Hello, friends, and happy end of November! I spent much of this month traveling (good) and sick (bad). I don’t recommend this combination, just as I don’t recommend the combination of pizza (good) and mulch (bad). It turns out, good + bad often equals bad. Live and learn!
1. People of the Equals Sign.
Just before the election, of which we shall speak no more, I published an essay on the politics of math. Not the math of politics (e.g., the electoral college) but the political meanings of mathematical ideas, i.e., how American leaders have imagined (and reimagined) our country through mathematical notions of equality.
Thanks to Abbas for publishing it (and for running the fabulous 3 Quarks Daily, a site any MWBD reader would enjoy).
2. CMC3
I was honored to be the keynote speaker at this year’s conference of California community college math instructors. We played games, and a great time was had by all (or at least by me, from which I blithely extrapolate).
(Note to self: Why do I waste so much time not playing games with my fellow community college teachers? Is any of this time well-spent? Consider reorienting schedule around playing dice games with colleagues.)
Thanks to Cortney Schultz and everyone else who made my visit possible.
3. AMTNYS
I was delighted to deliver another keynote (plus two workshops), on the opposite coast, at this year’s conference of New York K-12 math instructors. We talked about brownies. A great time was had by all (or at least by all the Minnesotans, of whom I comprised the full population).
Thanks to Dan Mattoon and everyone else for the gracious hosting.
Thanks also to Howie Hua for his skill in escaping rooms. (I mean actual escape rooms — he didn’t manage to escape my keynote, and I had no desire to escape his, which was lots of fun. But we managed to escape a different room together.)
Thanks also to Andy Mitchell for the lovely conversation on the new AMTNYS podcast.
Also, thanks to everyone in my fractions workshop for playing the game I foisted upon them, wherein everyone (1) picked a random numerator and denominator, each from 1 to 20, and then (2) placed themselves in increasing order. Nice work sorting yourselves out, 7/11 and 11/16!
I recommend this for anyone in charge of hosting a very nerdy party.
Finally, thanks to all you AMTNYS people for your dauntless insistence on pronouncing your own unpronounceable acronym. Those letters do not obey English phonetics. Yet you New Yorkers refuse to be cowed by basic linguistic facts. I applaud that.
4. Art of Problem Solving Gift Guide
I was honored to see that Art of Problem Solving, one of my favorite mathematical organizations, featured my game box in their holiday gift guide. Check out the rest of the guide too!
Unbox this game to uncover gameboards, markers, playing pieces, and instructions for a collection of 34 math games to be played anywhere, anytime! Both loads of fun and packed with logical thinking, some of these games are even featured in AoPS Academy’s summer math camps.
5. Making Math Moments
I would say “I was honored to be part of this digital conference,” but I’ve already used up my “honored” quota for this post (not to mention my “conference” budget). So let’s say “I was tickled pink to be part of this digital summit.” Thanks to the 700+ people who tuned in! Slides available here.
6. Nonstandard Notebook
I’ve already raved about this giftable beauty from Tim Chartier and Amy Langville (to which I contributed a gushing Foreword).
But I must rave and gush again, because you can now get 30% off by using the code READING24 at the University of Chicago Press site.
7. Parting Puzzle
This one comes from Alex Bellos’s superb new book Puzzle Me Twice. It’s a collection of accessible and supremely satisfying puzzles, leaping between geography, physics, probability, and (most exciting to me) questions drawn from the annals of psychological literature.
Here’s one of the mathier examples. At the Woefully Unfair Casino, there are two games.
In Game A, you simply lose $1 each time you play.
In Game B, you count the dollars in your possession. If it’s an even number, you win $3; if it’s an odd number, you lose $5.
That’s all there is to do at this casino. Just those two terribly unfair games. Is there any way you can make money playing them?
(See last month’s solution here.)
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