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Category Archives: What is Mathematics
To cheer you up in difficult times 4: Women In Theory present — I will survive
An amazing video (Update, May18 2020). I failed to explain what WIT is and this may have caused some misunderstanding. Here is a description from the Simons Institute site. “The Women in Theory (WIT) Workshop is intended for graduate and … Continue reading
TYI44: “What Then, To Raise an Old Question, is Mathematics?”
“The argument is carried out not in mathematical symbols but in ordinary English, there is no obscure or technical terms. Knowledge of calculus is not presupposed. In fact, one hardly need to know how to count. Yet any mathematician will … Continue reading
Posted in Test your intuition, What is Mathematics
Tagged Test your intuition, What is Mathematics
14 Comments
To cheer you up in complicated times – A book proof by Rom Pinchasi and Alexandr Polyanskii for a 1978 Conjecture by Erdős and Purdy!
Things do not look that good, and these are difficult times. But here on the blog we have plenty of things to cheer you up and assure you. And today we point to two book proofs — two book proofs … Continue reading
Posted in Combinatorics, Geometry, What is Mathematics
Tagged Alexandr Polyanskii, Rom Pinchasi
8 Comments
Test Your Intuition 40: What Are We Celebrating on Sept, 28, 2019? (And answer to TYI39.)
Update: We are celebrating 10 years anniversary to Mathoverflow Domotorp got the answer right. congratulations, Domotorp! To all our readers: Shana Tova Umetuka – שנה טובה ומתוקה – Happy and sweet (Jewish) new year.
Posted in Test your intuition, What is Mathematics
Tagged Mathoverflow, Test your intuition
6 Comments
Avi Wigderson’s: “Integrating computational modeling, algorithms, and complexity into theories of nature, marks a new scientific revolution!” (An invitation for a discussion.)
The cover of Avi Wigderson’s book “Mathematics and computation” as was first exposed to the public in Avi’s Knuth Prize videotaped lecture. (I had trouble with 3 of the words: What is EGDE L WONK 0? what is GCAAG?GTAACTC … Continue reading
Are Natural Mathematical Problems Bad Problems?
One unique aspect of the conference “Visions in Mathematics Towards 2000” (see the previous post) was that there were several discussion sessions where speakers and other participants presented some thoughts about mathematics (or some specific areas), discussed and argued. In … Continue reading
Posted in Combinatorics, Conferences, Open discussion, What is Mathematics
Tagged Misha Gromov
1 Comment
An Invitation to a Conference: Visions in Mathematics towards 2000
Let me invite you to a conference. The conference took place in 1999 but only recently the 57 videos of the lectures and the discussion sessions are publicly available. (I thank Vitali Milman for telling me about it.) One novel … Continue reading
The (Random) Matrix and more
Three pictures, and a few related links. Van Vu Spoiler: In one of the most intense scenes, the protagonist, with his bare hands and against all odds, took care of the mighty Wigner semi-circle law in two different ways. (From … Continue reading
Posted in Combinatorics, People, What is Mathematics
Tagged Alfréd Rényi, András Hajnal, Catherine Rényi, Paul Erdos, Saharon Shelah, Sándor Szalai, Van Vu
1 Comment
10 Milestones in the History of Mathematics according to Nati and Me
Breaking news: David Harvey and Joris Van Der Hoeven. Integer multiplication in time O(nlogn). 2019. (I heard about it from Yoni Rozenshein on FB (חפירות על מתמטיקה); update GLL post. ) _____ Update: There were many interesting comments here and … Continue reading
Alef’s Corner: Garbanzo Poisson process
Alef’s previous corner: There is still a small gap in the proof.
