Mathematics Weblog

Carnivals of Mathematics

The Carnival of Mathematics is a fortnightly look at mathematical blogs. As I have commented before the growth in such blogs has been phenomenal recently which is very welcome. The carnivals are thus a gateway to the treasures that are out there, so I think it worth listing the carnivals so far (all numbers are approximate, mathematicians can count badly 🙂 ):

1. Inaugural Edition hosted by Abstract Nonsense has 19 assorted links ranging from quotes exhorting people to study mathematics to algebraic topology.
2. The Second Carnival Of Mathematics: The Math Geeks are Coming to Town! hosted by Good Math, Bad Math has 27 fascinating assorted links including the Halting problem, Using math for astronomy and Rubik’s Magic Cube.
3. Carnival Of Mathematics #3 hosted by Michi’s Blog has 20 articles grouped into five ‘halves’: didactic, financial mathematics, humour, dimensions, and number theory, geometry, topology, algebra.
4. Carnival of Mathematics Number 4 hosted by EvolutionBlog has 21 links from the Bernouilli process to finding the last two digits of 3¹⁰⁰⁰.
5. Carnival of Mathematics, Ordinal 5 hosted by Science and Reason is dedicated to the memory of Paul J. Cohen with tributes and discussion of his work. There’s at least 30 links to other topics including tilings, Lie groups etc and surreal numbers.
6. The Carnival of Mathematics Sixth Edition hosted by Modulo Errors has 19 links with many presenting problems of various difficulty.
7. Carnival of Mathematics Edition #7 hosted by nOnoscience has 28 links from Euler to German bloggers and includes a new improved number system and a calculus paradox.
8. 8th carnival of mathematics hosted by The Geomblog has 20 links with “time to revisit, reflect, and ponder on things we think we already know” so has an educational section and is the first carnival to have a cartoon.
9. Carnival of Mathematics IX hosted by JD2718 is an alphabetical list of 36 links that appeal to the school teacher blogger.
10. The next carnival is due on 15th June at MathNotations. Carnival 11 is due to be hosted by Grey Matters on 29th June and Carnival 12 on 13th July by Vedic Maths Forum. Do let them know if you have anything you wish to be included.

That’s over 200 links (not all mutually exclusive) – mathematical blogging is alive and well.

Mathematics Comedy Videos

Mathematical humour is quite difficult to do. I have previously blogged about the book Comic Sections and there are other books like Carl Linderholm’s Mathematics made difficult and Ian Stewart‘s books which contain much humour; a cartoon series Ian drew is the inspiration for this

Mathematical humorous videos are even rarer. Here are a couple. The first is very well-known and has been written about all over the net for a long time. It is  Finite Simple Group of Order Two by the Klein Four Group and involves very clever use of mathematical terms. The other is G103 which is described as a (surreal) day in the life of an undergraduate on the 4-year MMath degree at the University of Warwick. Anyone who has experience of a pure mathematics degree will recognise the accuracy of the amusing observations it makes. There’s more about the film at the G103 site.

There was also a previous humorous video made at Warwick University called Maths Club. Unfortunately, it’s not available on that page or anywhere else as far as I can see. Does anyone know if it’s still available?

Links to other amusing mathematics videos are very welcome.

PS The Unapologetic Mathematician links to a spoof basic mathematics tutorial produced by the BBC called Look Around You – 1 – Maths.