Category Archives: Maths, physics, nerdy stuff

Mean, mode, median and all that

Posted on May 10, 2013 by

A friend of mine is doing the Leaving Certificate this year and I was looking at a bound set of notes she was given, a book effectively, put together by a group of maths teachers who are going around giving … Continue reading →

Posted in Maths, physics, nerdy stuff | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

The physics and econometrics of God

Posted on September 18, 2012 by

Richard Dawkin’s well publicized arguments against religion have tended to polarize debates between scientists and religious people. That said, there is quite a diversity of views about religion within academia. Casual empiricism suggests that social scientists are, on average, not … Continue reading →

Posted in Humour, Maths, physics, nerdy stuff | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The real Olympics medal table : weighted averages rock

Posted on August 7, 2012 by

It has probably not escaped your attention that the Olympic Games are happening in London. A lot of people, myself included, study the medal table to compare countries. The table, as shown in British media is a curious phenomenon in … Continue reading →

Posted in Maths, physics, nerdy stuff, topical stuff | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

The equation of the Dark Knight

Posted on July 31, 2012 by

I think you will agree this is a nice equation. ((x/7)2 Sqrt[Abs[Abs[x] – 3]/(Abs[x] – 3)] + (y/3)2 Sqrt[Abs[y + (3 Sqrt[33])/7]/(y + (3 Sqrt[33])/7)] – 1)(Abs[x/2] – ((3 Sqrt[33] – 7)/112) x2 – 3 + Sqrt[1 - (Abs[Abs[x] – … Continue reading →

Posted in Maths, physics, nerdy stuff | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Feeling under the cosh? A handy illustration

Posted on June 21, 2012 by

A friend of mine (well, a colleague, I don’t really like him) remarked recently that he was feeling “under the cosh” because of some deadline or other. We all know the feeling, exam papers to set, papers to revise, re-submit, … Continue reading →

Posted in Humour, Maths, physics, nerdy stuff | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

A mathematician finishes a large meal

Posted on May 10, 2012 by

A mathematician finishes a large meal and says: √(-1/64)

Posted in Humour, Maths, physics, nerdy stuff | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Are my primes sexy?

Posted on May 8, 2012 by

I learned what it takes to be sexy today. Ok, calm down folks, it would be more accurate but less titillating to say that I learned what it takes prime numbers to be sexy. Two prime numbers are sexy if … Continue reading →

Posted in Humour, Maths, physics, nerdy stuff | Leave a comment

Numberphile: fun videos about your favourite numbers

Posted on April 25, 2012 by

if you like numbers Numberphile is a cool site with fun videos about some great numbers, like 666 , the square root of 2 and why 7 is  a happy number. You can also follow it on the Twitter machine … Continue reading →

Posted in Maths, physics, nerdy stuff | Leave a comment

Shock as mathematics paper retracted because it has no scientific content

Posted on April 18, 2012 by

There is a blog called Retraction Watch dedicated to papers that are retracted from academic journals usually because the authors did something stupid or naughty (like cheat). Recently they highlighted a paper that has been retracted from the Elsevier Journal … Continue reading →

Posted in Maths, physics, nerdy stuff, Schadenfreude | Leave a comment

Everything you wanted to know about number sequences but were afraid to ask

Posted on April 17, 2012 by

A common problem that occurs in intelligence tests is to be given a list of numbers and be asked to identify the next in the sequence. Sometimes its fairly obvious, 1,4,9,16… are the squares of the integers. Sometimes it is … Continue reading →

Posted in Maths, physics, nerdy stuff | 2 Comments