Mathematicians and other companions from Hell
Dante wrote in his Divine Comedy that, as soon as they enter Hell, in the first of its circles, there are those who, having merits to have been saved, were not enough because they were […]
Month: November 2016
Colouring Pythagorean Triples
Pythagorean triples are one of the longest-lived elements in the history of mathematics. A Pythagorean triple is a trio of natural numbers \(a,b\) and \(c\) that correspond to the lengths of the sides of a […]
Hunger and numbers
“El hambre” (The Hunger) by Martín Caparrós (Anagrama, 2015) is an unsettling, even unpleasant book. Especially if you are not only a good person – in the sense used by the Spanish poet Antonio Machado […]
A hundred years without Dedekind
This year was the 100th anniversary of the death of Dedekind (6.10.1831 – 12.2.1916), a great mathematician who is less well known than he deserves. There have been lectures and celebrations on the subject in […]
Poetry and mathematics (by A. Trapiello)
Poetry is unprovable truth. The quote is by Andrés Trapiello. According to the dictionary, poetry aims to express beauty or aesthetic feeling through the word, in verse or prose. For mathematics, the dictionary states that […]
The unforgivable miscalculation that was worth a world
The calculation of the radius of the Earth by Eratosthenes of Cyrene (276 BC – 194 BC) remains one of the most striking applications of elementary geometry, despite the fact that more than two thousand […]
Science and sex (by Saint Augustine)
It is not uncommon that scientific work is a most pleasurable activity. But why does it tend to be so satisfying? In my opinion, it is not a scientist who has been able to explain […]
Social experiments in mathematics and the solution of Erdös’ discrepancy problem
In the form of a conjecture, the so-called Erdös discrepancy problem can be stated as follows: for any infinite sequence consisting of ones and minus ones, it is always possible to find a finite number […]
The problem of the corrupt politicians
The workings: The problem with corruption is that it is very expensive. Few, if any, countries can afford levels of corruption beyond a certain limit. Beyond this limit, corruption destroys the institutions that should belong […]
