The Career Mathematician, Vol. 1 — Dr. Walter Sun

So you love mathematics. What next? The Career Mathematician highlights interesting and relevant work and insights offered by professional mathematicians, statisticians, logicians and more.

The Career Mathematician, Vol. 1 -- Dr. Walter Sun

Ever wonder how predictive technology works? Click here to learn how the Principal Applied Science Manager and Bing Predicts Team Lead, Dr. Walter Sun, leverages technology and some careful calculations to improve Microsoft's "Bing Predicts" feature.

Not sure this is the career for you? Click the image below for some inspiration.

Conway's Game of Life

This isn't about the board game with the spinner but rather something we consider to be much cooler! Devised in 1970, John Conway's Game of Life is an example of a cellular automaton, a discrete dynamical mathematical system. Despite its simple definition, it gives rise to patterns and objects that have very complex, even computer-like behavior. Keep reading to learn more about how the Game of Life works and what's been discovered about it! You can also dive right in with this free online resource here!

A large pattern in the Game of Life, known as a 'breeder,' the first discovered to exhibit quadratic growth. Colors for emphasis. Source.

For the Love of Gifs

How many times have you been sitting in a classroom, trying to wrap your head around some unbelievably abstract concept, and no matter what the professor says or how many times the professor explains herself, you just know that you’re missing some essential piece of the puzzle. Then your professor sketches a basic picture on the blackboard and suddenly it clicks and there is a collective sigh of relief among you and your classmates.

There have been countless studies which show that multimedia enhances learning and can enrich a student’s understanding of a concept. For the most part, when talking about educational multimedia, only pictures, slideshows, and videos come to mind; but lets take a look at what gifs bring to the table.

Gifs, or the Graphics Interchange Format, are small animations or a quick, couple-second video that constantly repeat. They are commonly found cluttering up a article on Buzzfeed, or being shared on Facebook or Twitter, but there are some great math gifs roaming around on the internet.

Take this one for example:  A lot of people in high school learn how to use the trigonometric functions, but never fully understand where they come from. Seeing this gif becomes an “Aha!” moment for some people and they finally see why the unit circle is important and why trigonometric functions are periodic.

Or how about this one: We’ve all sat in a linear algebra class, been given this behemoth algorithm of calculations to perform for the Gram-Schmidt process and tried our best to memorize it. Doesn’t seeing it in action clear things up a little bit?

Remember line integrals?

Or how about Fourier Series?

(Speaking from experience, I took a whole class on Fourier Analysis, and it only ‘clicked’ after seeing these)

The great thing about gifs, is that they are short enough that they do not become boring, they will endlessly repeat until you understand, and are aesthetically pleasing. So, do yourself a favor and check out some math gifs. They don’t even have to be serious. Here are some of our favorites that are just fun to watch:

Nested Rotating Hypocycloids by Dan Craig via Wikimedia Commons

Inside-Out Torus                                                                  by Surot via Wikimedia Commons

Relationship between Radius and Radians by Lucas V. Barbosa via Wikimedia Commons

Construction of Hypotrochoid                            by Sam Derbyshire via Wikimedia Commons

Hyperboloid Constructed of Straight Lines by Cmapm via Wikimedia Commons

Homotopy between a Torus and a Mug        by Lucas V. Barbosa via Wikimedia Commons

Special thanks to Lucas V. Barbosa for creating all the public domain gifs in the main post. See more of his work here.

Do you have any good gifs of your own? Post them in the comments and we might add them to our list of favorites!

Mathematics on Tumblr

Did you know the Center of Math is on Tumblr? On Tumblr, we get to see the more creative and funny side of math but we also get to see math education as well. That’s why we decided to name some of our favorite Tumblrs about math so that you can join in on all the fun. Keep reading to see the list…

Video series: Group theory basics

The Worldwide Center of Mathematics is dedicated to more venues of mathematics education than just textbooks, and for this reason we've made a new video series, detailing some of the basics and interesting concepts in the mathematical field of group theory. Keep reading to learn more...

The Worldwide Lecture Seminar Series Presents: Mihai Fulger

The Worldwide Center of Mathematics invites you to join us on Friday, November 20, 2015 for a talk by Mihai Fulger of Princeton University on local volumes. You can register to attend this event for FREE at http://centerofmath.eventbrite.com

The Worldwide Lecture Series is presented and hosted by the Worldwide Center of Mathematics in our studio lecture room in Cambridge. We record these lectures in full and make them available on our YouTube channel for the global mathematics community. You can view our past lectures here, or watch them below, including this lecture once it's taken place.

Our lecture room and recording equipment/services are available for hire. If you would like to give a lecture, record it and distribute it online, we offer the ideal solution. For more information, contact us at info@centerofmath.org.

Mathematics on Twitter

The Center of Math loves using Twitter to connect with our fans, but we also love it because it allows us to spread math literacy to people around the world. On the Twitterverse we find awesome math content, so we wanted to share with you some of our favorite Twitters. Keep reading to see who made the list.

Top 3 Alternatives to Expensive Graphing Calculators

The back-to-school rush is in full swing, and not only does that mean that students will wind up saddled with unreasonably priced textbooks, they'll also be forced into buying unreasonably priced graphing calculators. Since the Worldwide Center of Mathematics is committed to affordable and high-quality math resources, we wanted to share with you an easy way to save some cash on your back to school shopping. Here are three very powerful ways that you can skip the absurd price point of modern graphing calculators, without skimping on the calculation power that you'll need for your classes.

The Center on College Admissions Exams

Here at the Worldwide Center of Mathematics, Tori, an intern working as the Assistant Director of Mathematical Content, has been hard at work creating new math resources and posts. She’s recently starred in several short videos that were made to help students study for the math section of the ACT (the next exam is February 7^th). Watch the playlist here! Tori is currently a math student at Northeastern University in Boston, and truly enjoys breaking down math problems into simpler, understandable pieces.

Here's one of Tori's first ACT videos

From a big-picture perspective, we want you, the students, parents, or teachers who watch these videos, to think of the Center of Mathematics as your main resource for math help. Our founder, David B. Massey, has given a multitude of lectures on his books and upper-level mathematics that are all available on our Youtube channel. We are not just a textbook publisher; we are a network of teachers and resources, and we are here to help students learn the intricacies of their mathematics courses.

A video from the second ACT shoot

We know that standardized, college-admission tests may seem daunting. They put a lot of pressure on the student, both in terms of time and emotion. They require quick recall of subjects learned all throughout high school. Our videos are meant to help train you to approach ACT or SAT math problems as simply as possible. Often you’ll see Tori use the same methods in several videos- that’s because she knows the techniques to simplify the problems. Math isn’t everyone’s favorite subject, but with Tori’s help (and the help of past and future interns), we can hopefully ease the burden and relax the stigma that is associated with mathematics on standardized tests.

If you have any questions or suggestions for future videos, let us know in the comments!

"Snowmageddon" Snowmen

A 1935 photo of two children building a two-section snowman.

source: Time.com article

Greetings from the vestiges of New England! Yesterday the Worldwide Center of Math closed our office to work from home as one of the biggest blizzards Boston has ever seen blew through. Many of the area's universities and high schools have another snow day today. While movies and hot chocolate are always fun, nothing makes a snow day like a snowman.

The Journal of Singularities - Volume 10: The 12th International Workshop on Real and Complex Singularities

The Journal of Singularities

Volume 10

The 12 International Workshop on Real and Complex Singularities

July 22-27, 2012

Celebrating the 60th birthday of Prof. Shyuichi Izumiya, ICMC-USP, São Carlos, Brazil

GO TO JOURNAL OF SING

go to www.journalofsing.org to read this and all preceding volumes

Want to Know the Secret of Life? It's Math!

Ever wonder what distinguishes life from death? According to physicist, Max Tegmark, math is what defines everything. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor argues that consciousness consists of nothing more than mathematical patterns and that nothing but changes in atom arrangement differentiate life from death. You can watch it right here!

This video was recorded during his talk at TEDxCambridge last month. Check out the other speakers and performers here!

Upcoming Events

     In the upcoming weeks, there are a number of interesting edtech, mathematical, and STEM conferences and events taking place. We have put together a list so that you can keep up with the events and see the latest happenings in the math and education world!

NISOD 2014

NISOD’s International Conference on Teaching and Leadership Excellence attracts educators from around the world and is the definitive gathering of community and technical college faculty, administrators, and staff seeking to engage in deep conversations about best and promising practices designed to improve student achievement.

     NISOD 2014, which takes place in Austin, Texas this year, is the place to be for community and technical college faculty who wish to promote practices to improve academic success for students. The conference will feature an exhibit hall with a variety of exhibits, as well as daily sessions and lectures given by motivating national speakers. Want to keep up with the event on twitter? The official hashtag is: #NISOD2014, @NISOD.

Conference Website

Canadian Mathematical Society 2014 Summer Meeting

The Canadian Mathematical Society promotes the advancement, discovery, learning and application of mathematics in Canada.

     The Canadian Mathematical Society is hosting their annual summer meeting in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The conference will have sessions on a variety of mathematical subjects hosted by faculty from Canadian and U.S universities. Students will be able to attend a variety of workshops and events specifically for students. Finally, there will be an exhibit hall featuring companies and textbook publishers. The official twitter handle for the CMS is: @canmathsociety.

Conference Website

State of the Union EdTech

Thursday May 29th, 2014. Cambridge, MA

     LearnLaunch is hosting a conference right in our backyard, Cambridge, MA. A panel of education innovators will lead a discussion on how technology is being integrated into education, what those products are, and any problems that prevent them from furthering student academic achievement. The official hashtag is: #StateOfEd14.

Event Webpage

Bridging the Workforce Gap: In-Demand STEM Occupations in the Metro North Region

Friday May 30th, 2014. Cambridge, MA

     The Metro North Regional Employment Board (REB) is hosting an event in Cambridge to outline career paths in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). The focus will be on five career paths: Information Technology, Life Sciences, Healthcare, Advanced Manufacturing, and Engineering. The event is designed around people who wish to encourage youths to pursue STEM careers in the future.

Event Webpage

Worldwide Math Shorts

Brought to you by the Worldwide Center of Mathematics, Worldwide Math Shorts is a brand new collection of videos introducing important basic and foundational mathematics concepts. The videos are now available free on the Center of Math YouTube Channel.

Here at the Center, we are dedicated to providing 1) top-to-bottom coverage of the concepts you need to know and 2) the additional resources you’ll need to master them. Worldwide Math Shorts, featuring Tom Lewis (Northeastern University ‘15), was created to better serve the needs of math students, instructors and the greater community. The collection is comprised of six parts, including the basics of derivatives, integrals, matrices, probability, trigonometry, and vectors.

The topics were chosen to provide viewers with a better understanding of the early concepts essential to executing advanced calculus, differential equations, or linear algebra. Short and sweet, the videos are great for any aspiring mathematician, and serve as especially helpful “refreshers” for those using Center of Math textbooks. Each video introduces basic definitions and concepts followed by worked examples.

As we continue to expand our collection of study/help videos and resources, we want to hear from you! Which topics do you need help with? What kind of video or topic would you like to see the Center of Math produce next? Leave your comments or send your thoughts to info@centerofmath.org.

Center of Math Productions are recorded in the Center of Math Studio Classroom space in Cambridge, MA. The Center of Math was established to strengthen the math community by providing free and affordable resources for all. 

Check out one of our Worldwide Math Shorts below!