[12 November 2011, top]
On 8 October 2011 the
@mathbabbler "follower" count
hit 400 for the first time. At the time, @mathbabbler
was following 120 and had 1714 tweets.
[10 October 2011, top]
@MathBabbler tweeted his 1700th tweet on 29 September 2011. At the time he had 381 followers and was following 119. @MathBabbler tweeted his first tweet on 8 June 2009; therefore, it took him 843 days to tweet 1700 tweets.
[29 September 2011, top]
BAB number 3200 got posted on 22 September 2011 (the 2417th day of BABling). To date, MathBabbler is posting BABs at a rate of 1.324 BABs per day. The following BABs were created to celebrate this BABbling milestone.
- About the Number 3199 (three thousand one hundred ninety-nine) [22 September 2011]
- BAB Counter Hits 3200 On Day 2417 of BABbling [22 September 2011]
- About the Number 2417 (two thousand four hundred seventeen) [22 September 2011]
[22 September 2011, top]
Strange sayings come out of my mouth when in a math class. We were learning about independent and dependent variables... If I ever die and come back as a variable, I want to be THE independent variable.
[02 September 2011, top]
Asked the class to give me a math word that starts with the letter 'J'. Student says "jiffy." I knew the word "jiffy," but I did not know about "jiffy" being a math word. Google time...
Type into the browser's Google text field:
site:unc.edu unit measurement jiffy
Print screen (hyperlinks cannot be clicked)...
The power of the Internet never ceases to amaze. Here we were on the campus of Scottsdale Community College using an award winning resource provided for free from the Univ. of North Carolina. And we found our information in a jiffy thanks to Google. http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/dictJ.html#jiffy
[02 September 2011, top]
MathBabblerism...
If I were to die and come back a variable, I'd want to an independent variable. The word "function" starts with the word "fun" and that means functions are fun. Finding equations is equationeering and an equationeer is a finder of equations. Finding functions is functioneering and a functioneer is a finder of functions.o Some calculators say 0^0 equals 1. What power: Turning nothing into something. If zero represents nothing, then taking nothing and raising it to the nothing power equals something. In math world, by law, 0! equals 1. What power: Turning nothing into something. If zero represents nothing, then factorializing nothing equals something.
[30 August 2011, top]
@MathBabbler received the following tweet from
@simrob on 2011.08.16.
Dear Prudence: Math Teacher Full of Tangents (VIDEO) Slate Magazine http://www.slate.com/id/2301140/?from=rss
Bringing real-world math into the classroom is a great way to get off-topic.
[16 August 2011, top]
@mathbabbler tweeted his 1400th tweet on
28 March 2011 (i.e. his 658th day of tweeting).
#TweetMilestone This is my 1400th tweet so might as well make it about the number http://goo.gl/oSQcW
On 28 March 2011, the @mathbabbler tweeting
rate was 2.13 tweets per day. Note: @mathbabbler
started tweeting on 8 June 2009.
[28 March 2011, top]
I had a fun Pi Day 2011.
[21 March 2011, top]
I enjoyed last night's (2 March 2011) "The Math Class" episode of "The Middle." In a nutshell, Brick's parents can't help him with his 3rd-grade math. [Brick can do the math, he just doesn't want to.] I enjoyed the scene that featured the "two trains" word problem. I also liked the line "We are supposed to show our work!" It's too bad schools equate math with "work."
[03 March 2011, top]
Warren Buffett in the Letter to Shareholders for FY 2010.
"Unquestionably, some people have become very rich through the use of
borrowed money. However, that's also been a way to get very poor. When
leverage works, it magnifies your gains. Your spouse thinks you're
clever, and your neighbors get envious. But leverage is addictive.
Once having profited from its wonders, very few people retreat to
more conservative practices. And as we all learned in third grade
--and some relearned in 2008--any series of positive numbers, however
impressive the numbers may be, evaporates when multiplied by a single
zero. History tells us that leverage all too often produces zeroes,
even when it is employed by very smart people.
Great power of zero example.
[26 February 2011, top]
@MathBabbler Twitter tweets: 15-21 February 2011.
Arizona Republic headline: "As debt crisis worsens, the math just gets harder." I disagree: The math just gets less fun. [2011.02.21] RT @timoreilly #cybersecurity high school curriculum (near Fort Meade, to be sure, but still an interesting data point) http://bit.ly/dYM7Kv [2011.02.21] RT @mathguide: In 2011 global population reaches 7 billion = 7*(10^9), that is closer to 2^33 than to 2^32. [2011.02.20] If "lecture is dead," then why are TED lectures so popular? I feel sorry for students who may never experience a great lecture. #itc11 [2011.02.19] #EdReform IBM's Jeopardy! grand challenge will probably be one of the United States greatest missed "teachable moments." [2011.02.19] RT @spikedmath: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder http://goo.gl/fb/JILEK [2011.02.19] From last month, but tweeting it again. http://blog.stephenwolfram.com/2011/01/jeopardy-ibm-and-wolframalpha/ [2011.02.18] RT @longnow How much does a kilogram of platinum and iridium weigh? Not as much as it used to: http://bit.ly/fkrdtH [2011.02.18] @joe_bower re: "teacher driven by the clock" Edison #quote: "I owe my success to the fact that I never had a clock in my workroom." [2011.02.18] John Seely Brown says smartphones are "curiosity amplifiers." In my classes they're a boredom reliever. [2011.02.17] If named Watson, then it makes sense for IBM's Jeopardy supercomputer to be a "he." Still, I would have like it to be an "it." [2011.02.16] RT @robotants: Calculator-Controlled Robots: Hands-on Mathematics and Science Discovery Educator Guide http://bit.ly/fpNsfw [2011.02.16] Strongly agree! RT @sc_k: IBM's Watson on Jeopardy http://youtu.be/4PSPvHcLnN0 It's undeniably cool. [2011.02.15] #EdReform must include #CS4HS. http://goo.gl/eOCjO [2011.02.15]
[21 February 2011, top]
The Math Babbler is a blog about math and it was started on 17 December 2006. This blog was created because "math" (along with science) are "hot" fields here in the early part of the 21st century. The Math Babbler started 2011 with 511 postings.
Math Babbler Archives: 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007-06
[10 February 2011, top]