Mathematics

Black Hat: Your Social Security Number Can Be Predicted With Online Information, Say Researchers

If you were born at a time when social security numbers were not required, you can probably recognize other people from your home state if you see or hear their numbers.    You may have thought there was a smarter system in place by now. Not so, and it ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 6 2009 - 7:27pm

Parcelatories' Powers- Equations Like Fermat's Last Theorem

"We understand the relation between houses and walls. But it would be hard to cross the gap between houses and bricks without having enough intermediate concepts such as that of the wall." (Marvin Minsky, Society of Mind, 1985) "Problems ca ...

Article - Eduardo Sardeiro - Jul 22 2009 - 9:48am

Counter-Terrorism: Fighting The Taliban Gets A Numerical Model

Why are terrorists like the Taliban and al Qaeda or even insurgents on their home soil harder to defeat?  There are many considerations.   Politically, policy-makers want approval over any military operation that has consequences at home and intelligence i ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 16 2009 - 2:36pm

How to Solve Quadratic Equations in the Form ax2 + bx + c = 0 with Trinomial factorisation

In this short post I wish to explain how to solve simple quadratic equations with Trinomial factorisation To solve a quadratic equation in this form there are two main methods you can use to solve these either trinomial (also known as quadratic) factorisa ...

Blog Post - Connor Davidson - Jul 18 2009 - 2:00pm

Predicting Movie Ratings: The Math That Won The Netflix Prize

Netflix launched its million dollar contest—improve their movie rating prediction system by 10%—nearly three years ago, and like most computer science graduate students, I downloaded the data and got to work. The 10% mark proved a magic number for Netflix. ...

Article - Dan Gillick - Jul 21 2009 - 8:55am

Ancient Algebra Could Help Future Biologists

Future biology may rely more heavily on ancient math- namely algebra- according to researchers at Sweet Briar College and the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI) at Virginia Tech. Future generations of biologists will routinely use mathematical and com ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 30 2009 - 1:35pm

The Shortest Distance?

Until recently, I had only known of Thomas Carlyle as a writer, mightily significant in the 19th century, but somehow superannuated by the time I heard of him.  However, recently I learnt that he is responsible for that famous English mis-definition: A st ...

Article - Robert H Olley - Aug 5 2009 - 7:46pm

How Fast Can A Human Run The 100 Meter Sprint?

Usain Bolt, sprinter from Jamaica, currently holds the world record in the 100 meter sprint with a time of 9.69 seconds.  Whenever new records are set, people ask 'what is the limit on human performance?' So how fast can a human run?   Two econom ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 6 2009 - 10:44am

Fibonacci Butterflies

Take a number. Take a second number. Add both together to produce a third. Again, add the last two numbers to produce the next. Repeat ad infinitum. What can be more boring? ...

Article - Johannes Koelman - Aug 6 2009 - 10:41pm

An Equation For Everyday Life- What Are The Chances I Will Spill My Pizza?

I bought a pizza for the office today.  Don't get all excited and start thinking I am some aging hipster commie pinko, I am not.   I am just smart enough to make sure that in return for people enduring my jokes I  make sure they periodically get fed. ...

Blog Post - Hank Campbell - Aug 20 2010 - 3:07pm