Day: April 26, 2016

Math Interviews I want to remember

Making a list that I’ll update from time to time so that I don’t lose track of these interviews. Happy to take more suggestions!

(1) Julie Rehmeyer on Wild about Math:

Julie Rehmeyer’s “Inspired by Math” interview

What’s always stuck with me from this interview is the story that begins around 31:30 and in particular the part beginning around 34:40 about proving that 0 + 0 = 0. It is a beautiful lesson about learning math.

(2) Nalini Joshi on the Australian TV show “The Weekly”

This is a stunning interview.

(3) Ken Ribet interviewd by Numberphile

Anyone wondering what research math is like – and especially anyone looking to go to graduate school in math so watch this video:

(4) The story about Paul Erdos on Relatively Prime

Moving in a different way that the Nalini Joshi interview, but I was captivated for the entire hour of this interview. Ron Graham’s stories are just incredible:

Relatively Prime’s story about Paul Erdos

 

(5) Ed Frenkel interviewed by Numberphile

(6)  Steven Strogatz interviewed by Kara Miller

Playing with Colin Adams’s “Why Knot?”

I met Colin Adams when I was giving a lecture at Williams college a few weeks ago.  He showed me some of the work he’s done on knots and it looked like there would be some fun projects for the boys hiding in that work.   I ordered his book Why Knot? right after our conversation and it arrived yesterday.

This morning instead of the review work that they’ve been doing in algebra and number theory I had the boys play around with the book. No help from me today – just open the book and go.  

Here are their thoughts.

First – initial reactions and a simple knot:

Second – an attempt to construct a slightly more complicated knot. This task was harder and, in fact, we didn’t quite complete it. Something to work on later today, though:

So, a good start, though this is probably a project that needs a bit more adult help than I provided this morning. I’m looking forward to exploring this book with them over the next few days.