Summer, Sigma, Savings

As you (hopefully) know, here at the Center of Math, we publish only free and affordable, high-quality math resources. Worldwide digital textbooks offer more for less and our print textbook prices are hard to beat. (Did you know with Worldwide Calculus you could ace your college calc classes for less than $30?!) It gets better. While supplies last this summer, the Center is selling overstocked copies at up to 90% off the list price. In some cases you'll pay only for shipping!

This is a perfect opportunity for those of you who have yet to try Worldwide Textbooks.

Take a look at some of the heavily discounted titles available in the Center of Math Store:

$29.95+shipping Now $2.95+shipping 90% OFF while supplies last

The Pineapple Book

Click here to get your PRINT: Introduction to Statistics: Think & Do V4 for $2.95+shipping (90% off)!

$29.95+shipping Now $14.95+shipping 50% OFF while supplies last

Worldwide Pre-Calculus

Click here to get your PRINT: Worldwide Pre-Calculus for $14.95+shipping.

$29.95+shipping Now $19.95+shipping $10 OFF while supplies last

MV3D

Click here to get your PRINT: Matrices, Vectors, and 3D Math for $19.95+shipping.

DO the math. DON'T overpay. #dothemath

Throwback Fact of the Week - Seven Bridges of Königsberg - 7/17/14

Seven Bridges of Königsberg Problem

Königsberg was a city in Prussia, situated on the Pregel river. This river flowed through the town and created two large islands. These islands were connected to the mainland by 7 bridges, as depicted in the image below. 

Königsberg Bridges, image credit: Bogdan Giuşcă

The problem asked if it was possible to take a walk through town and cross over each bridge once and only once. Try it for yourself using the image above!

The answer to the question turns out to be "no" and a proof of this was published by Leonhard Euler in 1735. Euler's work laid the foundations of Graph Theory. Euler let each individual landmass represent a "vertex" (4 in all) and each bridge an "edge" (7 in all). The order of a vertex is the number of edges at that vertex. Euler showed that a graph such as this is only traversible if there are at most two vertices of odd order.

All four of the vertices in the Königsberg Bridge problem have odd order, and thus it is not possible to walk through town and cross each bridge only once. 

Fun Fact for Rainy Days

Over here at the Center of Math, we've had a few rainy days breaking up our sunny afternoons. While we spend more time indoors, here's a short video we found to help those that have to get through the rain! Well, maybe an umbrella might help more... 

 Check out our YouTube channel for more fun videos and all of your mathematical needs!

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!

Throwback Fact of the Week - Fermat's Last Theorem - 7/10/14

 "It is impossible for a cube to be the sum of two cubes, a fourth power to be the sum of two fourth powers, or in general for any number that is a power greater than the second to be the sum of two like powers. I have discovered a truly marvelous demonstration of this proposition that this margin is too narrow to contain." - Pierre de Fermat, 1637

Stated formally,  where x, y, z, and n are non-zero integers has no solutions for n > 2.

This equation, known famously as Fermat's Last Theorem, would remain unproven for over 350 years. Building off centuries of work by mathematicians, the theorem was finally proven by Andrew Wiles in 1994.

Can Math Predict the Future... Of the World Cup?

Today is the first game of the World Cup Semi-finals! Unfortunately, this time around we don't have Paul the Octopus to help us know who the victors will be, but Microsoft has us covered! Cortana, the intelligent personal assistant for Windows devices, has used Microsoft's Bing search engine to correctly predict the outcome of every elimination round match of this year's World Cup. Using algorithms and machine learning models, Bing has correctly predicted not only World Cup games but also picked contestants of voting shows. Here's more information on what it is and how it was designed.

Want to see the predictions for the Semi-finals? Let's see if Master Chief was right in going with Cortana over an octopus. Check it out here!