All cultures count in base ten, because humans have ten fingers. That’s common knowledge — so common that it isn’t even true. It is, of course, true that most cultures count in base ten, with some obvious and well-known exceptions… Read More ›
Math
The golden meanie
Fellow math nerds: check out Sandra Boynton’s pet, Fibonacci. Of course he’s a golden meanie: She describes him thus: The Golden Meanie is a mythical beast of pleasing proportions but unpleasant temperament. Oh well. You can’t have everything.
Thinking (back) about Trig?
Why did somebody recommend to me a blog called A Portrait of a Math Teacher as an Aging Man? Are they trying to tell me something? I’m not sure that I should be thrilled about that 😀. Nevertheless, the recommended blog… Read More ›
τ > π.
Happy Tau Day! Argh, I was supposed to post this yesterday, of course. If you don’t know what tau (τ) is, I could just tell you that it’s C/r, which is approximately 6.28, hence 6/28 is Tau Day. But that… Read More ›
We have a winner!
Congratulations to Weston sophomore Andrew Yao! Andrew has achieved the rare distinction of being a winner of the American Math Competition — one of only two underclassmen nationwide to reach this exalted rank (and one of only 12 students altogether,… Read More ›
New England Math Championships
Please congratulate the Weston High School Math Team for their outstanding performance at yesterday’s playoffs for the New England Medium-Size Schools Championship: After a close-fought contest, Weston is now #1 in all of New England! It was all very much… Read More ›
State Math Champions!
Congratulations to the Weston High School Math Team for their extraordinary performance yesterday in the medium-sized high schools’ playoffs for the Massachusetts state math championship! Weston finished #1 among all the medium-sized schools in all the state math leagues, and far… Read More ›
Finally… the 16th Annual Fractal Fair
Our plans for the 16th annual Fractal Fair at Weston High School looked good. All was supposed to go smoothly, just as the previous 15 fairs had. Why not, after all? But the weather did… Read More ›
Spirals & fractals at the MoS
Another museum visit on my staycation was to the Museum of Science: the special exhibit Numbers in Nature, continuing through April 25. My capsule summary is that it is generally high in quality but low in quantity. Yes, I agree that… Read More ›
Should you take the math course you want to take?
A brief anecdote posted by The Math Curmudgeon and a comment from a reader a couple of days ago raise two different but interlocking issues: how do you take school administrators seriously when they directly contradict themselves, and should students… Read More ›
