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The Particle at the End of the Universe: How the Hunt for the Higgs Boson Leads Us to the Edge of a New World 
From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time 
Spacetime and Geometry: An Introduction to General Relativity 
Mysteries of Modern Physics -- Time (The Great Courses) 
Dark Matter and Dark Energy (The Great Courses) -
Category Archives: Math
Smooth Life
Chances are you’ve seen Conway’s Game of Life, the checkerboard cellular automaton featuring stable structures, replicators, and all sorts of cool designs. (Plenty of implementations available online.) It’s called “life” because the processes of movement and evolution bear some tangential … Continue reading
Posted in Math
8 Comments
Time and Space, Remapped
A short two-person dance, with a twist. Or more accurately, a shear: time is remapped so that there is a delay that increases as you move from the top of the frame down to the bottom. Or in math: (x’, … Continue reading
Posted in Entertainment, Math
6 Comments
Dara O Briain School of Hard Sums
This is an actual TV show in the UK (based on a Japanese program), broadcast on a channel called Dave. In it, Dara O Briain and mathematician Marcus du Sautoy, along with special comedy guests, take on math puzzles (and … Continue reading
Posted in Math, Media
19 Comments
How Probability Works
From Barry Greenstein’s insightful poker book, Ace on the River: Someone shows you a coin with a head and a tail on it. You watch him flip it ten times and all ten times it comes up heads. What is … Continue reading
Posted in Entertainment, Math
35 Comments
Calculus Day!
Yes, I know, I’m not very good at this hiatus thing. But there is important news that needs to be promulgated widely — the news of calculus. No more will innocent citizens cower in fear at the thought of derivatives … Continue reading
Posted in Math, Science and the Media, Words
18 Comments
Pie Are Square; Oil Spills Are Round
Ah, not this one again. The folks at Iglu Cruises have put together a helpful infographic to explain various features of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill (via Deep Sea News). Here’s the bit where they compare the recent spill … Continue reading
Posted in Math
31 Comments
Non-Normalizable Probability Measures for Fun and Profit
Here’s a fun logic puzzle (see also here; originally found here). There’s a family resemblance to the Monty Hall problem, but the basic ideas are pretty distinct. An eccentric benefactor holds two envelopes, and explains to you that they each … Continue reading
Posted in Math
66 Comments
Why Can’t We Visualize More Than Three Dimensions?
Physicists and mathematicians who think about higher-dimensional spaces are, if they allow their interest to somehow become public knowledge, inevitably asked: “How can you visualize more than three dimensions of space?” There are at least three correct answers: (1) You … Continue reading
Posted in Math
54 Comments
The Sunday Function
I sometimes forget that we don’t all read the same blogs, and that it’s good to recommend some of the fun stuff out there on the internets. So let me give a shout-out to Matt Springer at Built on Facts, … Continue reading
Posted in Internet, Math
11 Comments
Why Isn’t This a Movie Yet?
Following Scott Aaronson’s advice, I instructed the good folks at Amazon to send me a copy of The Princeton Companion to Mathematics. (In exchange for money, of course.) It’s sprinkled with gems like this, in the article on “Differential Topology” … Continue reading
Posted in Math
10 Comments