with some of the most prominent logicians of his day, including
Kurt Goedel. Today, Tarski's name is often mentioned in the same breath
as that of the father of logic, Aristotle.
Tarski's personal life was troubled by the two World Wars and the
turbulent political atmosphere in his native Poland. Born a Jew, Tarski's was
originally called Alfred Teitelbaum. He converted to catholicism in 1923
and changed his name to Tarski, probably to give expression to his
Polish nationalism, but also to escape the prevailing antisemitism. When Hitler
invaded Poland in 1939 Tarski was lucky to be on a visit to the US.
Although he was unable to arrange a passage to the US for his wife and
two children, they were lucky to survive the war and the family was
re-united in 1946.
To find out more about the kind of maths Tarski was involved with, read
the following Plus articles:
Measure for measure - on measurable sets and the Banach-Tarski paradox
http://plus.maths.org/issue17/features/measure/index.html?nl=1
Cantor and Cohen: Infinite investigators - Two articles on set theory
and the foundations of maths
http://plus.maths.org/issue47/features/elwes1/index.html?nl=1
http://plus.maths.org/issue47/features/elwes2/index.html?nl=1
We must know, we will know - on Hilbert and the foundations of
mathematics http://plus.maths.org/issue41/features/morris/index.html?nl=1
Goedel and the limits of logic - on the limitations of maths as an
axiomatic system http://plus.maths.org/issue39/features/dawson/index.html?nl=1
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Browse with Plus
When will I ever need this?
If you're in the business of persuading young (or not so young) people
that maths is useful in the real world, then have a look at the "Maths in
work" videos produced by the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of
Mathematics. From sports engineering to period costume design, these
short clips show what maths is involved and go some way towards answering the
"when will I ever need this?" question so familiar to maths teachers all
over the world.
http://www.ncetm.org.uk/Default.aspx?page=13&module=res&mode=100&resid=1
1329
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Closing date: 31st of March 2009
More information: http://plus.maths.org/competition/index.html?nl=1
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