History
Dr. Devlin Finds Fibonacci
What would make you write a book about writing a book you recently published on a 13th-century mathematician? When you’re Stanford University’s Keith Devlin (aka, NPR’s “The Math…
History
Articles
History
Keith Devlin: An Ambassador of Mathematics for Many Eras
An Interview with Keith Devlin: An Ambassador of Mathematics for Many Eras Dr. Keith Devlin is a co-founder and Executive Director of the university’s H-STAR institute, a…
Essential Math
Thirteen Ways of Looking at Multiplication (with apologies to Wallace Stevens)
Well, no, I’ve lied: not thirteen, but merely four ways of looking at (and doing) multiplication are contained herein. And I hope to convince you that they are…
Applied Math
Book Review: Peak — Secrets from the New Science of Expertise
Peak — Secrets from the New Science of Expertise by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston, 216 307 pages My Rating: 4/5 How does one…
General
Separating the Math and the Mathematician
I recently gave a talk Ronald Fisher and Maximum Likelihood Estimation on the pioneering statistician Ronald Fisher and his development of the method of maximum likelihood estimation, one…
Applied Math
Did Facebook’s News Feed Algorithm Elect Donald Trump?
Dozens of articles are trying to blame the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States on Facebook’s news feed algorithm, and especially its supposed propensity…
Applied Math
Pre-Election Polls That Were Wrong
Following up on my last post Big Data Flubs Donald Versus Hillary, here are some famous cases where pre-election polls were wrong. The Literary Digest Predicts Landon Will…
Applied Math
Book Review: Weapons of Math Destruction
Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy Cathy O’Neil Crown New York 2016 Book Web Site: https://weaponsofmathdestructionbook.com The Author’s Blog: https://mathbabe.org My Rating:…
Applied Math
Ronald Fisher and Maximum Likelihood Estimation Video and Slides
“Ronald Fisher and Maximum Likelihood Estimation” is a presentation that I gave to the Bay Area Entrepreneurs in Statistics (BAES) on August 20, 2016 at Symation in Richmond,…
General
Was Richard Feynman a Great Teacher?
Bill Gates recently published a blog post The Best Teacher I Never Had with an attached video extolling the virtues of Richard Feynman, the Nobel Prize winning physicist…
Applied Math
The Atomic Age That Wasn’t
“It is not too much to expect that our children will enjoy in their homes electrical energy too cheap to meter, will know of great periodic regional famines…
General
Review of Falling Behind? Boom, Bust, and the Global Race for Scientific Talent
Falling Behind? Boom, Bust, and the Global Race for Scientific Talent by Michael S. Teitelbaum Princeton University Press March 30, 2014 Introduction Falling Behind? is a recent (March…