Tuesday, February 22, 2011

New Rubik's Record

I am a math nerd. I am also a Rubik's Cube nerd. I am a speedcuber. Some of my students laugh at me, but some of their hobbies are beyond laughable. Here is a video of my fastest solve.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Mathematics IS Beautiful

The parent who sounded off about me showing Carl Sagan videos ON Carl Sagan Day in the local newspaper contacted me again. This is to be expected - his child is one of my students. I expect communication. This email however is interesting. It contained a video that I have seen before (one of those circulating emails). It is titled The Beauty of Mathematics.

I actually appreciate that he sent me this. I always enjoy playing around with numbers and seeking out patterns here and there that perhaps someone else wouldn't have caught.

But that's the point. We are creatures of habit (I tell my students this all the time - sometimes it's a good thing, sometomes a bad thing) and we will project patterns where sometimes there really aren't any. The interesting thing about receiving this video from him, though, is he thinks that the content somehow validates his position in terms of the existence of a higher power. I think what he fails to realize is that 'hardwork' and 'attitude' are single words, while 'love of god' is a phrase of three words. What I would suggest is to use just 'god'. If we do, then 'god' amounts to 26%. Hmmm. Even the lowest of the Algebra II students I have would score better than 26% on an exam.